The Slow Death of Radio

The Washington Post's Marc Fisher writes his last article for "The Listener," a radio column he has written for the paper since 1995.

Fisher laments the slow death of radio, in a world of iPods, Facebook and Myspace.  He makes the case that the only way to save it, is for the people running radio stations to find talent like Don Imus and others.

Fisher writes, "long before he aged into a marble-mouthed crank, dragged himself into the studio each morning to dazzle impressionable teens by spicing up his program of pop hits with skewerings of Richard Nixon, charlatan preachers and all manner of phonies.  Imus's bad-boy prankishness showed me that adults didn't have to lose their adolescent passions."

If you're interested in the radio biz, Fisher's column is a good read.  If not, it will probably make your hair hurt.   Eitherway, click here to check it out.

Comments

[Brian]

The local radio stations around here are awful.

Most of the new music is pro-tools synth droid crap.
And the old music is tired.

Then the news stations are ULTRA PC in everything they say.

Who can listen to it?
The top 40 stations repear everything in a 30 min loop too.

Once you have someone whos actually funny, the PC police claim they're "offensive" and must not say 'that' or they will be thrown off the air.

[DTT]

Geraldine Ferraro pretty much hit the nail on the head today with her op-ed in the Boston Globe.

“The (Reagan Democrats) see Obama's(campaign) playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They're not upset with Obama because he's black; they're upset because they don't expect to be treated fairly because they're white... It's not racism that is driving them, it's racial resentment. And that is enforced because they don't believe he understands them and their problems..."

But you won't hear THAT being discussed on the Karith in the Morning show. But you WILL have Dick Gregory on there.

[davynavy]

I miss the Imus updates by 'Tricky Dick'
and with a couple of paranoid calculating liars like Billary I'd love to hear a couple of more Richard M Nixon updates from the grave. I think even Tony "Paul Harvey voice" could pull off one of the great Dick Nixon reports Imus used to showcase. Bring back Tricky Dick!!!! commentary on politics

[Ree]

Well that was a bit depressing wasn't it! What is going on in my family, each generation is actively still listening to the radio I am watching Imus In the Morning my child listen to Kid Kraddick. Bladerunner went off regular radio Oklahoma but he does have an Internet Radio website. I think the key is creativity the JAKK station is CBS and like the tv network they went to the cheap programing to save money so a computerized loop? CBS went to cheap reality TV, I hate Reality TV there is NO creativity involved. Who knows maybe this will drive us all back outside instead of in front of the boob tube, and once you are outside you know you listen to your radio:) My daughter stayed up listening to her friends Internet Radio programs more then a couple of nights in a row she wasn't alone they were on message boards at the sametime...maybe that is the next step instant discussions. Tom Friedman said it, The World Is Flat. Is that what Barnicle is complaining about when he complains about the blogs, he doesn't like the instant exchange of what people just viewed or listened to? Well some of it is Crap see MMFA. I like Barnicle, I mean he is half a commie:) but still he is personable and has more going on then other commentators. We have someone DJaying WQNA 88 in Springfield Illinois just for fun, he is 22 years old if radio is dying a whole lot of people don't know and I think more likely it is morphing into what comes next...people like to be entertained when is that going to change. What is that old saying, build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door.

[Ginger]

You know, Ree, I have grown to love listening to radio, and I think the internet has re-introduced me to it. I'm, of course, hooked on Imus, and recently I've been listening to Laura Ingraham more ( but ya have to pay!...and btw webmaster, thank you, thank you, thank you for the Imus podcasts!

I also love the old radio sites.. you know, the ones that have the old 30's , 40's, and 50's old time radio shows. I a television raised child, but I have starting spending more and more time listening to radio. I don't think radio will ever die. It is just evolving.

[Brian]

Well I gotta say 1 reality show that I really like alot is on the Discovery channel called Deadliest Catch.

That show is really great.

[Mary Lynn]

Bella,

It was 5:30 am Eastern time and I STILL can't get on the super delegate site due to "heavy traffic"! What's up with that?

Brian "The Deadliest Catch" is good. Those guys really earn their money.

Saw "Sex & the City" yesterday and IMHO, the series was better.

[Brian]

Wouldn't we all love to be a fly on the wall at the DNC meeting tomorrow?

PR is sunday, right?
Hillary is predicted to win that too.

