I must confess to being a long time Imus listener. I listened in the 1970s when he was unleashing Moby Worm on unsuspecting high schools in the New York Metropolitan Area, and he didn’t care “if it rains or freezes, long as I got my plastic Jesus, glued up there on the dashboard of my car.”
I missed him when I moved to Boston (1989), but tuned in from the first day when his syndicated show appeared on WEEI. I followed him to WTKK. I even stayed with WTKK when Mike Barnicle took over the slot after the Rutgers debacle, but when Barnicle decided that MSNBC was a better deal than Boston radio, and WTKK substituted with Michael Graham, I was morning radio homeless.
I have been listening to NPR, which I like during most of the day and most afternoons, but it’s a little too calm, sleepy, laid back, or nap inducing for a wake-up morning show.
I don’t miss Bernie, and I don’t miss some of the over the top things that Imus did, but he was sharp, cynical, and was bipartisan in his likes and dislikes for various politicians.
Now we are in the midst of the 2008 Presidential campaign, and I miss the pundits. I miss the jokes. I just plain miss this stupid, tastless radio show and I resent the cowardly advertisers and the fleeing friends who let the ship sink after a really stupid on-air remark.
As one who believes that John Kerry made one of his top 10 campaign mistakes when his train highballed through the Imus ranch in New Mexico, I think the 2008 campaign won’t be as much fun without Imus calling out the candidates.
I don’t know how many folks on BMG share my views, but Howie Carr on morning radio is far more tasteless with a 90% reduction in intellectual value.
peter-porcupine says
..is Give Tom a Chance!”
lasthorseman says
Imus supported the mercury/autism link and any Illuminati watcher will tell you they will simply not allow any major figure casting doubt in the minds of simpletons about the Godlike image big pharma is supposed to have in this country.
Second, the degradation of women, society in general and the deliberate baiting of race against race goes on daily in this country in far more Satanic ways than anything Imus said.
Third Imus’s rantings and ravings in many ways pointed to plain common sense and corporate media just can’t allow independent thought.
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The replacement Mike Barnacle I found to be just as conservative as Sean Hannity and of course Michael even more so. Barnacle just does not have the younger demographic IMHO, that Graham can draw.
I’m with the anti-globalist party though and I’ve already proven the left and right in this country serve the very same corporate masters, the only difference is the Satanicness in their prescribed destruction of America memes.
pablo says
I’m sorry. I don’t find Graham to be entertaining. He is predictable, not very insightful, and not much fun to listen to.
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I like Severin, because he is capable of surprising you on any given afternoon, and he does some good “inside baseball” analysis. I haven’t listened to him lately because WTKK hasn’t been on the radio when I park the car at the end of my morning commute.
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I don’t care that I agree with someone. I want someone entertaining and thoughtful, who can bring something other than talking-point cliches to the airwaves.
lasthorseman says
media personalities because I view the entire media as corporate propaganda which serves Machiavellian purposes.
Google Strategic Communications Laboratories
for an example of the power of media manipulation.
I don’t like Graham other than to say his style might appeal demographically to the younger more gullible set.
Sevrin on the other hand is far more dangerous as his views have a much broader scope and influence.
jimc says
I don’t drive to work, so I don’t miss him, but I likely would if I did. I usually listen to NPR but if they did a story I wasn’t interested in and Imus was interviewing, say, John McCain, it was great. Essentially, it was a right-wing show, but he did have a sense of outrage about certain things, and when he went sour on Bush I felt optimistic. Guys like Lieberman and McCain must miss him terribly, because they were noticeably loose when they were on his show.
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I have mixed feelings about his firing. On one hand, he truly deserved it by the odd standards of broadcasting. On the other hand, by those same standards, he truly deserved it for years, and CBS just let the very profitable bet ride.
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His value was in cutting to what he considered the chase and asking the haymaker question. I didn’t always agree with his definition of the chase, but in contrast to Russert, who asks one tough question and one follow-up, he was refreshing.
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Some days, though, I knew to turn him off immediately. Whenever he bought a new country album and wanted to plug it, no thanks. And if his brother called … or if he was just off that day … very inconsistent. But when good, very good. Nothing else like it on the dial.
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jimc says
You have to drive to work with the radio you have.
raj says
…WTKK on my way to the gym, to find out what was so special about Don “I’m An Ass” In The Morning. Fortunately, the car trips were eight minutes in each direction.
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To each his own. I found him to be rather vapid–a rather low-rent Howie Carr. Howie is low rent, but it is obvious that he knows he is running a comedy show.
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Regarding “I’m An Ass” returning to Boston airwaves, he might do it on a low-power station like AM1150. That’s the station that carries the other nut-cases.
lasthorseman says
I’m afraid this medium does not allow a full explanation of my deep rooted beliefs, worldviews, life experiences.
I can easily see why some call Imus an ass. The equation though to Howie Carr is interesting. Today there is a media geared toward every mentality just as there are little boxes in every Excel spreadsheet and placing onself into a little box isolates one from reality.