Democratic Soapbox Disappears With Imus

Industry scrambles to keep listeners in post-Howard Stern era

(NEWSER) - With Howard Stern gone and Don Imus chastened, today's commercial radio is fighting to be heard, the Wall Street Journal reports. What's more, consolidation is depriving stations of a local touch and squelching chances for would-be stars. Plus there aren’t as many “heirs apparent,” said one analyst, “and there used to be.” One new gabber, Adam Carolla, discovered just how vexing post-Stern radio life can be. More»

Bernard McGuirk set off scandal; auditions to be Tom Finneran's co-host

(NEWSER) - Don Imus's old sidekick Bernard McGuirk will audition live next week to be the co-host of "Finneran's Forum," a morning political talk show on Boston's WRKO. McGuirk set off last month's controversy by calling the Rutgers womens' basketball team "hard-core hos." But his potential future co-host, Tom Finneran, is confident there won't be a reprise. More»

A longtime Clinton supporter wishes this talk would go away

(NEWSER) - A political parlor game of sorts is making the rounds among Democrats called WWHHD, or What Would Hillary Have Done, notes Rebecca Traister. Might Clinton have handled, well, everything better? As someone who supported Clinton in the Democratic primary, you might think Traister would be an eager participant and a leader of the I-told-you-so brigade. Nope: "Rather than reveling in these flights of reverse political fancy, I find myself wanting the revisionist Hillary fantasists—Clintonites and reformed Obamamaniacs alike—to just shut up already," she writes in the upcoming New York Times Magazine . More»

Beck, meanwhile, Beck unplugs 'hotline to White House'

(NEWSER) - Glenn Beck's radio show is currently without a home in New York after having been dropped by WOR, one of the city's biggest talk radio stations. "The reason is ratings," WOR's program director tells the New York Daily News. "Somewhat to our surprise, the show wasn't getting what we wanted." The station plans to replace him with another conservative, Mike Gallagher, a New Yorker whom they hope will have more to say about local issues. More»

Critics bid farewell to softballs, suspenders

(NEWSER) - Tonight is Larry King’s final show on CNN—Bill Maher and Ryan Seacrest will be in the studio with him, and word has it he’ll be receiving a taped sendoff from President Obama and chat with more than a dozen other mystery guests via satellite. Some 50,000 interviews later, what the critics are saying:

• King’s career “eternally careened between pinnacles of wild success and pits of utter catastrophe,” writes Glenn Garvin in the Kansas City Star . But “it's hard to find anyone of any significance in the past half-century who hasn't sat across the table.”