Fraters Libertas

Up and Down the Dial

Yesterday Mitch Berg at Shot In The Dark featured a solid overview of the local Twin Cities talk radio scene (permalinks are kaput you have to scroll down). His description of Mike Gallagher as "everybland" is the perfect tag for Gallagher's complete lack of a distinguishing personality or style. And I have to give Mitch props for even knowing who the WCCO hosts are these days. Unless I'm tuning in to a Wild or Twins game I avoid the Good Neighbor like the plague. I guess I'm still haunted by childhood memories of listening to Joyce LaMont, the barking dogs on Boone and Erickson (yeah that never gets old), breaking news on pork belly futures, and the corn detassling bus pickup schedule (if you've never lived in the Midwest and have no idea what I'm referring to consider yourself lucky).

However, I think Mitch did overlook a few shows and was a bit hasty in his judgment of others. How and why would you not want to include the lovely Laura Ingraham in the mix? Yes, her show is on 1570 AM KYCR which is hardly a household name in the Twin Cities radio scene but I'd rather listen to the rebroadcast of her program in the morning (6am-9am) than the dreck they're spinning these days over at KSTP. The only downside to Ingraham's show is the God awful impersonations that she tries to pull off. Usually I'll listen to her until 8am when I switch over to Ian Punnent at FM 107. Punnent is a lot like Tommy Mischke at KSTP in that you need to listen for a while before you "get it" and it's probably not everyone's cup of tea. KYCR also does have Ingraham live from 6pm-9pm in the evenings but I usually am busy listening to Hugh Hewitt's show at that time. Hugh manages to assemble an amazing collection of guests and provides incomparable insight into the national political scene. Plus he throws out some love to us humble bloggers every once in a while and likes to push Lileks buttons so you gotta respect him.

Finally how could one write about the local radio scene and not mention Dave Thompson? Thousands of Twin Cities residents spend their Saturday and Sunday afternoons listening to Dave's soothing tones while doing various chores around the house. Whether he's talking about conceal and carry reform or his reluctance to touch salamanders Dave brings his unique style into our lives and has become an indispensable part of our weekend routines. Cleaning out the gutters just wouldn't be the same without him.