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April 20, 2004

Woo Hoo! A Review!

The City Pages' Paul Demko reviews last week's Northern Alliance appearance on the Hewitt show.

Minnesotans can be proud to know that some native sons are representing on right-wing talk radio. The Northern Alliance Radio Network has been running locally on The Patriot, AM-1280, for several weeks now on Saturday afternoons. I regret to admit that I've only caught snippets of it so far, being as they're up against the redoubtable Jack Sparks.
Hey, if I wasn't on the air Saturdays, I'd be listening to Sparks.

Could it be that we and Demko have something in common, besides twang radio?

Let's see:


This afternoon (and again tomorrow), however, the cadre of conservative bloggers went national, guest-hosting the Hugh Hewitt show. (Lileks has long been a regular on the program.) For talk radio neophytes, they seem to be holding their own: foaming at the mouth about the Gorelick memo, ranting about the liberal media, and glorifying John Ashcroft.
OK, I guess not.

Still, other than the foaming and ranting bit (he obviously mistakes us for Savage), and the Ashcroft bit (we didn't glorify - merely gave credit where it was due), it wasn't half bad.

Stop on by sometime, Paul!

No, really.

Posted by Mitch at April 20, 2004 05:00 AM
Comments

Who the heck is Jack Sparks?

Seriously, you guys did a great job filling in for Da Commish and I enjoy your weekend show immensely. Too bad you are up against Dave Thomas who is about the only thing on KSTP worth listening to (sans Bob Davis when he's on a roll).

Posted by: PJZ at April 20, 2004 08:16 AM

PJZ- I can only assume your comments regarding Dave Thompson (he's not the Wendy's guy) are a put on. You really don't believe he's the best that KSTP has to offer do you? Dave's a nice guy and all, but his milquetoast style is hardly what I consider entertaining radio.

Posted by: the elder at April 20, 2004 09:54 AM

I never get to listen to Davis, so I can't comment - I suspect he's good, I used to like him at night.

But other than that and Limbaugh, really, there is nothing on KSTP that really grabs me anymore. I was an unabashed Lewis fan. Soucheray bores me stiff these days, Rosenbaum is...well, palatable, in an offhanded way. I love Mischke, but I'm never able to listen. Can't stand Hannity, and Crok is just dreadful.

Really, Thompson has graduated from the lower third to the upper third of the KSTP lineup in terms of entertainment ability - by default.

Posted by: mitch at April 20, 2004 10:32 AM

I guess that I need to clarify things about what I consider to be good radio. I like an engaging discussion of issues in which thoughtful and provocative ideas are presented and debated. Jason Lewis was pretty much my ideal talk show host (see the link for his new website) even though I occasionally found some logical fallacies in some of his arguments they were pretty few and far between.

As for what I do not like, I do not care much for sappy “everyman” banter (Soucheray, Hannity, Crok, Gallagher), bombastic populism based on hot button issues (Savage, Ingraham), or party talking points against straw man arguments (Limbaugh, Medved, and often Hewitt).

Right now, that pretty much leaves me listening to Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt (for national topics and interesting guests), Dwight Rabus, the Northern Alliance or Dave Thompson who may be “milquetoast” but he does present his ideas in a thoughtful and principled manner while doing one of the better good jobs of engaging callers who disagree with him. I also do like Bob Davis for the entertainment value and energy during my morning commute although I have been listening to William Bennett when he has an interesting topic or guest.

Posted by: PJZ at April 20, 2004 11:50 AM

Jack Sparks is a local alt-country-hipster-lefty-closet case.

I've had a few run ins with him regarding the fact that he knows nothing about country music and claims to be an expert.

He's a lonely hipster doofus whom St. Paul once referred to on our site as a "Depraved jock sniffer"

He REALLY wants musicians to like him, I guess.

Posted by: JB at April 20, 2004 12:01 PM

Crok is a living nightmare, if I listen to him too much I just might turn liberal so I could listen to Air America instead...

Posted by: briano at April 20, 2004 08:47 PM

Krok is a train wreck. However, Northern Alliance and Hugh are the only reason to turn on 1280.

Posted by: SleepNow at April 21, 2004 12:54 AM

SleepNow,

I applaud your allegiances! However, I like Medved quite a bit, and I find myself tunign in Ingraham in the morning more and more often.

Posted by: mitch at April 21, 2004 04:20 PM
hi