Re: Mega Sells WAMG Boston

["tony schinella" <radiotony@attbi.com>]

I would question your description of "liberal" vs. "conservative" here.
Jerry Williams was a classic liberal, in the Jeffersonian sense, which
actually means he was populist and straddled somewhere in the middle of
conservative and liberal [BTW, you can check out my Jerry Williams tribute
at my Web log, politizine.blogspot.com]. I don't recall Larry King's show
being really political; but more of an interview show like he does now. Is
he a liberal? Sure. But was he a "liberal talk host?" I don't think so. Jim
Bohannon is conservative and actually Dave Finnegan was more populist than
liberal and more conservative than Ray Flynn who he challenged twice for the
Boston mayor's seat. Upton Bell? You mean the sports guy, right? He was a
liberal talk host? He didn't seem liberal to me when he was on the revised
WMEX. Sorry, I can't speak for the others.

However, while I do often make the case that liberal talk show hosts should
be given a chance to compete, my main problem isn't the politics of the host
but the content of most of the conservative shows. What happened to a civil
conversation? In the past, I have listened to Limboob, Buchanan [when he was
on], Bruds, Avi Nelson, and Chuck Harder; all conservatives - and have
enjoyed their shows. I hear a lot from liberal friends who like Jay Severin
because they like the sound of his voice and they like that he tries to have
a conversation with people.

But something has happened to a lot of these hosts since Sept. 11 that has
made talk radio unlistenable for me. When I heard talk hosts I used to like
a lot like Michael Savage, Howie Carr and Mo Lauzier - or their listeners -
talking about rounding up all the Muslims or rounding up all the American
protesters and killing them all, while listening during the first stages of
the war, I was shocked. Sure, it's "free speech" - but these guys were
advocating murder and of Americans no less. And yes, I didn't think it was a
good idea when that idiot Alec Baldwin said the same thing about Henry
Hyde's family. But even if it is done tongue-in-cheek, I don't really think
that is a good idea. Jerry Williams used to call people to action to get
something changed in our state, not to advocate the rounding up of or
murdering of innocent people.

Even Williams, after attacking Michael Dukakis for years and years, admitted
on his show once that Dukakis would have been a better president than
Clinton. I know this because he was talking about all the Clinton scandals -
Whitewater, the banking problems, the drug running to fund the Contras, Waco
and Ruby Ridge, etc. - and I called him up and asked him point blank whether
Dukakis would have been a better president than Clinton and he said, "Yeah."
I was a little surprised by the answer. But having lived through Nixon and
Clinton he knew the difference between political corruption and pure evil.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Pappalardo" <joepappalardo2001@yahoo.com>
To: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 3:09 AM
Subject: Re: Mega Sells WAMG Boston


> From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
>
> > Wow, we certainly don't have enough of those on the air, do we???????  I
> > can only dream that one day liberals and moderates will awaken from
their
> > slumber.  Just about every major talk show on the air today seems to be
> > conservative, sometimes exceedingly so.
>
> Let's not forget that there was a time (when I was a teenager) that we had
> all sorts of liberals on the air.  It seemed to me that you HAD to be a
> liberal to have a talk show.
>
> Paul Benzaquin, Guy Manilla, Gerry Williams (at the time!), Peter Mead,
Dave
> Finnegan, Hubert Jessup, Larry King, Jim Bohannon, Upton Bell, Larry
Glick,
> Lou Marcel
>
> Who am I missing?
>