TalkJunkie

Here’s a photo from the recent Ingraham – Bush Summit at The White House.

While Michael Smerconish tours the Mideast, his early morning show offers some neat guest hosts. Lets see, which is more lovely, Baghdad in the autumn, or Schlussel in a studio? Of course, if you’re a Jihadi sympathizer, the Schlussified studio could be the more dangerous environment.

Debbie Schlussel, a frequent guest on lots of shows across the country, has lately been the “official” movie reviewer for the Smerconish show. Today she had command of the show and she’ll return tomorrow morning for a second day of hosting. This mornings show had a bit of a violence thread, with talk of Miami footbrawl, the Duke rape case (who are the rapists? the players or the prosecution team?) and naturally, some good old Hollywood violence.

Schlussel recommends Scorsese’s “The Departed” as one of the best films of the year. She warns that it is not for kids and its very bloody, but not in a gratuitous way. Hey, what kind of sick, demented individual could be opposed to gratuitously bloody mob films? You can read her full review of the film in the reviews section of her great website, accessible either by debbieschlussel.com or the more frequently promoted address, debbiedoespolitics.com.

Wednesday thru Friday brings Joe Piscopo to the microphone. I’ve never heard Piscopo host a radio show, but I expect it should be fun. He certainly should be able to bring some interesting guests to the show. The Smerconish show streams from The Big Talker WPHT in Philadelphia, from 5:30 til 9 am, est.

Update – Okay, you gotta catch some of this show. Piscopo is fantastic. He talks a mile a minute, and every minute is engaging. He introduced himself as a “radio junkie” and explained that he has a degree in broadcast management. It turns out that 30 years ago, before Saturday Night Live, he was doing radio.

He also terms himself a pro-life Democrat and says that he is probably more conservative than most Republicans. From my point of view, that’s not too difficult. Anyway the three hours that I heard just flew by. He talked about everything from the outrageous property taxes in the Garden State, to manufacturing lost to China to Madonna’s latest ventures and what he is most proud of, being a dad.

He wonders why Madonna isn’t walking downtown Camden instead of African villages. My guess would be that the U.S. is too small a market for her. He finished up with some Sinatra banter with Sid Mark who has done his Sinatra program for 51 years. He mentioned how nervous he was meeting Sinatra and asked if he could call him Frank. The man’s one word answer – “No”. But its said that Frank really did love Piscopo’s impersonations, and once almost did a surprise walk-on during SNL. One day down, two to go. I thought it would be fun listening. It is.

I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to hear that Air America has declared bankruptcy. Why it was just a few weeks ago that they explained they were not headed in that direction, but simply weren’t paying their bills. At the time, I kinda thought that idea seemed attractive, but I thought I’d first wait and see how it worked out for them. Now it seems not paying your bills can eventually become a problem.

The extent of the problem is now documented.