What Radio Shows would I like

October 23, 2007 12:45 PM

What radio talk shows might I be interested in based on my current and former listening habits?

As I look back on my radio show listening , a lot of stuff I've listened to seems to have an event that is a catalyst which makes me go from LOVING the show to making the show virtually unlistenable.

The event is more of a hindsight recollection. That is, I still listened to the show after the event (probably for 6 months or a year), realized I'd been enjoying the show less and less, and then backtracking and figuring out the said event/point where listening started becoming less enjoyable for me.

Here are things I've liked and the event I feel made me stop listening.

Liked: The Howard Stern Show
Stopped Listening: When Jackie and/or Billy West left the show (yes, that long ago, like 1995)

Liked: Opie and Anthony with Jim Norton On XM (I never really heard much of the WNEW days, and I LOVE Jim Norton)
Stopped Listening: #1 After the CBS/XM Deal #2 The introduction of PalTalk

LOVED: Ron & Fez at WNEW, then WJFK, Then XM
Stopped listening: Introduction of a new producer in 2006 whom I felt took over the show as an unofficial 3rd mic.

Like: Don & Mike (only listened since about 2004)
Stopped Listening: I haven't stopped but the show is supposedly ending in May 2008
(an aside: would love to know where to find old episodes)

I've come to realize that I really like water-cooler type talk shows that aren't heavy on "bits" and aren't constantly politics, politics, politics (left or right). Some sports chat is cool too, but not when it’s a constant wall-to-wall obsessive sports-only show. Same can be said about “sex” topics. When it is the constant focus of the show, its gets boring. I also shy away from constant humiliation/ Misogynistic radio.

“Oooh, a stripper/pornstar on the radio…”
*yawn* (and I’m in the porn business, to boot)

Please don’t make judgments about my listening habits. I am looking for recommendations of shows that I might enjoy.

Thanks so much!

XO

P.S. I just realized from that list, I like mimics/impressionists (Billy, Anthony, Mike)

posted by sandra_s to media & arts (9 comments total)

Most of the show wouldn't qualify because it's politics (with fart jokes) but the Stephanie Miller show is hilarious and Jim Ward, her voice guy, does brilliant impressions. Check out the non-politic-ey 'Tinsel Talk' mp3s linked on her site and see what you think.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 1:02 PM on October 23, 2007

Definitely Not The Opera on Saturdays is one of a multitude of really interesting radio shows from the CBC. It has a Canadian bent to it but far from exclusively. The host is Sook-Yin Lee of Short Bus fame
posted by Neiltupper at 1:38 PM on October 23, 2007

When it was on Sirius, I really like The Radio Chick. It's a little goofy with the "guess what's between The Chick's Breasts" game, but the topics are all over the place I found it pretty funny.

Hmm... I'm looking at this page and can't find where they're on the air now..?
posted by tcv at 4:06 PM on October 23, 2007

Hmm.... You and I nearly exactly agree on those shows and thier pivotal moments, except I was a don and mike fan for most of the nineties but find them nearly un-listen-able now. Mike has been doing that focacta Charley impression for nearly two-and-a-half goddamned decades. I loved O&A and got XM for them, but I ended up ditching it after O&A went terrestrial again. That walk-over bit was L.A.M.E. So sad.

I have a major league commute and have found two podcasts that have filled a niche for me (but aren't really comedy driven like the shows above.)

1. SModcast, Kevin Smith, the director of Clerks, Dogma, etc... does a weekly podcast that I really enjoy. Not about movies, per se. Very salty language / topicality, often funny.

2. RadioLab, a sciencey-entertainy show/podcast that routinely blows my mind. Love it. It's way more informative and entertaining than than the show topics might indicate.

Since these are both podcast / downloads you can get all the back episodes.
posted by chocolate_butch at 4:26 PM on October 23, 2007

Any podcast/radio show from MaximumFun.org

The original show, The Sound of Young America, is fantastic. In its current form, it's an interview show with really interesting people. The host, Jesse Thorn, is great.

As far as comedy-driven "talk shows", they've got my favorite podcast: Jordan Jesse Go. Two college friends talking about various goings-on, current events, personal hilarious stories. It's one of the greatest things I've listened to; the guys are clever, smart, and hilarious. I recommend listening to all the old episodes too.
posted by stvspl at 6:36 PM on October 23, 2007

Howard still has mimics and impressionists on the show. He's grown up a lot and--at least to me--he is much more listenable now. Gilbert Gottfried did his Jerry Seinfeld impression on this morning's show it was hysterical.
posted by HotPatatta at 10:21 PM on October 23, 2007

I have to second stvspl's recommendation of Jordan, Jesse Go!. It is just two guys talking, but for some reason I find the time flies by as I am listening. Their production values are good and the two hosts are clearly talented, because they manage to make their conversation seem totally unscripted, spontaneous, and free-flowing for about an hour per podcast. It's one of the few podcasts I listen to all the way through every week.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:14 AM on October 24, 2007

I mostly agree with you on your examples (only really listen to D&M now; thought Howard went downhill after Billy West and Jackie's departures; liked O&A until they went up against D&M and never really returned to their fold since, because I sided with D&M). So I'll throw something at you out of left field, that no one else has mentioned: Wendy Williams. Black, female, some Sternian qualities (she was a guest on Stern's Sirius show a few months ago), a somewhat similar vein. She does have a fairly heavy celebrity gossip element, but then again, it's not much more than Stern (at least when I heard him on "terrestrial" radio).

You didn't say where you were, and I'm too damn lazy to look, but in NYC she's on WBLS (the flagship), and in Philly she's on Power 99. She's not on in Baltimore/DC, unfortunately, but is on in a few other locations (check the website). If you can't catch her on the radio, she's got a weekly VH-1 show that's basically the same idea as Howard's old E! show.
posted by CommonSense at 2:21 PM on October 24, 2007

Oh, and there's a live stream at Wendy Williams' site also.
posted by CommonSense at 2:22 PM on October 24, 2007