Doug Westerman Is A Genius

Oh, don't get me wrong. My former colleague (from KSTP-AM in the eighties) is actually a pretty regular guy (although as I recall from twenty years ago, he knows his sports backward and forward). He may, in fact, pop up in the "Twenty Years Ago Today" series, one of these days. But I may in fact be the first person to have ever called him a genius.

But he showed true mastery of his oeuvre, indeed his milieu, in his re-introduction of Jason Lewis to the Twin Cities market.

As I noted years ago, Lewis is the host I always wanted to be when I grew up (although I'd keep my own taste in music, thanks). Now, Jason is probably making a ton of money. AM1280 the Patriot is getting Hugh Hewitt for free (most syndicated commercial talk radio is free to the station these days) - and a little bird told me that Hewitt's audience beat the tar out of the late Lambert and Janecek show. Given the difference in cost incurred in getting the benefit, Lewis is going to have to get phenomenal numbers not only to beat Hewitt, but to justify the cost of the win.

To do that, it'd help to get a huge start.

Here's where the genius comes in.

Westerman - this kills me - waited to introduce Lewis until he faced eight solid broadcast days of Jed Babbin filling in for a vacationing Hewitt.

That's why Doug makes the big bucks.

Speaking of Lewis; listening to a couple of hours of his first week, I felt like I was 35 again. Because the show is exactly the same, down to the themes and the bumpers and pretty much everything but the absence of Joe Hansen, as it was when Bill Clinton was in office.