The Shorter Minnesota Matters
By Mitch Berg
“I Hate Bush more than you do!”
“No, I hate Bush more than you do”.
“Well, I think he’s dumber than you think he is”
“No way, duuuuude”
I listened to local rent-a-blogger Jeff Fecke on “Minnesota Matters”, the local Frankennet affiliate’s (for now) attempt at a local show.
Let me step out of “conservative host” mode for a bit here, and switch into “guy who loves good talk radio” mode.
My earlier observations about the show still hold true – “Minnesota Matters” is no worse than any Twin Cities leftyblog (heh heh) and makes for better radio than anything Janet Robert has tried before…Which is, of course, damnation by faint praise. But faint praise is more than Janet Robert’s FrankenNet affiliate has earned in three years of existence. Limited, qualified, muffled, mildly-chuckled kudos to all involved.” I’ll stand by that. Fecke was the audio version of his blog (see paragraphs 1-4, above – it’s not a bad synopsis of Fecke’s oeuvre); he passed on his Straight-from-George-Soros-but-since-I-don’t-have-the-smoking-gun-showing-that-even-though-the-group-that-paid-Fecke-shares-office-space-with-Soros’-Media-Matters-For-America-there’s-no-financial-connection-whatsoever-and-you’re-an-idiot-to-wonder-because-I-ASSURE-you-there’s-no-connection-nosireebob talking points with the fluency you’d expect from someone who’s spent the last several months being paid to do the job; the interviewer was passable.
But what killed the show was the callers.
Good talk radio doesn’t need callers anymore than good food needs coriander. Both serve as accents, spices, variations on the theme.
Don Vogel – for whom I started in talk radio as a call screener – explained the art of call selection once upon a time. There are four kinds of callers:
- Great Callers. These are the people who have a point that is like a jet-pack strapped to your show’s back; they rocket the show ahead of itself, add something to the proceedings that make the whole thing more entertaining, gripping and valuable. A good screener flags the great callers and gets them on the air pronto.
- Boring Callers. Instead of a jet pack, a boring callers straps a bag of spoiled meat to a show’s back; they agree, maybe, but not only do they add nothing to the conversation, they sap the energy from the conversation. They weigh things down, destroy any momentum, and stink the place up. Their calls should be politely declined.
- Crazy Callers. Crazies are…well, crazy. Their calls can be a dead weight or a godsend. Picking which is which is what separates a good screener from a bad one.
- Ordinary Callers. They have good questions and input. You air them, if you need them, after the Great Callers and the good Crazy Callers, just so that the Ordinary Listeners don’t feel intimidated.
The show – like most Air America shows – sounded like the same person called over and over again, with the same point (or “point”). The were desperately dull. One might have sufficed; the show, such as it was, would have benefitted from their absence, believe it or not; you can be in the fever swamp without sounding like you’re marinading in the fever swamp.
At any rate – the show would have done well to ignore the boring callers – most to all of them – and just talked.
Note to Janet Robert: I’ll check back in a few weeks to see if you’ve implemented any of this. Enjoy.
January 24th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
The day after the election in November, I was driving somewhere and had it on the talk radio station (KCNN 1590) I can get if I’m driving…the Mike Gallagher show was on and he was talking about Ellison & Minnesota and how not quite everything about the man was brought out by the press, etc. He wanted to hear from people who were from Minnesota. So, I called in and had my thoughts all lined up pretty well. The screener was going to put me on, and in the meantime, while I had been dialing and talking to the screener, someone else from Minnesota had come on and I listened wile awaiting my turn…he was so dang good…powerful points, well-delivered AND funny, so I just quietly hung up. Who could follow that and why should you?! I spose if I had a bigger ego I could figure that everyone needed to hear it all again and to hell with it. But, I know I don’t like to be bored so why would I inflict that on others?
January 24th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
What I think is funny is when you take “talk shows” like Hannity and Limbaugh, the callers are the weakest part of the show. With Hannity for example, 8 out of 10 calls tells Sean how great he is and then spews FOX News talking points almost verbatim from some FOX News program. 1 out of 10 calls to say how awful liberals are and the final call is the one stereotypical extreem left nutcase that they allow on and then Hannity zings the caller and gos on and on about how this lunatic is your typical liberal. My guess is it’s not even a liberal – just a Hannity zombie pretending to be one.
Guys like Jason Lewis are fun to mess with because you can call him and challenge him with facts and he’ll cut your mic and go on a demagogic rant unchallenged for 5 minutes. That guys a heart attack waiting to happen.
