Salem running commercials on WBZ?

[Dan Strassberg]

I just tuned past WBZ and was amazed to hear the right-wing rantings of
Michael Medved. It was a spot (a 60-second spot, I think) in which Medved
takes a post-election swipe at John Kerry. At the end, a woman announcer
came on and said Michael Medved is a film critic and talk-show host heard on
the Salem Radio Network. I assume that this was a commercial and not a PSA.
We know that if the closing copy had added "and locally on WTTT 1150," WBZ
would not have accepted the business. However, isn't it a first for WBZ to
run a commercial one of whose major purposes appears to be to promote a
personality heard on another radio station not owned by Infinity? Would I
care if WBZ ran, say, an Al Franken spot that contained a mention of Air
America? Perhaps not. But I can and DO avoid listening to Medved's show,
just as I avoid listening to WBZ's own Brudnoy, Sullivan, and Rich. I regard
the shrill Medved not merely as a right-wing whacko but also as an execrable
talk-show host. (I actually kind of like another of Salem's hosts, Dennis
Prager--even though I don't think I agree with him on anything. My
impression is that, unlike Medved, Prager is a gentleman, who does not
resort to tricks like potting down a caller and launching into a diatribe
that purportedly answers the caller's questions but actually deals with
questions completely different from those the caller asked.) My point is
that, at the very least, WBZ ought to think twice about running these spots,
except perhaps during its own talk shows; I doubt that I am the only
listener who is unhappy about having to listen to Medved's shrill rantings
in order to catch the news.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367