Sounds like Tom Finneran’s new morning show on WRKO Radio (AM 680) is off to a somnolent start. Media Nation confesses to having missed yesterday’s debut and to having no time to listen this morning, but here are a couple of early reviews. First, the Phoenix’s Adam Reilly:
[J]ust before 9, a guy called up and said, basically, I never thought I’d be calling in to Tom Finneran, but here I am, and I like the discussion you’re having about Iraq. Finneran responded with a long soliloquy: We’re all entitled to an epiphany moment, I spent 26 years in the Massachusetts legislature, I was the most conservative Democrat ever, blah blah blah. Then he tried to bring the caller into the conversation — but he’d hung up.
Next up is Michael Levenson of the Globe:
“Speaker DiMasi and I are going to challenge you and the lieutenant governor to a pleasant, social, recreational round of golf,” Finneran told [Gov. Deval] Patrick. “There’ll be no press coverage. We’ll have a lot of fun.”
As his producer waved frantically from a glass booth, yelling for Finneran to ask about DSS, Finneran appeared not to notice. Instead, he urged Patrick not to be afraid to take trade missions.
“You are the very best salesman we have,” Finneran told Patrick. “And if the press gives you a hard time, you know you’ve got comfort and protection over here.”
I’m sorry, but that’s just gruesome.
You will not be surprised to learn that Brian Maloney, of Save WRKO, is unimpressed.
Finneran’s predecessor, Scott Allen Miller, maintains his silence. Scotto, to his credit, has taken the high road, even though WRKO’s corporate owner, Entercom, has not come through with the new gig that had been hinted at in the press.
Finally, the Herald keeps its fangs uncharacteristically sheathed, as Jessica Heslam weighs in with a balanced, pro-and-con piece.
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Anonymous
I was never much of a fan of Scotto, but to his credit, he delivered his program hours – day in and day out. With experience comes an ability to work on the assembly line of talk radio. Let’s give Tommy at least the benefit of the doubt of a week on the job before the long knives come out. Ref Entercom failure to offer SCA a job elsewhere, more or less points to his ratings rather than politics that led to getting tossed out of the boat. Somewhere in the vast Entercom family, someone else would have gotten two in the hat and Scotto would have been offered that gig were he viewed as a good ratings bet.
o-fish-l
I’m very curious how Adam Reilly knows the caller in question “hung-up” on Finneran and was not simply “released” by the producer once he (caller) had made a quick point. There was no sound of a phone hanging-up (I know, the 7 second delay may have allowed ‘RKO to block that out) but it sounded to me as though the producer released the call, as is often the case, but Finneran wasn’t immediately aware of it. John DePetro was forever scolding his producer, “Cooksey, why did you release __________ (insert caller’s name)? Also, Howie can often be heard asking, “Is ________(insert caller’s name) still on the line?” Both hosts would sometimes encourage a caller “released too soon” to call back.Splitting hairs perhaps, but to suggest a caller hung-up while Finneran bloviated seems to identify an early failure of the show, when it seems more plausible that Finneran merely failed to notice the light on “Line-2” went dark because the producer decided to move-on.I’m sure I am more aligned with Scotto than Finneran on the issues, but to issue Finneran these critical report cards on the first day of school is laughable. Kudos to the Herald and Heslam for keeping their powder dry until there exists a bigger sample.
jvwalt
The criticism always happens after the first day — be it movies, theater, TV, whatever. You never get as much attention again. That’s the nature of the game. And that’s why, any time a new venture is undertaken, it’s best to work the bugs out before going public. If Finneran doesn’t want to go the way of David Lee Roth, he’ll have to get his act together quickly. Bloviating and back-slapping will get him nowhere in radio. The Herald’s studied neutrality is not surprising, given the fact that (a) they and WRKO share Howie Carr, and (b) a Herald editor was Finneran’s sidekick for a day. It’ll be interesting to see how this relationship progresses, if Finneran continues to provide a safe haven to his Democratic buddies.
Anonymous
I didn’t know fangs had sheaths.
Anonymous
There has to be a certain amount of “American Idol” justice to this process. You can hear some dolt try to belt out a tune and quickly realize they will never work as a singer. The same immediacy lept to my bored mind listening to that bland, amateur hour spectacle yesterday and today.
