Dan Shelley: Secrets of Talk Radio

Dan Shelley, former long-time employee of 620 WTMJ, claims to be telling the "secrets of talk radio" in his article in Milwaukee Magazine.

Shelley purports to give the methodology of the talk radio industry, "how talk show hosts like Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner work to get us angry."

I take issue with Shelley's article on a number of counts.

It's a petty hit piece.

It's the writing of a disgruntled employee.

It's a slam on Sykes and Wagner.

It's a slam on me, as a member of the audience.

Frankly, I'm insulted by Shelley's "secrets."

I don't like being portrayed as angry and as a victim. I especially don't like being portrayed as a dolt.

As a long-time loyal member of the talk radio audience, why don't I like Shelley's assessment of me?

Simple. It's not true.

I do not feel I've been "carefully prodded" by talk radio hosts to think a certain way. I'm not brainwashed.

Talk radio at its best presents an issue that engages its audience and stimulates thought and personal reflection. It's an exciting and dynamic medium because it gives voice to the people. Listeners call in. Listeners, like me, e-mail. Our voices are heard. All points of view are aired. There's always something new. There's always a fresh voice.

Shelley is being incredibly condescending and arrogant.

I think for myself.

Shelley writes:

To begin with, talk show hosts such as Charlie Sykes – one of the best in the business – are popular and powerful because they appeal to a segment of the population that feels disenfranchised and even victimized by the media. These people believe the media are predominantly staffed by and consistently reflect the views of social liberals. This view is by now so long-held and deep-rooted, it has evolved into part of virtually every conservative’s DNA.

To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate the notion that his or her listeners are victims, and the host is the vehicle by which they can become empowered. The host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-them terms. There has to be a bad guy against whom the host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners.

This enemy can be a politician – either a Democratic officeholder or, in rare cases where no Democrat is convenient to blame, it can be a “RINO” (a “Republican In Name Only,” who is deemed not conservative enough). It can be the cold, cruel government bureaucracy. More often than not, however, the enemy is the “mainstream media” – local or national, print or broadcast.

Sometimes, it can even be their own station’s news director. One year, Charlie targeted me because I had instructed my midday news anchor to report the Wimbledon tennis results, even though the matches wouldn’t be telecast until much later in the day. Charlie gave out my phone number and e-mail address on the air. I was flooded with hate mail, nasty messages, and even one death threat from a federal law enforcement agent whom I knew to be a big Charlie fan.

In the talk radio business, this concept, which must be mastered to be successful, is called “differentiating” yourself from the rest of the media. It is a brilliant marketing tactic that has also helped Fox News Channel thrive. “We report, you decide” and “Fair and Balanced” are more than just savvy slogans. They are code words signaling that only Fox will report the news in a way conservatives see as objective and truthful.

Forget any notion, however, that radio talk shows are supposed to be fair, evenhanded discussions featuring a diversity of opinions. The Fairness Doctrine, which required this, was repealed 20 years ago. So talk shows can be, and are, all about the host’s opinions, analyses and general worldview. Programmers learned long ago that benign conversations led by hosts who present all sides of an issue don’t attract large audiences. That’s why Kathleen Dunn was forced out at WTMJ in the early ’90s and why Jim and Andee were replaced in the mid-’90s by Dr. Laura. Pointed and provocative are what win.

There is no way to win a disagreement with Charlie Sykes.

Good grief.

Shelley worked in talk radio a long time. It's amazing that he's so utterly clueless about the audience.

Shelley sounds positively paranoid. Oooh, scary code words!

He complains about getting hate mail from Sykes' angry fans, as if nasty messages sent by some boors are representative of the talk radio and conservative audience as a whole.

What a crock!

James T. Harris can attest to the fact that liberals can be very... let's say "impolite."

Shelley's claim that talk radio doesn't include a diversity of opinions is flat-out false. It's the disagreement and dissent that makes for interesting and riveting radio.

That's one reason why lib talk radio is ratings poison. It's one-sided and dull.

Shelley says that "benign conversations led by hosts who present all sides of an issue don’t attract large audiences."

I wonder if Shelley thinks that Keith Olbermann presents all sides of an issue in a fair and balanced manner. Is that why Oblermann has no audience? It seems like Shelley may be trying to explain the failure of liberal talkers.

He seems frustrated. It's really kind of pathetic.

Shelley goes on to explain the strategies employed by talk radio hosts. He calls them "You Know What Would Happen If" and "The Preemptive Strike."

