RE: Mega Sells WAMG Boston

["Paul Hopfgarten" <paul@03038.com>]

Dave Finnegan is (for Boston standards) pretty conservative. I voted for him
for Mayor in the 1983 primary, but was forced to 'raise a glass ;-) for
Flynn when it came down to Flynn or Mel King.

I do think that Upton Bell is pretty liberal when I was listening to him on
the 1060 version of WMEX (as opposed to the 1510, 1150 or 106.5 versions..)

As a staunch conservative, I must admit that radio does NOT need another
Conservative talk show host (Now, TV except for FOX, and a major East Coast
daily....those Conservative media outlets are BADLY needed!)

Paul Hopfgarten
East Derry NH 03041

paul@03038.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of tony
> schinella
> Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 8:09 AM
> To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> Subject: Re: Mega Sells WAMG Boston
>
>
> 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?
> >
>