WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Air America's Next Big Mistake (part 2)

(Read pt. 1 of this post here)

     "Has anyone ever heard of Rachel Maddow?"
                                               - Rush Limbaugh

Yeah Rush, we sure have. And by now, so have of you.

That little quote has been an oft-played sound bite at the beginning of The The Rachel Maddow show since it debuted on Air America last April. And the fact "El Rushbo" hadn't discovered Ms. Maddow last spring can probably be based on two things-- For one, Limbaugh most likely knew nothing about Air America, beyond that fact that TV stars Al Franken and Janine Garofalo were a part of it. And the other reason Maddow was probably off the Limbaugh radar back then was his comment came at the dawn of Maddow's new sub-career as a liberal TV pundit. And it isn't hard to imagine that most of Limbaugh's media intake (beyond the likely emailed orders from Rove staffers and the heralded "stack of stuff" his staff prepares) would come only from television.

For most people, Maddow's program airs when they're unconscious. On the radio from five to six in the morning from the Air America studios in New York, The Rachel Maddow Show is a hot coffee jolt of headlines, breaking stories, and some news almost no one else is talking about. And twice each program, you get 2 off the wall satirical newscasts from Kent Jones. The hour goes by fast, and by the end you feel a little smarter. She's like that.

Rachel Maddow is a unique and powerful new media entity, and a young honest voice in the age of Bush II who offers challenging facts instead of raw malice against all the madness the administration propagates.  Maddow is a Rhodes Scholar and a proud "out" lesbian who comes across on the radio as warm, sincere and a little fierce. Her approach to radio has a paced athletic quality that makes her a bit of a current events trainer on the radio. I imagine it's the perfect show to accompany a gym regimen. Maddow never goes over the top, but the pace is rapid, and to the point with context. She maintains good humor and spirit in the face of bad news and strange times. Combined with the sharp humor of Kent Jones, her program is an informative and practical way to deal with the onslaught of nauseating news, and to keep up with the bad guys.

Air America's Next Big Mistake?

It looks like Air America is about to lose one of their best on-air personalities, Marc Maron. There's been no official announcement, but on his show, Morning Sedition, Maron has repeatedly said he's probably on his way out. And yesterday he said it's unlikely he'll be part of the Morning Sedition air team (with radio veteran Mark Riley) after this month. And they're promoting their live remote at O'Neal's in the Upper West Side this Thursday as their "last live appearance."

Why would Maron leave? Or why would Air America let go of the funniest guy on their talent roster? Best guess-- deadlocked contract negotiations.

When Air America went on the air over a year and a half ago, a lot of us in radio were dismayed that a new talk network would go on the air with so many air personalities and writers who made their mark in television instead of radio. Not that media cross-pollination in general is such a bad idea, but just that when a start-up radio network was trying to do something SO new (a national liberal talk network) AND they were also attempting to reinvent the medium at the same time by leaning so heavily on TV talent instead of loading up the schedule with radio veterans.

The big exceptions were South Florida's leftist talk bulldog Randi Rhodes who's held down the late afternoon slot since the beginning, and then a few months later acerbic career talker Mike Malloy who was tacked onto the late night end of the schedule. Those programs were the only ones done in the traditional talk radio manner--  one host on the air brings up issues, vents, and takes calls. All the other shows were more experimental-- with multiple hosts, many guests, and only a few (if any) calls. And all these programs featured one or more hosts best known for their work in TV or film.

The Intimate Audio Gadget

Really portable music is a wonderful thing. It's both empowering and comforting to have a shiny music machine in your pocket that plays a variety of your favorite tunes at the whim of your finger on a little wheel. It's futuristic technology that has made listening an intimate experience... for over FIFTY years.

Back in the early 50's a company called Texas Instruments was making good money churning out piles of newfangled little transistors for military applications, but they envisioned a wider public marketplace for the little buggers. And in 1954 the TI engineers created a prototype transistor radio. It was small, it worked, and it seemed like a great idea. However, Texas Instruments wasn't in the business of manufacturing consumer products back then, so they shopped their concept around to several big radio makers of the day. Surprisingly, RCA, Sylvania, and Philco all said "no thanks" before a small outfit in Indiana (the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates) took the bait.

Within a matter of months the first commercial transistor radio was a reality. Besides being cute and colorful, the TR-1 was the very first mass-marketed transistorized gadget. It was made here in the U.S.A., and in that spirit the it was prominently on display in stores across America just in time for Christmas 1954. The price? A whopping $49.95. Adjust the cost for inflation and you're lookin at almost $350 in today's dollars, not far from the $399 price tag on that first iPod.

