Probably the most UNINTENTIONALLY funny thing on the radio is listening to Cubs baseball broadcast. One Mr. Ron Don’t Mind Me I’m Insane Santo calling a Cubs game is maybe funnier that Harry Caray.
I mean, it’s a drinking game almost to try and discover what in the name of jesus he’s talking about half the time.
“Here’s a guy…he’s a guy…a player…he’s a good…he’s from Wisconsin…he’s a guy with a …he’s an arm! I’ll say that!”
jarbaby
When I was going to middle school in Putnam County, NY, I’d listen to Don Imus on WNBC. Pre-WFAN Imus was great for teens to listen to in the morning. I’ve listened to a few different morning shows while I’ve been living in the DC area. I prefer music over talk in the morning. I liked Don & Mike while they were at WAVA, all the different voices they used were great! I still recall the St. Paddy’s day joke which was told in Sean Connery’s brouge. Though I listened to Howard “How-weird” Stern while he was on NBC in the afternoon, I will not listen to him now. I did listen to Greaseman for a while, but tired of his show. I now listen to Dave Adler’s morning show on Oldies 100 (WBIG). One of the best morning shows ever in the DC area is no longer around. Paul Harris & Dave the Predictor left Arrow 94.7 (WARW) a year after Greaseman arrived and bumped them to the afternoon drivetime; they have since went their separate ways. While I’m typing this, I’m listening to a bitcast of Paul’s talk show on KTRS 550 in St. Louis.
Practically the best morning show I’ve ever heard was via a bitcast of KHKK (Modesto, CA). For some reason, I can’t get them anymore but the interaction between the DJ & the reporters was the best I’ve ever heard!
Well, he ain’t down here in the uptight-as-a-crab’s-ass-in-cold-water South! Evidently, he’s too “heathen” and “New York” to go over well.
I listened to Howard all the time when I lived in NYC. Of course, this was 5 years ago, and even then, his schtick was getting a little played out - it was all “me! me! me!”. I used to like the show when they all sat around and joked about the news, but it’s become too much of a self-promotional forum now.
Thankfully, I am able to listen to Bob & Tom on the Nashville station (which we get courtesy of a transponder). The show is syndicated, and they are based out of Indianapolis. Those guys crack me up.
Heh…I have the same problem - I can’t always tell who’s talking, Bob or Tom. Also, I don’t think Christie is all thatuptight, and she’s kind of cute, too.
Oh wow I love Bob and Tom. here’s a bit of a problem though… when 94.5 used to be the Rcok Station, in Winston-Salem, they came on that all the time. But then some moron got the idea to change the format to country, and fire all of their DJs. Now Bob and Tom is not available where I live, except through the net, but I don’t have net access in my car, so I still can’t listen to them. The number one problem with the new format is, it isn’t even good country. It is stuff no one has ever heard of, and no one listens to that station anymore…
I think Dire Wolf has it right about Stern, he’s too “Yankee” to go over well in most of the south. Not that I’d listen to the moron anyway.
I listen to NPR, for awhile most mornings, otherwise it’s tape/CD/MP3. I mean, you can always tell when the story is merely a PR piece for someone’s new book. 
I hate it when stations that claim to be local bring in syndicated shows. Here in Phoenix we just started getting Rick Dees. Whoopie.
My favorite morning shows never last long. Currently, there isn’t one show that I care to tune into on a regular basis. I used to love Brian and Joe in Cleveland - I followed them around the dial wherever they happened to wind up, and I still listen every time I’m there, but it makes me that much sadder that I live in the sixth largest city in the U.S. and I don’t have a decent morning show. 
The first show I listened to here was Brian and Ginny. Then Brian switched over to doing news, and Ginny got a new sidekick, John. Okay, fine. Then one day they were gone. John turned up on a MIX station for two weeks, then he, too disappeared. The station they were on has since gone down the tubes, ratings-wise.
The second show I listened to religiously was Steph and John (different John). I listened for a year and a half, and then the station fired them because they no longer reflected what they thought their audience wanted. So they got a new morning show, and the ratings tanked. The audience didn’t want that. Eight months later, they brough John back as the afternoon DJ. He’s good, but not the same without Steph.
The moral of the story (for the radio stations) - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
I listen to CDs in the morning. I get the traffic report on the clock radio at home, and that’s all I do with the radio in the morning. Sorry - NPR bores me to tears.
