I really wanted to like Peter Boyles.
He could talk intelligently about any topic, so you never knew for sure what might come out of his mouth on his KHOW talk-radio show (at least when he wasn't talking about birth certificates, Jon Benet, or "illegals").
He was irreverent, blasting anyone and anything, including his own newsroom, his Clear Channel corporate higher-ups (who apparently fired him), or any elected official of either party. Everyone was a target, and sometimes this was a good thing.
Boyles talked a lot about history, and he even read books!
But in the end, how could you like the guy? He stood for nothing beyond weird nihilism and his Arbitron rating.
Why would such an intelligent person spend so much time fomenting anger and hatred toward undocumented immigrants, who are actually one group of people who might, through Boyles' audience, feel the effects of his venom?
His repeated attacks on Muslims were equally gross.
And why did he spend so much time trashing journalism? You sort of admire Denver Post publisher Dean Singleton for spending hours on Boyle's show, even though one of Boyle's absolute favorite things to do was to bash the Post (and the Rocky before it closed) in the most sweeping and stupid ways.
You got a sense of what Boyles could have been when he defended gays. But soon enough, he'd been talking birth certificates and social security numbers again.
What happened to the man who long ago did such an honorable and intelligent job hosting Channel 12's Colorado Inside Out? How did he end up having the respect of the paranoid right-wing and few others?
I never gave up hope that Boyles would start caring again. But it never happened.