We took a little road trip today, and I was watching the mile markers click by when I suddenly started thinking about my brief and intermittent career in talk radio. Yes, people, I sat behind a microphone for a while and said, “Jean, you’re on the air. … Yes, Jean, it’s you. You’re on the air. …Jean, please turn down your radio.”
I started at WOWO, the 50,000-watt AM powerhouse that is many people’s sole knowledge of Fort Wayne; at night, its firehose of a signal reached 23 states and three Canadian provinces. Snowbirds could listen to Komets hockey games in Florida, and a DJ there once received a letter from a soldier in Vietnam, who picked up the station on one of those weird atmospheric hop-skips that AM signals do now and again. But my show wasn’t on at night. WOWO was a music station that ground to a halt at 2 p.m. five days a week for a single hour of “In Touch” with your host, Nancy Nall. At 3 p.m., we waved goodbye to everyone and the music started again. If it sounds like the sort of programming only a madman would try, well, you’re right. Even stranger was the station management, who hired me after I had written a four-day-a-week newspaper column in their very city for nine years and only discovered I wasn’t Rush Limbaugh after I was on the air. Admittedly, it was probably a mistake to keep that guy on the line for five minutes arguing about the Confederate flag, but at least it stripped away the last veil from the station manager’s eyes. I quit after about four months, when I was handed a memo strongly suggesting I keep my personal opinions to myself, “the way the most successful hosts do.”
I really didn’t like the gig, anyway. People speak of the intimacy of radio, but it’s a one-way street. I always closed the show feeling bummed out that I lived in the same community with some of these bitter lemon-suckers, like the guy who called every day to talk about the Federal Reserve, and the old people who bitched about Social Security with the tone of toddlers who’d missed their naps. The program director wanted every reasonably sane caller to get on the air, and so no matter what we were talking about, anyone could change the subject. (It was educational, however. I never knew all that stuff about Ezra Pound and his time in the nuthatch until Federal Reserve Frank brought it up one day.)
After I quit I vowed never again, but a few months later I got a call from Mark the Shark, who asked me to co-host his Thursday-morning show on WGL, another station in town, this one with an all-talk format. It was run by an entertaining but odd couple who could pinch a penny until Abe Lincoln begged for mercy. They’d recently instituted a one-hour show for the 8-9 a.m. slot, with a different host every day. Each one had a measure of prominence in the community and tended to be Republicans. Mark, a Democratic city councilman, was added for balance. He was — is — very smart and very funny, and his show was a bright spot in the week, so I thought what the hell.
(What did this gig pay? you’re wondering. WOWO, a temple of progressive ideas, including that people should be financially compensated for their work, paid me $25 per show. WGL paid us, the celebrity hosts…nothing. One year we all got a half-pound box of DeBrand chocolates for Christmas.)
But it was fun! Mark was fun. We had a blast. It wasn’t depressing, there was no station management micromanaging anything. We just took calls and drank coffee and laughed for an hour a week, and then we both went to the office.
It soon became evident, however, that we were working in some strange stratum of radio. Those of you who mourn the lost spontaneity of what was once an unpredictable medium? You should have been there. Shows came on the air and went off — we were cancelled twice and rehired a few months later for no apparent reason other than the time change, always a headache for Indiana broadcasters back when the state ignored Daylight Saving Time. Piles of old equipment, seemingly from the ’30s, grew in the hallways under a coating of dust. There was a station cat and, for a while, a dog. Every show was prefaced by a mad dash to find headphones that worked, essential in talk radio. The station owners were regular callers to the shows, dialing in from their offices, I suppose. Everyone shared one producer/engineer/screener, who was the host of the show that came on before ours. I tried to keep a file through the week of topics to discuss, but we rarely opened it. We just talked for a few minutes and then went to the phones.
This was sort of the model for all the shows in this slot, which was called “Windows.”
Every so often we’d go out for donuts with the station owner and his wife, Frank and Connie, afterward. Frank would tell stories. There was one about a day-long negotiation for a major military contract in Egypt — Frank sold radio communication systems, too — and it was really getting heated between Frank and the European head of Motorola and some other swell in a Bond Street suit. (Frank was probably wearing one of his best outfits, perhaps the shirt with mustard stains with the pilled polyester pants.) During the break, one of the Egyptians showed off his new business cards, very nice engraved ones, etc. So did everyone else, and then Frank pulled out his. It had his name and phone number, and running around the edge of the card the services he offered: “Virgins converted,” “Revolutions fomented,” “20-minute oil changes,” etc. The translator ran through the phrases, and all the Egyptians crowded around, laughing — they all wanted one, too. Frank got the contract.
