Talk radio is bigger than Shawn Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. Rush, Sean and Howard Stern readily pay homage to Bob Grant. Regular NYC residents have long known about the brash, brilliant and mecurial Grant. Grant could interview authors on any subject and his interviewing skills were much better than anyone on radio. Grant's knowledge of history was very thorough and he was very well prepared. Long before Michael Savage made volatility an assett Grant was doing this years ago.
Who is the heir to the Grant Legacy? This person would need to be razor sharp, volitile and have the skills to become a showman. The closest in style and substance is Mark Levin. On some days Mark Levin reminds me of the great Bob Grant. He may even be sharper than Grant. He has not developed Grant's legendary interviewing skills, but he is the best we have.
I would like to say I am a big Glenn Beck fan. Beck is always entertaining but his constant personal stories are just too touchy feely. His skits are the best in the business. I remember one amazing one Yoda in a singles bar.
I am a huge Monica Crowley fan but she hasn't made the jump yet. She really knows history and has the best interviewing skills on radio. I would pay to see her demolish Noam Chomsky or Ward Churchill. Those types steer clear of Monica for good reason, she knows her stuff.
The recently cancelled John Batchelor show was the highest quality show on radio. Eerie musical interludes with killer regulars like John Loftus, Eddy Hayes and Entifad Khanbar. Batchelor also did many book interviews and sometimes veered into science or economics. I miss the show allready and have lost all respect for WABC. Why is Ron Kuby still on the air? Can't WABC air Larry Elder instead of Coast to Coast? Why can't they hire Jay Diamond or Steve Malzberg to do quality programming on the overnight instead. Who are these clowns that they have added to the lineup.
WABC has now officialy become a Mickey Mouse Outfit. There is talk of John Batchelor having a new show in late fall of this year.
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Mark Levin just started being carried in St. Louis recently. I've caught his show a couple of times. His voice cracks me up.
"GET OFF THE PHONE YOU MORON!"
Wait till you hear him go off on the idiots that talk about Neocon Cabals.
" I am a Reaganite and in your face you anti semitic dope".
Bob Grant had a similar line " GET OFF MY PHONE YOU CREEP" . However, Levin is the true heir to much of Grant's substance. Shaun Hannity and this Blog use another Grantism
" Straight Ahead".
If you get Levin on a good night he is whipping some Communist tail. Back when he was a NYC only show he had a crazy woman Della. One could see the Levin humor building and predict what follows, but you laugh every time.
He is also in Warren's area and could crack the top ten show list next year.
Levin's show isn't on in my area. I wish he were.
Right now there is only one talk radio station. There were two but one of them is an extremly low power station and couldn't compete.
The line up is Dave Ramsey, local talk, Laura Ingram, Rush Limbaugh, Seaqn Hannity, Michael Savage and George Noory/Art Bell. ("Coast to Coast").
In the evenings and on the weekend, the line up is constantly interupted with Cardinals Baseball, ISUE and UE basketball.
I don't care much for Savage, he spends too much time bitching about doing the show.
On the weekend they play Kim Komando, Forbes on Radio, Barry Farber and Glen Beck.
Barry Farber used to be in NYC and he had a decent show. I will have to check the Levin board .
Savage also learned the bitching about doing the show from Grant. Grant would throw a temper tantrum and say I GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE. Much of Savage was borrowed from Grant. However, Levin still captures the essence of Grant much better than Savage. Levin is the sharpest man on radio and has that
amazing caustic wit.
Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt are two of THE finest radion hosts ever to grace the radio. Prager is one of the finest thinkers and Hewiit a great debater and interviewer.
I'd like to see someone feed that dangerously naive commie dolt Joey Reynolds into a meat grinder. He's the only late night show out of NYC that's on the radio down here in south FL.
Dumbass probably already has his check for Jizya made out.
Beak what is WABC's market share? Are they the biggest in NYC? It would seem that if they make dumb-ass programming mistakes that it will come back to bite 'em. No matter how far left the managers may be can you imagine them desiring to bleed money like AirAmerica? Hell no! Call the sponsors and tell them that you don't listen to WABC anymore and tell them why. That sort of thing has produced great results for me in the past.
Morgan
WABC no longer has competition as WOR is mismanaged. WOR was largely carried by Bob Grant and Michael Savage. Grant now does morning spots.
Phil Boyce is riding high with the creation of Mark Levin. The Levin growth started as a by product of a contract dispute between WABC and Michael Savage. Levin was given
Savages time spot and gathered momentum. By this time next year Levin will have one of the top ten largest radio shows. He is kicking Savage's tail all over the country.
Sean Hannity also produced by Boyce played a key role in the growth of Levin. Levin does have the best show on radio now that Bob Grant is in semi retirement.
Boyce has a good track record, but did not promote the superior John Batchelor Show. Why Ron Kuby is still employed at WABC remains a mystery.
TOTALLY OFF TOPIC! Warren made my avatar, he done good! It's beautiful!
Thank you, you may now return to your previously scheduled program.
tmw
Excellent.
Someday we will see the return of the beloved Beakerambo. However, he is still in speech therapy after his ordeal.
Beak,
Whatever happened to Jay Diamond? He made a lot of sense and did not take a lot of crap from idiots. I used to listen to his show late at night, when I was in range of WABC (at least I think it WABC)
Beakerambo is still in speech therapy. Perhaps he should have been there from the start. However,
when he was freed all that came out was a serious of Mees and Meeps
puctuated with Beamish in 08.
LA I have spent days looking into what happened to Jay Diamond. Diamond was always somewhat tightly wound and was at WOR for a while. He has drifted way to the left and wrote an article for Counterpunch. As far as I can tell he may have a Saturday show in Boston.
One of the funniest things I ever heard on radio was his version of Its a Wonderful Life with Al Sharpton. Sharpton goes to a Chanukah celebration in Crown Heights. Shorty after that skit he was fired at WABC. Some, blamed that skit for his firing, but WABC was being reshaped by Phil Boyce who has three huge hits Cutis and Kuby, Shawn Hannity and now Mark Levin. Levin is the next best thing to Bob Grant.
My prediction is that by the end of the year Grant will either be back on WABC or an announcement would have been made of his return.
He was on the air with Hannity today. Hannity kept alluding to him wanting Grant to be on WABC and to maybe even substitute for him. At one point he used the word "bondage" when referring to WABC's current owner's refusal to let Grant back on and said "hopefully something will be done about that in the next 60 or 90 days." After Grant was no longer on the show, Hannity said he had an announcement to make sometime next week. I had trouble understanding whether he meant to imply if that announcement had anything to do with Grant.
Straight ahead.
Eng
I hope you are right I missed Grant on Hannity. However, Mark Levin is apparently a huge Bob Grant fan. Mark Levin reminds me of Grant in style but he just can't interview like Grant.
I thought the talk of Howard Stern being a Bob Grant fan was a joke. However, Stern paid tribute to Grant and praised him.
I would not be surprised to see him sub for Hannity and or Levin. I expect to hear him on Levin in the future.
I pay tribute to Grant when I use Straight Ahead on this blog.
I FULLY agree with you: The John Batchelor Show was of the absolute highest quality. Remember how David Letterman used to rant on out the "pinhead television executives"? Something tells me they don't hold a flame to the stupidity of radio execs!!
Anyhow, it shouldn't be too long before Batchelor is back on the air.
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