Changes at KSTP

Sometimes people think that talk radio is a medium marketed to angry, white males.  That is probably a simplification, but I admit it sometimes seems true.  [Of course, I am a white male and I do get angry some times.]  And I do admit it.  I listen to KSTP.  The days of Dick Pomerantz, Mike Edwards, Jesse Ventura, and Barbara Carlson are long gone and the station has become much more ideologically oriented in its talk programming, but I still listen quite a bit, although not to everybody there.  I cannot abide that ThompsonO’BrienDavis guy and think they have some terribly paranoid syndicated men [being male may be a prerequisite at the station] on weekends sometimes.  I believe that good talk radio has to be about more than politics and agenda pushing, yet recipes, dream interpretation, and entertainment and celebrity gossip [e.g., WCCO in the morning] can only go so far before you find yourself reaching for the dial and saying, “All right, KBEM, let’s have some jazz”.  [Unfortunately WCAL has not been an option for four years now.]  And perhaps now KSTP is moving toward more a less ideological format, although the recent canning of Tommy Mischke is confusing.

 

Matt Thomas and the rest of the sports coverage is good [although like all sports coverage in this area there is way too much ice hockey], Joe Soucheray [who clearly has replaced Jason Lewis as the one they consider the franchise player of the station] can be interesting when he isn’t letting his obsessions with a few themes such as global warming and Franken-Coleman carry him away, and I have usually switched my dial to the Pat Reusse sports[?] updates when I am listening to the radio and it is time for one.  Jim Souhan seems to be filling in well in the former Mischke early afternoon slot [although it apparently is not a permanent arrangement] and A. L. Brown who is limited to one bad time slot and some occasional guest hosting [lovely oxymoron] may be the best they have.

 

So, anyhow, Pat Reusse is now the new morning drive time guy.  By Hubbard standards, Reusse is considered some kind of “liberal.”  Although on his inaugural show this morning, his primary guest was Governor Pawlenty.  This could be an interesting development.  We’ll just have to wait and find out, I guess.

 

In the meantime, former KSTP morning guy David Brauer who now writes for MinnPost asks today, “Hey Pat Reusse, are you crazy?” and wonders why a man Reusse’s age would make such a move.  To quote a local television station, “Good question.”

 

It will be interesting.  And in a somewhat related note, Brauer is also suggesting that Jack Rice [who seems like a conservative guy not so hung up on things and who keeps topics moving] may be leaving WCCO.  [Of course, so are a lot of other people.]