And it wasn’t just our show, either. There was a show called “Roman Around the Dial,” hosted by Andy Roman. I found a website that gave his tenure at the station: August 1998 – August 1998. In about his second week, his producer called in sick, and there was no one to fill in, which meant he had to screen his calls live. After about the third call from someone who wanted the ad department, he went off on a rant about this cheap station and he can’t even get a damn call screener, but he went on the air anyway, because he’s a professional, and, and, and… Hold on, the phone’s ringing. And it’s Frank! Saying, “Why didn’t you come down to my office and ask me, I can run the board. You don’t need to be so immature.” Andy went buh buh buh and cut to a commercial; when the show came back on, Frank was hosting, and Andy was on his way back to Cleveland or thereabouts.
The only time you hear radio like that anymore is when someone stages it as a stunt. And people think making jokes about the Pope is outrageous.
There were other shows, many of which gave the impression the hosts had been dragged in off the street, shown which buttons to push, and thrown on the air. There was one called “Grumpy Old Men,” everything about the show revealed in its name. And there was the Jennifer and Nancy show. Not me, another Nancy. She had a voice like one of Marge Simpson’s sisters, and Jennifer was either a moron, or just played one on the radio. They made Mark’s and my “Windows” hour sound like the McNeil-Lehrer report. “Remember saving foil?” Jennifer reminisced one day, after taking note of how poor people just didn’t know how to economize. Jennifer had saved foil in her marital salad days, when her husband was in medical school. I waited for the slightest flicker of understanding that two college-educated people, one in med school, might experience poverty a little differently from those for whom it’s a multi-generational condition, but no. The unexamined life, ah.
One day Jennifer was handed a breaking-news traffic report: There was a major accident on I-69 at the 110 mile marker, and motorists were being urged to find alternate routes. She read it, paused, and then went off on a housewifey tirade about these stupid things called “mile markers,” and why do the police always talk about them? What’s a mile marker? Who knows what they are? How is this information helpful in any way? And so on.
“We’ve got Bob on the line from a car phone. Go ahead, Bob.”
Bob explained what mile markers were, how to find them, what their relationship to exit numbers was. Then he said, “I swear, you two are the dumbest people I’ve ever heard on a radio show. How can you function, being so stupid?” Jennifer and Nancy thanked him for the information and blundered on, oblivious. Now, whenever I see a mile marker, I think, “there’s a mile marker” and recall Jennifer, Nancy and Bob. Good times, good times.
So, bloggage:
What happens when you screw up one big corporation? You get hired in Detroit.
Hey, Mrs. Giuliani! How do you like your new one? (Orifice, not husband. Vanity Fair ripped her one.)
Later, folks.
brian stouder said on August 6, 2007 at 9:37 am
Great post! Between laughing out loud and grinning all the way through, my face now hurts!!
Now Ft Wayne talk radio is reduced to mostly just Pat White (who Nance also teamed with, at least a few times), who lately seems to be all ’embittered right-wing know-nothingism all the time’, and that’s it! (Even his side-kick Queen Diane seems to have been cast aside; haven’t heard her jaunty, semi-informed voice in weeks, and with no explanation)
Those were funny days on the Ft Wayne radio dial indeed; and sometimes depressing (the anti-Semitism that popped up all-too-often was a major downer)
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Kirk said on August 6, 2007 at 9:39 am
Regarding the compulsion to place blame for events such as the Minnesota bridge collapse, as discussed here last week: A politically oriented e-mailer that sometimes slips past my spam guard puts forth the notion that it’s NAFTA’s fault for increasing the traffic on that bridge.
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nancy said on August 6, 2007 at 10:02 am
Actually, Brian, I had a long passage in there about Frank’s cheerful anti-Semitism, and took it out. It seemed to raise more questions than it answered, and I don’t have all the answers yet. I do know that I wouldn’t work — if that’s what you’d call it — for him again, but that point is moot, Frank now dead for two years. I guess my only defense is that I’m curious about people, and my curiosity about Frank and his oddness outweighed my revulsion over his problems with Jews.
