Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show--in Rush's time slot

I had my first opportunity to listen to https://clayandbuck.com/ show the last 2 days. On 610 am in Columbus they are in the Rush Limbaugh time slot--noon to 3 p.m. I'd never heard of Clay, but have followed Buck off and on since he was a regular on the Glenn Beck show years ago. Good topics--not news of course, but clearly stated to be their opinion. At CNN and MSNBC you get opinion shows, "hate America shows," "excuse the Bidens all their crimes shows" which are called news. Bad idea.

But I am a tad concerned about Buck's speech in this format. I don't know if he's speaking faster than usual because there are 2 of them and it's conversation, or if he's got a loose tooth. His formerly very precise and careful speech is sounding squishy. It's the sibilant sounds--anything with an S sound, see, say, first, or with some letter c words like, place, which seems to be an orphan without its own sound. Some consonant blends also sound slurpy to my ear.

Maybe it's my imagination, but I think when two speakers are very close in sound (they both are very deep), they are difficult to distinguish in radio format. Red Eye Radio, which is a talk show for truckers in Texas, with Eric Harley and Gary McNamara, has the same format, and I can't tell the two of them apart.

Rush Limbaugh, 1951-2021

https://youtu.be/gfRgI5LryyM The outcome was never in doubt, but he lived longer than expected.  Rush Limbaugh, dead at 70, announced by his wife on his radio program at noon, February 17.

A real American success story. Started at the bottom. He used to inspire young people with stories about how many times he failed or was fired. Former disc jockey, former sports announcer. Loved the stories about his grandfather and father. Quit college because he said he wasn't learning anything about what he loved. He set the standard for talk radio and always encouraged people coming up in the business. And the money he used to raise for cancer research! Millions. Not realizing then it would take him, too.

I was still a Democrat the first time I heard him, and I wouldn't say he was the reason I changed, but he helped my education and caused me to dig a little deeper than my shallow knowledge of politics. But it was his voice. Best voice on radio, and so patient in listening to some of his really "challenged" callers. He loved to get calls from Democrats on Open line Fridays and just gave them enough rope and encouragement to strangle themselves. He appreciated every prayer, his wife reported.

The first time I heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio we were driving to Lakeside and he was talking about Dan's Bake Sale. With Rush promoting it (it was to needle President Clinton) about 70,000 people showed up but Dan never caught on to the opportunity.  I didn't become a Republican for another 12 years, but always enjoyed his show. Democrats were smarter back then. He could talk about anything and make a good story. Clinton was his nemesis, and I think Rush needed him to be funny.

I have two Rush stories to tell.

1) I listen a few times a week to the "Called to Communion" show with Dr. David Anders on EWTN radio. It's on at 2 p.m., but I listened to the archived shows in the middle of the night if I wake up. About 3:30 this morning I listened to Tom Price, Dr. Anders' side kick and announcer, get choked up speaking of Limbaugh's death (this would have been just 2 hours after it was announced by his wife on radio). He said that when he and Rush were starting out in the radio business they worked together as disc jockeys. (That's why the music on the Limbaugh show was always so great--he could also sing.) Rush always came to work in a white shirt, tie, and dress slacks, instead of the casual jeans of the other rockers. During commercials or on break, Rush was always talking politics, Tom recalled, even back then when he was poor and struggling. Of course, Rush's opinions and voice of Conservatism became famous, he wrote a number of books including a series for children in addition to his syndicated radio show and was a multimillionaire when he died. Tom happily works for a Catholic non-profit in Alabama, but also has a voice heard around the world.

2) Rush's fans are called "ditto heads" because shortly after his national show became so wildly popular back in the late 80s, the calls from his fans were so effusive with compliments, he asked them to just say, "ditto" so it didn't take up so much air time. Americans were thrilled to have someone who spoke to and for them.

Turn on Newsmax and turn off the alphabet and cable news if you want to hear a real eulogy, honest information.

