Hey guys...
We're on the EVENING BEFORE the launch of the 2013 Brutally Honest season, and I wanted to get a few things taken care of while I have them in my head.
First of all, the first article for 2013 is ready to go tomorrow morning at 6am EST. Visit the column site tomorrow to read it.
Second... tomorrow night will be the return of "BRUTALLY HONEST - LIVE!" This is the show that I originally launched in 1999 on the Talk Liberty Network that more or less got driven into obscurity when that live Internet radio medium fizzled out (but not from a lack of trying).
What you've been hearing up until tomorrow night has been a shadow of the kind of program that I've wanted to provide. When Talk Liberty fizzled out, I was reduced to doing pre-recorded audio rants. "Brutally Honest on ShockNet Radio" expanded on those pre-recorded rants, but they were just short of what RJ and I wanted the show to be.
What was missing then was the LIVE component. So it's not just me talking my head off. It's also the live interaction. It's taking your calls and reacting to them. This is the element that puts me on the same level as the big leagues. I'm not just "casting my pod" as CA continually harps me about. (Don't worry, though, he'll still be able to harp on Al Stefanelli for "casting his pod" on Sunday nights.)
And IT IS more than just me this time around. I DO have a producer, which I'll introduce on the air. And I also have a call-screener! So not only will I be taking calls, I'll also have a call-screener to put you in the queue!
The number? It should be familiar to ShockNet regulars: 866-400-6684
BUT please don't call until the second half of the show. Seriously. Gladys, my call-screener from Jersey, is under orders to not take calls until after the half-hour break.
SO... let's see... what else...
I will have the archives back, but I won't be the one handling the recording, so I can't guarantee we'll have it EVERY week. That's the producer's job... and that job is a bit complicated. I'll explain why during the show. If you don't want to miss a thing, then you really need to TUNE IN EVERY MONDAY NIGHT!
Also, to answer a question that I was asked a few months back... no, there WILL NOT BE A WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT!
This actually goes back to the original incarnation of BHL. Back then when I told folks I was doing a live radio show, some people said they couldn't hear the show but they wanted a transcript. Then other folks who also listened to the show asked for transcripts. The problem was that people stopped listening to the show and instead were getting the transcripts. Well why should I spend all of that time, energy, and effort to do a RADIO show if people aren't going to actually LISTEN to that show and instead get the TRANSCRIPTS of it?
SO when I started doing "Brutally Honest on ShockNet Radio" I said that I was through with people getting transcripts. I want people to actually LISTEN TO MY SHOW! This is what I put time, energy, and effort into and I want to see all that paid off with actual listeners! It's like someone saying that they like pizza when they've never actually eaten a pizza.
It's Monday night. It's 8pm Eastern Time. It's LIVE Internet radio! You can listen to it if you have an iPhone. You can listen to it if you have an iPad. You can listen to it if you have a computer. You don't have to be in the chatroom, but it would be nice... especially since we have a BRAND NEW CHATROOM (Java-free no less). You don't have to call in during the second half of the show, but it would be nice, especially since I have Gladys, my new call-screener from Jersey. All I'm asking is that you tune in. Take a listen. It's www.ShockNetRadio.com. You can also find it in the Classic Rock category in the iTunes radio player. It's just an hour. No long breaks. It's me and the other listeners and whomever calls in.
Just listen. Who knows? You might even LIKE it!
OH! I ALMOST forgot! The call-in discussion topic for our debut show!
"Is it time we abandon the United States Constitution?"
Agree? Disagree? TUNE IN at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central to hear what I have to say about that, and also hear what OTHER people have to say.
www.ShockNetRadio.com - the home for Classic Rock and Classic Talk!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Bye Bye Boortz! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
Today is the last day for Atlanta's own Neal Boortz as part of the conservative and neo-conservative talk radio propaganda circuit.
I know that's bitter of me to say it like that, but it is the bitter truth for a man that started his career long before names like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Eric Erickson ever existed.
When I first moved into the Atlanta area back in the early 90's, I was introduced to Boortz's morning show. He was refreshing because he debunked a lot of the political sacred cows. He said what needed to be said back then. I still have his "Graduation Speech No One Wants You To Hear". I also have "The Fair Tax Book" that he helped write with Congressman John Linder, which still makes far more sense to fix the tax system than anything proposed by anyone else.
His debates with former Congressman Bob Barr were great in showing the difference between a libertarian and a conservative, and those debates actually helped convince Barr to change his political stance when it came to things like the perpetually-failing War on Drugs.
But then 9/11 happened... and the libertarian Boortz was replaced with neo-con Boortz. And when Boortz started finding himself in the Oval Office along with Hannity and Limbaugh and the other conservative personalities having closed-door lunches with Karl Rove and President Bush Junior, that's when Atlanta lost the Boortz it grew up with. Boortz stopped being part of the solution and instead became part of the problem. That's when I stopped listening to him regularly.
And this difference became apparent in 2008 when Boortz not only supported John McCain over Barack Obama, but also recited the "wasted vote" mantra to libertarians... a slap in the face to the very Libertarian Party that used to count on his on-air support.
For the past four years, Neal Boortz became a one-man venom machine, characterizing Barack Obama as being nothing short of the devil incarnate in everything that goes on. Obama cannot even say "good morning" without Boortz claiming it was part of a communist plot.
This is venom that did not exist when Bill Clinton was in office. Even at the height of the Clinton scandals... when Clinton was actually impeached for lying about getting oral gratification from an intern... Boortz wasn't characterizing Clinton in the same way as he has been doing with Obama... a man who has not been impeached nor even faces a single Independent Counsel for anything his White House staff has done!
