Fraters Libertas

Intelligence Report

Local talk station KSTP is mixing up its evening line up again. As speculated here a few weeks ago, Dave Thompson got the axe from the 10 PM slot. But, wisely, KSTP is retaining his services to some degree by returning him to his former weekend slot (from noon to 3).

Another positive move is moving Mischke to 10 PM. His apolitical, off-the-wall, and often brilliant antics are best suited for the late evening. Yes, we conservatives demand a steady diet of rabid opinion affirming venom over the airwaves (just ask media expert Brian Lambert about that), but before drifting off to sleep, even I would rather hear a guy crank calling Dairy Queens in Texas and reading poems about drinking Summit beer than a heated, deadly serious discussion of Bush’s immigration plan. Mischke’s arrival at 10PM returns us to the style tradition of Lileks and this is a good thing.

The gap in the KSTP schedule is Mischke’s old 8PM slot. The new guy they hired is named Chris Crock. Information on him is limited. Apparently, he used to do a show in the C-level market of Madison, Wisconsin. According to the commercials KSTP is already running, the show is going to be called ‘Crock Talk!’ - yes, they shout it every time. This puking tone and the use of the uncreative, pre-packaged show name doesn’t inspire great expectations for him.

This suspicion is further cemented by Mischke’s description of Crock’s style, when he laughingly commented (in response to a caller’s question): “the guy is a raving, Conservative lunatic” and “a Junior Jason Lewis”. Mischke often times distorts the truth as a humor device, but you could tell this wasn’t one of those times.

Raving lunatic and Junior Jason Lewis is not a good combination. First, regarding Jason, he was effective because he had the intellectual and academic foundation to bring insight into news cycle commentary. He didn’t simply rely on cliches, stale observations, and recycling opinions he heard on Rush or read in NRO. He cared about the issues and made the daily effort to put his talents into analysis and it showed in his commentary. A guy without Lewis’s skills and dedication (which is most talk sow hosts) rehashing the newscycle is a prescription for bad radio.

Regarding Mischke’s “lunatic” description - while Lambert’s criticism that the local dial as clogged with unthinking, conservative “howler monkeys” is just plain wrong, that doesn’t mean hosts like this don’t exist. They do, I’ve heard them syndicated (Gallagher, Hannity) and as local hosts from other markets. We’ve just been lucky enough not to have them here in abundance. But KSTP may have been desperate/short sighted enough to go out and find one. The only mention I could find on the Internet of Crock’s Madison show was on some bicycle enthusiast discussion group. Granted, this source seems to be remarkably inarticulate and naive, but perhaps still revealing of his style:

On Friday Oct. 31, at around 9 AM I was in the car fix it shop (yes, I own one of this money eaters!) and my mechanic had on Chris Crock (Crock-o-_hit?) Anyway, Chris was wailing away about "special rights" that peds and bikes want to have in this town. He actually used the word "ped/bike \Nazies" while on the phone with me.

He also said " the Madison Police Dept. and the mayor admin are IN BED with the Safe Communities Coilition".

Swatting flies with sledge hammers - another prescription for bad radio.

I suppose I should let Crock actually do a show before condemning him. And I will. He may be great, and we’ll probably need at least a couple of months before a judgment can be made. Maybe even longer. If Bob Davis’s career were judged after his first few months (anyone remember Bobovia?), it would have been one of the bigger bombs in recent memory. But now he’s established himself as one of the market’s best. For the sake of KSTP, I hope someday we can say the same about Chris Crock.

UPDATE: Turns out, when you spell a man's name correclty on Google, you're much more likely to find information on him. It's spelled Chris Krok. And his bio is already up on the KSTP Web site. Including this bullet point:

Chris interned at some of the most premier broadcast outlets in the nations, including WABC-AM Talk Radio in New York and Dateline NBC.

No matter what field you're in, when you're promoting your interning experience on your resume - you don't have any experience.

Via the Internet, there's also this exchange from a Krok appearance on Fox News with John Gibson. Read it yourself - it's childish and brutally embarrassing.

Also, this article from Madison's media reporter on Krok's departure at WTDY, including this curious nugget:

WTDY program director John "Sly" Sylvester said Tuesday Krok called recently to give notice of his departure. "I don't know where he's going," Sylvester said, adding that Krok wouldn't say.

See a certain immaturity theme developing here? All hope for success is rapidly diminishing.

Finally, in my tireless research on this issue, I also found a blog devoted to what happens on the Mischke broadcast. Interesting, if obsessive. I mean, what kind of person chooses to spend their spare time ruminating on what happens on local radio.