I’ve not known many anti-Semites; it seems like such a strange prejudice to hold in a place like Fort Wayne, where there are, at best, maybe a thousand Jews in the whole city. And Frank was always so upfront about it. One of his stories was about how he almost got his mitts on WOWO, he was in a good position to buy the station from Price, but made a mistake in a meeting with the president of the company, when he said, “I don’t like to do business with the Jewish people.” And whaddaya know, the president was Jewish. He reported this with no sense of anger, shame or even awareness that one shouldn’t be so upfront about one’s prejudices in a business setting. It was as though he didn’t know the guy bred Persians, and then made the mistake of saying he wasn’t a cat person.
Over the years, various people tried to confront him on this, but no one made a dent. A Jewish city councilman walked out of a meeting when he spoke one time, and it made the news, so it was hardly a secret. But the Jewish GOP chairman had one of the slots on “Windows,” too. (Maybe this didn’t count as “doing business” because no money changed hands. All I could figure was, both parties got what they wanted out of the deal.)
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LA mary said on August 6, 2007 at 10:02 am
I read the Judi Giuliani piece last week and thought it wasn’t nasty enough. It might seem like Vanity Fair is picking on Rudy and Judi, but to people who lived in NYC during the Giulian administration, it’s unbelievable anyone would consider this pair for the White House. He’s crazy and she’s a world class climber. Read Michael Wolf’s piece about Rudy from a couple of months agoin in VF. He gets it right.
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Jolene said on August 6, 2007 at 10:05 am
A plug for a recent book that might be of interest to people interested in radio by Marc Fisher, one of my favorite Washington Post writers: Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation.
http://tinyurl.com/34c8kn
You taught me something today, Nancy. Your use of “salad days” prompted me to look it up. For no particular reason, I had the idea that that phrase referred to good times rather than lean times, which, of course, doesn’t really make sense at all. Thanks for expanding–or, more accurately–correcting my vocabulary.
That piece re Judith Giuliani was something, wasn’t it? If he gets closer to being the candidate, she is going to get hammered in forums that reach a much broader audience than does Vanity Fair.
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 10:24 am
He’s crazy and she’s a world class climber
Funny, if that sentence had been used as a clue in a crossword puzzle, someone might have guessed the Clintons.
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Joe K said on August 6, 2007 at 10:39 am
Danny,
Rolling on the floor over that one.
Mrs N, Frank also cost the tax payers of Allen county a lot of money when he fought the county over the runway expansions at Baer Field. He was just pissed because he did not get the fueling service for Burlington Northern Air Freight, and took it out on the whole county.
Joe
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LA mary said on August 6, 2007 at 11:03 am
Bill Clinton is crazy? Hillary a climber? Does she insist on wearing a tiara (Judi does) does he go ballistic during a call in show over legalization of ferrets as pets? Rudi did. Rudi is freaking dangerous, Danny. Did you read the article about Judi in VF? Judi’s security detail, before she was even married to Giuliani, pushed Hillary out of the way so Judi could enter the room. Hillary was already a senator from NY at the time, Judi was the married mayor’s girlfriend.
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nancy said on August 6, 2007 at 11:07 am
Honestly, gents, you really can’t compare Hillary and JuDITH, past a few obvious points. Yes, they’re both married to powerful men and did some coattail advances because of same. But Hillary is a lawyer with a degree from a top school, a long career and years of experience in politics at the state and national level. More to the point, she’s been married to her husband since they were both nobodies.
JudDITH is a washed-up pharma saleslady whose philosophy has always been, “Marry up,” even if you have to wreck a home to do so.
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brian stouder said on August 6, 2007 at 11:10 am
hahahahaha!! I was with you all the way to “wreck a home”!! That was pretty sexist, wasn’t it? Rudy is the one who wrecked his home, imo.
Anyway – yes; the key point is Hillary and Bill started at zero together, and if anything, BILL was the one who latched onto Hillary for HIS advancement!
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Kirk said on August 6, 2007 at 11:32 am
Maybe it was the crossword puzzle in Human Events.
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Julie Robinson said on August 6, 2007 at 11:42 am
For most of my childhood, my father was the News and Sports Director at WLBK in DeKalb, Illinois. The entire department consisted of Dad and one other fellow. Most days he got up at 3:30 AM, gathered the news (that is, visited his buddies at the police station), and after the morning shift, returned in the evening to cover city council meetings and sports events. He carried in all his own equipment, set up the telephone line, did both the play by play and the color commentary, kept his own statistics, timed the commercial breaks, and got to use the rest room once, during halftime.