Anonymous
Dan, I guess I’m still just amazed that you actually listen to any of this stuff.
Dan Kennedy
Anon 1:06: If you read what I wrote, you’ll see that I haven’t listened to it. But I want to.
Anonymous
I knew that correction was coming. I was referring to your general practice of listening to crap talk radio.
Peter Porcupine
Apparently, I am the only person who actually DID actually listen to any of the show before commenting upon it.I only caught an hour today, with Finneran and Holly Robichaud on the line with Scott Brown. He zipped throguh a half dozen calls, no prolonged talk on his part. The only thing a noticed was a verbal tic, which he’s had for years – when asking Brown about the studens who posted the obscene messages, he said, “Was any of a them a woman, a girl, a female?” (Pick ONE, Tom!) He repeats himslf like that regularly when nervous.He still exudes that weird energy, but when he settles down and can be a little more laconic, he may do a very good job.
Dan Kennedy
Anon 1:33: Well, you know, I analyze the media. What am I supposed to do, listen to KISS? I listen to WBUR most of the time, but I like to keep up with what’s going on elsewhere. I loved talk radio when we had Jerry Williams, David Brudnoy, and Gene Burns to listen to, and I guess I can’t give it up. And it’s not like I’m all that highbrow.
Anonymous
sounds like dan has unsheathed his fangs and perhaps even bared his claws and bristled his spines as his hackles were raised over the flying fur in this viper’s nest.
o-fish-l
jvwalt: While I agree that there is plenty of criticism on “Opening Day” of anything, it would seem to only make sense in a static medium like film, certainly not the evolving paradigm that is issue-oriented talk radio.For instance “Gigli” stunk in 2003 and since it can’t improve, it still stinks. Baseball might be a better comparison to radio, since teams have 162 games and can lose 70+ of those and usually still make the playoffs.Everyone knows that Finneran wasn’t hired for his radio experience, so criticism of his technical performance is absurd in the early going. Where Finneran will be open to criticism (after the first month, not the first day) is if he fails to engage public officials and/or fails to deliver the breadth of insider knowledge that brought him to WRKO in the first place. I’m no fan of Deval Patrick, but for Finneran to be anything other than pleasant and cordial with him on the first day would have seemed amateur at best. It’s important to contrast Finneran’s cautious debut with that of Scott Allen Miller’s verbal “bull in a china shop” approach in his early WRKO days when he attempted to dominate the issues (and the air) despite being new to the area and being paired with a former Congressman. I have a brother who doesn’t call me very often in the early morning hours but did back then to ask “Where the hell did ‘RKO find this guy (Scotto)?” I believe Miller never recovered from those unbearable days. Finneran’s early approach with guests and co-hosts is far easier to wake-up to.
Peter Porcupine
Dan – you are not alone in your preferences! During the mere 90 minutes or so that I listened, one caller called the Speakah ‘Jerry’, and another….’Howie’. Brrrrr!!!Give him time – he COULD emerge as another David Brudnoy. He has the intelligence; I’m just not sure he cares to cultivate a listenership for that long.