Hillary is the bane of the DNC's existance.
And I LOVE IT! lol

[Brian]

How do you know the Democratic party cannot stand Hillary?

Eleanor Clift is writing against her now.
Ok, that's the last straw when Clift is against her! The attack dogs are out now.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/139263

[DTT]

LOL...the great political trainwreck known as the Democratic Party is on TV as we speak. Only the liberals can lose with as much flair and drama as they do. They truly are losers. Howard "YEEAHHHH" Dean is now blabbering away....LOLOLOL!!

[white or wheat]

I can't stand Nobama and feel he will be bad for our country. Dtt (and anyone else), can you please make a case for McCain? I believe I'd cast a vote for him and against Nobama, but I'd like to have some good, concrete reasons for voting for John McCain. Thanks

[Amy "Whinehouse"]

I want to see Sex and the City but am afraid of being disappointed. Mary L, is it good enough to go see if you watched the entire series? I enjoyed Imus, Deirdre , Wyatt and Virgil yesterday on IITM and I still get a lot out of his show, even though it has changed. Rather have Imus than no Imus, bejeez. :))

[where's imus]

I'm going to see Sex and the City today. I am really curious about what happens to the characters. I'm sure I won't be disappointed. btw, my fave character is Carrie, and the episode I like best is when she gets to be a model and splatters herself on the runway. Curious about some of you Sex/City fans' opinions.
As for the topic, Radio is a big part of every day for me. I listen to more radio than TV due to the internet.

[bella]

Ginger: I just went to the lobby delegates site and didn't have any problems. Here is the link again but just try typing it in and see if that works.

http://www.lobbydelegates.com/

I just started watching this DNC meeting. Can't believe I was hearing Robert Wexler from FLORIDA arguing passionately against counting the votes. This is the democratic party voting against counting votes. If they want to punish somebody they should do it in another way, maybe a fine from the Fla party or give money to charity or something but NOT dismiss votes.

[bella]

AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov

This is an email address to Nancy Pelosi, if anybody wants to write her.

[DTT]

Here's the dilemma for the pro-Hussein people. More voters in primaries have voted for Hillary. My guess is that a lot of original voters for Hussein have buyer's remorse and wish they could change their votes back to her. Unfortunately, it's too late. He's the nominee, and he's absolutely unelectable. Let's all collectively point and laugh at the liberals. They screwed themselves....AGAN!

[Alice]

Bella, thanks for the link to that website. I just sent my letters. I checked the "check all" button. Does that mean I don't have to write each letter separately?

[alice]

I was referring to the lobby delegates link.

[bella]

Alice, the lobby delegates link works, at least I just tried it and it worked. Here it is

http://www.lobbydelegates.com/

[bella]

Alice, I think it will go to all the checked delegates. That's the way I understand it. I sent mine to the Hillary delegates and then went back and checked the Obama delegates and sent to them as well. There was one uncommitted in my state and I sent one to him, too. So that was three emails.

[donaldinks]

Robert Wexler was trying to seat Florida, where...as of yet, they had representation. It was an awesome presentation...and the "Yeas" had it...the "Nays" didn't. You are watching true Democracy in action, and history in the making. Relax, and enjoy.

The lesson from Florida and Michigan: you break the rules, you lose. These are appeals to rectify stupidity and arrogance on Michigan's Democratic party...and the way the Republican party royally screwed the Democrats in Florida. The Republican Governor, the Republican majority Senate and House in Florida screwed the voters of the Democratric party going against the rules committee...and no one else.

[bella]

I sent an email to Nancy Pelosi at the email address above and also to Harry Reid but I seem to have lost the email address for him. It was on some kind of form that is not showing up on my sent emails. But anyway....

[donaldinks]

they had representation.

should read:

they had NO representation.

[Alice]

Thanks Bella. I'll do the same. I didn't think of sending to the Obama and uncommitted. I didn't even know who the superdeletates were in my state. Good info.

[donaldinks]

"Let's all collectively point and laugh at the liberals. They screwed themselves....AGAN!"

LOL...ok, we'll see who laughs last come November...LOL.

[bella]

Alice, I don't think many people do know who the superdelegates are.