This makes it sound like a horrible job with even more horrible hours. But he loved it, and there was no one more tuned in to the community. In fact, when the local university had its own student uprising in the late 60’s, he went to cover it and ended up being the mediator who brought everyone together for a resolution.
He also loved sports and it showed in his broadcasts. He would cover anything, even wrestling, which was very big locally.
And now I finally come to the point: for many years he also hosted a call-in show. No guests most days, but the DJ would often sit in and bounce ideas around with him. On slow days when he had to fill he often turned to our family activities.
This was a small town with no other radio stations, so when I got to school my teachers had been listening and had lots of questions about those activities. I of course had been listening to WLS out of Chicago so I had no idea what they were talking about.
So in a small way, I understand what it’s like to be the child of a celebrity. It’s also why I went to college at IU, where I could be anonymous.
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Joe K said on August 6, 2007 at 11:46 am
I’m surprised Judith did not wind up worm food after the dust up with Hill. It seemed like a lot of other people had “accidents” after they fell out of favor with the Clinton’s while they were in power.
Did they ever figure out how Vince Foster shot himself left handed??
Joe
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Oh, no Joe. Vince Foster and Vanity Fair. Two VF’s. Do you think that the Clintons authorized the hit piece in Vanity Fair as a coded warning to Judi that she could end up like you-know-who?
Hey, speaking of “homewreckers,” I heard this quote attributed to Gza Gza Gabor: “I’m a housekeeper. I marry them, divorce them and keep the house.”
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Oh and yes, Mary, I would think “crazy” would be a good word. I mean there was a literal cacophony of women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Bill. And then there was the incident where he choked Dick Morris when he got pissed at him.
And most of us would be hard-pressed to name two more venal, power-hungry people than Bill and Hill.
{Snort}
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Jolene said on August 6, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Yeah, I don’t know what happened there. Anyway, according to Slate, Caroline Giuliani, Rudy’s daughter, is supporting Barack Obama.
http://www.slate.com/id/2171730/
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John said on August 6, 2007 at 12:22 pm
OMG! They took out Jolene right in the middle of her comment! Those Bastards! (Edit: You know, the edit option can be a buzz kill. And now I’m predicting that they will “hit” Danny next!)
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 12:33 pm
John, what are you talking ab…..
The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected. If you feel you have reached this message in error, please try your call again….
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LA mary said on August 6, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Venal and power hungry? Wow, a long list. Cheney? Rove? Bush? The whole “executive privilege” gang?
Being a horn dog does not make a man crazy. It makes him a horn dog. It’s not pretty but it isn’t crazy.
I recommend Michael Wolf’s piece about Rudy in VF from a few months ago. I’m at work so I’m limited in my research capabilities, but Michael speaks the truth about Rudy.
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LA mary said on August 6, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Here you go, Danny. I found it:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/06/wolff200706
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Jim said on August 6, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Nancy, thanks for the memories of Fort Wayne talk radio. I remember a lot of that and it did make listening fun. I’m afraid unpredictable radio is gone for good.
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Peter said on August 6, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Thanks for the tip on the Judith article. MEOWWWWW! Bitch should think about marrying up again – perhaps Michael Vick is available. I’d write more, but I better check on the dog.
And for comparing her to Hilary – you wish.
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Mary, I too need to be brief, but I wasn’t referring to the women who Clinton had consensual relations with. I was referring to the ones who claim he assaulted them. Paula Jones, Juanita Broderick, Kathleen Willey. Don’t know if any of it was true or just a vast right-wing conspiracy, but if even one of them is true, he is crazy. It’s flat-out crazy to assault someone sexually. And I do beleive he physically assaulted Dick Morris.
But my point about all of this is not so much to compare Rudy and Judi vis-a-vis Bill and Hill. In fact, I do not care to defend Rudy or almost any politician in this day and age’s wretched hive of scum and villiany. I just think it is hugely laughable that Nancy, you and a few others turn a blind-eye when it’s “your guy,” but if the candiate has an R after their name, they are the personification of evil.
It’d probably be more accurate if we just admit that they are all evil to varying degrees.
