Michael Savage Dropped From "Flagship" Radio Station

Via ThinkProgress comes the news that San Francisco radio station 910 KNEW has dropped conservative talk-show host Michael Savage from its lineup. KNEW, which was Savage's "flagship station" dropped the righty talker in favor of "John and Ken," who the station manager reliably informs listeners are just as good as "Armstrong and Getty," whatever that means.

From KNEW's blog:

I'm going to answer the very first question many of you have.

"Why did you take Michael Savage off the air?"

Here's your no-spin direct answer; we have decided to go in a different philosophical and ideological direction, featuring more contemporary content and more local information. The Savage Nation does not fit into that vision.

You can take a look at KNEW's revised lineup, here. As usual, I'll point out that this has nothing to do with the "Fairness Doctrine."

The San Francisco Chronicle attempted to reach Savage for comment. It went about as well as you might expect:

So we called Michael to ask him what's up. His response: "Why don't you call Mao Zedong? He's your boss."

After we stopped laughing, we called back, noted that Mao is still dead and asked for a call back. Until we get one, we'll be reading our favorite little red book.

Don't worry about Michael -- for those of you who are. Not only are his ratings strong across the country, he's already called at least one San Francisco station Thursday, presumably in search for a new home.

The Savage Nation website alerts listeners in the Bay Area that Michael Savage can still be heard on KSTE 650.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[cglendenning]

Hi All,

For those of you who do not like (or even hate) conservative talk radio, I want you to know that Michael Savage is a jerk to his callers, arrogant and generally an angry man. He does no good for America and no good for conservatives like myself. There are left-wing talk show hosts that turn me off simply from their negative and abrasive tone (Randy Rhodes for example) also and they actually do more harm for liberals than good. Similarly, even though I may share some values with Michael Savage, he sabatoges himself by being a jerk. The voice of calm reason that I enjoy on the right is Dennis Prager. (870 KRLA) - He treats his callers and guests beautifully even when he completely disagrees with them.

Craig Glendenning

[nick1936]

Wghy doesn't this clown use his real name Micheal Winer

[sacklunch]

Why do you care what name he uses?

[airbns]

Maybe he realized that even boneheads can spell "Savage."

[Steph55]

Watch and see who mans up during the next year or so from the media empires. It's going to be a shakeup given the raging word bombs that people have been hurling about, it's like pigging out on fast food as your sole dietary intake....­......not a great, *or* sustaining idea.

Those with real guts will be dropping the likes of Savage and all other piggy illerate belligerants I gurantee. It is just at an unsustainable level, besides all that, when they do get their public healthcare they're going to love it just like they love:

Social Security
Public Roads
Medicare
Unemployment Insurance, et al

Those saying you can all just take care of yourselves are going to be sitting back sucking on eggs like the Repubs were during Obama's speech the other night. The train has left the station, and they're not on it.

Who's to blame? Themselves, they were offered, but declined. *Toooo bad*.

[Wardruna]

America's most entertaining radio show period.

Ph.D., Nutritional Ethnomedicine
M.A., Anthropology
M.A., Ethnobotany
B.A., Sociology
B.A., Education

Has written 25 books

10 million listeners
350 stations

[LennyMe]

I enjoy his anecdotal side as well. There is no doubt that he's very intelligent. For the most part, he is marginalized because he makes very little effort to make friends. A politician and diplomat he is not.

[Vinca]

I very often listen to Michael Savage, he'd kinda addictive. He often offends me, but he often reports things others won't talk about. I agree with him on some things, like protecting our borders, and I strongly disagree with him sometimes. He knows we have SOME MUSLIMS in our country that are anti-American, and some aren't.

[Steph55]

I heard a bunch of those degrees were made up, but whatever. A really intelligent person is not a belligerent pig who can't resolve his own neuroses. If you are unlucky enough to have have them, the least an intelligent person does is clean his own house first. So much for "formal" education even if it is true.

[airbns]

You do realize that the belligerent person you hear on the radio is mostly a professional persona, don't you?

Before he went to KNEW, Savage was on one of the other Bay Area talk stations - I don't remember whether it was KSFO or KGO. While on that previous station, his persona changed from one day to the next.

I had been listening to him for some time and he was always quite rational. Then one day he came in and, voila, instant jerk, and jerk from then on too.

Now, I didn't care for the new jerk Savage much, so I stopped listening, but not before his comments made it clear that he was bucking for a lucrative syndication deal and the jerk persona had sent his ratings through the roof and sealed the deal for him.

