The impending death of WTKK

WTKK, ex-WSJZ, ex-WKLB, and for the longest time, WJIB (before it found a new home on 740 AM, which itself was WCAS), will likely go to the big Talk Radio Station in the Sky in the next week or two and be replaced with yet another derivative, shallow, dare I say corporate (as a slur/code word meaning profit grubbing capitalists) dance/top 40 radio station.

When I began listening to 'TKK in 1999, it was a fresh change.  I started getting more conservative leanings listening to Eagan & Braude, the Inside Track girls, Jay Severin, Bill O'Reilly, Don Imus, Michael Graham, and others.  It outsurvived Air America (in which the hosts of that long-gone network now ply their wares on MSNBC and NPR), and up until a couple of years ago, had promise and talent.  Then controversy worked its way in.  Imus and Severin were fired; Bill O'Reilly was shelved; and national conservative broadcasters far more strident filled in.

The big thing I take away from this is that any kind of media format or gimmick has its niche until it runs out of steam.  Westerns, for instance, ran on TV from the early 50's to the late '70s.  Then game shows had their run on daytime from the late '50s to the late 2000's.  Soap operas were on every station from 12 noon to 4pm on every network between 1951 to 2008; now, there are only three soaps remaining.  Scripted reality shows will die out;  "Housewives of (fill in city here)", Survivor (fill in far-flung and dangerously infested country), and Big Brother will have its heroes elevated and its villains shilling infomercial products.  And rarely do you hear about scripted professional wrestling anymore.

Compare this to the late David Brudnoy, the late Jerry Williams, and the current Dan Rea on WBZ, who treated their audiences to a differing viewpoint without being shouted out.  They treated their listeners with patience, respect, and honor, not as people to be mocked so they can sell shady products.  And you actually learn something from these hosts - you don't walk away with a side-eye looking for the nearest shower.

Talk radio - conservative and liberal - is a dying breed because it's bloviating and preaching to its separate choirs.  Listening to 'TKK became tedious - it was as much the pro-Bush network as it was the anti-Obama network.  But any network falls into that place where they don't have to worry about their dissenters because they have their blunderbuss aimed right at their face.

The Fairness doctrine didn't kill WTKK.  The audience just dwindled away.

Update: WTKK 1999-2013, as of the end of Eagan & Braude's program.