TalkJunkie

So the name Hussein is now forbidden, perhaps sacred. Not to be taken in jest or vain or as a campaign rub. Talk host Bill Cunningham was so evil in calling Obama by his actual name. Perhaps its now like publishing a likeness of that other prophet, er, mo-something. Well screw Obama. Uh oh, Now I’ve taken the name of our new prophet in vain. Ahh, screw him anyway.

Yes anyone who uses his actual middle name must be anti-Muslim at best or perhaps something worse, maybe a republican or evil conservative. Yes, small r because John McLame now decides who is really a Republican. Despite Cunningham perhaps having a screw loose with his now I’ll support Hillary garbage, this is all such bs. Anyway, Mark Levin came up with a solution on how to properly address his Obamaness.

Levin says we shall now use the name Barack Milhaus Obama. Now maybe that shows proper respect. Except that “Tricky Dick”, as the left so respectfully called him, wasn’t ashamed of America before he had his own self wander onto the political scene. Except that “I am not a crook” Nixon, as the left so respectfully called him, didn’t buy his homes with questionable real estate deals with lobbyists. Maybe using Milhaus is sort of degrading, to Nixon.

NJ 101.5 radio talk hosts attracted a few thousand listeners and tax activists to the state capitol last Friday to rally against the Governor’s new toll plan. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is proposing an 800% toll increase, the largest state bonding program in history and the shifting of existing debt to a new semi-private highway corporation.

Corzine, who made his fortune by taking Goldman Sachs public, wants to make his mark in politics by taking public assets private. And the purpose in doing so, is to enable grandiose new spending proposals for the state already buried in debt. It’s the perfect issue for the popular fm station that features daytime weekday talk.

The station has set up a page to cover progress on the effort to shift the direction from new spending and new debt to spending cuts. The governor has acknowledged that all prior administrations have overspent but also claims there is no place to cut spending. His state of the state address advised that, “pigs will fly over the Statehouse before there’s a realistic level of new taxes or spending cuts that can fix this mess.”

Now that the rally has produced numerous flying swine over the Statehouse, the station continues to inform and motivate by having an online petition, in addition to a website that provides a clearing house for information on the Governor’s plan, the various groups heading up the opposition and the latest news on the issue. Time will tell whether this has any effect on the swine inside the Statehouse.

Radio legend Bob Grant had been slated to receive Radio & Records’ Lifetime Achievement Award at its March seminar program. After lobbying by an unnamed individual, the group has rescinded its award to the radio giant. It has also suddenly added to its program the controversial “reverend” and radio pygmy, Al Sharpton.



From a post on the New York Radio Message Board comes the observation, “At this point, R&R ceases to be representative of the industry and is now taking on the role of a political advocacy group. . . Censorship and discrimination based on one’s point of view knows no boundaries. This thing is dangerous and its growing.” Another poster noted, “it seems like somebody put pressure on them, and that they are caving. Do we want to trust a company like that as a major news source for the radio industry?”

Fellow WABC host Mark Levin started out his show this evening calling the radio group’s action disgraceful. And Grant, interviewed earlier by Hannity, was quoted in a column by the Radio Equalizer saying, “it’s a sad day for America because it means that an absolute kook who has no credibility has forced a company to bend to his will.” Hannity also mentioned that there may be further action from other radio hosts regarding a boycott of the March R & R program.

Grant’s own show was pre-empted by sports this evening, which also pre-empted the guaranteed avalanche of reaction by his legions of fans.

Lets face the truth. Radio & Records is not “sensitive to the diversity” of any community. It is pandering to and taking the side of political correctness fascists who represent no community.

Audio of Levin’s full comments are available at MarkLevinFan.

Starting Monday, December 3, Don Imus will take over the morning slot on WABC, New York. The show will air from 6am til 10am and will also be nationally syndicated. Returning with Imus will be veteran newsman and Imus sidekick, Charles McCord.

Imus has spent over 30 years on New York morning radio before being fired earlier this year after a ridiculous blowup over an insulting quip about a local women’s sports team. The plans by WABC owner Citadel Broadcasting to syndicate the show to possibly 20 or more stations means this move will impact morning hosts nationwide.

