I gave Limbaugh a shot years ago but wanted to punch my radio too quickly to find what people would get out of listening to him. Lacking [del]progressive[/del] liberal voices on the the radio I gave up trying to understand why folks would want to listen to those loudmouths for hours on end. When AirAmerica came along I tried it and found that I couldn’t even listen to people I agreed with (mostly) for very long. I’m trying it again with WCPT (Chicago’s Progressive Talk) and I am finding, again, that loudmouths are annoying, no matter what they are saying. I mean, yes, Reince Priebus is very conservative and has a German name, but do those people need to say it like they were General Burkhalter? What fucking point are they trying to make while Godwining their own show? Is everybody in talk radio from either side twelve?
So is there any Chicago-area or syndicated discussion program that won’t piss me off? Even WBEZ, our NPR affiliate, has been sacrificing national programming to feature more programs about Chicago and, oddly, Canada and I am not the slightest bit interested in either.
And mods, I punted at the forum. Please move if this belongs somewhere else.
Neal Boortz can be quite entertaining, when he isn’t ranting about Obama.
His last show will be in January 2013.
He can be found on WCMY-AM 1430. Probably from 9:00 AM until Noon.
My personal theory is that after going to church on Sunday and hearing about “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, “turn the other cheek”, and “love your enemies”, many conservatives want to hear that it’s OK to “do unto others whatever you can get away with”, “hit 'em back harder”, and “demonize those who don’t think the way you do” to justify their non-Christian choices in life.
If you’re willing to step away from the radio and into the world of podcasts, you might have better luck. Common Sense with Dan Carlin is fairly consistently interesting. Being not easily pegged to either party, he’ll probably irritate you at some point, but it’ll be thought-provoking. (Bonus: If you like history, go check out his Hardcore History. It’s off-the-charts good.)
If you want something more cerebral, The Thomas Jefferson Hour explores modern questions from the perspective of our third President. Half of the show is typically devoted to a conversation with Clay Jenkinson (scholar and Jefferson expert) in character as Jefferson; the other half is a conversation w/ Mr. Jenkinson about the first half.
There’s also Slate’s Political Gabfest and NPR’s It’s All Politics, both weekly shows covering the current political goings-on.
I’d take any of the above over anything that’s not on NPR.
I used to listen to talk radio, right wing, as that was all we had here. When our local public radio station switched from classical music to NPR news and talk all day I started listening to them and haven’t had any desire to ever go back. On the rare occasions that I catch a few moments of Rush or Savage or someone similar it makes me wonder what I was thinking to waste even one moment on them.
Since the OP clearly related that he also found the disappointing behavior when listening to left wing radio, do you also have a theory that accounts for this?
He has an afternoon show on WCPT and other stations. He is not as obnoxious as some of the others, whose programs are nearly indistinguishable from morning zoos and sports call-ins.
After church a recent Sunday I turned on WCPT and heard a show with Arianna Huffington and Mary Matalin. My daughter is not political and watches too much comedy and animation on TV, so I tested her.
“Recognize that voice?”
“It’s Arianna the bear from The Cleveland Show.”
“And the other woman is married to, well, have you seen on SNL Bill Hader plays a bald guy with a funny accent and who is utterly insane?”