Before the TR-1, any portable radio you might buy had a "luggage" quality, with big top handles and a bit of heft. They just weren't all that portable thanks to the warm glowing vacuum tubes they contained. These days, audiophiles and technical stick-in-the-muds properly laud the aural beauty of the "tube" sound, but the glass casings and inner workings of vacuum tubes are rather fragile and they need a protective case, as well as some large batteries to power up. And of course, the tubes themselves aren't all that tiny either.

A Week Imagined

If you're old enough to recall seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan (as I do), or If you remember when it was widely accepted that marijuana would soon become a nationally decriminalized (and ultimately legalized) substance, YOU know– the world HAS changed.

But no matter what age you are, you can turn the clock back a few paradigms and get a taste of that more daring and open era by watching a few episodes of the Mike Douglas Show-- Specifically by taking a look at a week of programs from 1972 when Douglas invited John Lennon and Yoko Ono to co-host his afternoon TV show.

Mike Douglas, former big band vocalist and all around affable guy, was no hipster. And his weekday program (syndicated nationally from 1965 to 1984) was produced by future right-wing media guru and now the head of Fox News, Roger Ailes. However, the world was a much different place 33 and a third years ago, and letting a former member of the fab four and his avant-garde wife take over your popular TV show must have seemed like a pretty good idea at the time. And the fact that Rhino has released the entire week as a box set of videos pretty much proves that the entertainment value of the unlikely match up of Mr. Douglas and the arty celebrity couple has actually appreciated over the years.

Through the week of shows, Lennon and Ono chain smoked their way through conversations with Ralph Nader, Black Panther Bobby Seale, George Carlin, Yippie Jerry Rubin and many others. Although he never pursued it seriously, Lennon had a natural talent for broadcasting (listen to him on the radio in 1974 here), and he has a blast playing talk host and bringing some pretty radical politics and ideas to a nationwide audience.

Another Lionel Double-Shift

If you live within the radio reception realm of New York City, you might wanna check out Lionel today. (Or you can stream here.) He’s filling in for crusty old talk radio legend Bob Grant again on WOR (710 AM) from 4 to 6 this afternoon (broadcasting now as I write this post), and also doing his regular show which starts at 11 p.m.

It’s kind of a throwback to Lionel’s glory days when he took Bob Grant’s slot on WABC in the mid 90's. While it probably won’t be as wild and wooly as all that, it’s always entertaining to hear Grant’s rabid right wing callers interact with Lionel’s mischief. Today he’s taking apart the Bush speech from last night. Bob Grant must be rolling in his... Oh, I’m sorry. Bob’s still alive.

If you’re unfamiliar with Lionel, he’s a unique and slightly twisted talk host who I talked about at length in a post last month, which you can read here.

I was listening to Lionel’s show the other night and I almost thought I was back in Florida listening to Lassiter again. For a taste, here’s an mp3 of 2 calls from that show– a clueless Christian, and a drunk and excited Lionel fan.

I wish Bob Lassiter would fill in for Bob Grant every once in a while.

The 911 Operators

Almost everyone agrees, September 11, 2001 was a really lousy day in America. Thousands died horrible and violent public deaths– in airplanes, in burning and collapsing buildings, and by jumping out skyscraper windows. All of us around New York City who watched two of the tallest buildings in the world burn and fall will never forget seeing something macabre and previously unimaginable take place that morning.

It was easy to take it personal around here-- Photocopy posters everywhere bearing the photos of the missing, people spontaneously sobbing on the street on in the subway, and the sick smoldering stench that lingered around here for months. It wasn’t until weeks later that I realized that people all over the country were probably just as affected by the replaying of slickly edited movie-trailer style videos of the day's disasters on television. (You can download and watch a couple mpg versions here and here)

While the smoking hole downtown is gone and most of the mess was cleaned up years ago, the memory remains ugly, distinct, and powerful. And what’s worse, despite Bush’s promise to “smoke” out the “evildoers” responsible for all the American death that day, nobody has been caught or tried for those ghastly crimes. Sure, we were immedietly told the attacks were the work of a vast network known as “Al-Qaeda” led by a guy named Osama Bin Laden. but the billions spent there hasn’t been any fresh leads on capturing these alleged terrorist masterminds since our forces inexplicably let Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora over three years ago.

For Fun And Prophet

Forget the news. Aren’t you sick of all the reports of U.S. torture of foreign nationals, and how our country has been caught red-handed launching an illegitimate war? And who hasn’t had enough of the all the news cycle sucking sideshows– the runaway bride, the Motown Pedophile and the recent revelation of the real “Deep Throat”? It’s all so depressing and messy.

If you’re as distraught about what's going on in the world today as I am, then I may have some good news for you. The saucers may finally be on the way.

