I'm driving down to Mankato, a regional town about 70 miles to the south of the Twin Cities. The problem is that my favorite radio show at this hour, Garage Logic with Joe Soucheray is on an AM station. Thus, as I drive further and further away Joe's voice is garbled out, progressively replaced with static and then intermittent excerpts of Jesus stations and country. Soon, the background noise is too much to handle and I click to KTLK 100.3 FM to rely upon their longer radius of broadcast. Who else is on, but Sean Hannity?
Crap.
In his nasally pinched voice "Hello my friends" and all the people calling in "You're a great American Sean Hannity" I want to drive to New York or wherever he is an punch him. Not that I don't agree with him. Not that I don't personally like him. Not that I don't appreciate what he does for the country, but the whole idea that Sean Hannity has the SECOND most popular radio show on talk radio is annoying. And the reason it is annoying is not because of Sean Hannity himself, but because of the people that listen to him.
Sean Hannity is milquetoast. He's boring, it's predictable and it's cookie cutter. But that is also his audience. The stay at home mom that realized her child psychology degree wouldn't land her a job, ended up getting married, having a kid and now, NOW at the age of 40 while staying at home realizes than the past 22 years she was voting democrat all this time was wrong.
"Oh well! *giggle giggle* I guess at least I got Hannitized!"
Or the college kid who couldn't defend himself out of a paper bag if he was really tested on free market philosophy and only does so to belong to some semblance of a club.
Or the mindless American patriot who thinks that because this was a great nation, it still is a great nation and since our greatness is great and because this is the greatest nation, then we'll continue being the greatest nation because of the simply fact we're Americans, and therefore we must be great.
And this is my main contention with the show, is his listeners. They are just as cookie cutter and predictable and mass-produced suburbanite home as his show. There really isn't a lot of depth. There really isn't anything but platitudes and pleasantries of that disgusting and annoying and Minnesota-fake-nice;
"You're a great American Sean Hannity."
"You're a great American too, sir!"
Oh just drop the fakeness, please.
No, but there I am trapped, forced to listen to Sean Hannity as my only other option is NPR or the Christian rock station.
I want somebody that is unique and real. Give me a anger filled, angst ridden, tirade-spewing Michael Savage.
Give me the incredible wisdom of Dennis Prager.
Heck, I'll even settle for the goofy, yet lovable Mike Gallagher.
But Hannity?
"You're a great American! Hello my friend! Isn't America great! We're all great patriots eating at Applebee's shopping at Ambercrombie and Fitch. Communism sucks! And that's why this is a great nation! Hurray for us, we're all Americans! I want a suburbanite townhome with an SUV! Let's watch American Idol! I'll order some chicken quesadillas, but not too spicy!"
Ergo, let me at least beg and plead with the local FM talk station here in Minneapolis, KTLK.
Look, you poached all the good talent from AM 1500;
Rush Limbaugh
Jason Lewis
and (though I don't agree with it, he is the second largest radio show) Sean Hannity.
Since you got Jason Lewis and he's gone national, could you perhaps do the world a favor and replace Hannity with Joe Soucheray? It would be the nail on the coffin of AM 1500 and then you guys wouldn't have to be splitting a market that isn't big enough for two talk stations. Souchery would do immensely better locally, but could feasibly replace Hannity.
Besides, I wouldn't have to be forced into the horrible decisions as to whether to listen to Sean Hannity or NPR which leaving the metro area.
We could only hope. I don't think Joe hates gays, abortions, or Muslims enough to make it nationwide though.
ReplyDeleteIt's enough to make you want to say, "Get off my team."
ReplyDeleteThat must be one weak transmitting AM station, or it's broadcast from very far away from where you live. All the AM stations around here cover something in the neighborhood of a 400 mile radius from the transmitter. FM only covers about a 100 mile radius.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Rush and Savage are intelligent, witty, and humorous. I could listen to them even if I was a liberal (which I'm not). Hannity lacks the intelligence of either of these two. Have you ever read the talking points the RNC sends out each morning? You should; it's basically a transcript of Hannity's show. Hannity has never had an original thought of his own, and seems to move in lock-step with the GOP even when they're dead-wrong (Terry Schiavo). No room for rational thought.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's with that stupid song at the beginning of each hour ("let freedom ring," yada yada yada)? Followed by the dumb announcer that says "this is a special edition of the Sean Hannity Show", just like every other day, thus rendering the term "special edition" meaningless. And then the second song ("that's just the way it is"). And finally Sean.