I’ve tried to listen to NARN but I found it to be the radio equivalent of watching Ralph Lauren paint dry – pompous and overtly self-indulgent but really no better than the Glidden you can get at Walmart.
No offense Mitch.
January 25th, 2007 at 6:08 am
I’ve tried to listen to NARN but I found it to be the radio equivalent of watching Ralph Lauren paint dry – pompous and overtly self-indulgent but really no better than the Glidden you can get at Walmart.
Pompous?
You’ve never actually listened, have you?
No offense Mitch.
Coming from a guy who writes like he believes he’s crapped from the Creator’s hindquarters, I’d be dumb to take any.
January 25th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Hee, hee! Doug is calling somebody pompous. You have to admit, that’s probably enough to make even an Angryclown laugh.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:27 am
“Coming from a guy who writes like he believes he’s crapped from the Creator’s hindquarters”
25 days into the year and already we have a contender for “quote of the year”.
This gave me a great good morning chuckle, Mitch. Bravo!
January 25th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Mitch said,
“You’ve never actually listened, have you?
Yup Mitch I have and is was about 90 minutes of “look how dumb liberals are”, “look how smart we are”, “taxes are really bad” and “the liberals want to take away your guns”. Mixed among all of that was a jumble of apparent inside jokes and the liberal bashing version of “your mama” jokes.
Also, it seemed like every caller started their comments with something like, “democrats just wanna…” or “liberals are going to…”.
I haven’t listened since the hour format has changed but I can’t imaging it’s that different.
It just wasn’t very good or very interesting.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Mitch said,
“Coming from a guy who writes like he believes he’s crapped from the Creator’s hindquarters.”
Says Mitch “did I mention yet that I worked at KSTP and was a rock star who played snooker against ALL the big Mpls rockers in the 80’s” Berg…
January 25th, 2007 at 10:02 am
You call THAT pompous?
MONTOYA: “I don’t think that word means what you think it means”.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Mitch said,
“You call THAT pompous?”
Actually, I said NARN was pompous. You just happen to be a contributing member.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:56 am
And this comment Mitch…
“Note to Janet Robert: I’ll check back in a few weeks to see if you’ve implemented any of this. Enjoy. “
Yeah. That would be pompous.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:09 am
No, that’s “wry and needling”.
Nothing remotely pompous about it.
Although declaring pomposity is itself a little…
…well, never mind.
January 25th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Doug has convinced me…
…that he doesn’t know what the word ‘pompous’ means, though he does keep using that word. He probably has an overdeveloped sense of pomposity. It’s going to get him into trouble some day.
January 25th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Doug,
He was also a club DJ. Don’t forget, he was also a club DJ.
Swooningly,
B
January 25th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
In one ear…:
Mitch “did I mention yet that I worked at KSTP and was a rock star who played snooker against ALL the big Mpls rockers in the 80’s” Berg…
…out the other:
Actually, I said NARN was pompous.
Are you judging an election and writing at the same time?
January 25th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
bobvious said,
“He was also a club DJ. Don’t forget, he was also a club DJ.”
Oh, that’s right and apparently he was very proficient at cross mixing.
That’s like a chef at Applebees bragging that they can chop onions.
January 25th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Mitch said,
“Are you judging an election and writing at the same time?”
Oh so now I was an election judge?
January 25th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Doug, give it up. Boring sums up your insightful commentary:
Instead of a jet pack, a boring commenter straps a bag of spoiled meat to a blog’s back; not only do they add nothing to the thread, they sap the energy from the thread. They weigh things down, destroy any momentum, and stink the place up.
You get your enjoyment by pulling the thread off-topic to hide the fact you have no valid rebuttal to offer. If you have a communications degree as you have claimed, I wonder how it is that you earned it; you show no evidence of such knowledge in your comments.
January 25th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Oh, that’s right and apparently he was very proficient at cross mixing.
That’s like a chef at Applebees bragging that they can chop onions.
Well, actually it was beatmixing, cutting, scratching and remixing. Which, when you’re a geeky bald white guy, is sort of like a cook at Applebee’s chopping onions on Soul Train.
You do crappy analogies, I do crappy analogies.
January 25th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Oh so now I was an election judge?
No. You’re an Admiral.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Paul, are you taking classes in poetry? Your writing lately has been so – flowery.
You get your enjoyment by pulling the thread off-topic to hide the fact you have no valid rebuttal to offer.
Thank you for that in depth, profound analysis Dr. Katz…