[S E Martin]

Letters after one's name do not make one intelligent. Some of the dumbest people I know have doctorates, and some of the smartest people I know do not have a H.S. diploma.

I happen to believe in education, as an educator myself, but one can be self-educated as well (i.e., have a passion for reading and learning).

I think Mark Twain put it well: "I never letting school get in the way of my education.­"

That may be a wise quotation for progressives to embrace if public schools continually bend to pressure from ignorant parents fearful that Obama will brainwash their kids.

[pmipIP]

The guy certainly lives up to his last name

[sanmansr]

It was reported today in the San Fran Chronicle, by Chuck Barney, that this was a Money issue, read it your self SFGATE.com

[hippie4ever]

Why is it every talk radio station is rightwing, and the FCC never intervenes to create diversity and fairness?

[triplec]

OMG GIVE ME A BREAK!!! It is based on ratings.. The rightwing is the majority in this country .. when will the left get that through their thick skull... Obama won simply because he seemed at the time the better of 2 evils.. In retrospect he was the worse choice.

[pt001]

yes it is plain to all that pres. mccain would have improved the country for rich white men
everywhere
and obviously the right wing majority is behind all those conservative family values movies that come out of hollywood
oh wait....
i guess liberals go see all those commie movies ten times each

[airbns]

Yeah, apparently you're not familiar with the SF Bay Area, where Savage's previous flagship station was located. The station in the Bay Area with the highest ratings is a talk radio station and ABC affiliate - KGO. KGO is virtually all left wingers, including a couple of outright Marxists (although they did lose one Marxist when Bernie Ward was arrested for being a pedophile).

Nevertheless, your premise just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. There most certainly are left wing talk radio stations. And the FCC doesn't intervene because it doesn't have to. There are a lot of right wing hosts because the public likes them and, effectively, pays to listen to them. Ain't America grand? There aren't many left wing talk radio hosts because, for the most part, they bore even you left wingers to death with their dull-minded yapping.

[TheDr5544]

I don't understand why any self-respecting liberal would want the FCC to intervene in talk radio?!? What about the freedom to choose what one listens to? There have been and still are (for the time being) left-wing talk shows, but their ratings usually weren't up to par (remember Air America). Any show with a decent share, while it might be dropped from an individual station here or there for various reasons, is going to remain on the airwaves until its ratings falter. If the left wants "diversity and fairness" on the airwaves, I have a novel suggestion­...put out a better product (a.k.a. find better and more entertaining hosts) that people actually want to listen to.

[HonestySeeker]

Corporatism got to KNEW. Though the typical Huff Post reader detests Michael, he is the canary in the Freedom of Speech coal mine. Abrasive? Absolutely. Michael is the worst kind of New Yorker. Callous, rude, insensitive, short. He treats his staff like man servants. His manner with callers is abrupt and curt. He is rabid about Medical Marijuana. This has earned him no friends within the broadcast community. He is a loose cannon, careening about on the deck of free speech. There are many things that Michael is not. He is not a tool for the republican party. He isn't a pal of Rush or Sean. He does not carry water for the establishment. Don't worry, liberals, you can still have Rush, Sean and Glenn to beat up on. They are low-hanging fruit on the talk radio tree. When was the last time you heard Rush take on a corporate entity? Never. Ditto for Hannity. The advertisers will flock to them. Never forget the day when Michael, word for word, read the explicit lyrics from a rap song, complete with all the f words and s words. He was made a point about free speech. None of the current crop of "Right Wing" talkers has the cajones to try that. So even if you dislike him, at least be honest enough to admit that he, too, has first amendment rights. Grant him his due. And then tune out and go listen to Thom Hartmann or Rachael Maddow.

[honeygramnan]

he sucks

[petman2001]

The headline reads:

Michael Savage Dropped From Flagship Radio Station

Too bad it doesn't say:

Michael Savage Dropped From 69th Floor of Flagship Radio Station.

[I apologize in advance to anyone who is offended by this joke......­NOT!]

[petman2001]

......And I will NOT not apologize again !

[Rosiestar]

I think you should NOT not apologize again and ask for donations from people to help stop the attacks on you. (courtesy Joe Wilson)

[Altruth]

This guy should be in a m/e/n/t/a/l institution - he is really DELUSIONAL!

[enquiringmind]

Savage is vicious , vindictive and insane. His contribution to America is that he has helped to lower the tone of the debate to its lowest possible denominator. Thanks to the people who fired him.

Perhaps he should emigrate someplace where he would be welcome.

[awckid3]

Yeah, like gitmo.

