Simone

The march issue of Newsmax magazine includes my profile of Mark Simone, the go-to sub for Hannity, Imus and Levin.  Here are some excerpts from the Director’s Cut…

Colleagues praise Simone as talented, versatile, reliable and professional.  But the real key to his success is humility.  A substitute host’s job is simple enough: Keep it between the ditches until the beloved star gets back – don’t take chances, don’t show off.  Yet very few radio pros are willing or able to execute that direction.  Ego and ambition muck it up.

“It’s not easy to be a fill-in guy,” says Simone’s boss, WABC-AM Program Director Laurie Cantillio. “Mark has a good understanding of that role.  He never tries to upstage the host.  He understands the audience for each show and adjusts accordingly.”

“A lot of guys try to make a name for themselves [when they fill-in],” says Simone.  “The secret is that you have to know the [regular host] really well and with every decision ask yourself what that host would do.”

Simone prides himself on his ability to perform on short notice, like the time he got called at 2:40pm to fill-in for Hannity at 3pm.  An excellent memory for facts and figures dramatically reduces the amount of time he needs to prepare for a show, he says.

“Warner Wolf said I’m like a relief pitcher,” says Simone, referring to the veteran New York sportscaster and “Imus in the Morning” cast member.  “The starters need a couple hours to warm-up, but I can be ready in eight pitches.”

Simone’s easy confidence and versatility flow from a lifetime of varied experience…  Simone got his first taste of talk radio in 1980 at a rock station, WPIX-FM in New York City. “I worked a Sunday shift and I noticed the studio had phone lines and a delay system,” he says.  “So, I started taking calls.”  Thus was born “The Simone Phone,” which he believes was the first FM talk show.

Simone eventually moved to WNEW-AM, where he did a comedy show with Steve Allen that was briefly syndicated.  That  experience paid off a few years later when he was working at WABC, Hannity’s flagship.  As Simone recalls, he was tapped to fill-in for Hannity primarily because of his experience doing a network program, which requires the host to execute with precise timing.

Simone describes himself as a right-of-center independent and acknowledges that his political views aren’t fully aligned with those of Hannity and Levin.  But he keeps any differences to himself when he’s subbing. “If I disagree with the host [on a topic], I just stay away from that issue,” he says. “You aren’t there to promote your own agenda.  You wouldn’t come on a music show and play a different type of music.”

So, has the ultimate back-up ever thought about joining the starting line-up with his own network show?  Simone says he’s been approached with both local and national opportunities but “nothing was really appealing.”

The Super Sub pauses, chuckles and adds,  “But that might be less work, actually.”

Yes, yes, let your hate flow...

Media Matters for America, the liberal media “watchdog” group, this week debuted a daily two-minute synopsis of what it considers the most “hateful rhetoric, offensive commentary and  conservative paranoia” heard on talk radio. The first three installments include snippets from Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Dennis Miller and Quinn and Rose.  There are also cameos by local talkers, including KSFO/San Francisco’s Lee Rodgers and WLW/Cincinnati’s Bill Cunningham. Frankly, none of the material is particularly hateful, offensive or paranoid.  (I can see this daily round-up becoming talk radio’s equivalent of Sports Center, with hosts and producers high-fiving when they make the reel.)

Watch the July 16th installment here:Two Minute Hate.  Read the Media Matters press release here.

Friedersdorf concludes:  “Effective opposition requires a clear-eyed, unsentimental assessment of reality, not paranoid, uncharitable rants. The right understood this very well when they talked about The Angry Left, and how its visceral hatred for George W. Bush distorted its judgment. Too many seem to have forgotten this lesson, and aren’t the least bit skeptical at analysis offered by a man assuming of his opponent the most awful motivations imaginable. This is merely one small example from a radio show that traffics in rhetoric of this very kind five days each week.”

To quote Sean Hannity quoting Ronald Reagan: There you go again.  Friedersdorf, like most journalists, doesn’t really understand talk radio.  Talk show hosts aren’t employed to run on-air education and organizing efforts; they are paid to attract and hold the largest possible audience.  Showmanship plays a big part in achieving that objective.  Talk  pioneer Willis Duff once said that talk radio is like bullfighting.  People appreciate the cape work — but they come to see the bull get killed. 

And no one kills the bull like Mark Levin.

Allen Hunt

Allen Hunt will soon be the hardest working man in talk radio.  The minister-turned-faith-and-values-talker will debut a weeknight show later this year while continuing his Saturday and Sunday evening programs.

A source at the Allen Hunt Show confirms the weeknight show will air 9pm – midnight with a start-date sometime before the beginning of the Fall ratings period.  Hunt and his staff have been on the road talking-up the new project, which they position as an alternative to the sometimes harsh Mark Levin and Michael Savage, or delayed broadcasts of other hard-politics daytime shows.

To get a good sense of  Hunt’s substance and style, listen to his segment on Christians and torture.  To get sense of the passion he stirs, check this, ummm, fan site.

This is a bold move for the  Atlanta-based, self-syndicated Hunt.  Nights are a rough slot marked by small audiences, limited revenue and lots of sports preemptions.  (And how long before stations with decent signals  start brokering nights?) But in all likelihood, the determined and radio-savvy Hunt team views the nighttime offering as a foot in the door – one that will eventually lead to your mid-morning slot.