Talk Radio: More Relevant Than Ever
by Brian Maloney, February 6th, 2010 at 06:21pm
Nearly three weeks after Scott Brown’s earth-shattering political triumph over the entrenched political establishment, it’s clear those on the losing end have barely begun to lick their wounds. They never saw this coming and were done in by extreme complacency.
Postmortems from the left have begun to focus on the role of talk radio in Brown’s victory, the importance of which can’t be understated. But in The Phoenix, Adam Reilly manages to omit entirely the key player- Howie Carr:
Talk radio was huge for Brown. Yes, the dearth of exit polling in the Brown-Martha Coakley contest makes it hard to quantify its exact impact. But if you listened to Boston talk radio during the race — commercial talk, as opposed to the sedate stylings of NPR affiliates WBUR and WGBH — you know that this segment of the airwaves was, overwhelmingly, Brown country: a source of hope and good cheer when things looked grim, and a high-volume ally as the Brown juggernaut headed down the home stretch.
Consider, for example, the love lavished on Brown by WEEI, the sports-radio powerhouse that doubles as a source of conservative commentary. On primary day, Gerry Callahan, half of the duo behind its morning drive-time Dennis & Callahan, tossed Brown this softball: “Does it make any sense to you that people follow this far-left agenda, and want another far-left loon like [Senator John] Kerry, like [Congressman Barney] Frank, like [Congressman Edward] Markey, like the rest of them?” And shortly before the election, Glenn Ordway, host of the afternoon drive-time Big Show, and three Big Show associates (Pete Sheppard and former New England Patriots Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie) appeared in a video in which they gushingly endorsed the Republican. (Brown “believes in a country that’s sovereign,” Smerlas explained, sort of.)
Yes, WEEI, WTKK-FM, WBZ, WXTK-FM on the Cape, WBSM in New Bedford, WCRN in Worcester and other stations all played a role, but I don’t think Scott would be where he is today without Carr, who is heard statewide on several of those stations.
Carr’s presence alone didn’t put Brown over the top, it was the longtime afternoon host’s change in strategy that made the difference. Until the primary election, Howie’s focus was on saving Scott from the embarrassment of likely defeat by insisting he was merely warming up for a later statewide campaign.
Something clicked, however, once the general election campaign was underway. Howie shed the defeatist attitude and learned to exercise some muscle for a change. The audience was more than receptive and got to work immediately. Once it became clear he truly believed Scott could win, it became a campaign worth an investment of time and money.
New England has always had the benefit of a great deal of local talk versus a national landscape cluttered with (largely unsuccessful) syndicated fare, but the US Senate campaign represented the first time in years hosts really stepped up to the plate and led the way.
From here, anything is possible. Let’s hope defeatism has been abolished for good.
Entry Filed under: Another Coakley Screw-up
12 Comments Add your own
1. Al Bowlly | February 6th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Now watch Howie strip Patches of his seat in RI.
Inconvenient successful radio hosts are often deliberately ignored (along with the giant audiences they influence). Dr. Savage is the prime example. It’s a tactic that backfires on those who use it.
2. piratetoby | February 6th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Brian- take it easy. All of those talk show hosts mentioned were barely tepid about Brown until it was apparent he was surging in a big way. THEN they jumped on his bandwagon. Graham was so embarassingly uninformed about Brown, he had to keep asking his producer - on the air - answers to very basic questions about Brown- like where he lived. Severin did the same. Only when it looked like Brown was going to be a worthy opponent did Ms. Jay voice his support. McFlea? Who cares. She’s unlistenable.
And after Brown won, these same hosts, who arrived very late to the party, take credit and toot their own horns about how “we” helped make history.
And their cheerleading for Brown was equaled by their Coakley bashing. It’s tough to respect these hosts who came out to support Brown only when he had a shot at winning. Says a lot about them- and how “sincere” their support is/was for Brown.
3. Bea in Biloxi | February 7th, 2010 at 10:09 am
PT, RESPECT and the lack thereof is the best
description of Boston’s talk. You nailed it!