Btw, America will only be great so long as we believe in free-markets. Other countries can become as "great" as the US if they shift towards capitalism. It's that simple.
You, Captain, are a great American!
Captain, I couldn't agree more with your whole commentary...count me as another vote for putting Joe on KTLK so that he'll reach a larger geographic area than the lame signal KSTP puts out! And Hannity is just a Rush wannabe swimming in syrup.
ReplyDeleteYou're a Great American Cappy Cap.
ReplyDeleteI have been Capitainized.
1170 AM KOWZ out of Owatonna carries Garage Logic. They cut off at 5 which means that you don't always get the Sinatra Scramble on Fridays but that's what the internet is for.
ReplyDeleteI like Rush, but as a non-parasite working for a living, I can't listen to him very often. That is usually limited to my trip to get lunch.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am so bored of Hannity. I generally agree with what he has to say, but yawn. Thankfully he is on during my working hours and thus I rarely get to listen to him anyway.
I absolutely love Jason Lewis. He truly expresses the anger I feel at the socialist path this country is heading down.
Savage is a bit over the top for me.
When Sean Hannity came to KTLK, they ran a big campaign wherein Sean personally guaranteed we'd never have to say the words "Senator Al Franken." If he had even a smidgen of integrity, he'd voluntarily withdraw his broadcast from our market for such fraud.
ReplyDeleteSupport capitalistic radio and get XM/Sirius and stop relying on the commie 'public' airwaves for your radio entertainment!
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit more lefty than most folks here, but agree with your sentiments completely. I'd take Savage over Hannity any day of the week. Hannity is unwatch/listen-able.
Hannity is only listenable when he has Newt or Dick Morris on. The worst is when he goes after a liberal. He finds the one, singular most despicable thing - and won't let go. Leading to exchanges like this:
ReplyDeleteLiberal: "Sean, I think social security reform poses a threat to our seniors..."
Shannity: "ISN'T IT TRUE YOU VOTED TO RELEASE MOHAMMAD ATTA!!!"
Me: 'huh?'
Hannity is the conservative answer to the question we didn't ask - or the answer to Bill Press.
Souchy-boy on KTLK, no chance. KSTP is the new good neighbor for the baby boomers. They will specialize in old people radio and hosts such as Ruesse and Soucheray will do gang busters in that environment. No way he goes to the more strident KTLK.
I'm surprised! As the Cap'n is typically up to date on modern technological conveniences, I have no idea why you haven't fitted your car's stereo system to be Ipod compatible. I've sworn off the radio a while ago in favor of having my entire music collection and favorite podcasts handy while I drive. Rather than being forced to listen to uninteresting bland every day Americans calling into the radio to speak about Big Important Issue X, I can listen to Bloomberg's radio podcasts or Russ Robert's Econtalk. I really recommend looking into making your car Ipod ready. You won't be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI can't get KSTP or KTLK at work, but I get Soucheray on KROC-AM (Rochester), albeit weakly. We aren't allowed to use web-radio at work and due to the building construction and contents, the RF noise is high and the signal is low.
ReplyDeleteProblem with the range of KSTP is that it isn't a clear-channel station ()has a dedicated frequency, there are stations with nearby frequencies which collide and like most AM stations, they have to cut power at sunset to avoid interference with other stations.
And yes, I love GL and Saturday Sports Talk.
KTLK really ought to consider dropping Hannity and replacing him with Neal Boortz, the High Priest of the Church of the Painful Truth.
Sounds to me like you need to convince Sirius/XM to put him on one of their stations. Then you could listen from anywhere in the continental US.....
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on here. Hannity is probably the most boring 'conservative' on TV or radio. It's basically the same objection I have with Michael Steele at the RNC. B-O-R-I-N-G. I can't remember the last time Hannity had an original thought. Apparently, in his world, a conservative is someone who loves NASCAR, country music, and never actually graduated from podunk community college. Sean, get a clue: that is only a small faction of the conservative movement.
ReplyDeleteFunny. I just did a search on "why is every episode of Hannity a special edition" and ended up here. I couldn't agree more. It's such overkill! The show has a preach to the choir type mentality. Now I think Sean is a great guy. But he's much better on television than on radio.
ReplyDelete