As the Western Union of local radio show cancellations here at Sound Politics I have the duty to inform you of the demise of the "David Goldstein Show" on KIRO 710.
Personally I am rather sorry. It is obvious that media consumers want more local talent and do not wish more homogenization of local formats. Goldy is certainly representative of a large percentage of the Seattle-area population that has moved up here since the 1990s.
Bonneville, which reacquired KIRO (after Goldstein was brought on) is a savvy company though. An old radio hand that I know who worked for "The Mormons" back in the day is pretty confident they'll be able to get the station back on its feet again after years of mediocrity.
I think it is needed. Save for our beloved all-sports station on KJR, local AM radio has gotten rather dreary here of late.
I listened to a few of Goldstein's first broadcasts. They were execrable. He was obviously unsure of himself and nervous. And you have to state the obvious fact that Goldy has a voice for blogging; not everyone can be blessed with the dulcet tones of a Rush Limbaugh or Art Bell.
As the weeks and months progressed, though, I'd drop in on occasion while driving, in a car, burning fuel, on the state's neglected roadway system, to listen. He had gotten better as a host and was technically more proficient.
The opinions were drivel but I just have a difference of opinion.
Every time I've met him face-to-face over the past year this mother's son has made sure to compliment him on his improvement on-air. I'm a nice guy. But I'm also a native Washingtonian so I'm always polite. What can I say?
To be honest I tuned in for about an hour once a month on average. Saturday and Sunday nights are usually busy. Things to see and people to do. That sort of thing. I only have myself to blame for the show's cancellation.
I've read two self-consoling posts up on the subject at HA. Log-in for more throughout the week. One of them struck me though and that was the entry titled "Righties Rejoice".
This gets to the reason why I'm writing this.
It's the notion that conservatives and Republicans have nothing better to do than hop up and down because a part-time weekend radio host lost his gig. It's not that big of a deal whether Goldy has a radio show or not nor is it relevant to my day-to-day existence. Republicans and conservatives and most people in general have more important things than that to worry about. I do.
This is kind of a trend that I've seen with folks who spend their waking hours agitating for extreme left.
I've noticed this persecution complex that everyone is out to get them, that they are so important that they are the only ones who can change the world and they'd be able to do it too if it wasn't for those rascally Republicans, evil corporations, BushCheneyRoveRumsfeld or whatever.
We're just not paying that much attention. I glance over at HA a few times a week but really don't do more than glance over the headlines. Occasionally I'll drop a comment and move on.
There have been two times I felt it necessary to post directly where I felt what was written over on the competing site went beyond the pale of decorum.
I understand Goldy; he's a self-promoter and chest-thumper who has to prove he's the smartest kid in class.
Despite this I'll kind of miss hearing him on air on an irregular basis.
It is possible to be paranoid AND actually have someone chasing you. I'm just saying...
If you've seen the pics of the various protests, you'll quickly recognize what I'm talkin' about...
Posted by: scott158 on January 31, 2008 02:25 AMAnyone notice Little Davey Ross has a website called "my northwest"? It's called interactive, but when you click to comment on a particular article, well, you can't leave one......nice going Davey.
Posted by: Rick D on January 31, 2008 08:00 AMHow's that number doing, pseudo-conservatives?
Is that number:
1. sqealing?
2. high-pitched?
3. angry?
I don't think politics is good for the soul. I think Stefan made a good move to take a break, and I think I will soon too. And I think politics got to Goldy to the point where he can't really be glad the he is so aggressive with his agitation. If he really is, then he's a lost cause, and probably a pretty angry person. If he's not that way at all, then the whole thing has been an exercise in trying to build himself as a left version of Dori Monson or whoever one wants to pick on the Seattle right. He probably could have gone about it in a much better way. I bet somewhere inside, he regrets the anger and profanity he prominently displayed on his blog, yet kept more subdued in his radio show.