[Najablue]

Michael Savage? Who is that? Wait, you mean Michael WIENER. Just another macho poseur in a long string of chickenhawks, wrapping himself in the flag while spewing hatred and paranoia.

Sort of hysterical how reality can sometimes surpass wild imagination, what with the party of macho patriotism, fiscal responsibility and family values has led to people like Savage the pseudo-macho, cheny and bush the pseudo-war leaders, the Idaho Senator that picks up men in airport restrooms, the Florida Senator that sent filthy text messages to teen boys, and a former Alaska Governor (she quit when the going got rough) that is married to a former secessioni­st., the current Governor of Texas threatening secession, two COngressman from Louisiana having affairs, and on and on and on.

It feels good to be a liberal, especially when COnservatism and hypocrisy seem to becoming synonymous.

[Rt-Wy-4me]

Don't forget Clinton who defiled the oval office!

[rivrgrrl]

Fortunately, in this case, for us Liberals, Clinton is a centrist Democrat.

[austindad]

Fortunately, no elected officials swear an oath to the Oval Office so I think the union will survive.

However, where is the "conservative" protest when real live constitutional issues are at state? Watergate, Iran/Contra, The Patriot Act, and torture, all brought to you by leaders that the conservatives now idolize.

I'm a lot less concerned about a carpet stain than I am with the stain that the last administration left on our country's reputation and political discourse.

[bigguy1231]

I'm sure Clinton wasn't the first.

[SuZy0925]

Clinton didn't go on and on about "family values" (whatever THAT is). It's the hypocrisy that's so repulsive. And then all the money that was spent to get him to admit to shtupping an aide. If that much money was spent to get Cheney and Dubya to admit that their findings of WMD was all B*S* and that it really WAS Cheney that outed Plame, now THAT would be money well-spent.

[Itsmyland2]

Clinton left a stain on a dress. Bush left a stain of the blood of 4000+ young men and women in Iraq.

[Rt-Wy-4me]

I can tell a lot of you don't listen to Dr. Savage. His main theme is Boarders-L­anguage-Cu­lture

He wants to protect our boarders from the flow of illegal persons entering this country. We don't know them, all we ask is to enter this country legally and abide by our laws, when someone enters this country illegally they have already committed a crime and broken one of our laws.

Language, we also ask nothing more but to learn our language, it's English. We are not trying to stop you from speaking your language. The original immigrants, (yours and mine) did all they could to learn English. Have you noticed that in many areas you have to be bi-lingual to get a job.

Culture, The culture in this country is very mixed and we continue to celebrate it so. We are Americans first, we believe in freedom that is the main reason people from all over this world come here. Don't try to change our culture or it won't be America.

God Bless America and God protect our troops on the ground who are willing to give there lives for our Freedom

[kilgore trout]

Presumably, he can spell "Boarders" correctly, too. (A "boarder" is someone who rents a room. I think you mean "borders."­) If you're going to rant about others needing to learn English, you should learn it yourself. Most hispanic immigrants that I know are fluent in two languages.

[spikeykitten]

"Most hispanic immigrants that I know are fluent in two languages"

So it is you who knows all three of them.

[historymatters]

Perhaps you mean borders, as in demarcations between one entity (such as two counties, two states, or two countries), rather than boarders, as in the guy who pays rent to have a room at the local boarding house.

As for the troops, there is a place, as in, it's over there by the coffepot. Our troops have too often sacrificed their lives (their being a possessive) for the war in Iraq that was based on lies and the mismanaged war in Afghanistan.

Not exactly showing a mastery of that English language you're so intent on everyone knowing, eh?

[Vinca]

I'm glad Michael is often talking about border security. It is one of me pet peeves, that neither party wnats to secure our borders. How can it be good that people come into our country unchecked, and using :cloned: company trucks to bring in people , drugs and guns, according to a Tabloid, I just read.

[S E Martin]

One of my favorite "jokes" I've heard to illustrate the absurdity of the "must learn English" crowd:

"I once saw a sign that said, 'If you don't speak English, get the eff out of the country. And, I thought to myself, 'That doesn't sound like Cherokee to me.'"

Do we forget that this land we call the U.S.A. is no more an English speaking land than is, say, France?

A little tolerance might make this country stronger. Maybe we should learn Spanish, too? The rest of the world is almost all bilingual. Most Americans can't even speak English all that well (or "good" as most would probably say, even our media folks don't know the difference between a noun and a verb, apparently).

By the way, ask a Brit if he/she thinks Americans speak "English."

[maxfax]

His name belies his temperament, be gone savage.

[in4success]

michael alan weiner is his real name. --he's a big WWE fan apparently.