By Mark Lassiter

All of these talk radio mega-stars signed new contracts within months of the election of Barack Obama. Coincidence?

At least one component of America’s mass media industry is infected with a serious disease. National and local hosts on AM radio are encouraged to play the cards of fear, class warfare, race and exclusion for profits. Using the thinly-coded vocabulary of bias and exclusionary hiring practices to control the herd of “talent,” they are experts at how to manipulate vocabulary and attract casual listeners who seek cheap thrills.

In the hearts and minds of a frustrated, scared and resentful audience, the majority of AM talk radio is a dog whistle call to arms. This impressionable audience is injected 24 hours a day with enough angry anesthetic to numb any reasoning that would separate legitimate information from scripted noise. AM talk radio is nothing more than professional wrestling for ratings and profit.

AM radio is dominated by actors who are paid outrageous fees to forward extreme right wing positions. The top hosts are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Savage, Laura Ingraham and Glenn Beck. These grand wizards are the close relatives of Don Imus, Doug Tracht, and Bob Grant. What? You think all those sheet-wearing Klan members just disappeared? No, they just moved into the studio and substituted “communist” or “socialist” for the slurs that might get them banned from the airwaves. They are free to spit into a microphone while wrapping themselves in patriotic regalia as if they are the TRUE America that must be saved from the “others.”

Rewind

In 1996, New York radio station WABC fired Bob Grant after he said he was “a pessimist” for believing that Commerce Secretary Ron Brown had survived a plane crash. Secretary Brown, who was black, died in the crash; Mr. Grant had attracted attention for calling blacks “savages.” Within days, Mr. Grant was hired by rival WOR, and his show became syndicated nationwide.

In February 1999, Washington’s WARW fired Doug “Greaseman” Tracht after he played a Lauryn Hill song and remarked, “No wonder people drag them behind trucks,” a reference to the murder of a black man in Texas. Three white men were convicted, two receiving the death penalty and one receiving life in prison. Tracht had drawn fire in 1986 while working at another Washington station. He was talking about the national holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., and said: “Kill four more and we can take a whole week off.”

See how it works?

Nationally, 2,064 stations use the talk format. Each station needs to fill 24 hours of air space, seven days a week. Stations with tight budgets increasingly rely on programs from Clear Channel, Premiere Radio Networks, Citadel, ABC Radio, Cox Radio as the holding companies for content. Smaller markets, desperate for pre-packaged program content, follow the lead of syndicators and pick up the shows to fill air time, as they are a cheap alternative to original programming. Advertisers flock to the inflated ratings numbers provided by listeners of syndicated shows.

The best means for radio talk show hosts to generate attention is to embrace controversy. Without controversy, radio cannot approach the allure that television uses to its advantage via imagery. Talk radio stations crave the audience numbers that only controversy can attract. If the hosts are disciplined by their employers, that is a plus, as the free publicity generates curiosity in other media, often leading to the offenders getting better jobs. Don Imus is a recent example.

The mega-stars set the tone for sanctioned bullying. Their fiery sermons are great for ratings, which are the only metrics that matter to advertisers who subsidize the air time, but their text is poison to any dialogue. These radio “entertainers,” fueled by the Arbitron numbers and tone-deaf listeners, overshadow critical thought. The broadcast platform empowers its followers with a false sense of prominence and righteousness. The hysterical accusations and pseudo-information of talk radio has makes it nearly impossible for adults to hold a conversation, or politicians to lead.

The most popular talk radio hosts are clever, opportunistic and white. Not one AM radio station features an intelligent or bombastic non-white host. Today’s AM leaders are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Savage, Laura Ingraham and Glenn Beck. They all play to the fears of people stuck in 1947, people who prefer superficial, talking points as “answers” to critical and analytical thought or discourse. All of these talk radio mega-stars signed new contracts within months of the election of Barack Obama. Coincidence?