For the record, I've got my issues with Obama as well, but that's with what he's DONE, not with some fictional ulterior goal that only exists in the demented narcissistic minds of conservatives and neo-conseravatives. You rally against the problems going on in the real world, NOT with the problems that only exist in some fear-mongering propaganda straight out of George Orwell's library! If you can't do that then you need to be dismissed as just another nut-job "one-word-order black helicopter" wacko with the tinfoil hat.
So I CHEERED when Boortz decided that he's had enough. In fact as far as I am concerned, he should have removed himself from the scene when he was caught hypocritizing himself in 2008. Certainly the Boortz that I used to listen to in the 90's would have been the first person telling the Boortz of 2008 that he was being part of the problem instead of being part of the solution.
So that's it. Boortz is done. He's a broadcast memory. His radio show will be taken over by Mr. 9-9-9-Tax-And-Pizza Herman Cain and by Limbaugh. In other words, the anti-Obama venom will continue on-air, and the real problems will not be addressed.
But what Boortz USED to stand for... what he USED to promote when he was good... that's coming back.
But it's not going to come back through Cain or Limbaugh. They wouldn't know how to deal with real issues if it doesn't promote the GOP.
No, the voice of common sense and reality is not going to come back through them.
It's going to come back through Internet radio...
It's going to come back through ShockNet Radio's "Brutally Honest - LIVE!" on Monday nights at 8pm ET, 7pm CT on ShockNetRadio.com
It's going to come back... THROUGH PEOPLE LIKE ME!
So thank you for finally leaving the dial Boortz. Don't let the studio door hit you on the way out. And if by some chance you remember what you used to support when a lighter-skinned Democrat was in the White House and you wonder whatever happened to those causes, don't blame Obama or 9/11. Blame yourself for selling your broadcast soul for lunch with Karl Rove and George W. Bush.
Believe me, your younger self would be telling you the same thing. That's why I used to listen to him.
I know that's bitter of me to say it like that, but it is the bitter truth for a man that started his career long before names like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Eric Erickson ever existed.
When I first moved into the Atlanta area back in the early 90's, I was introduced to Boortz's morning show. He was refreshing because he debunked a lot of the political sacred cows. He said what needed to be said back then. I still have his "Graduation Speech No One Wants You To Hear". I also have "The Fair Tax Book" that he helped write with Congressman John Linder, which still makes far more sense to fix the tax system than anything proposed by anyone else.
His debates with former Congressman Bob Barr were great in showing the difference between a libertarian and a conservative, and those debates actually helped convince Barr to change his political stance when it came to things like the perpetually-failing War on Drugs.
But then 9/11 happened... and the libertarian Boortz was replaced with neo-con Boortz. And when Boortz started finding himself in the Oval Office along with Hannity and Limbaugh and the other conservative personalities having closed-door lunches with Karl Rove and President Bush Junior, that's when Atlanta lost the Boortz it grew up with. Boortz stopped being part of the solution and instead became part of the problem. That's when I stopped listening to him regularly.
And this difference became apparent in 2008 when Boortz not only supported John McCain over Barack Obama, but also recited the "wasted vote" mantra to libertarians... a slap in the face to the very Libertarian Party that used to count on his on-air support.
For the past four years, Neal Boortz became a one-man venom machine, characterizing Barack Obama as being nothing short of the devil incarnate in everything that goes on. Obama cannot even say "good morning" without Boortz claiming it was part of a communist plot.
This is venom that did not exist when Bill Clinton was in office. Even at the height of the Clinton scandals... when Clinton was actually impeached for lying about getting oral gratification from an intern... Boortz wasn't characterizing Clinton in the same way as he has been doing with Obama... a man who has not been impeached nor even faces a single Independent Counsel for anything his White House staff has done!
For the record, I've got my issues with Obama as well, but that's with what he's DONE, not with some fictional ulterior goal that only exists in the demented narcissistic minds of conservatives and neo-conseravatives. You rally against the problems going on in the real world, NOT with the problems that only exist in some fear-mongering propaganda straight out of George Orwell's library! If you can't do that then you need to be dismissed as just another nut-job "one-word-order black helicopter" wacko with the tinfoil hat.
So I CHEERED when Boortz decided that he's had enough. In fact as far as I am concerned, he should have removed himself from the scene when he was caught hypocritizing himself in 2008. Certainly the Boortz that I used to listen to in the 90's would have been the first person telling the Boortz of 2008 that he was being part of the problem instead of being part of the solution.
So that's it. Boortz is done. He's a broadcast memory. His radio show will be taken over by Mr. 9-9-9-Tax-And-Pizza Herman Cain and by Limbaugh. In other words, the anti-Obama venom will continue on-air, and the real problems will not be addressed.
But what Boortz USED to stand for... what he USED to promote when he was good... that's coming back.
But it's not going to come back through Cain or Limbaugh. They wouldn't know how to deal with real issues if it doesn't promote the GOP.
No, the voice of common sense and reality is not going to come back through them.
It's going to come back through Internet radio...
It's going to come back through ShockNet Radio's "Brutally Honest - LIVE!" on Monday nights at 8pm ET, 7pm CT on ShockNetRadio.com
It's going to come back... THROUGH PEOPLE LIKE ME!
So thank you for finally leaving the dial Boortz. Don't let the studio door hit you on the way out. And if by some chance you remember what you used to support when a lighter-skinned Democrat was in the White House and you wonder whatever happened to those causes, don't blame Obama or 9/11. Blame yourself for selling your broadcast soul for lunch with Karl Rove and George W. Bush.
Believe me, your younger self would be telling you the same thing. That's why I used to listen to him.
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