Mike from Norwell
Peter, only problem here is that Finneran is on in the morning, not the evening. He used to fill in for Bruds periodically at WBZ; thought he did a good job there. At 6:30 am I’m not looking for a highbrow discussion of the issues; just trying to wake up with a little humor…Of course what do I know, I’m probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed listening to David Lee Roth in the beginning with the wild tape loops he had going in the background. Picked up some pretty cool music off of his recommendations…
Anonymous
A few remarks come to mind:- First, you have to hand it to Scotto. I am not a big fan of his, his ex-co-worker who landed on Rhode Island airwaves recently, nor their brand of soft implied ‘bigotry’ and provocative style. Provocative can be good but not when it’s misleading. Both are main bread winners with young kids and one has to hope their families do well in these transitions, so still, good luck to Scotto. (Scotto, please cut those snooty “I’m still waiting for my intellectual equal” remarks on the air)It just reinforces that it is better to abruptly take a host off the air once management lets a talent go. Leaving a lame duck on the air is so uncomfortable and awkward and the job suggestions stint made it sound even worse.What was the height of cruelty and Entercom incompetence, is the “honcho” who axed him was on Scotto’s very last day about to tie the knot to the publisher of that other useless magazine in town. While she was celebrating a happy day, another family across town was nervous with a big question mark on their forehead: that is just classless. You couldn’t have made it up. Is this Boston’s Wintour?- Who is using whom? Is Howie using this hire to jinn up ratings and popularity? Is entercom using a conservative dem to bring it to the center? Is Tom Finn using this new stint to burnish his image? It beats being convicted AND staying out of the public eye. This way, despite being a “con” more people are likely to see the human side of Tom Finn and hear him daily and therefore not be as harsh long term on him. Once you disappear after a legal defeat, reputation can only worsen. Even he flops on the radio after a year or two, it will be a LOT easier for him to get another gig without it being reported as a big deal.Yet another RKO hire to spar/have sparred publicly with Carr. They hire people Howie hates and they sit back and watch. They are sadistic. Howie ends up on top usually. God knows where Blute is (what’s that number on the dial? ehh) Tom Finn will “peter” away eventually as well, but not before making Howie look even better.Tom did handle the situation like a good sport though, so kudos for that.- Why was he fired from the bio tech firm? That was as unfair and PC as it can come. Didn’t they know of the legal woes and risks when they hired him? Didn’t he leave BECAUSE of the legal weakness? Was it THAT much of a surprise or is this pure hypocrisy?It is ridiculous since they didn’t hire because he was squeaky clean; they hired him because he was connected and powerful. He wasn’t convicted of any crimes that were directly related to his duties or a corporate malfeasance: he didn’t embezzle or commit murder or some other violent or hainous civil rights infraction. I am not a fan of the guy and am glad he is out of the public trough, but his conviction was a perjury in a political context – so common these days unfortunately- that was clearly common knowledge to his employers. U-N-F-A-I-R.- Why is it any surprise Brian Baloney would be peeved at this hire? First, he played the Entercom Corporate good boy by bashing Severin’s comeback, pretty harshly. Then he turns against this “outrageous liberal direction.” Hmmm…could it be that Mr Baloney is peeved at Ms Julie for not giving him a shot while they are scrambling to fill so many slots and the last time he filled in was ages ago? Did he give up on being on the good graces of Entercom anymore?- I listened to most of the shows and what was most plain and weird is that Tom Finn was working very hard to ingratiate himself to his “conservative” audience. He made it pretty clear which side of the fence he was on many politcal subjects, ie NOT the mainstream liberal and left-of-center positions, to the point of repeatedly praising and lauding the ignoble Mark Steyn and calling him his favorite columnist and one “that should be loved and published by all newspaper editors.” or words to that effect. It was pathetic. Kozing up to the annoying, not-so-smart and simple-minded Holly R is dangerously paired with driving: snoozing is a quick by-product.I am surprised he wasn’t assigned a grade to quantify how reviewers felt: I give him a B. He exceeded expectations for a start and will bring A-list guests WRKO does not often get like McAuliffe and Gingrich and Kerry and others. Like Jessica Heslam’s article implied and quoted someone saying, he did bring out the best out of Terry with a pretty good interview. The guy is a first class shmoozer, what do we expect? That’s how he advanced and made money. The paring with Joe Sciacca was underwhelming as it lacked substance and they spent most of the time trying to mend fences over past insults and trying to get in each other’s good graces. Maybe future appearances will have more “meat” to the them; both can contribute quite a bit.Which really brings a point to mind: Why don’t some of these characters come out of hiding and state their side on RKO. Why doesn’t Gov Patrick and Sens Kennedy and Kerry call and stand up to the slurs and ridicule more often? They are all terrific speakers and can do tremendous favor to their cause if they let people hear them. Can you imagine Kerry calling Howie after one of those “lovey” or “liveshot” or giggolo slurs? Or what if Sen Kennedy actually called during one of those “wizard of uhs” and tried to guess himself how many uhs he said, he would take the air right out of it and would be great radio: people would have even higher respect for him.Gov seems to be boycotting a radio station that is going to be a pain in his neck and he can effectively neutralize some of the venom by calling in and responding to it and not letting repeated lies harden like cement. Only a prolific author with a great sense of humor like Twain could write a hilarious novel of dry comedy and head-shaking irony like “Tom Finn: Boston Media’s not so Divine Comedy”N.