Welcome to Atlanta: WSB & WGST

As in most American cities, Atlanta AM radio mirrors the conservative fringe that has thrown civil discourse back to 1947. 640 WGST features a daily lineup of the most monotonous hosts it can import to generate ratings. Its lineup features Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and The Michael Smerconish Show. With his massive 8 year $400 million contract with Clear Channel, Limbaugh is the gorilla in the room.

Media buyers, the people who purchase air time on behalf of the consumer products we purchase in the stores, know Limbaugh’s fans are fiercely loyal to him and his show’s advertisers. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was crystal clear about his agenda. Not a single Republican dared to question their boss. Seat warmer Michael Steele was called on the Clear Channel carpet and reprimanded by Limbaugh. Steele recanted.

One recent conservative voice of dissent, David Frum (a conservative Canadian-American journalist who was a speechwriter for Dubya), was critical of the Republican Party for not “compromising” with President Obama’s health-care bill. He also berated the negative effect of people like Rush Limbaugh on serious debate. “If they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.” As a result of breaking ranks with the company line, Frum was fired from his position with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C. based “think tank.” Frum wrote, “What Limbaugh understands is that so long as his listeners stay angry, the more they will turn to him for enlightenment,”

Two clicks up the Atlanta dial at NewsTalk 750, the lineup includes another matched set of carnival barkers led by Michael Savage, Neal Boortz, his mini-me Royal Marshall and their golden child, Sean Hannity. In January 2009, Premiere assumed syndication of Hannity’s three-hour program to all non-Citadel-owned stations and led the advertising sales race. Hannity gives Premiere radio a back-to-back celebrity lineup starting with Rush Limbaugh at Noon. In 2008, Hannity signed for $100 million over four years. On March 23, 2010, Hannity declared, “I only have one mission from now until November – it is to defeat” the Obama agenda and those who voted for it.

The patently offensive Michael Weiner, aka Michael Savage, is convinced that affirmative action is a conspiracy to hold back all white males. After the Duke lacrosse scandal broke, Savage declared that “the cards are stacked against white males in America; and that is the case in North Carolina where a Durham dirt-bag made false accusations against members of a lacrosse team.” The structure of society is biased against white males? Interesting.

He adds on March 23 that he is tired of speaking about President Obama in hushed tones because he is of mixed race:

Michael Savage is also syndicated by Talk Radio Network (TRN) to over 350 stations nationwide. Savage’s talk show is currently the third-highest rated in the country, with more than 8.25 million listeners per week. His hateful rhetoric resonates for a disturbingly large portion of the population.

On the 750 website, Savage mentions, “I guess people love my show because of my hard edge combined with humor and education,” he says. Savage makes frequent comparisons of prominent progressives to Nazi leaders. In reference to Jimmy Carter’s criticism of Israel’s West Bank policy, Savage called him a “Jew-hater” and “war criminal” who is “like Hitler.” On February 24, Savage opined that President Obama’s mother “had contempt for America;” finding it “very interesting” that she married two Muslim men.

Mark Masters, chief executive officer of TRN, said in a statement, “By continuing to syndicate ‘the Michael Savage Show,’ Talk Radio Network is proud to lead arm and arm with one of the greatest national talk personalities on the air today. Michael is a true original – he is one in a million, and we are honored for this opportunity.” TRN, which also syndicates conservative Laura Ingraham, Rusty Humphries and Matthew Erich “Mancow” Muller, was reported by Bear Stearns in 2007 as the second largest provider of nationally syndicated radio talk shows.

Every Brotha Ain’t A Brotha: A Weak Imitation Of Life

The Atlanta market inherits the legacy of the most progressive movement in the history of the United States, yet its talk radio programming is firmly entrenched in the segregation era. Other than the nationally syndicated “Two Live Stews” sports talk program, the few outspoken black hosts are relegated to “urban” stations. Their white counterparts follow the ultra conservative outline. The black hosts are recruited not by talent or creative ability, but by their politics.