Radio writer and analyst Brian Maloney, of The Radio Equalizer, examines who the potentially displaced hosts may be. Of course, New York’s Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby who ironically bested Imus in ratings, will almost certainly be looking for a new radio home. Some of the other hosts across the country include KSFO’s Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan, KABC’s Doug McIntyre and WJR’s Paul W Smith.

Over the next month we’ll see how this will all shake out. It will take longer than that for Citadel to discover if they did the the math properly. Meanwhile Imus will be raking in a reported five to eight million a year from the deal, and more if he can put together a tv simulcast deal. That is all on top of the estimated 10 million settlement with CBS. Now that was my kind of paid vacation.

If you were at the Sept 11 Freedom Concert, you may have met Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Andrew Wilkow, Oliver North, Curtis Sliwa, Newt Gingrich and Mark Levin.

Maybe you even got an autograph. But if you didn’t, you can now get all of their autographs on a great shirt. And the proceeds go to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund. There is one way to get this one-of-a-kind shirt.

Trent from ProudConservative.com personally obtained the autographs and now has the shirt up for auction on eBay. You can check out the bidding, get more info and place a bid yourself on the auction site. The auction ends early in the day on Sept. 27.

So Matt is going to leave his show and spend more time on his website??? What the hell more can he do with that amazing cutting edge site? When Drudge first came up with the format of the site in the late 1930’s things started slow for him. But as soon as Al Gore invented the internet, traffic began to slowly build to the enviable position he enjoys today. I only wish I had the monthly traffic that he draws in a few minutes.

Replacing Drudge, as of Sunday, October 7th, will be Bill Cunningham who will also continue his Cincinatti weekday afternoon program. “Willi” Cunningham has subbed for Hannity and Rush and has several decades of radio experience. Willi, who describes himself as an entertainer, has a great archive of recent shows available on the WLW website.

Check out the archive for his take on recent topics and a taste of what “Live on Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham” may have in store for us weekend listeners. As for the Drudge Report, who knows? Maybe we’ll soon see Mattcasting.

I don’t often have audio to post of Neal Boortz. But thanks to C-Span and their simulcast today of Boortz’s program we have a link to video of the show.

Congressman John Linder, co-author of The Fair Tax Book, joined Boortz to respond to the the curious “hatchet job” on the tax plan in the NY Times. Neal and Linder give some history behind their tax proposal and the book which was No. 1 on the Times bestseller list. They also field some good phoned-in questions on this possible replacement for the income tax.

These C-Span broadcasts though simple one-camera affairs, really do a great job of capturing the studio atmosphere of a radio show. You catch all of the off-air banter including the opening of a gift box of corn from listener Courtney in Iowa.

You can find other recent radio related C-Span programs on this search page.

The one, the only, Bob Grant returns to WABC tonight. Taking over the 8 – 10pm slot held briefly by Jerry Agar, Grant returns to the station he held court on from 1984 til 1996.

In ‘96, after a controversial remark, Grant was replaced by some young kid named Hannity. Wonder what ever happened to that Hannity fella?

Grant told the New York Daily News, “I didn’t think I’d miss it as much as I did,” referring to his one and a half year semi-retirement since leaving WOR. Anyone who has listened to New York talk radio in the last 35+ years has to know Bob Grant. But in any event, Bob said, “I’ll introduce myself to anyone who isn’t familiar with me. But I think people will pretty quickly figure out who I am.”

I’ve been privileged to listen to Grant for many years. And with any luck, I’ll get to listen for many more.

When this whole farce began, I wrote that the girls on the team seemed to get the absurdity of the story better than most. In the case of at least one player, I was wrong. It has been announced that one player has now succumbed to the advances of a lawsuit shopping ambulance chaser.

Of his payday target, the legal eagle who is not named J. Cheever Loophole, stated, “He’s come out smelling like quite the rose. But what about these young women? How does Imus’ victory affect their self-esteem? Where do they go to get their reputations back?” asked the wacky needy ho representing the player. I can quite picture the attorney now, wearing a Groucho moustache and nose glasses.