Sigh.
I’ve listenened to Tim and Mark since I interviewed in Phoenix 8 years ago. I find them to be pretty funny, although their comedy seems to have lost some of its steam in recent years. I still enjoy them for the most part, though. I don’t, and will never will, listen to NPR; it’s just too damn boring to me. When I listen to the radio, I either want tunes or comedy (i.e. something that makes me laugh; a phenomenon that’s non-existent in syndicated morning shows). Mostly I want tunes to get me going.
As far as Imus goes, I’ve never understood his popularity. When I heard him in the mornings in Philly, I found him to be a mumbling, rambling politiphile who seemed as bored as he was boring. How he’s still in the bidness I’ll never fathom.
jadailey, Rick Dees is now syndicated in DC - 10 AM, I think. I’m at work, so I don’t get to listen, but I can’t imagine his schtick carrying over.
Yeah, you’re right Saint Zero and Dire Wolf. But you know what, I just thought of a general peeve I have with most morning shows - they’ll do something risque, like have a stripper come in for a breast measurement or some such nonsense. HELLO! You’re on the damn radio; we can’t see it. So while you leer at the busty Miss Jim’s Auto Partz 1997, we’re driving the Beltway. Whoop-de-frickin-do!
But regarding Christy from Bob & Tom - I defy you to find a show in which she doesn’t express righteous indignation at some mildly off-color remark by Bob or Tom (hey, maybe they’re the same person!). And here’s another thing I’m not quite getting - you know how, while she reads the news, Bob and/or Tom add their own humor to each story, maybe say something witty and snappy? Which slows down the news, but you’re not listening for the news. No matter to Christy, who keeps reading it louder and louder, trying to drown out Bob and/or Tom! What the hell for?
I listen to Stern, and he is still funny on occassion. I agree that his show is rather repetitive and can get old real fast, but over the years no one has come close to providing as much consistent entertainment on the radio as him (Hence his self proclaimed titled of “King of All Media”).
Lamont & Tonelli on KSJO are pretty funny on Friday morning. They do crank calls all morning long. Some of them are so wrong they make me wince.
However, Terry Gross on “Fresh Air” is my favorite show to listen to, followed by “Science Friday,” “Car Talk,” “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” and “The Commonwealth Club.” I like NPR alot, but occassionaly I get a little bored with the pace or the topics (My local Public Radio station plays “Markeplace” on the way home. I’m just not that interested in the financial market).
BTW - does anyone else not like that Juan Williams guy on “Talk of the Nation”?
Recently, I discovered a conservative AM station that plays all the good right-wing whackos (Rush, Dr. Laura, Mike Savage). This station is good for a laugh - I love hearing them blabber on and on about the “Evil Liberal Conspiracies.”
Heembo
I absolutely hate all morning radio talk shows I have ever heard with the exception of NPR. People who tolerate their inanity disgust me.
I’m with you, Ludovic. It’s either NPR or nothing. (Except for the jazz station in the capital of the nation, WPFW 89.3 FM. Black, outspoken, independent as hell. And plenty of good jazz.)
But these days I listen to the radio less and less. Listening to Recorded Books’ Ulysses is not so daunting — after all, it’s much easier to just hear it being read to you while sitting in the car, than to pick up the book and do that running-your-eyes thing across the lines of print.
I didn’t know anyone even listens to AM radio any more. Every time I try to tune into an AM station, I hear the broadcast only faintly, almost drowned out by a loud electronic noise. Gave up on AM many years ago.
But, over the last couple of years, I have all but given up on AM talk radio. Here in Denver there is some GREAT local AM talk (Peter Boyles & Reggie Rivers come to mind). But I cannot stand the constant advertising. Four minutes of substance, followed by five minutes of cheesy commercials, station breaks & sports updates, hour after hour. That has driven me away from AM talk, which is a shame. For those of you who like AM radio, how on earth can you stand the endless commercials?
I listen to NPR, or CDs. I only listen to AM talk if I have a remote mute on hand. And “Morning Zoo” type FM shows make me want to hurl.
The only people I ever get are local idiots. One group of them use this wonderful tool we call the “Internet” to get those stupid ass lists that go around in email (you know, the one’s you delete without reading) and then read them on the air.
The other group does the internet joke things too. They’re especially annoying to me because, for a “Morning Zoo”, they did a hell a lot of Democrat bashing and Dubya plugging during this past election.