Anonymous
Whew! Pithy review, N. I too fear that everyone is not hewing to “the mainstream liberal and left-of-center positions” here in Bulgaria, er, Boston. We’re about to find out just exactly what an unfettered one-party state can be like. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Anonymous
Just to be clear, I didn’t intend to sound as if everyone SHOULD be on the left side of things or that I was disappointed he tried to move to the right.My point is simply is that for a long time, he WAS Mr Democrat in the state, a major dem figure and majority leader for the party that is NOW doing backflips to NOT sound democrat and distance himself from the left and sound ‘good’ to his audience.I like good principled people on the left and on the right on the radio: we need them both. There are few you can describe as great unfortunately talentwise. Rush himself could not stand to dissent and scrutiny live on the air. He has to be shielded from criticism but he still thrives, crushing others in ratings. SO I endorse no hegemony of one thought at all. I just marvel at the irony of things sometimes.N.
Brian Maloney
N, you’re just a little bit too defensive about Finneran and his background for your own good. It undermines your credibility. It’s true I have a long history with Entercom, that’s out there for all to consider. But I felt that WRKO’s wholesale destruction needed to be challenged.Beyond that, the attempt by a few insiders to make me the issue is just plain silly. Finneran’s the convicted felon with the sweetheart deal, despite no experience. He’s the one with a team of co-hosts, guests, and producers to prop up his clear lack of talent. That’s the real issue.
Citizen Charles Foster Kane
Why thank you Brian, for being so kind as to tell us what the real issue is. However I think the real issue is why should anyone care what SaveWRKO thinks? Entercom is well within their rights to judge what is best for their business and your apparent belief that WRKO listeners have some sort of ownership stake is ridiculous. The wholesale destruction of WRKO? WRKO will be survive this. What hasn’t survived is the type of right-wing ranting you and the Margolis brothers are so enamored of. It is pretty clear the electorate isn’t buying what you’re selling–why do you think the radio audience is any different?
Brian Maloney
It’s a blog. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Traffic is exploding, by the way, so somebody obviously cares what we think.
Amusedbutinformedobserver
That Finneran is a felon or a former House Speaker is irrelevant. He is committing the unpardonable sin of talk radio.It’s boring.His love-fest with anyone who ever held public office is the single most significant factor in how boring his program is.However, from boring comes something interesting to watch: How will Julie Kahn distance herself from a decision that right now looks like the hiring of the AM version of DAvid Lee Roth? Let’s watch her scramble. This is such a momentous blunder that she may have to latch on to something elsewhere in the chain to avoid the fallout.Bring back Mike Cuthbert!!
Anonymous
Let’s seperate a few things: I think Tom Finn should have been sent to jail. He escaped very lightly and he should have been made an example of. I held off posting on Dan’s post claiming [he was unfairly targeted] a while back. I didn’t want to interrupt the love song.Anyone who states unambiguously under oath that after so many years, he does not know what his district is, what its name is while he was de facto in charge of anything dem election for many years, with partition software IN HIS OFFICE, deserves to pay for that laughable, insulting horrible lie.Nevertheless, he was subsequently hired by a lobbying firm and a radio station despite his conviction. Thus I will judge him on his performance and suitability for those gigs without the bias of the conviction.Following your reasoning, El Rushbo, your idol, would have never gotten a chance and he would certainly have been let go a couple of years ago. Talk about qualifications!Rush was a nothing from the Royals to lowly jock stints. He was making peanuts and was by no stretch a scholar. He admits he couldn’t hold a job and got fired too many times to remember. He flopped on TV. ANd in the last couple of years, he pled guilty to something he railed about publicly and built his political credibility bashing , ie defending so called conservative values.” What a load of hypocrisy.Rush feels safe now with 400-500 stations and an established loyal following, so he gets a pass Yet someone starting cannot. I am not sure why you are not holding HIM accountable now. You’re giving him a pass where you are not with Tom. What gives?Even felons need legal protection and fairness. Isn’t that a purely American principle? We don’t throw people to the garbage like many “hellholes” do.And how many times have either gotten divorced or had children? Conservative values, huh?That’s the problem with your site and your ilk. Your intellectual dishonesty and double standard. You’re going nowhere in the nedia biz until you apply the same standard to everyone. People have caught on, BM.N.