Since we're talking about Florida and Michigan this morning, this may be interesting to know as these people speak at the DNC meeting:

Clinton Delegates
Bill Nelson
Ken Curtis
Alcee Hastings
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Corrine Brown
Kendrick Meek
Raul Martinez
Chuck Mohlke

Obama Delegates
Allan Katz
Robert Wexler
Joyce Cusack
Ben Nelson
Kathy Castor
Dan Gelber

[bella]

Michigan superdelegates:

Clinton Delegates
John Dingell
Dale Kildee
Sander Levin
Jennifer Granholm
John Cherry
Debbie Stabenow
Joel Ferguson
Mark Schauer

Obama Delegates
John Conyers

Uncommitted Delegates
Carl Levin
Bart Stupak
Eric Coleman
Virgie Rollins
Joyce Lalonde
Jeffrey Radjewski
Mark Brewer
Arthenia Abbott
Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick
Lauren Wolfe
Debbie Dingell
Michael Tardif
Robert Ficano
Richard N. Wiener
Kwame Kilpatrick
Elizabeth Bunn
Richard Shoemaker
Lu Battaglieri

I believe that's Carl Levin who is speaking now.

[bella]

I read something Ree said about McClain being the one to speak out against Pfleger's remarks. Amazing, isn't it, how those who think of themselves as enlightened not only condone such speech, but will argue to justify it. Obama said he was "disappointed". Disappointed?

[bella]

From
http://gretawire.foxnews.com/

Greta says:
Last night before ON THE RECORD at 10pm, Lynn Sweet of the Sun Times tipped me off that she would be breaking news about the Senator Obama campaign. I just checked to see what it is…here it is….it is about Senator Obama’s Campaign Manager David Axelrod…..it turns out that he has an “interesting” relationship with Rev. Michael Pfleger (the priest who spewed racist remarks about white Americans last Sunday at Senator Obama’s Chicago Church).

.....
On Friday, Axelrod told me in an e-mail that the film project has “been dormant for much of the last two years due to other commitments.”

Pfleger — a headline-making household name in Chicago — steps onto a national stage at a time an international press corps is making trips to Chicago to dig into Obama’s life to learn more about the man who may be president.

(Is he (Pfeger) just trying to grab the spotlight?)

[bella]

The film project referred to is a documentary about Pfleger being made by Chicago-based David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist.

[Ginger]

Bella, thanks for the delegate link info.

Mary Lynn, my husband and I are going to see Sex and the City this afternoon. It's funny, according to O'Reilly last night, men aren't gonna want to see it?.. I beg to differ...although if my hubby is the only guy there, I don't think he'll mind.LOL He and I watched the entire 6 years (I believe that's the correct number) on disk. It took us about a year to get through it. Well, it will be interesting to see what they have done with the movie. It will be hard to top the great writing of the actual series.

[Mary Lynn]

Bella,

Finally could log on to the "super" site. Thanks!

"Any Whinehouse" (love that!) and others, go and enjoy it. I don't regret seeing it, it's just that in my opinion it isn't as much fun as the series. The girls are older and have much bigger problems (same as me!). Maybe I just don't want to be reminded of it.

BTW, Samantha looks great! I think out of them all Carrie seems to look the worst. I know Carrie is the nexus of the show, but I love Samantha's outrageous behavior. She is always good for a laugh.

[Ree]

This is weird

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/31/dean-calls-for-party-healing-at-dnc-meeting/

check out all the fuzzy math

[Mel]

ML - so do you recommend the movie or should I wait for the DVD? I love Mr. Big/Chris Noth and seeing him alone will be worth the $7.

So Barack is resigning from his church now, please. What a phony...20 years too late in my opinion.

[bella]

They are getting ready to vote to seat the Florida delegates and have them count as a full vote. It is going to fail, I can see that.

I believe in rules and I believe the rules should be followed. In this particular case, the rules are exacting a punishment on voters when they are not at fault in any way. So if this goes as I think it will, there are going to be many voters disinfranchised. But we should weigh the rule against the results. If we throw away votes or disenfrancise voters on this day, it will come up again. And the next time, no matter what, we will have to follow the letter of the law then as well.

I will say though that sometimes, and I believe this is one of them, mercy might be better than sacrifice. The DNC should have mercy and allow the votes to count.

12 votes in favor of seating the Florida delegation with full votes.

15 votes opposed.

Motion fails.

DENVER.