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 1:44 pm
John. The prediction. Too funny!
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Jeff said on August 6, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Harper’s tees-off on Rudy in the most recent issue (well, my most recent, Aug. 2007) and reminds those of us who don’t live in NYC — he’s certifiable.
Which makes his calm demeanor in debates this day almost as interesting as Barry Bonds’ mysterious late in life growth spurt . . .
I went from radio to Public Television pledge drive hosting, and the caller pattern was much the same. If you see those folks in the background all on the phone, about one in four are taking a pledge, and the other three are talking to Federal Reserve Frank. Or an anti-Semite. Or just a lonely widow lady watching Welk re-runs.
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LA mary said on August 6, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I’m not turning a blind eye to Clinton. I’m saying he’s not crazy. Nor is Hillary a climber. She’s an ambitious, yes. Everyone who runs for president is ambitious.
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Kirk said on August 6, 2007 at 1:54 pm
I wonder whether anyone who wants that job isn’t a little crazy, too.
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Joe K said on August 6, 2007 at 2:11 pm
So, LA Mary, If your a Female Dem your ambitious, but if your a female Rep, your a climber. Next you’ll tell us, making a joke about pubic hair in coke cans is wrong and you should not be a supreme court judge, but molesting women is just being a horndog, and since he’s YOUR guy,and crazy he’ll make a good Pres???
This has been a fun topic today, lots of give and take and wink, wink,nudge, nudge, know what I mean.
Great comebacks Danny,Us little guys got to stick tight.
Joe
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Oh, yeah, and Mary, sorry to pick on you, but is Arnold Schwarzenegger just a good-natured horndog or is he a disgusting pig? The latter was your description a few months back.
And Nancy kinda agreed at the time and chimed in by saying that she had heard he liked the occasional “plo-job.”
You girls are funny.
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Dorothy said on August 6, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Wish all of you could see the steam coming out of my ears over what is being written today. No wonder I steer clear of political discussions at all costs. Too much wasted energy. I’d much rather talk about the movies or some such. You guys are much bitchier than all of my girlfriends and my sisters combined!
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Mark the Shark said on August 6, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Nancy:
Unbeknownst to either of us, my mom taped most of our shows. They are lots of fun to listen to. You did not mention the fact that the owners, ever mindful that we had volunteered throughout the year, invited us to the office Christmas party, complete with a cash bar.
And to this day, whenever I read a blog from an angry “tough” who is one step away from bringing down the republic, I think of poor Paul P., the 6am to 8am guy who took on the school system, and would no doubt have taken his anti-establishment fight even further had he not been so poor he couldn’t afford gas in his car. I think his life unraveled when his wife beat him up.
Okay, you win the prize if you can recall the name of the old lady who absolutely hated me. It was something like Cecelia but that is not it. (I called “Mark light” and he said he would come up with it.) One night after Thanksgiving dinner I took her a piece of pumpkin pie. What a mistake, she was never the same after that.
And then of course, there was Bo Greitz (sp?). He had his followers in Fort Wayne alright. I went to the library and found out what a kook he was and spent the next show discussing his Congressional testimony on MIAs. I think that was when I finally realized that it is absolutely no fun declawing whackos. I mean without Bo, what was left for these guys? Well, I mean, except for the black helicopters, the illegality of the federal income tax, land grants that make all real estate everywhere up for grabs and roving satellites that are directing the activity of these folks.
Nancy, the show was never more fun than when you joined. First, I always knew you would be there as I sped down the Baer Field Thruway at 7:57, hoping the news would carry through the hour. But I never would have met the owners at Karen’s Kitchen without you. Did Frank ever figure out how we were able to guess with 100% accuracy the previous night’s dinner menu? Thanks for a great piece. I am going to read it again then put a few of mom’s tapes in.
Love ya and miss ya,
Mark
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Laura said on August 6, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Danny:
I’m betting your cacophony is more figurative than literal. I didn’t hear a thing.
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Laura said on August 6, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Danny:
Is that steam literally coming out of your ears?
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Danny said on August 6, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Actually, no. Maybe Dorothy is projecting. I dunno. I happen to be in an exceptionally good mood today.
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nancy said on August 6, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I just text-messaged Mark the old bat’s name: Francile.