Anonymous
“Save WRKO” is funny. There isn’t anything to save at WRKO–at least not in the talk format. WRKO hasn’t been a decent talk radio station since the 1980s, when it had Gene Burns, Jerry Williams and David Brudnoy (in his pre-before he became an embittered “old” man days) on. Gene Burns moved on–to San Francisco, where his program is obviously directed to airheads (we listen to it over the Internet every once in a while). Jerry Williams was displaced by the comedy stylings of Howie Carr. And David Brudnoy, well, he moved on, became an embittered “old” man, and finally isn’t coming down for breakfast (as Howie would say).So, what does WRKO have now? I don’t listen much, but it seems like they have a convicted felon on in the morning (Finneran–I used to listen to him substitute for Brudnoy, and he’s even more boring than Al Franken, if that’s possible), a hypocrite admitted drug addict (Rush Lamebrain), the comedy stylings of Howie Carr, and–unless they replaced him–in the evenings the ravings of the former herbalist Michael Whiner (oh, he’s going by the name “Savage” now). If Mr. Baloney wishes to listen to right-wing talk radio, perhaps he should consider AM1150. There, he could listen to the lunatic rants from Dennis Prager, Hannity (sans Colmes), and others. Heck, for all I know, maybe even the demented “Dr” Laura Schlessinger (I’ll forego a pun on her last name, the one that begins with “S” and ends in “hitslinger”). Or FM96.9, which carries the program of Monica Crowley, whose only claim to fame was being the Foreign Policy Assistant to former President Richard Nixon–although one should find it rather humorous that former president would feel the necessity of employing a foreign policy assistant.As far as I can tell, right wing talk radio is dead. It’s boring. It has become little more than rants and raves. In the early to mid 1990s, Rush Lamebrain was a bit humorous, but since the late 1990s, no. Radio is entertainment first–they’re selling listeners’ ears to advertisers. Air America Radio (whose business model made no sense to me) apparently did not understand that. Other independently syndicated lefty programs–Ed Shultz and especially Stephanie Miller, apparently do.WRKO is dead as a right-wing talk radio station. Heck, over the last weekend, I heard one of their weekend people call WRKO “Boston’s Sox station.” It’s headed for sports radio territory.–raj
Anonymous
Raj,I like your refreshing critiques and like the courage to publicly say you didn’t care much for Brudnoy. I’d hate to talk about someone after their death, but I couldn’t understand why so many media types and cliques gushed of love for him. I can see he would have been revered for his tenure and seniority, but he was a bitchy, whiney, grumpy, bitter old bigot. Elitist too. You could sense how snobby he was at the end of the program that he only had disdain for the hosts after him. Could it be for his medical condition that it was pity and compassion more than admiration? Who knows.He had a great voice for radio and sounded pretty credible but…. Anyway… WRKO sounds so desperate these days. One little symptom is the WRKO promo skits that try to be funny and witty and self-deprecating. You get one before, after and many times during commercial breaks. Those “listen to Howie, listen to Todd, listen to Finn and the crazy savage rants pepper the day and they are just so exhanusting. That is poor radio. They can’t find anything else of worth to fill the air with. ANd now, we can still get some sports shows in our mostly-commercials sports radio WEEI.One of the worst mixes in radio business is this crappy premption of news ad talk with sports. The Bruins don’t belong on BZ and the Celts and Sox don’t belong on a news outlet. Even some great stations in NY are pre-empted and it is just idiotic. 1510 is still around and is yet another suitable outlet for such games; just invest a bit more on the signal and you have another income stream there. Espn 840 needs games too. WHy pre-empt BZ and RKO? Ridiculous…or call it MArconi “genius”..talk about over-rated. What those awards mean: zilch. Glorified colleague pandering.If I want sports, I’ll look for a sports station, thank you very much. There is no way they can’t make enough money on talk and news when people clamor for that every night. Their problem is they don’t know how to do it right – Taste of Boston, anyone??- and take the easy sports road. A cop out.There is plenty of room for both news and sports.(I was a faithful WEEi sox games listener until Little Theo started messing around with a good 2004 team and turned me off to the point where I didn’t even care anymore. A huge let down. They never managed to bring down the 120Mil payroll, they kept signing bad contract after bad contract and chased good people from town. Not as much interest anymore, thank you, especially when the Yanks have been so dreadful and lumbering compared to past glorious days and especially after they unfairly got rid of a nice, nice, nice gentleman in Trupiano. That did it for me. That was classless and you can blame that in large part on the Big Thug Show who were consistently making fun of the guy last year for going overboard with the “Swing and a drive” for hits that looked like homeruns. You can thank The Teddy and Jerry Haters Show for giving the front office a good excuse to push out the door. What a classless media organization they are.IN the mornings now they have this lightweight Todd STOP-Thinking-I-am-Jewish Feinburg who openly says that Dems are evil and are the reason for everything wrong in the country. (Who was in charge of managing the Big Dig again??) The Chutzpah only starts there: This morning he was preaching against “the socialism of helping citizens with tuition. Everyone should pay full price and stop whining” as many callers agreed with – of course. Well low and behold, he confesses that his mom worked for Tufts and he went there for FREE. FREE. PRIVATE institution. Ivy caliber. FREE. And NO AID for people in state schools. (He still managed to bitch about 120 bucks in fees)My gosh, if there were a Boston version of Oxford’s dict, his name would be under “Chutzpah”I think he said it took him 6 years..not sure…would not surprise at all..for a not-so-smart blowhard…even free he couldn’t get it done.Oy VeyN.
