Shannon threatens arson and murder again.

[nwnormanok]

I listen to Mark Shannon at least a couple days a week when I am in the car. He and I disagree on most things politically, and he is blatantly over-the-top. THAT'S HOW HE MAINTAINS AN INTERESTING SHOW, and, RATINGS. Does he oversimplify and speak to the worst in people and pander to the lowest common denominator of his ideological brethren? Yep. But in his business (and, yes, it is a BUSINESS, not a public-information forum), and given the fact that most people react to current events based on limited, and well-spun, summaries from talk show hosts and news snippets, I can see his appeal to some. He makes complicated issues easy for people who don't know much to understand. I don't mean to be condescending in saying that, but have you listened to his callers? 90% of them aren't exactly what I would call part of Oklahoma's "best and brightest." You have a lot of marginalized, displaced people who love to get riled up about "others" are stealing their traditional way of life (as mythological and romanticized as this abstract "way of life" may be).

Seriously, give Mark Shannon a break. He is doing a job, and by perusing this thread, he is apparently very successful at it, since we're all talking about him. If you don't like him, you have 3 options as I see it: 1.) Stop listening; 2.) Keep listening and complain to his employer if he crosses a line; or 3) (and this is what I do) Continue to listen to his show recognizing it for EXACTLY what it is - entertainment.

If I am perplexed by one thing about him though, it's the fact that a guy who so notoriously abhors homosexuality can't make it through 5 minutes without a tasteless gay joke (he thinks and talks about men's body parts more than most of the gay people I know) or calling them perverts or "sexually confused." Seems like the gay issues seem to hit a little close to him, given how much he talks about them. Radio show host doth protest too much???

[Spartan]

I used to listen to talk radio. Too much of it. I am very fortunate that I still have some semblance of the intellectual capacities that I once had when I was in high school. Parents, don't let your kids hear any talk radio..it really will brainwash them. It is amazing how blatant a lot of the brainwashing on talk radio is. Tune in, some blowhard will always be ranting about something that goes against what rational society supports.

I can handle the Sports Animal. When I disagree with them, it's just because Jim Traber is ranting and he is an idiot..not because someone just said that we had better be writing a million letters to their congressmen about those damn illegals prying our jobs from our grandparent's cold dead fingers .

[dismayed]

As a social experiment I would be kind of interested to see what would happen if a local station put someone really, really liberal on the air for a while. I would imagine the show would get a lot of calls, probably mostly angry. I bet listenership would spike because a lot of people out there just want to be angry about something. The big question is in the end would it generate more revenue for the station, or would it end in boycotts.

[mugofbeer]

As a social experiment I would be kind of interested to see what would happen if a local station put someone really, really liberal on the air for a while. I would imagine the show would get a lot of calls, probably mostly angry. I bet listenership would spike because a lot of people out there just want to be angry about something. The big question is in the end would it generate more revenue for the station, or would it end in boycotts.

I think its been pretty much proven that liberal talk radio doesn't work very well. Even names such as Al Franken couldn't garner enough listners to make the liberal talk radio network Air America remotely profitable so it filed for bankruptcy in 2005 or 06 and was bought by a couple of east coast liberals who bankroll it now. It is a nationally syndicated network but its largest Talk Host gets only 1.2 million listners compared to It seems only on Public Broadcasting can truly liberal radio survive economically.

[Midtowner]

To be fair, that network has an awful distribution network. There's also very little established listener base for liberal talk radio, ergo an awful distribution network for syndication. It's not the content causing issues, it's the business strategy (or lack thereof).

[oneforone]

I used to listen to talk radio. Too much of it. I am very fortunate that I still have some semblance of the intellectual capacities that I once had when I was in high school. Parents, don't let your kids hear any talk radio..it really will brainwash them. It is amazing how blatant a lot of the brainwashing on talk radio is. Tune in, some blowhard will always be ranting about something that goes against what rational society supports.

I can handle the Sports Animal. When I disagree with them, it's just because Jim Traber is ranting and he is an idiot..not because someone just said that we had better be writing a million letters to their congressmen about those damn illegals prying our jobs from our grandparent's cold dead fingers .

The same thing can be said about the Sports Urinal. In the eyes of the Urinal the University of Oklahoma can do no wrong. Poor performance is never reflected on the players. It's always the coach, refs, the weather, the television network, the other teams fans, etc. etc. OU should be in the championship game of every sport by default.

The same thing can be said about MTV. They have every other viewer thinking life is about partying and spending your parents money/other people's money. Success should be handed to you. Hard work should not be required.

Talk radio is entertainment. If you get your talking points from talk radio, you are a fool. Your political views should be based on your own personal expierence with the world around you. If you take notes from talk radio, seriously you need a life.

Most talk radio listeners are like myself. You listen for pure entertainment value only. It's fun to laugh at the people who call in nine kinds of ticked off over something host said.

Mike McConnell is who I listen to more than anything these days. He has show on Saturdays on KTOK and I listen to his podcats from 700 WLW in Cincinnati. His show covers a little a bit of everything and he is not afraid to call BS on the right or the left.

[Stan Silliman]

If success means your on a bobsled to hell, well, than yes

I really thought it was hand baskets. Now they're taking bobsleds?....

[Stan Silliman]

As a social experiment I would be kind of interested to see what would happen if a local station put someone really, really liberal on the air for a while. I would imagine the show would get a lot of calls, probably mostly angry. I bet listenership would spike because a lot of people out there just want to be angry about something. The big question is in the end would it generate more revenue for the station, or would it end in boycotts.

Joy Behar had a pretty successful talk radio show for years. So did Larry King, so did Jim Bohannon, etc, etc

Are you just talking about this market?

[Bigrayok]

There is a difference between a talk show and an interview show. Larry King made a name for himself nationally by interviewing people all night. By the way, there is a difference between a serious threat and someone exagerating to make a point. I am not sure Mark Shannon is serious about doing some of the things he mentions on his show. It is kind of like the person that says "I will give you a million dollars if you make a half-court shot". When you know the person does not have a million dollars and it is just a friend joking around it is not a serious offer to pay a million dollars. People like Mark Shannon bother me less than people that smile at me when they are sticking a knife in my back.

Bigray in Ok