Both of these groups are constantly pushing the envelope with their wacky antics, and that’s why they’ve earned the name “Morning Zoo.” :rolleyes:
One more NPR vote checking in. I am partial to WKSU, Kent State’s public radio. Folk music on weekend evenings. A great way to end the week.
I started listening to NPR when I moved to Cleveland because even though Cleveland supposedly is the birth place of “rock & roll”, there was not a good radio station on the waves at all.
Now, back in Chicago, where I thought I’d be thrilled to be in earshot of WXRT, I find that I can’t give up NPR - especially in the morning when other stations seem to run only commercials.
Hey, I went to Kent State! WKSU was my mainstay. So was Cleveland’s NPR station, WCPN. You can get both stations in both places. They’re not very far apart.
Rock radio in Cleveland these days is a cryan’ shame. How the mighty have fallen. Cleveland’s reputation dates from the 1970s and all because of one station … the legendary WMMS. Home of Matt the Cat, who pioneered that low-key low-pitched growly voice that was the epitome of FM hip & cool. When Dan Ackroyd did his clever skit of a DJ who alternated between hyperactive AM and laid-back FM, his supercool FM voice was Matt the Cat. WMMS in the 70s led the way for FM cool across the nation. They played whole album sides. They had a competitor, WWWM (M105), that tried hard to match their style. Now, I don’t know what’s gone wrong with Cleveland radio. The stations have all been bought out by corporate conglomerates who don’t give a shit for the music but only quarterly profit statements.
How refreshing yesterday morning to tune in to Washington’s noncommercial Pacifica station, WPFW, 89.3 FM. Yesterday morning, on the show “Democracy Now,” they had on H. Bruce Franklin, author of Vietnam and Other American Fantasies. They had a native American Gwich’en activist from the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska telling about her people’s connection to the land and the caribou, how their whole culture and existence depend on living in harmony with their environment, how the ecosystem will be ruined by oil drilling, and the fact that even if they drill now, oil will not be available for 10 years, so it can’t even help the current energy crisis. They also had a Nigerian activist from the Niger River Delta telling how Chevron has destroyed the environment there, and killed Nigerian people who resisted it. How Condoleeza Rice, as part of the Bush/Cheney oiligarchy, is on the board of directors of Chevron and has a tanker named after her. There were also U’wa Indians from South America explaining how Occidental Petroleum is destroying their environment. Then later in the day was a discussion of Billie Holiday, putting her life into context, since early in the century most drug addicts were bored wealthy white women, and the laws overlooked them, but when the poor and African-Americans started on drugs, the laws punished them heavily, sending addicts to jail instead of treatment, and how the prison guards tried to sexually abuse Billie Holiday but she stood up to them and protested, which was unheard of in those days of McCarthyism. Next up was poetry hour with some of Washington’s coolest poets reading to the beat of conga drums, and listeners called in with their own poetry. And all through the day was plenty of great jazz. It’s a great relief to have alternative radio like this available. If you’re in the Washington area, definitely check out WPFW 89.3 FM.
You could listen in to the BBC on shortwave. I listen to them that way every morning. They’re also on satellite, they have their program available to audio stream from their website and they’re on that new digital radio offering.
ICK ICK ICK!
When he comes on, I switch to the local elevator music station. I think if I ever saw him face to face, I’d have to smack him - just because…
I am not a big fan of the morning radio shows mostly because I do not wake up early enough. However, on nice early Friday mornings like this, I tend to listen to KROQ 106.7 here in Los Angeles. I mostly listen to Ralph’s Movie Beat and occasionally his “Sex U(niversity)” on Thursday mornings if I wake up early enough.
Ahhhhh… there’s nothing like drifting in and out of sleep to the Morning Show, Minnesota Public Radio with Dale Connolly and Jim-Ed Poole. When I hear “He Knows All, But Tells Only Some… Mr Sports, Mr Action, Mr Jim-Ed POOLE” then I know I must at last heave my ass outta bed…
I used to listen to Stern, and still do if I happen to catch a good interview, but now I listen to Dee Snider Radio. Yes, the guy from Twisted Sister. His show is pretty funny, and has a good local flavor to it. Its supposed to get syndicated soon, and I hope they don’t lose the local stuff too much.
If its a weekend and I’m driving to work, its NPR or ESPN Radio.