Les Jones: Talk Radio Hosts

January 20, 2004

News > Talk Radio Hosts

Opinion Journal has Michael Harrison's thoughts about the prospects for Al Franken's show, and what it takes to succeed in talk radio. Harrison raises a point I hadn't considered, namely, that a talk radio personality's listeners don't necessarily have to like him:

According to Mr. Harrison, politics is a bad prism for measuring the prospects of radio success. Many of those who listen to radio conservatives, he says, listen because they hate the host. He notes that while Michael Savage would never be elected mayor of San Francisco, not least because of his views on homosexuality, it didn't stop him from getting the top rating there.

Posted by lesjones

Comments

Katherine Lanpher will be Al's cohost. She is likable. A hated talk show host here in Minneapolis
at KSTP is Chris Krok. He admitted to pointing a gun at another kid when he was 15 years old.
When a psychologist called and said he should admit he might have a problem, Krok exploded on air. You are right, this kind of drama is like watching the Titanic sink, it is hard to avert your eyes.
http://www.am1500.com/personalities/chriskrok.htm

Posted by: p ster at February 10, 2004

Ha! You two are hilarious. If people listened to talk show hosts because they hated them, there'd be just as many people listening to liberal shows as there are to conservative shows. Natural human instincts are not distinguished by political parties. There are just as many people that hate liberals hosts as there that hate conservative hosts.
You're saying that only liberals listen to conservatives because they hate them, but conservatives don't listen to liberals because they hate them? Give me a break.
Oh, and Chris Krok does not have a problem because he pointed a gun at a kid when he was 15. Find me a person who has never done something absolutely stupid when they were young, and then we'll talk. He was 15 for crying out loud! Haven't you ever heard of people straightening out their lives? Did you ever pause and think that maybe he realizes it was stupid, that he shouldn't have done it, and that he took action and straightened his life out? Just because somebody does something stupid doesn't mean that they need help and have to check themselves into some sort of mental institution.

Posted by: BB at January 06, 2005

I doubt krok would know a gun from his ass

Posted by: Eric at January 27, 2006