And the water's really cold.
Their first live weekend host, Laura Flanders, debuted and wow, is she a work in progress. Granted, much of it could be blamed on the engineering (at times, the phone line was feeding back into itself which made the guests sound like aliens). But Flanders got so flummoxed at one point that she demanded the engineer play music until the phones worked. Not good talk radio protocol. There's enough stuff to talk about without having to resort to that.
When she finally did get her guests on, she felt compelled to match them word-for-word - usually at the same time they were talking.
She spent the first hour and a half of today's show saying it was Saturday before she finally corrected herself. She also attempted to be cute with AAR's now-legendary hard-to-remember call-in number, 866-303-2270. She figured out the last four digits spelled "A.A.R.-0." Unfortunately, she said "A.R.R.O." instead of "A.A.R. Zero" and the word "Arrow" practically every time, rendering her audience to call 866-303-2776 - a discontinued line for Countrywide Home Loan.
What worked on public radio (she did a one-hour show daily in SanFran), doesn't necessarily work in the mainstream. You cannot CANNOT resort to playing instrumental music for a few minutes while you regroup. Try to imagine Rush doing that. Sure, it would be a welcome break, but he'd just move on to something else. Jon Sinton and Dave Logan will probably have a little chat with Flanders this week if they want weekends to get their footing.
If Laura Flanders can get a weekend show on Air America - no-brainer here - the Take Back The Media twins should get a shot.
