Tankfully, the promising thing for me (as an interested Aussie) is that all of you who have posted in this forum confirm for me that, contrary to popular myth, a sense of decency and propriety remains alive and well in the U.S.
For some weird reason though, the cream doesn’t seem to filter thru to the top as much as it used to though. In every aspect of public life nowadays, both in the US and the rest of the Western world, the syndrome of shock jocks and such stuff seems to be on the increase. It’s as though nobody cares for the opinions of the “silent majority” anymore - it’s as though the only barometers of good taste anymore are merely those folks who are happy to be part of the audience of a Jerry Springer episode.
No offence to fans of Jerry Springer there by the way… (smile).
You are scarin’ me now. Nixon claimed the support of the “silent majority”. I’d prefer you use another term: to be associated with Nixon causes me some distress.
Here in sweltering Birmingham, Alabama, a local radio station morning show (Rick and Bubba) has been picked up by a regional cable station out of Atlanta (TurnerSouth); the cable station is televising two hours of the Rick and Bubba show each morning.
The morning show of an Atlanta radio station began dissing the Rick and Bubba show, which is to be expected. However, they crossed the line this morning. The father of Rick (of Rick and Bubba) has been having some severe health problems, and Rick has been very open on the air about his dad and his problems (internal bleeding, quintuple-bypass surgery, etc.). Rick and Bubba have also used their Web site to post updates on the condition of Rick’s father. The Atlanta radio station hacked the Rick and Bubba site today, and filled the page on Rick’s father with expletives.
I have no problem with good-natured (or even not-so-good-natured) competition between radio shows. The Atlanta guys crossed the line when they started mocking a serious situation in somebody’s personal life – which is exactly what the Arizona chucklehead did.
He was on DC 101. It’s actually where his career really started to get legs. He was fired in 1982 (though he claims he quit). He angered management by calling Air Florida and asking the price for a one way ticket to the 14th street bridge after one of their airplanes crashed into the bridge. That didn’t lead to an immediate firing but was part of a list of things that got Stern canned.
He was canned! That’s very good news. I called them yesterday morning to complain to a very weary phone answering lady. The sad thing is that he’ll probably find work somewhere else, one would hope with a stage name a little less lame than Beau Duran.
