August 23, 2005

Talking about Talk Star

Charlie Sykes challenged Wisconsin webloggers to comment on Tim Cuprisin finally getting around to writing about how Kossites won WISN's talk show host contest. He called me out by name. Hey, Charlie, I had to get up early this morning. My vacation's over. It was either commenting on Milwaukee's Talk Star or covering some real news like how the Wisconsin GOP looked like fools.

Now on to Cuprisin's story. He immediately decides to sound "cool" by using the internet-only verb "freep." Odd since a Kossite got other Kossites to give Nicole Devin her victory. A Free Republic swarm might have canceled out the Kossites. It's interesting Cuprisin brought up Free Republic. Was it his way of deflecting the successful liberal campaign since it could be said conservatives stuff ballot boxes too? Sounds like an "everybody does it" argument.

Next, Cuprisin wrote,

Now some conservative talk radio listeners, egged on by conservative blogs and radio talkers, are suggesting that the Internet competition to pick the new morning host for WISN-AM (1130) was freeped by the lefty dailykos.com.

He mentions talk radio yappers by name. He also mentions the Kossite who organized the successful campaign by URL. Who were the conservative weblogs griping? What, the Right side of the blogosphere doesn't deserve a link? Gibbsville Unincorporated appears to be the first conservative weblog to cry foul. It took me a whole weekend to toss in my two-cents.

What I find most interesting about Cuprisin's story is the comments from Jerry Bott WISN programming director. First, he pooh-poohs the idea the Kossites gave Nicole Devin her new job calling such speculation "ignorance." Thanks, Jerry. This "ignorant" WISN fan knows you would need a lot of intestinal fortitude to admit your voting process was open to an organized on-line campaign (even though I believe it was in violation of the spirit of the contest). It's hard to admit you, as old media, got played by the new.

Bott then tells Cuprisin something astounding:

I've never asked Nicole about her political persuasion. Nor do I think it's particularly relevant because our new morning show will almost never address politics.

Huh? Maybe Bott didn't need to ask Devin about her politics because it was so pronounced. But the new morning show won't be about politics? This is WISN, Milwaukee's home for conservative yapping. It's the home to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Belling. Politics is in WISN's DNA. It's what differentiated them from the, then, uber-bland, Gordon Hinkley talk at WTMJ. Their new morning show will be still-born, they'll end up airing Bill Bennett's syndicated morning show, and Devin will be a liberal yapper somewhere else.

The biggest reason I didn't immediately rip this story was it's old news to me. Kossites winning Milwaukee's Talkstar is so last week. Cuprisin is writing about media (radio and television) at 20th Century speed. The guy needs a weblog. But that would require him to do more work than the two or three short columns a week he currently does.

Wendy also takes Charlie's bait and rips WISN:

The real outrage though, is that whoever made the decision to conduct this stupid contest has so little respect for WISN’s listeners that they would trust this important position to an amateur. I like to think that when a radio station has an opening, they would really consider who their listeners are, what the listeners would like to hear, then go out and find a professional who will satisfy listeners and help make money for the station. Sure, Nicole may be part of a team of hosts on the morning show. But still, she is going to be there every day. Do real WISN listeners want that person? Maybe they do. I don’t know. But it’s not MY job to do that research. It’s WISN’s job. And they blew it.

Hey, I didn't listen to WISN's morning show before the contest, and I'm pretty sure I won't now.

"Contest May Not be Clear of 'Freep'"