4. Karl from Malden | February 7th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Did anyone hear that dumbass cop Justin Barrett on TKK yesterday? It was a decent interview.
And yes, I’m surprised the Brown bandwagon had enough room for all those folks at TKK to get on.
5. New York Pizza | February 7th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
For whatever it’s worth, there’s somebody already running against voted-for-the-war and T.A.R.P., grandstanded-against-Little Timmy Geithner-when- the-cameras-were-rolling, phoney-tough-guy but genuine fraud, Stephen Lynch:
http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x655690326/Roslindale-s-Keith-Lepor-running-as-Republican-opponent-to-Congressman-Lynch
6. Larry | February 7th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Causality is often difficult to determine. The role of talk radio in Brown’s victory is one such case. My feeling is that talk radio simply channelled or echoed the voters’ sentiments. There may have been some voters who were swayed by talk radio, but in bad times people vote to change the status quo. I pulled out the election results map. The area from Boston out through metro west which is the prime footprint for RKO, EEI and TKK all voted for Coakley. An argument could be made that talk radio didn’t have much impact in the immediate Boston/west area to make a difference. Brown’s victory was a result of the large margins in suburban working class communities in SE Mass, North Shore and Central Mass. Howie’s impact was greatly overrated. Brown also benefited from the national talk shows that lead to tremendous donations. His election story needs to include Rush, Laura and Hannity.
7. piratetoby | February 7th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Larry: I am in agreement w/you 100% in determining causality in response to talk radio on Brown’s victory. I tend to think that it did not play as big of a factor as the local hosts are taking credit for.
However, this is based entirely on my gut feeling. There are a variety of factors combined which propelled Brown’s victory, and if talk radio is one of them, I’d think it was much lower on the totem pole than many seem to think. Can I quantify my opinion? No.
I will say if nit-wits like Michael Graham are in any way responsible for Brown’s victory, then we, as a state, are in big trouble.
That’s right- BIG F—–G TROUBLE.
8. Anti Brian | February 7th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
If Talk Radio is so powerful how is that Deval won his election. with the exception of Jim and Marjorey even host was with Healy early and slammed patrick day after day.
If the pill popping wind bag and Michael Winer have so much influence how did Obama win?
Talk Radio is just preaching to the choir
9. raccoonradio | February 8th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Diff circumstances than the 06 election. That was a factor. I will say that Scott’s many talk radio appearances helped get him many votes and helped to drum up enthusiasm, word of mouth.
His TV ads were big but people needed to hear him express his opinions, and show his personality.
Notice that he won by maybe 5 per cent; I don’t know the exact votes but without talk radio to help fan the flames of Scott-mania, he either wins by a few hundred votes, or doesn’t win at all. Radio did matter; it wasn’t the only factor, but think of all those ears tuned to
drive time talk radio.
10. Mary | February 8th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I volunteered for Brown-But I wouldn’t have known who he was if not for his occassional calls to Howies show . I learned about him prior to his run for the US Senate when he would update Howie on various bills and legislative efforts. As a frustrated Independant who works on the road , Howies radio program is invaluable as a a conduit for information. So when Scott ran I already knew many of his views beforehand. What a breath of fresh air for MA!!!
11. susan mcbride | February 9th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
so scott brown will do whatever mitch mcconnell will tell him to do.,
let us see what happens in 2012
from what i know, the dems in mass werent very happy with martha……….they wanted capuano…….the kennedy people didnt want her.
menino, who has a huge machine, made no attempt to get out the vote for martha…….he was all about his paisan….capuano………let’s see what happens in 2012
12. bobby | February 10th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
great. Howie got pro-abort, pro-homosexual, pro-Romney tax cuts liberal RINO Scott Brown elected. Who cares?
Get a life Brian. I wouldn’t be braging that another pro-abortion, pro-homosexual won Teddy K’s seat.
If you had actually backed and elected an actual consevative that would be one thing.
But when you elect another Arlen Spector/John McCain/Mitt Romney liberal RINO, it’s nothing to brag about…
What a joke…
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed