Franken See, Franken Do

Jay Reding beat me to one story I've been chewing on for a few weeks here; efforts to kick off a liberal talk radio network.

Says the Times

The plan faces several business and content challenges, from finding a network of radio stations to buy the program to overcoming the poor track record of liberal radio shows. But it is the most ambitious undertaking yet to come from liberal Democrats who believe they are overshadowed in the political propaganda wars by conservative radio and television personalities.

My response should be obvious, but Reding said it first, so I'll defer to Jay: "They believe that since there's a such a lack of left-wing partisans in the media (other than Dan Rather, James Carville, Ted Turner, the Times own editorial staff, etc...) that there needs to be a left-wing alternative. The major problem with that logic is that there is a glut of liberal voices in the media, and even on the airwaves. One wonders if these people haven't heard of National Public Radio before..." Indeed.

But in terms of a muckraking presence among blue and white-collar breadwinners, the left really doesn't have much going on. There's a reason for that.

When I worked in talk radio, is was segregated into a ghetto on the AM band. In the eighties, it was widely agreed that AM radio was doomed to go the way of the steam-powered car; Talk radio was the province of blue-hairs and dyspeptic third-shifters. Larry King was the biggest name in the business - and he was no more astringent than he is today.

Then came Limbaugh - a sad sack schlemiel turned "pompous blowhard" who reveled in and excelled at pushing liberal buttons. Then as now, he mixed analysis - often glib, frequently brilliant - with pointed irreverence and fairly sophisticated humor (by radio standards) into something that appealed to "angry white men" and not a few women nationwide in numbers that radio had never seen.

Suddenly, between 1987 and 1989, all those AM radios that had been sitting unused at construction sites, in long-haul trucks, homes, and really anywhere that people with mal-educated kids and beleaguered families and big tax burdens gathered, suddenly sprang back into use.

Within two years of going nationwide, Limbaugh became the biggest thing in radio history. Today, the tables have turned; many AM talk stations will carry their FM and TV sister-properties, financially. Talk radio has boomed in a way that we in the racket couldn't have imagined in 1986.

And it's all conservative. All of it. The shows that are getting any numbers at all are conservative. There are few - very few - surviving liberal talk show hosts, and the number is dwindling.

And the left's not happy about it:

The concern has been around for years: Hillary Rodham Clinton first mentioned a "vast, right-wing conspiracy" in 1998. But the sentiment has taken on new urgency with the rise to the top of the cable news ratings of the Fox News Channel, considered by many to have a conservative slant, and the Republicans' gaining control of the Senate in November. Such events have spurred many wealthy Democrats to explore investments in possible, liberal-skewing media ventures. New campaign finance rules that restrict giving opportunities also gave them further incentive.

The new liberal radio network is initially being financed by the Paradigm Group, of which the Drobnys are the principal partners. Ms. Drobny is the chairwoman of the venture, which is being called AnShell Media L.L.C. Jon Sinton, a longtime, Atlanta-based radio executive, will be its chief executive. He helped start the nationally syndicated radio program of Jim Hightower, the former Texas agriculture commissioner. Liberals had hoped that would be their answer to Mr. Limbaugh, but it was canceled shortly after its start in the mid-1990's.

The failure of Mr. Hightower's show supported the notion of many in radio that liberal hosts do not have what it takes to become successful and entertaining hosts: the fire-and-brimstone manner and a ready-made audience alienated by the mainstream news media it perceives to be full of liberal bias.

The article's last paragraph is an interesting one, and flirts with the point without actually hitting it. What the left calls "Fire and Brimstone" is something much deeper.

The vast majority of people are conservative. No, I don't mean they're members of the Republican Party. Far from it. But when the beginning of the month rears its ugly head and the phone bill is arguing the with the mortgage about whom Daddy loves more, an awful lot of Americans that only Roger Moe would consider "rich" are fiscal conservatives at least in spirit.

The conservative hosts that have succeeded did it because they gave a voice - a passionate one - to those workadaddy, hugamommy concerns. Then, they connected those concerns (and that passion) to the larger politics involved.

And then they opened the phone lines. The rubes and schmucks sweating over their property tax payments not only had a voice, they could add theirs to the fray. And that voice was accepted on its own merits (within the context of being entertainment).