What's funny is Shelley's own article uses those strategies.

When I read the article, I was particularly troubled by Shelley's sniping at Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner.

In my opinion, Shelley's tales don't reflect poorly on the hosts. His comments do make him appear angry. It seems that he's viciously lashing out because he feels he was victimized.

Shelley paints himself as a radio genius and a martyr, a saint and, yes, a sinner.

I was a dedicated program manager. I helped the hosts at my station do show prep by finding stories I knew would pique their interest and fire up their constituencies. I met with Charlie Sykes daily, about a half-hour before show time, to help him talk through topics before going on the air. Charlie is one of the smartest people I know, but he performs at his best with that kind of preparation.

I often defended Jeff Wagner from upset moderates and liberals in the community. Jeff’s a very good talk show host whose brilliance is overshadowed only by his stubbornness.

I helped our program directors try to find the right role for Mark Reardon, who, in my opinion, was always miscast (he wasn’t as right-wing as Sykes or Wagner and his job was switched several times). Ultimately, that miscasting helped his career, because WTMJ laid him off, after which he became a talk show star in St. Louis, a much larger market.

I worked with news and sports hosts, too – Robb Edwards, Jon Belmont, Ken Herrera, Jonathan Green, Len Kasper, Bill Michaels – to help them craft ways to sound human and “real” behind the microphone without violating the separation of church and state that existed between the station’s talk and news programming. Sometimes I succeeded. Sometimes I didn’t.

And we were successful, consistently ranking No. 1 among persons 12 and older and in the top five in the advertiser-coveted 25 to 54 demo. Yet I was often angrily asked, once by then-Mayor John Norquist, why we just didn’t change our call letters to “WGOP.” The complaints were just another sign of our impact.

The brilliant and caring Shelley helped to create the monster. Egad! (I wonder if Dan is related to Mary Shelley.)

This is priceless:

I left WTMJ with some regret, attracted by an offer to work in the cutting edge field of digital media at one of the nation’s largest news and entertainment conglomerates. By then, I had worked more than 26 years in radio news and more than 23 as a news director. In the constant push for ratings, I had seen and helped foster the transformation of AM radio and the rise of conservative hosts. They have a power that is unlikely to decline.

Their rise was also helped by liberals whose ideology, after all, emphasizes tolerance. Their friendly toleration of talk radio merely gave the hosts more credibility. Yet an attitude of intolerance was probably worse: It made the liberals look hypocritical, giving ammunition to talk show hosts who used it with great skill.

Did you believe that?

Shelley thinks that liberal tolerance helped give rise to angry talk radio.

"Friendly toleration"?

UNBELIEVABLE.

That really bugs me.

I've got a secret. Liberals aren't necessarily tolerant. Liberals have been among some of the most intolerant people I've had the misfortune to know.

Shelley concludes by targeting the talk radio audience.

But the key reason talk radio succeeds is because its hosts can exploit the fears and perceived victimization of a large swath of conservative-leaning listeners. And they feel victimized because many liberals and moderates have ignored or trivialized their concerns and have stereotyped these Americans as uncaring curmudgeons.

Because of that, there will always be listeners who believe that Charlie Sykes, Jeff Wagner and their compatriots are the only members of the media who truly care about them.

No, no, no.

Shelley is wrong.

My fears aren't being exploited. I'm no victim. I don't need any member of the media to care about me.

Bottom line, talk radio succeeds because it's entertaining. It provides news that other outlets won't touch. It encourages people to think. Mainly, talk radio works because it's interactive.

Shelley seems to have lost sight of the fact that the hosts don't determine the direction of talk radio. The audience does.

In short, Shelley isn't revealing the slimy underbelly of talk radio. He is, however, revealing a lot about himself.
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In response to this story, we recieved the following email from WTMJ:

Oops! Milwaukee Magazine, it's "received."

We are surprised and saddened that a former employee, who worked with us for ten years, would choose to attack our talk shows hosts and company in this manner. Neither the station nor our hosts were offered a chance to comment on the claims made by the author. Newsradio 620 WTMJ stands by Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner and will continue to give their listeners the opportunity to share and participate in the best local talk programming in Milwaukee.

Steve Wexler

Executive Vice President

Television & Radio Operations

Journal Broadcast Group

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Charlie Sykes responds: "THE (NOT SO) SECRETS OF TALK RADIO."