The oldest and most powerful (50 thousand watts) AM station in the Atlanta market, COX empire’s WSB is home for Herman Cain’s radio show. Cain, a former executive at Pilllsbury, learned his corporate playbook well. He receives a fair amount of attention for being the black poster boy at conservative rallies. And you thought only “Precious” was embraced by Hollywood for all the wrong reasons?

The Cain show is composed solely of Republican talking points, which lowers his creativity/entertainment factor to nearly zero. By routine, he demeans the few more educated callers with his myopic viewpoint, until he cuts them off unceremoniously, while continuing to forward his opinion. The formula is stale. On his website, Cain claims to be an “intelligent thinker”… not to be confused with an ignorant thinker. He also manages to parrot a tea party core theme and wants to “take back our government.” Who is the “our” in our? If Cain is claiming his Native American heritage to validate some ancestral claim to the land, I want to see the birth certificate.

Cain would be wise to recognize that being sandwiched between drive time and Savage from 7 P.M. to 10 P.M., is like Fredo getting a firm kiss on the cheek from Michael Corleone.

Another black mime in whiteface, Jesse Lee Peterson, is another opportunistic disciple of the ultra conservative script. With sincere apologies to the fearless Roland Martin, this media brother from another mother is Rev. Peterson, the host of (what else?) “The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show.” which is heard weekly on privately run stations in several markets including Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, and Tampa. According to his website, “Jesse Lee Peterson is the most insightful, straightforward, and entertaining host you will hear on the radio anywhere!” You do the math.

Sean Hannity has trained the right Reverend Lee (thank you Roberta Flack) as one of his pet black guests. During The Sean Hannity Fox News show on February 3, 2009, Peterson announced, “I think we all agree that Barack Obama was elected by, mostly by black racists and white guilty people.”

Although Hannity pretended to be shocked by Peterson’s remarks, Peterson knew his cue, “Most black Americans, 96 percent of them, are racists who (unintelligible) white Americans. And white folks feel guilty and they are afraid of being called racists,” Peterson said.

Hannity, who plays Amos to Peterson’s Andy, replied, “Do you really believe 96% of black America is racist? You don’t believe that.”

“Yes, sir,” Peterson answered.

“No, you don’t believe that,” Hannity repeated.

Back in the day there was a cult classic recorded by Gary Byrd that received a lot of airplay on WBLS-FM New York. “Every Brotha Ain’t a Brotha” was a cautionary tale that warned of black men hiding behind fashion to profit from the movement.

Gary Byrd, meet Jesse Lee Peterson and Herman Cain.

Next?

Conservative talkers on radio have whipped the Republican fringes into such a frenzy that anything Obama is seen as evil or a direct threat to the country. The Republican Party is buried so deep in this corrosive echo chamber that its acidic fumes suffocate any voices of reason before they can be heard. That is the nature of mass media corporations. Their infantry of desperate Tea Party folks screaming racist epithets provides the disposable extras for the Fox News tea party bus tour. In 2009, USA Today radio host Michael Medved expressed concern that talk shows have cultivated a “niche audience rather than the Republican mainstream.” Niche audience is a euphemism for the Klan.

Whatever gains the ratings win for the conservative-sponsored entertainment industry are offset by huge losses for human dignity and adult conversation. With the signing of landmark health care legislation, their listeners are encouraged to be more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in Washington leadership. The AM radio talkers, on the other hand, take another trip to the bank. For them, it is just another paycheck.

The producers and directors of this content are oblivious to the radioactive fallout from their message. At the same time, they desperately protect their broadcast cash machines from any voices who may challenge their sacred cows. “Michael Savage is an original – you cannot ignore him,” says Bob Bruno, a consultant to WOR new talk radio in New York City. “Michael is a fearless, gritty, tough, funny, street-smart, talk master – that’s why we are proud to have him on WOR.”

How many fearless black, gritty, tough, funny, street-smart, talk masters are/or ever featured on AM radio?

Mark Lassiter reminds NewsTalk 750 radio host Herman Cain that “our” is NOT a two-syllable word.