If nothing else, it's a good conservative lesson for Goldy. Out here in reality, decisions are made, sometimes programs and shows get cut. It's not an endless tax funded parade like he advocates for in Olympia. But now that Olympia is heading towards bankruptcy, even that is going to come to an end as well.
Such is life.
Posted by: Jeff B. on January 31, 2008 09:02 AMDavid Boze has been doing great now that he is solo.
And it is hard to drum up support for listeners to a weekend show. It takes a lot of work to prepare for a show, especially if there are no callers for short periods of time. You have to have an ability to 'wing it'.
Posted by: swatter on January 31, 2008 09:06 AMI think that's a key difference between local conservatives and local progressives, and a larger narrative for why he lost his show. If you look at the comment threads here at SP, yes occassionally something pretty crass slips through. But my sense is that really ugly stuff would be deleted. If not by all SP bloggers, at least by Jim. And that's appropriate.
No one needs a legacy of really ugly statements following them on the Internet like a bad Myspace account. And yet, that's exactly what Goldy's comment threads are. One has to imagine executives for Bonneville reading the hundredth crazy comment from RR in each of Goldy's posts and feeling just a bit uneasy.
It's probably too late for him to go back and clean up now. That's gotta hurt in terms of an association with his name as he moves on to other more productive ventures. Unfortunately, it probably means he will stick with the local agitation role instead of moving on. And that is a waste because I think he is more talented than the HA path he's been going down for a while now. He should go get a law degree or something.
Posted by: Jeff B. on January 31, 2008 09:19 AMRadio talk shows aren't about content either. This is the big fallacy of the slam on "talk radio" being so conservative. The corps producing the shows could give a fig about content; right, middle, left... it's irrelevant.
They care about listeners. They care about listeners because listeners are the measure by which they drive revenue. Listeners = Revenue. Content = a Tool to attempt to drive listener #'s.
You don't get fired for a lack of good ideas because frankly the ownership doesn't care if you have good/bad/dismissable/naive or dangerous ones. They care about your ability to get LISTENERS to agree or disagree and want to hear them, you know, listen. A large list of angry people can in fact be a very very good thing for a show, those people are angry because they are listening. But if there's just a few testy folks and only a few more listeners and callers the show's reason to be ceases. Experiment concluded. New experiment begins and the corp looks for the same measures... does anyone listen.
Posted by: Cecil on January 31, 2008 09:28 AM
The local political radio shows are on there last legs. At least the right leaning shows are.
I will always appreciate David for inviting me on his show when no other host would.
KVI is already made a lot of changes in there
programming. Kirby Wilbur and company are barely
hanging on. For how much longer I don't know.
As Glenn Beck is kicking their tale ratings wise.
As for John Carlson the fact that he doesn't
understand why a lot conservatives don't like
McCain really sums up how out of a touch he is
with most of his listeners.
And yeah, the local conservatives like Carlson and Medved don't understand why people don't like John McCain. It's not a hate thing, it's a fundamental disagreement with his ideology, and his actions. His record speaks for himself. And it's not something that even socially liberal conservatives like.
I think McCain is mostly a party phenomenon. True neocon operatives I know in the WA party are McCain supporters. But I don't think he resonates well with conservatives as a whole. And again, this is not some cliche right wing smear as alleged my Medved, et. al. It's that people look at McCain, see his record, hear his words, etc. and just don't agree with who he is and where he stands.
Posted by: Jeff B. on January 31, 2008 11:17 AMGoldie lives in Seattle. If he wants to continue his show, why not just move it to the cable public access channel?
If the show is good, audio-only, wouldn't it be even better live and in living color?
Posted by: ewaggin on January 31, 2008 11:47 AMThat he mistakenly believes anyone cares that he was fired is proof of that, as is his inability to take responsibility for his failures.
Posted by: Hinton on January 31, 2008 12:10 PMIf you are a public figure, what you do off work hours is just as important as what you do during work hours.
