During Pres. Bush's tenure when we wondered what direction our country was taking, some found solace in stations that featured diatribes on the administration. Some of the 960 AM hosts filled this bill while some were over-the-top. Good theater, if you can stand all the commercials, and there's information to be gleaned, but don't believe everything you hear here.
You can sometimes peripherally learn about the workings of congress and about the Constitution from the other networks' ideologues, from Limbaugh to Taliaferro. And ex-Marine Jim Lehrer's Newshour can be informative, if you can buy the slant of its Big Oil, Big Financials and Defense sector sponsors, delivered in hushed global-sensitive tones to tinkly piano arpeggios. Or you can cut through the spin by just reading.
Among questionable content I've heard on 960 are from Randi Rhoads, who puts a little too much stock in watching C-Span congress committees (in front of which she has testified). While her sometimes-illogical "passion" can morph into personal insults of people who call her and disagree with her I still admire her effort. But she also can show ignorance on topics and lack facts. She served in the armed forces and did help to quell the rants from the other side when they had more clout. And she truly, truly cares for the downtrodden in general and that forgotten, forsaken, cheated group -- our brave military service people. She's also named senators as being gay without naming sources.
Rhoads', on her long, poignant and creative rants, stumbles on her own words, tho' getting the message out. She's like a great hip hop artist or her namesake, guitar player Rhandi Rhoads, out on a limb, experimenting. Breath-taking.
A renowned person from a major news magazine, interviewed once on a 960 show, stated that details of presidential primaries were in the purview of the constitution. This is a definite McKinney-ism (a presidential candidate who claimed that Georgia crossover primary votes, which arguably cost her her seat, were unconstitutional). We have the freedom to think what we want even if we're showing our constitutional ignorance. I was sorry to hear this and sorry McK put her cell phone upside a security officer's head. Which I think had more to do with her losing the primary than an imagined deprivation of rights.
But this station, which gets a CNN news feed, has shows that aren't geared toward true accountability. That's the nature of some radio talk shows. And this is fairly true of most the other standard mainstream channels, regular broadcast, cable TV broadcast, streams, podcasts.
960 does not vet its content and I've yet to hear any of its hosts admit an error or announce or retract erroneous information.
Unless you have time to call and wait for hours, the only thing you can do is send the show a web-mail that goes unanswered -- letting the factoids go unchallenged. You think, "It's no Pacifica Radio (KPFA)," but with the number of important congresspeople and senators calling in, you've got to give them some credibility.
But the part that's in the spirit of the cable TV's Daily and Colbert vein, 960 hosts make no bones about wanting to be funny and to entertain. For a huge hoot -- AM 960 has two African-American women who are even funnier than KBLX's Kevin Brown's discourses on which gender has more gray matter.
I like the bright, sensitive Angie Coiro, who's not a part-time comic. But she has a distracting, thin, raspy, voice that can make her sound like an out-of-air psychologist or a host on a late-night show on UFO sightings. I remember her from NPR's KQED radio. In Oct 2009 she interviewed Helen Thomas on 960. I respect Coiro but maybe she can get long-time SF radio personality Leslie Stovall (KDIA, KMEL, KBLX, etc.) to loan her her silky-sweet golden pipes for one night!
Bill Press, the only other "960 star" that I'd heard of before, a high-profile political commentator and past Calif Dem Party chair, has a late night spot at 960.
Cream rises to the top, evidenced in former Air American Rachel Maddow, a Rhodes scholar, who is experiencing a successful run at her cable TV show. In a serious vein she shines. She appeared in an Aug. 2009 Meet The Press, along two senators and past senate Majority Leader (go, girl!!).
Rachel is well-prepared, witty and razor-sharp. Thom Hartmann is tops too, backing his statements with a wealth of history. Very sharp too (Mensa?), though he can get a bit pedantic. He has a great memory for constitution issues and excels when hosting guests who hold opposite viewpoints, in gripping, collegial debates.
Ed Schultz, the football-playing, hunting-and-fishing-with-gusto Progressive, waxes earthy and gritty, replete with folksy sayings like, "that dog don't hunt." Great timbre and great heart.
Air America/Green 960 is trying to improve our democracy. And for this patriotic service I thank them. read more