That’s right. All the painful political bickering and mind-numbing non-news may soon be reduced to forgotten trivia. The mother of all current events may be on the horizon– first contact.

A man who goes by the name of “The Prophet Yahweh” (a.k.a. “The UFO Summoner,” or just “Ramon Watkins”) claims that over the next few weeks he’s going to call down a bunch of spaceships over Las Vegas, and America, for the news media to film and fawn over. And while it all sounds kinda fantastic, the prophet did offer a taste of his powers to an ABC affiliate in Vegas the other day. And well, whatever happened it’s a pretty wild bit of news video. Download the windows video file here. And to really find out what this holy guy is up to, you can read his press release right here.

Wall Of Hair

After over two years of running around on bail, legendary rock producer Phil Spector is finally on trial for the murder of B-Movie babe, Lana Carlson. When D. Boon of the Minutemen sang about a “Little Man With A Gun In His Hand” he could have been talking about Spector. Skinny and 5-foot-7, Spector was known to pack heat everywhere he went. Legend has it he fired a gun in the studio when he was working with John Lennon in the 70's, and according to Dee Dee Ramone, Spector held him hostage for at gunpoint for two days during the production of “End of the Century.” Obviously a little nuts, Spector has admitted in recent years that he’s been taking medication for schizophrenia.

Well, on Monday a judge ruled that prosecutors in his murder trial can present evidence of four separate incidents where Spector allegedly waved or pointed a loaded weapon at women he’d been dating. Nice, eh? Not only that, but the judge decided against allowing the presentation of evidence involving six more women who also may have found themselves on the business end of Phil’s affection.

As you can see, he’s a scary guy. When police raided his home in February of 2003 they took away nine guns and plenty of ammo. Perhaps they should get another warrant, and make a return trip for the blowdryer-- before somebody gets hurt.

Testicles + Truth = Hope

On Tuesday, British MP George Galloway came before the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to deny his alleged involvement in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. Instead of meekly defending his honor to the big bad senators, in his opening statement Galloway delivered perhaps the most powerful, eloquent and concise condemnation of the Iraq War that any group of war lovin’ American politicians has ever had to sit through. (Excluding the floor speeches of Robert Byrd, who may be eloquent and powerful but is rarely concise)

Wartime Lionel

Lionel is funny. And in talk radio these days, funny is hard to come by.

Sure, if you get your jollies hearing jokes about environmentalists, the poor, and the disenfranchised you probably can’t stop slapping your knee during the Rush Limbaugh program. But in general there’s not a lot of wit on talk radio lately. For the most part, the talk radio format has become a humorless void of political grandstanding and smearcasting. Blame the right wing morons for turning an entertainment medium into a barren kiosk of propaganda.

Lionel’s show originates from WOR-AM here in New York City, but it’s syndicated nationwide. In fact, the radio mega-corporation Clear Channel has been gradually creating new “progressive talk” stations, which feature Air America programming, and Lionel’s show is often tucked into the schedule. Which is strange in a way, because Lionel isn’t really a political talk show host at all.

He makes it clear on his show, he is NOT a liberal. However, he is most certainly a lawyer and an eccentric raconteur with a wacky vocabulary and an acid wit. On the side, he takes on a few stand-up comedy gigs too.

I’ve listened to Lionel for a long time, and traditionally he focuses his quirky intellectual laser beam on legal issues in the news, as well as sex and “news of the weird" kind of stuff. Actually, almost any topic is fair game. If it’s strange, titillating, or pisses him off, he’ll talk about it. But lately, Lionel is a little less lighthearted than he used to be. The war in Iraq and the war-promoting lockstep rightward march of talk radio has REALLY pissed him off. Yet, it seems to have made his show a little better. He may have the perfect temperament for relaying really bad news and trying to make sense of it.

Better Skies Through Chemistry

Clouds are so damn inspirational, all those rows and floes of angel hair way up yonder. Always something to look at. In fact, in recent years I’ve found the the sight of a stark blue cloudless sky to be a bit disconcerting. Maybe it’s the memory of the morning of September 11th, 2001 around here. Not a cloud in the sky. Just one big plume of smoke. 

Not to worry. Looking up, I’ve been observing many a threatening clear sky has been fluffed up by some thoughtful planes. Have you ever noticed too? Sometimes a deep blue morning sky turns into a criss-crossed haze by mid-afternoon, all thanks to some kind of airplane “exhaust.”

The picture here, as well as these shots here and here, were all taken late aftrnoon in Brooklyn last Sunday. And here’s one of the planes in action that day, lacing the sky with some feathery manmade garlands.

Sure it’s pretty, but what’s really going on here? Art? Darned if I know.