Yes, Rush was divisive. You either liked that he gave Conservatives a voice and platform or you didn't. But he was never racist or homophobic. I wasn't a daily listener, but in 32 years, I never heard that. Women? He did tell stories about some women we didn't like or admire, same as men. Sort of equal opportunity. But his female fans adored him--why would you believe a Leftist over them? And he loved having Left leaning callers on his show--really let them play it out so we could see what they were about. They actually provided material and he had a name for those who had been trained on how to set him up. He could always tell. What was it--a seminar caller? Can't remember. The lies and hate were all from his enemies--he was a joyful, happy patriot. Always optimistic, even when dying.

"Usually, in this line of work, if you're lucky, you get a moment - a year or two when you're the in-thing - and you hope to hold enough of that moment as it slowly fades away to keep you going till retirement. Rush did something unprecedented in the history of TV and radio. Commercial broadcasting began in the United States in 1920: The Rush Limbaugh Show came along two-thirds of a century later, became the Number One program very quickly, and has stayed at the top all the way to today - for a third of the entire history of the medium." Mark Steyn

Racism is on TV

There’s a black radio talker named James Harris from Arizona https://jamestharris.com/the-conservative-circus-with-james-t-harris/.  He’s subbing this week for Glen Beck.  This morning to lead into his topic on bigotry and racism he told a story about his father, who had come north from Mississippi during the second black migration to Milwaukee for a good job.  There he met other men from his state and they became friends and spent time together gardening and fishing, sharing all the bounty. A little kid saw 3 of the men arrive at their favorite fishing hole and said, Oh look three N-word.  Two of the guys wanted to thrash him, but Harris’ father stopped them, and reminded them he only knowns what he’s been taught—it’s not his fault. That was the 1960s and Harris says he’s never experienced the kind of racism his dad did—except on TV.  CNN, NBC, MSNBC.  By that I don’t think he meant they were using racist language or cheating blacks out of journalist jobs.  He meant he’s personally unaware of racism until the media promotes “systemic racism,” or “white supremacy” in their stories.  He also reminded the audience that when Trump was a Democrat he was never called a racist—in fact, black celebrities sought him out. When Trump beat the Democrat candidate, the media personalities began complaining about a “white lash” in that melt down we all remember on TV that election night when impeachment went in full gear. 

Something to remember—we don’t have a racist society but we do have racist TV news.

It is without question. . .

So don't you dare question me (or them)--you'll get that if you question "man made climate change." A belief system.  It's a religion.  The climate has been changing for eons; but today people are such navel gazers, they think they control the universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzlN8SMlLjQ

Lionel Nation is one of the talkers I'm using as I push Fox out of my office (it's gone liberal). That's not his real name, but he began calling talk shows while a law student, and now he has his own show.

 

Dennis Prager and his PragerU is always and excellent choice. Global warming/climate change it is money in new grants for academics and tax money of politicians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwqIy8Ikv-c 

If you watch Fox News, what will you do now?

What do you plan to do for news that isn't Soros run or a DNCast to get "the rest of the story" now that the sons have taken Fox under (fired the guy who made it great). Do we really need another CNN? Or MSNBC? Those of us who watch Fox know the difference between news and opinion shows.  For opinions you can watch anything on broadcast or CNN or MSNBC that goes by the name of News. It all starts with the selection which reflects the owners, the advertisers and the producers. On Fox all the panel shows commenting on the days events had a good mix of conservative, liberals, contrarians and libertarians drawn from the various media. In the last 2 months the schedule has been rearranged so often, you'd get whiplash.  Tucker Carlson isn't a news show, but he's been in 3 time slots--first Greta's, then Megyn's then O'Reillly's, and if they muzzle him as they've done the others, he'll be no fun to watch.

There are the talk shows on radio (Hewitt, Prager, Medved), but they only reflect snippets of AP, the NYT or WaPo or what's been filtered by the producers and writers. Patrick Madrid talk radio (Immaculate Heart) has a 3 hour morning show (we only get 1 hour) discussing contemporary events, but I wouldn't call it news exactly.  EWTN has an excellent evening news, but it doesn't come on until 9 p.m. Sensible, reasonable. Thorough. And it doesn't slam Christians.

I suppose we could resubscribe to Glenn Beck which we did for about 3 years. We got tired of his survivalist and religious wanderings (a former Catholic now a Mormon, but with little resemblance to either), and at least in the early years of his show he'd have good news coverage. Not sure what he has going on now, but we got bored with the eclecticism and praying on air.