If talk radio is a right-wing playground, Democrats have no one but themselves to blame, says Jay Marvin, the morning host at liberal KKZN 760-AM.
Marvin scoffs at a Los Angeles Times report that Democrats lost “a soapbox” with the firing of syndicated talk-show host Don Imus. Dan Gerstein, an adviser to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told The Times, “Talk radio has become primarily the province of the right. If Imus loses his microphone, there aren’t many other venues like it around.”
Horse hockey, or words to that effect, said Marvin. “I think they’re full of it. It demonstrates the problem I have with Democratic candidates. Republicans and the GOP have it down to a science. If I call anybody with the RNC, they always return my call. You call Democrats, you don’t get returns. They need to use the media better. It’s them, not him.”
Marvin exempts local Dems Ken Salazar and Bill Ritter from the won’t-call-back list. “They understand the media and how to use it.”
He still puts up his dukes with his conservative talk-show counterparts: “I find it amazing that there are right-wing talk-show hosts who yell and scream about art-show exhibits but the minute something like this happens, they start screaming First Amendment rights. It’s wrong to offend Christians but it’s not wrong to offend blacks and women? It’s hypocrisy.”
More Imus
“This is an overreaction beyond anything I’ve ever seen in radio,” said Fred Lundgren, chairman of KCAA, an AM station in San Bernardino, Calif.
The station will air “Best of Imus,” despite talk-show host Don Imus getting canned for his comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.
It wasn’t all about the First Amendment; it was also financial. Said Lundgren, “I hate to say it but without Imus we’re pretty much toast.”
Awwwwwww
KDVR-Channel 31’s helicopter pilot Rob Marshall has a new puppy – but it needs a name.
Marshall and his sidekick, Dylan, were familiar to morning-news viewers, but the dog died earlier this month. The new co-pilot, a little golden retriever, is in flight training. Suggestions for a name are being taken at myfoxcolorado.com.
Around the dial
Only one in 10 stations are programmed by women, a new study from Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio shows. More than a third of the 120 groups that own 12 or more stations listed no female program directors … The KRMA-Channel 6 series “America at a Crossroads” looks at two topics tonight – “Gangs of Iraq” (9 p.m.) and “The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom” (10 p.m.) … Quotable: “He’ll work again. If I can get a job, anyone can.” Jay Marvin.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