If Clownstein is really the hot commodity he thinks he is (and who knows, maybe he is) then he should be able to land on his feet elsewhere. Brian Suits did.
At any rate, it is a business. If Clownstein feels he was dumped for reasons other than business, he is free to apply at other stations locally or nationally. Personally though, I think he exceeded any expectations he could have reasonably had given his voice meant for blogging. He should be proud he made it that far because it is a mystery how he was even allowed near a microphone with that squeaky voice.
I suggest he go back to writing limerick software.
Posted by: pbj on January 31, 2008 12:20 PMSo what if KIRO management think Goldy is a useless prick! We still love him. He is OUR Useless Prick!
Posted by: YIKES on January 31, 2008 01:13 PMGoldy was a mouthpiece for her campaign against Dave Reichert and had her on the air squealing her anti-Bush rhetoric a number of times.
How is she going to get her message out now?
Is it just me or has there been a lot of upheavel in the seattle radio line ups this past year?
Anyways Dave Ross is still my favorite. I wish they would bring him back to afternoons.
Posted by: Lysander on January 31, 2008 04:37 PMIn the spirit of "The Steinway people asked me to announce that this is a Baldwin piano", I know a number of liberals who wish that Goldy were a conservative.
Posted by: Victor Borge on January 31, 2008 05:46 PMI have a feeling that the management at KIRO logged onto HA and read a couple of posts. I�m sure they didn't want their image associated with the trash going down over there. Add up the ranting with the ratings and I'm sure it killed him.
To bad he had to go. If nothing else Goldy presented a view of the left that turned many a moderate reader/listener away and into the arms of the right-wing world view.
Posted by: G Jggy on January 31, 2008 06:04 PMThis area is not that good for talk radio/KIRO is rather pathetic - maybe their syndicated shows will draw more listeners. Locally, KKOL is more worthwhile to listen to than KVI. KTTH isn't bad at times. Kirby & Company is a bad idea - l listen to his politics, but his enunciation needs work and Anna D on traffic is the worst in enunciation. Boze and Medved are good on KTTH and I like Laura Ingraham, Dennis Praeger & Dennis Miller - he's the bomb when he has former SNL guests on KKOL. Rusty Humphries is sometimes good for colorful conversation, and Michael Savage can be riveting or depressing, depending on the mood.
Posted by: KS on January 31, 2008 08:24 PMI don't know why, but the way he says things like that just cracks me up.
Posted by: Michele on February 1, 2008 01:45 AMI think alot of people like Goldy think because they have an opinion and a blog that they can succeed at talk radio. As he found out, it's not easy, and it actually requires talent to pull it off.
Posted by: Palouse on February 1, 2008 07:57 AMSuits in now doing a 7-10pm slot in Los Angeles on KFI. You can listen to his show on KFI's website.
Posted by: Smoley on February 1, 2008 10:51 AMI did my best to give Goldy career advice, but so far he hasn't sent me his resume. Professional advice for free doesn't fall off the tree every day, so maybe I'll hear from him yet.
We shouldn't be too hard on the old boy because there's hope for him yet. Admitting that his comment threads are usually a sewer is a sign of hope; the first step in overcoming a problem is admitting that you have one.
Now, I don't expect him in church anytime soon, nor do I think he'll sport any togs from the GOP store, but the fog is ever so slowly lifting from at least his right eye.
How long before he casts himself as a victim of the economy? Can't say.
The Piper
Posted by: Piper Scott on February 1, 2008 12:04 PMBest talk on the right is KVI's insomniac replay of John Gibson, 3 - 5 in the AM on AM. Next best talker is Tom Turner, early Saturday mornings. TT is currently the car man, but could make any topic interesting. Unlike Kirby, John, and the excremental Ken.
The worst talk, next to Savage (Dan's brother on KTTH), is Phil Hendrie. So bad, when on KTTH, that even Goldstein on KIRO was better.
Posted by: Brigham Goldstein on February 4, 2008 03:32 PM