And when you call a conservative talk host, you know you're calling someone who's not too different from you.

And the results?

The list of successful conservative radio hosts is, in fact, fairly long Rush Limbaugh; Sean Hannity; Michael Savage; Michael Reagan. And there is no equivalent list of liberals. Past attempts, such as the programs of Mr. Hightower and Mario Cuomo, have failed.

And it's no wonder.

There's the nub of the gist - look at the past roster of liberal talk radio stars: former government figures like the insufferable Hightower and the narcotic Cuomo; the hopelessly eggheaded Michael Jackson and the vapidly tedious Owen Span; regional stars like Tom Leykis and Alan Berg (murdered by neo-Nazis in 1984) known for being nastier than Morton Downey Junior; locally, the rote cackling of Katherine Lanpher, Turi Ryder's snide hiss, the repetitive wonkery of KSTP's various Morning Spins (not overtly liberal in many cases, but you could and can read between the lines), the condescension Jim Klobuchar's grating rasp...

What do they all have in common? They're all Big Names. Experts. High Priests of Enlightenment.

Conservative hosts - especially the bigger names - are usually more like the kind of people you meet in bars and talk politics with. Only the bars are different; Rush Limbaugh's St. Paul Grill, Jason Lewis at the Monte Carlo, Joe Soucheray at Fern's, Mike Savage at Irv's on Broadway...only Michael Medved sounds like the kind of person you'd meet in a capitol conference room or a grad school seminar.

Now, what is the left going to throw up against the conservative phalanx?

Mr. Sinton [proposes] a full slate of liberally skewing programming with morning, afternoon and early evening shows featuring hosts with as many big names in entertainment as possible.

Pow! Exactly!

"Big Names!".

The success of talk radio is not about "Big Names". Who ever heard of Rush Limbaugh or Laura Schlesinger before they hit the big time? Nobody!

It's not about big names. It's about focusing the passions of a huge group that feels disposessed by the current culture!

Current talk centers around Al Franken:

A deal with Mr. Franken, the comedian, would help greatly in luring other big names, as well as in gaining distribution. He said he envisioned a daily program featuring Mr. Franken perhaps in the early afternoons (around the same time as "The Rush Limbaugh Show").

A representative for Mr. Franken, Henry Reisch of the William Morris Agency, said Mr. Franken was seriously considering the offer, and was mostly focusing on whether he could handle the commitment of a daily radio program. Judging from his comments as a guest last month on Phil Donahue's program on MSNBC, Mr. Franken would probably take a far different approach from that of Mr. Limbaugh. "I think the audience isn't there for a liberal Rush," he said. "Because I think liberals don't want to hear that kind of demagoguery."

Al "Big Fat Idiot" Franken isn't a demigogue?

But I digress - there's my point exactly. I can see Frank the Mechanic from Biloxi calling Rush Limbaugh and getting a relatively sympathetic hearing, even if Frank's a Democrat. Can you see anyone not of Franken's social circle doing as well calling in to Franken's show?

No! Because an Al Franken show would be about Al Franken's politics! Rush Limbaugh, as ego-driven as the show is, is about the audience.

As is all conservative talk radio that actually works!

But Wait! - One conservative radio wonk arouse my ire:

Some radio executives said they simply did not believe liberal radio could become good business. Among them was Kraig T. Kitchen, chief executive of Premiere Radio Networks, one of the nation's largest radio syndication arms with the programs of Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Reagan and Dr. Laura Schlessinger, among others. Though Mr. Kitchin said he was a conservative, he also said he would have pursued liberal programs had he thought there was money in them. He ascribes to the popular view in the industry that liberal hosts present issues in too much complexity to be very entertaining — while addressing a diffuse audience that has varying views.

"Individuals who are liberal in their viewpoints can be all-encompassing," he said. "It's very hard to define liberalism, unlike how easy it is to define conservatism.

If you're talking about dittoheads, perhaps. But conservatism is much harder - and takes much more mental effort - than liberalism, to do it well at any rate. Liberalism may be "hard to define", but it's easy to do - just use the government to express your compassion for you. Conservatism is much harder; it's tough love, which is never easy. Much harder to justify to oneself, without a lot of thought.

Posted by Mitch at February 18, 2003 12:22 PM