Anonymous
I like your refreshing critiques and like the courage to publicly say you didn’t care much for Brudnoy. I’d hate to talk about someone after their death…No. Please understand. I listened to David Brudnoy from the day that I (a gay man, understanding that Brudnoy was probably gay) moved to the Boston area in 1979, throughout the 1980s, and intermitently in the 1990s and little thereafter until the day he died. Early on, despite his defensiveness about his homosexuality, he was probably the most impressive talk show radio host I have ever heard. He would have authors on for two hour time periods (that’s before talk radio had “segments”) to talk about their books. He ran an intelligent program then. He actually ran a kinda/sorta intelligent program shortly after he recovered from his AIDS debacle. His book wasn’t particularly bad. But it was only a few years later that he became a completely embittered man. I don’t know why, but I can’t excuse it, either.–raj
Anonymous
Oh, and one more thing. I’m not going to write ill of the dead, but the team of “BlahBlah and Mohs” (I don’t know how to spell Andy Mohs’s name–Dan, help me) did pretty well in the morning. Not because of BlahBlah, but because of Andy.Let’s understand something. Radio is primarily entertainment. Andy understood that. At heart, he was a comedian. That’s what drives all of the successfull talk show hosts, whether they lean to the right or lean to the left. Twenty years ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that crystalized it all: they are selling listeners ears to advertizers’ messages, and, unless they get the listeners’ ears, they are gonzo. The message is irrelevant. It is the selling of listeners’ ears to advertizers’ messages.–raj
Anonymous
I’ll pardon myself and actually write something somewhat in defense of David Brudnoy in regards his homosexuality in the 1980s. Some people would call into his show and intimate quite seriously that he was gay, and it would be broadcast over the air. As a public figure, that must have been terrifying to him, given that, given the tenor of the times, his public outing would probably have meant the end of his radio career.I am gay, and I would listen to him, and I would hear the pain in his voice as he tried to deflect the inferences in the calls. The inferences were obviously correct, but…well, so what? So what? Off the air, like so many other faggots and faggot charactors (sorry Dan, but this is very important to me, so let me please continue) that the right wing had driven off the air. Like the gay positive characters on the 30Something TV show. Like the gay positive characters on any show. Like any gay positive characters on almost anything and anywhere.That was in the 1980s. That was the time that Brudnoy was then living in.In the 1990s, everyone knew that Brudnoy was gay, that he was a gay man. The talk show community gathered around him, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot when the whole thing is advertiser driven. Just look at what the right wing is now trying to do to Wal-Mart.Whatever.–raj
Anonymous
Brian Baloney:>>It’s a blog. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.Traffic is exploding, by the way, so somebody obviously cares what we think.<<I’m sure Anna Nicole’s web page gets a lot of hits too. “Hits” doesn’t mean respect.
Brian Maloney
I’m not seeking your respect, anon. I don’t even know your name.