Here’s why I decided to join Mark on his show and give my labor free to an anti-Semite:
As extreme amateur talk radio, almost everyone who called got on the air one way or another. On other days, when other hosts were in charge, even the most raving lunatics would be listened to politely, and then the host would say, inevitably, “Good point. Thanks for your input.”
So one morning I was listening to Mark, and some quavery-voiced coot called in to bitch about lawyers. “Seems like even when we know someone’s guilty, they get to have a lawyer and tie up everything in the courts,” he griped.
There was a pause.
And then Mark said, “Since this isn’t the day on the show when we say, ‘good point, good point’ over and over, I’m going to tell you why what you just said is really, really stupid.”
My kinda co-host.
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Dorothy said on August 6, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Yay – Nancy likes to text-message!
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alex said on August 6, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Danny, Joe — Good point, good point.
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LA mary said on August 6, 2007 at 3:58 pm
OK, Danny and Joe.
Hillary is running for office. Judi keeps marrying up. She is not running for office. There is a major difference.
Arnold Schwarzeneggar demanded on set blow jobs from female workers in order to keep their jobs. I know at least two women who had that charming experience. One a wardrobe person, one makeup. Not only that, he let everyone on set know who had provided services for him and who had not.That is not being a horn dog. That is being a pig. Also, you elected that pig but your party spent millions of dollars going after Clinton for what your are saying is the same behaviour. It isn’t. But you are saying it is. Should we investigate Arnold? Also, please show me where I defended Bill Clinton. I said he was not crazy.
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Laura said on August 6, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Oops, sorry Danny. Dorothy has the ear steam. I was so caught up in the cacophony that I figured you were on a roll.
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Dave said on August 6, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I’ve read either here or elsewhere that one of the major reasons that Fort Wayne got so prohibitively expensive to fly out of, if there was anywhere that you could catch a direct flight to that you wanted to go to, was because of Frank Kovas and his airport fight. I’ve thought about that every time I’ve driven to Indy to fly.
I remember Jennifer and Nancy, I used to wonder why they were on the air. I remember when G. Gordon Liddy came to town and they just went on and on about what a great guy he was.
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deb said on August 6, 2007 at 6:06 pm
jennifer and nancy sound like that witless talk-show duo that jan hooks and nora dunn used to play on “SNL.”
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joodyb said on August 6, 2007 at 9:18 pm
LOL! LOL@WORK!
thanks for juicy post. still luff the radio.
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Linda said on August 7, 2007 at 5:06 am
“I’ve not known many anti-Semites; it seems like such a strange prejudice to hold in a place like Fort Wayne, where there are, at best, maybe a thousand Jews in the whole city.”
Nancy, you should not be surprised re: the anti-semitism in Indiana. For decades the state was a big center for the Ku Klux Klan, and vestiges of that may have still been around when you were there.
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Dorothy said on August 7, 2007 at 7:02 am
I’m wonderin’ if joodyb might be considering a name change to joodithb? Let’s hope not!
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LA mary said on August 7, 2007 at 9:53 am
Watch for the tiara. The TH will follow.
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LA mary said on August 7, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Completely off topic…
http://www.vickdogchewtoy.com/
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brian stouder said on August 7, 2007 at 1:24 pm
It is funny to watch the swirling dust-cloud of “rules” about the mechanics of ‘properly’ attacking a candidate’s spouse, as opposed to (supposedly) ‘improper’ attacks.
It seems that it is always ‘fair’ (as far as that goes), and still always unsavory. If Rudy is “crazy”, at least he marries the tarts he shags, as opposed to tossing them off like cheeseburgers from Dogs ‘N Suds (as others allegedly do)
Anyway, it is certainly nothing new in American history. Look up Andrew Jackson. His wife died just weeks before he was inaugurated, and he always (and hotly) blamed his political opponents; they seemed (to Andy) to have literally embarrassed her to death (one of the charges in the campaign was that she was a bigamist…which might have been technically true!)
(edit- PS – here’s hoping the folks selling the clever Vick chew toys didn’t get them from a Chinese manufacturer, for the safety of the dogs!)
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joodyb said on August 7, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Dorothy: ignoring it, not aspiring to it. all my life.
i’d say she gives judiths a bad name, but then she doesn’t really seem to know who she is anyway! she may be giving it up in another couple months. i rest easy. and sisters got all the tiaras, so don’t look for one.
ordering the vickdogchewtoy.
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