According to mediationnow.com, the barrister’s areas of practice include General, Commercial, Custody, Divorce, Employment, Intra-Family, Marital Relationships, Post Divorce and Real Estate. He can now add gullible college girls seeking quick thrills and quick money, or at least a percentage. But what about my self-esteem? Where do I go to get back my reputation as an Imus listener? But do I want that type of reputation? And do I even want to smell like a rose?

But enough about me, back to not J. Cheever. Yes, Loophole went full throttle exclaiming that his poor victimized client “would do anything to return to her life as a student and respected basketball player – a more simple life before Imus opened his mouth on April 4.” But first, a little legal rhumba. Yes, quick money does help one pursue the simple life.

The counsellor’s website explains, “The Law Offices of not J. Cheever Loophole is dedicated (sic) securing justice for injured persons.” The grammatically impaired sales pitch continues, “The Law Offices of not J. Cheever Loophole takes great pride in personal attention to detail . . ” Yes, I can tell. Why just to the right of that the copy reads, “A law firm with over 24 years experience, dedicated to ensuring that injued people receive fair and just compensation . . ” My sensitivity to poor spelling has been irreparably injued. Or maybe injued is a high falootin legal term that I don’t understand. Maybe he’ll accidentally sue Dom Imus. How will this poor innocent schlub with a similar name to the I-man get his reputation back?

We’re probably lucky to have people like not J. Cheever Loophole defending us from the injuies from “birth defects” and “lead paint.” Mmmm, tasty windowsill. But I really can picture him with the nose and moustache wooing his jury with “Lydia, the Tatooed Lady.”

IBD had a great editorial yesterday on the fairness doctrine and the desire of politicians to “rig the game once again.” Senator Feinstein thinks talk radio is one-sided and doesn’t provide a lot of information.

Yes, hours of discussion on a specific issue, give and take from the public at large calling in to shows and a broad range of guest interviews doesn’t provide information. Sure, Ms. Feinstein. How many guest speakers and public call-ins were there in the Senate chambers during the amnesty debate? How much information is gleaned from a one minute network news story? Maybe the main source of information for the public should be the Congressional Record, amended and revised of course.

The truth is the left can’t stand no longer having a monopoly on information. Talk radio and specialty programs, broadcast and streamed, truly does bring an ocean of information to the public. It’s Feinstein and crew that want to control which side can be heard. IBD summed up her nonsense just about right – “That sounds like a fancy way of saying people aren’t thinking the way the government wants them to be thinking.”

has a new promotional photo. I like it. And if the leftists in the Senate have their way, free speech on the airwaves may require both those tools.

The left seeks to achieve through government force the audience that they have been unable to win in the free market. Drudge led with a story this evening that had Senator James Inhofe claiming that Clinton and Boxer were seeking a “legislative fix” for talk radio. Levin’s reaction was, “Isn’t what Hillary Clinton is doing a soft form of Hugo Chavez tyranny?.” The answer is yes

The “progressives” always seem to admire socialist tyrants like Chavez and Castro whose first moves are to silence opposition through force. .And on a number of issues, Clinton has gone on record that she thinks nothing of making individuals suffer for what she envisions as the greater good. Hillary’s experience in the free market is obtaining sweetheart futures deals. Senate leader Harry Reid’s experience in the free market is windfall real estate deals through sudden zoning changes. In other words their experience is in the not-so-free market.

As we near the election, the free speech issue will continue to ramp up with far left interest groups and leftwing media urging their friends in government to silence the opposition. Which makes Tammy’s new photo with her friend Snuffy quite timely.

The Sean Hannity Freedom Concert series, which funds scholarships for the children of fallen military, expands this year to five dates. The tour begins July 10 in Atlanta and concludes Sept. 11 at the traditional venue of Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. In between, the concert series will visit San Diego, July 26; Cincinatti, August 9 and Dallas on August 14.

Performers announced thus far include Montgomery Gentry, LeAnn Rimes and Lee Greenwood. You can get ticket and other program and fund information at hannity.com/freedomconcert07.

The concert series which helps fund Oliver North’s Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund will support educational scholarships for many years to come. The current school year saw the awarding of 105 student scholarships. You can read more about the fund at freedomalliance.org.

