doings at 680, 1510?

[Bob Nelson]

I'll add that hosts of the past like Jerry Williams were considered
liberal but in his final years he crusaded against "hacks and cronies"
in the state government and various causes like stopping the prison in
New Braintree, stopping the seatbelt law, the "Congressional pay grab"
(Ralph Nader was on frequently), and so on. He called himself a
muckraker, anti-big-state government, anti-waste/fraud/corruption. He
had anti-tax crusader Barbara Anderson on as well as Howie Carr as
"The Governors"--later Bob Katzen of Beacon Hill Roll Call would be
on. (I can still remember him hammering that phrase in--
hacks...and cronies...and playing the "Network" clip of "I'm as mad as
hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!") Nader btw is often seen
as being on the left criticizing big auto makers but he also seemed to
be against big-salaried Congressmen.

Jerry also tried to stop Mike Dukakis from being elected President.
"Unelectable..." sang
one woman to the tune of "Unforgettable..." The man often called
liberal was morphing into
populist (as he called himself), anti-big-government, libertarian
("why should some jack booted thug state trooper pull you over for not
having a seat belt?"). The next thing you knew,
Howie would be filling in for him ("Good afternoon New England this is
Howie Carr from the Boston Herald and I'm filling in for the Dean
today") and Howie would get his own show--Jerry's slot of course
(though for a time he was in mornings paired briefly with Victoria
Jones). Anyway, in a Democrat-dominated city like ours, we found talk
hosts who railed against the "Establishment" succeeded at a station
like WRKO, and Jerry seemed to
trend conservative (or at least "anti-big-state government"). There
may be some progressive voices on now like the ones mentioned above,
though the Left wants to have their own station or at least equal
footing (for example, they wouldn't mind an Ed Schulz, Thom
Hartmann, or Steph Miller on WRKO or WXKS AM to give a bit of
balance). But as has been said, can they sell it? 1200 couldn't even
really sell Rush!

Considering Entercom runs at least one prog talk station I know of,
and Boston might be receptive to it, neither they nor (lately) Clear
Channel seems to want to do it (CC of course did try it 2004-2006). I
will note btw that "Boston's Progressive Talk" lasted 2 years and 2
months (Oct 2004 to Dec 2006). The conservative talk on 1200 started
in March of 2010.
That's been slightly longer: 2 years and about 5 months...and for now
1200 is apparently continuing it, sans local hosts. Whether they
continue to run Levin, Hannity, Beck etc on 1200 to "clear their
shows" or go to another format (maybe after Rush leaves?), who knows.
And yes Premiere does have Rhodes and Jesse Jackson to offer, too...

As I said before in the prog talk days, 1200 couldn't cut it due to weak signal,
lack of promotion, and no DAILY local hosts. So they tried
conservative talk with a slightly better signal (I can still get it
quite well day or night in Beverly), a bit of promotion, and not one
but two daily local hosts, but it hasn't quite worked out. Yet for now
it continues...not sure for how long. Now Katz and Severin are
unemployed (and I don't know if TKK or RKO would hire Severin given
the controversy; maybe Katz can catch on...)