MSNBC has been trying different hosts in Imus’s slot (last week--troglodyte Michael Smerconish). Tomorrow it’s OUR turn, with Stephanie Miller, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (April 30, May 1-2) 6-9 a.m.
Rumors are that Stephanie has an inside track to win the spot. Help make it come true. Please:
- Email MSNBC and say thanks, at (viewerservices@msnbc.com).
- Set your TIVO or other DVR to record the three shows, to increase her ratings. (Yes, TIVO random samples our viewing.) And give it 3 thumbs up on your TIVO.
- Pass this info on!
(This was well diaried here, but I think it worth repeating. Also, below the fold I salute her two "mooks"--who we sometimes neglect.)
Why this is important.
The nation’s cars are mobile right-wing echo chambers, where it’s "all Republican talk radio all the time." And this matters. (I suspect right-wing radio saturation is one reason the U.S. is the only nation on earth where a majority does not "believe" in global warming.)
Since the last election, Clear Channel and mega-media has been murdering progressive radio stations; 20 last time I checked.
We are down to ONE progressive station in all of Ohio (WAIS in Nelsonville--a tiny independent Class D).
The claim has been that progressive radio "just can’t cut it." Not so. On a per-station basis, progressive has done as well as, and even better than right-wing. (See my first comment.)
Here in Columbus, Stephanie’s WTPG tripled its ratings in two years. And after killing WTPG in January, the ratings of its replacement (WYTS) are back in the toilet.
Stephanie can help kill this lie, and thereby help all progressive radio.
On the other hand, I think there is some truth to the claim that most normal people have given on on AM, tuned to NPR, and never touch the dial again. (I even wonder if the "Rush curse" is why your car has two FM buttons, and only one AM.)
NPR already claims progressive ears, but NPR is not enough. It is not progressive. It is just NOT right-wing. We need more than "he said she said." We need advocacy. We need someone with the guts (like Steph) to call Bush "Chimpy McCokespoon," and to quote from DKOS.
Yes, Sam Seder and Rachel Maddow do that with flying colors (and I love them both!). But we also need someone to appeal to "Joe Public"--to lure back even those who have given on up radio altogether.
And for that, I think we need a progressive program that dares to be "politically incorrect," while proving it can be done without being mean spirited.
Stephanie and her "mooks" can pull that off like no one else. IMHO, her program is the most entertaining on radio.
While she has segments with major Democratic leaders (with whom she usually flirts shamelessly), she is also irreverent, audacious, and sometimes crazy. (She describes her format as "senator, fart joke, senator, fart joke.")
Stephanie is our secret weapon to reclaim America’s radios.
Give some credit to the "mooks."
Stephanie’s two sidekicks deserve praise too. They are all each others’ foils.
She has compared her show to three high school smart-asses goofing off in detention. True. I can imagine:
- Stephanie, head cheerleader and darling of the Drama Club, sent to detention for making slurpy noises during sex ed.
- Jim, president of Science Club, given a whole year’s detention for imitating the entire faculty over the school P.A. system.
- Chris, treasurer of the Audio Visual Club, who has never misbehaved in his entire life, but snuck into detention to be with the other two, in the hopes kids will think him "dangerous" and stop stealing his lunch money.
Chris Lavoie's fussiness is just what you would expect from an engineer who, on a shoestring, made the fledgling program sound professional from the start. He’s the anchor, begging Stephanie to not embarrass them by hitting on Senator Kerry, and politely declining to subscribe to most of Jim’s conspiracy theories.
But Jim Ward is the genius below the radar. His voice’s are uncanny--his Bush so spot-on, it makes your skin crawl, and more than one call-in has asked "was that really the President?" And his wit is amazing, with throw away lines Jon Stewart and his posse of writers must envy. ("Do those pants make your butt look big? No. Your butt makes your butt look big.")
He starts the show sleepy, grumpy and unprepared (Steph calls him Eeyore), and then blows us away.
He could almost have a show by himself. But they need each other. His "sour" works with her "sweet." And for all Jim’s talent, it’s Stephanie’s humanity that makes the show work.
Her soul peaks through. She tears up, recalling joining in the applause for soldiers departing at the airport. She jokes with Cindy Sheehan about getting together for a beer, and the next minute has to rush to commercial when Cindy talks of her lost son. A few times she had to leave the studio (I suspect, angry with herself for not being able to keep a stiff upper lip).
Another example: Her ongoing joke about her dating record and how she must have "gay rays" because all her boyfriends end up on the "other team." Funny. But then she recalls her high school sweetheart, who later came out, and later died of AIDS, and beyond the jokes, you see how she cares about people.
I think her humanity is why she has such a big gay following, including Melissa Ethridge, George Takei, me, and a lot of my gay friends. Most of us know when we are being laughed WITH, and not AT, and we appreciate it that, when the rest of the media was cowed into silence by Lynn Cheney’s "Kerry is not a nice man" bull crap, Stephanie spoke up for us, asking "What about all the OTHER gay families in the country?" and has the courage and "political incorrectness" to smack down slimy Republican anti-gay gays.
And I suspect her humanity is why she reaches such a wide audience.
Call-ins range across the political spectrum (and Republicans go to the front of the line, BTW). Celebrities phone in to say they are fans. Truck drivers call in to tell her how they can’t wait until they come into range of her show. I know a grey-haired grandmother here in Columbus who turned on radio’s throughout her house every morning, so she would never miss minute of "Momma."
I think her humanity is why we love her, and why we need her, and why we should share her.
Please rally ‘round our Stephanie.
P.S. BTW, I think it’s no coincidence that Clear Channel started its progressive radio massacre after being purchased by Mitt Romney’s cronies--as noted in my dairy about my testimony at an FCC town meeting.