The program is always a great time and sometimes affords an opportunity to meet Hannity, North and other talk personalities at the various venues. Mark Levin mentioned that he will attend at least several of the shows. Hannity will again broadcast his show live from Great Adventure at the September concert.

Lets hear this show once again. A small Los Angeles area radio station that carried the Imus show isn’t ready to let go of the program just yet. KCAA plans to run a Best of Imus this coming week in their regular 6am til 9am pacific time slot. Supposedly the week will begin with the show that sparked the controversy and gave a few media-ho preachers some more time in the spotlight.

Kudos to the station if they go ahead with the airing. Of course the Imus program was this tiny station’s premiere offering, and the station’s chairman, Fred Lundgren said, ” . . without Imus, we’re pretty much toast.” He added, “What Imus did was deplorable, inexcusable, but it shouldn’t end the career of a man who has done so much good. This is an overreaction beyond anything I’ve ever seen in radio.”

The rerun plans have been publicized in the L.A. Times, Newsday, and countless other publications and websites. It will undoubtedly be the biggest promo this station has ever had. Lundgren claims, “Unless we get a court order to cease and desist, we’re going to run it. I’m not going to let networks dictate to me who I run on my station.”

KCAA STREAMS and if their server can handle the likely traffic, here’s the link. And if the home page is down here’s the stream link.

But Sharpton’s past verbiage has helped to incite violence and murder. Repeatedly. And thanks to the I-Man’s idiocy we were subjected to the absurd spectacle of Imus groveling before this hypocrite.

Imus’s schtick is a demented, perhaps flashback hazed politically incorrect banter, the goal of which is entertainment. Sharpton’s schtick is carefully calculated and politically gamed to be divisive, as well as politically and economically rewarding. Hannity has said that the good reverend is charming when not in character. I take that to mean he is only evil in public.

So we now witness the real ho’s of this bonfire of the inanities episode coming forward one by one to condemn comedy gone bad, while kissing the rings of charlatan preachers. Political ho’s who used Imus, not minding his always irreverent attitude, as long as his biting comedy bit all the “right” people, and perhaps gained them a few votes along the way. Corporate ho’s who hawked their products and looked the other way when Imus walked the edge. And network ho’s who are just doing their job – being ho’s.

Meanwhile there are some sensible comments, especially from Mark Levin. He says all those now disassociating themselves from Imus should have to mention the number of times they appeared on the Imus show. Levin also said he doesn’t believe in Stalinist retribution – and that we should just let the market work, adding “No one listens to the show!” and “If MSNBC no longer simulcasts your show, is that a bad thing?” However, I think we should make note of the corporate sponsors that now support Stalinist persecution of free speech.

But of all the comments I’ve heard and read the past few days, my favorites are a pair of posts from Steve of Hog On Ice. So click on over to read:

Don Imus to Retire and Move to Hymietown

and

Imus Must Die

Added comment – Won’t it be doubly ironic if Imus’s career winds up being saved by the students who were the subject of his insult. One of the girls when first told of the comments, reacted appropriately, she dismissively joked about it. Maybe she gets it. Obviously millions do not.

Think there might be any radio personalities running for president in the near future? Well there just might be. Recently an ABC host and commentator for the Paul Harvey program, Fred Thompson is starting to generate a lot of buzz about a possible run. Thompson is best known for his extensive acting career but also spent a little time in Washington as a U.S. Senator. But I wouldn’t hold that against him.

Actually, Thompson was twice elected to the senate from Tennessee, both times taking 60% or more of the vote, for the seat vacated by Algore. And his political life precedes his acting career having been an assistant U.S. Attorney and later co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. Lets see, Hillary worked in Washington as an advisor to the House Committee at the same time. We might have opposing candidates whose early political careers started with Watergate.

Thompson was on the Levin show a few days ago discussing the Libby verdict. Asked by Mark towards the end of the interview whether he had any upcoming announcements, he seemingly left open the possibility of a candidacy, saying he’ll “have a little something to say about it before too long.” Thompson is supposedly a close friend of McCain, so maybe he’ll rule out a run. Or if McCain fades maybe he will run. Or he might be a possiblity for the second spot on a ticket. There’s lots of discussion on all the possible scenarios. There’s even a forum site dedicated to a possible campaign called draftfredthompson.