[Brian]

You beat me to it, Mel. I just heard about Obama leaving.

That's what you call tough decicive action and leadership lol.

[bella]

Yeah, the winners want unity. That's an easy one. How do you think it would be if the shoe was on the other foot? Don't answer that. We all KNOW.

[bella]

Barack and his big, fine, church -- TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE.

He's feeling the heat. There is the makings of an uprising out there against his nomination, in more places than one In fact, I think he MUST withdraw from the race. We'll see.

[Mary Lynn]

Mel,

Not to be nosy but is $7 a daytime price? Here, we pay $7.75 for a daytime "bargain" matinee. It is $10 for an evening.

The movie is fine. I love "Big" too. I loved him when he was on "Law & Order". I do not regret seeing the movie; I just don't think it is as much fun as the series.

I don't understand why Dems. are punishing Dems. I didn't pay any attenion to it when this whole brouhaha began. If the Dems. made the rule, why can't they change them? Why did these two states hold their primaries so early? Didn't they know the consequences?

As you can see I REALLY haven't been paying attention!

[bella]

JUST TAKE IT ALL THE WAY TO DENVER.

[Brian]

I read that he's going to answer questions about this tonight.

Barry.....SHUT UP! You can only make it WORSE, don't you know that?!
lol

When i was watching the DNC get together this morning I imagined seeing people screaming running around with their hair on fire lol All those smiles. 'did the camera guy see me smile?' Everything is fine , really! Thank you for caring!'
lol

I don't know how you can't laugh looking at this.
Deciding to count only half the delegates.
Democracy in action in the Democratic party, baby!

Who said it, Bella? MI, and Fla, broke the rules. In the DNC's infinite wisdom they decide to penalize people who had NOTHING to do with it. Makes sense. lol
You think the DNC would actually do something that did NOT piss off millions of people and still manage to punish the people responsible for the rule break.
But no this is the Democratic party, they want to punish the voters.
Like Bernie once said "Have they no sense in the Democrat party?"
No, bernie, they don't.

[bella]

Brian, that is a funny vision of hair on fire.

[bella]

I don't know, it seems to me this is another case of an execution for a misdemeanor.

But I guess it all depends on which side you're on. Right?

[Brian]

Howard Dean said "the voters did NOT cause this problem!"
But their voices are going to be muted, anyway.

Way to go Dr! So, uh, how's MI and Fla voters feeling about the DNC sh*tting on them for not having done anything wrong?

I'm sure we'll find out soon.

[bella]

Mass exodus from the democratic party. Barack Obama will not be elected president but they seem to be intent on putting him out there to lose. Can you say President John McCain?

It's Women Gone Wild.

[bella]

Anybody want to write the superdelegates in their state?
Use this link.

http://www.lobbydelegates.com/

[Brian]

Hell hath no fury, Bella.

You've got women SEVERELY pissed at Obama.
You've got MI and Fla pissed at the DNC.

And you've got the republicans rumored to be sitting on something that will make all of this mute anyway.

What really surprises me is how strong McCain is when don't most people really see him as Bush the 3rd?
He's basically tied with OBama now.
Obama should be up 30 -40 % shouldn't he?

It's really amazing how people can say "democracy in action" when the peoples desire in MI and Fla is is counted by half.
Reminds me of counting the black man as 2/3 of a person. Or was it 3/5?

[Ree]

Bella,

I have been commenting for awhile about this, the regular Dems are not in control of the party, this is the "Progressive Wing" at work and they don't have good social skills or very good at math. They are going to elect a Democrat to the Presidency in November with who?

[bella]

I have a new hero -- Harold Ickes.

Take to Denver, Harold.

The democratic party is outsmarting themselves. They are going to put this guy out there with no experience and he is going to lose big. Does anybody remember how bad McGovern was beat? That's what it's going to be like. I really do believe many millions will vote for McCain rather than Obama. And why are they doing this? It must be some idealistic idea of wanting so bad to get a black president so they can say, look at us, people of the world, we are want you to love us. It's kind of pathetic.

But I will have to say, if we want a black president let's get a real one, let's not settle for a half black/half white, let's elect someone who has some experience and who was at least raised in the USA and doesn't have friends and advisors who are Marxists.

[bella]

ha-ha, good move, Barack. I guess Michelle will be next.