A Band Out of Tune with America

If our new president wants to unify this country, if he wants to dissolve the partisan divide that threatens to stagnate this nation, he might do well by targeting AM Radio.

It was an amazing dichotomy on January 20. While millions watched the inauguration on television, Rush Limbaugh pounded away at his golden microphone saying he hopes Barak Obama fails. Sean Hannity's callers berated the benediction as racist. (He was definitely Old School, I'll give you that.) And I'm sure the criticisms rang on through the night, but this blogger's life span is too short to waste listening for that long.

Now don't get me wrong. I strongly believe in our right to be critical of our president. I'm not going to agree with everything Obama says and does. I didn't agree with everything Reagan did, and I certainly didn't agree with Clinton every time. And I honestly have doubts that W should be allowed to drive a car. But those are my opinions. To be knowledgeable of our government and the ways of the world - in other words, to be educated - is in my opinion the first tenet of being an American. Using that knowledge as the foundation for judging our leadership is the second. Put another way: pay attention to something other than your fantasy basketball lineup, and you'll have the ability to see beyond the political rhetoric.

Still, I couldn't help but feel that the majority of AM radio stations were out of touch with the weight of the events taking place that day. While thousands of people from across the country crowded the Mall in Washington for an historic inauguration speech, an event that in days past would've been broadcast by many of these stations with neutrality and dignity, AM radio stations railed like an elderly man demanding that those rotten kids stay off his lawn. His name in Husein! He botched the oath! He'll raise your taxes! He's gonna let the terrorists run free!

In the 1930's Walter Winchell had America's ear, tickling it with salacious factoids about the rich and famous for an audience new to fast paced electronic journalism. By the 1950's Winchell was yesterday's news. His staccato delivery, like that of a child who can't wait to tattle to his mother that he just caught his brother sneaking a cookie, was replaced by the smooth and more researched tones of Edward R. Murrow, Dave Garroway, and eventually Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley. When Winchell provided the narration to "The Untouchables" he did so as something of a self parody, a voice evocative of a bygone era. An antique with no purpose beyond its own nostalgia. We need a new version of "The Untouchables" for Rush to narrate.

If AM radio stations have nothing better to add to the national conversation than self-promotional rhetoric and borderline hate mongering, then perhaps it's best that this outmoded form of broadcasting be relegated to the same fate as analog television. Only without the digital conversion. Give the frequencies to local fire departments and law enforcement. That would be a real service to this country.