Anonymous
Let me put it this way: It is quite a shame and waste when very smart people with great oratory and entertainment skills have to shut down half their brain and blindfold thier intellectual honesty to degenerate into a not-so perfect, maybe very imperfect radio personality.That is how I viewed the guy: very smart, very capapble but was unable of true objectivity and basic fairness and intellectual honesty. He had to put the blindfold from time to time, as do 99% of radio personalities, of all stripes, and that’s why we haven’t had any GREAT radio personalities in a long long long time.To be clear, what I have in mind is a Mike Wallace-type. A great guy, regardless of his background or anything else, he is as fair as they come, as dogged as they come, as classy as they come, as fair as they come and as great a journalist as they will ever come.Someone like that, with that highan ethics standard is what radio needs. His own son is not half the man Mike is. They are hard to come by. He could clobber you in an interview and you still emerge loving him. You respect him even when you didn’t come out looking as good as you’d hoped. But you know he did his job. Even Russert lost a lot of his initial success and Spivak’s advice seems lost on him the last couple of years. So when you bring up Brudnoy’s book reviews, I still am not a big fan. To have a great book review program, you have to be divorced from any biases and have tons and tons of intellectual honesty and open-mindedness. He strikes out on those two counts in my book. Some fans of his may vehemently disagree, I am sure. BUt they haven’t heard a great book show for them to know what it should be like.If it were a court of law, Brudnoy would have gotten a lot of “Objection, your Honor. Leading.”That kills it for me.One guy was pretty good at it before he undid himself: Chris Lydon, but then still, he could help leading the flow a certain ideological direction at times. Gordon was pretty good too, not great.I still like Brian Lamb’s pretty neutral but not extremely well read or encompassing of other disciplines. Charlie Rose is one good book interviewer. Not tough enough, but very very good. Too accomodating probably.So average , yeah. Greatness, not even close. Sorry David. (You can rest in peace now. Sincerely)UPDATE: Maybe someone from ESPNBoston was paying attention, but Jerry Trupiano was booked on Baseball Tonight with Mike Salk on ESPN 890, the home of Mike “Sweetie.” *I wish I ahdn’t listened to the interview. Now I am even more disgusted than before: The guy is still out of a job and looking. He was dragged on by EEI and the Sox for so long, he got caught in-between seasons and they never gave him enough of a heads-up to start lining jobs but played games with a very good good good guy.14 goddamn years….and they chuck him like a old sock.I am a big fan of Lucchino, but I can’t comprehend that he would let something like this happen. Utterly revolting.The guy was a class act: he wouldn’t cross the club when asked who might have been planting rumors or how unseemly is it to have someone from the front office calling games or how he was dragged around and finally was asked to drive to the office for a ‘talk.’ He saw it coming and asked them to spare him the trip and tell him over the phone.Two things he said bothered him:- The ‘blown’ call, a direct mention of WEEI’s exagerating “ONE BAD CALL.” ONE. And he was made the butt of joke of low-lifes -excluding Freddy. That hurt him a lot, he said.- ‘They’ -he wouldn’t venture a guess publicly- planted a story that he had a job with the Cardinals lined up ready to go. “Utterly false” and something we wouldn’t expect from a professional class act like him.This is ridiculous and one person who might be very incomfortable in all of this is Castig. He must be thinking when is he next to this sort of treatment. They segued into Trot Nixon’s sacking, another great presence in the clubhouse that I wish would retire from draft to close in a Sox uniform. He may not be extremely healthy and consistent, but if they can throw so much money at bums, why not keep him, a fan favorite? The Yanks could have disposed of Bernie but once again, you have to hand it to them for being a classy organization. I bet you they will do good by Mo as well, so keep dreaming about him closing for the Sox.Trup is still in the area, so maybe there is a chance for the Sox to make up for this blunder by offering him an analyst gig or something. He would be a favorite on the postgame show, second only to the great Eckersley. I know I won’t be listening on the radio.14 years…the guy knows more than enough. Too much maybe. Things that no scribe knows or sees from his unique position.Let’s stop missing out on these good guys and stop chasing people with a bitter taste in their mouth from this town.For God’s sake, what happened to good old decency. If this happens to competent people, are the Salem lynchings being revived for the mediocre ones? (*You have had to be listening to get that one..hopefully Mrs Hughes wasn’t listening..nothing to worry about …just a wincing moment)N.
Anonymous
Apropos of this topic, from Baywindows:Political intelligence by Kevin John Sowyrda –raj