Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 10, 1995 TAG: 9504100006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Since the start of his radio talk show March 13, North has been daring Bill Clinton to come on the air to defend himself. The president, not surprisingly, has been slow to respond. On this day, the can-do former lieutenant colonel is taking matters into his owns hands. He is broadcasting the phone number of the White House press office, urging listeners to call and demand an explanation.
A producer flashes North a note that the White House lines are tied up. A minute later, the producer relays that he has received an angry phone call from a Clinton press agent accusing North of being unprofessional.
``The White House is really ticked off,'' North tells listeners from the studios of WWRC in Silver Spring, Md. ``Bill Clinton, stay tuned.'' And as he cuts to a commercial break, North is doubled over with the high-pitched laughter of a choirboy who has just swung a cat by the tail.
One hundred miles away in Richmond, former Gov. Douglas Wilder is also chuckling - in a deep, self-satisfied tone. His radio talk show guest this day is a local business writer who criticized Wilder when he was governor for doing a poor job recruiting industry for Virginia. The writer has been complimentary of Gov. George Allen's efforts, however, and Wilder demands statistical proof that his successor has done a better job.
``What is the difference?'' implores Wilder, who has long maintained that he never got a fair shake from reporters. As the journalist sputters, Wilder says: ``I'll tell you what the difference is. I was governor then, and now George Allen is governor. The other details will never be told.''
Later, in his windowless office in the basement of WRVA, Wilder cracks up over his guest's discomfort. ``I tried to get him back,'' he says, ``but he never seemed to recover.''
Wilder and North are singularly at ease these days. They have traded the dark suits and red ties of political campaigns for headphones and the open-collar freedom of talk radio. No longer do they worry about being all things to all voters. With the press of a studio button, North sends his irritating callers to ``the shredder'' - a buzzing noise that aborts the call.
"Oh God, you don't know how liberating this is,'' Wilder exclaims. ``I'm free. I can tell people, `Listen, I disagree with you; you're dead wrong.' There's no more kissing up.''
The two men join a growing list of politicians who are retiring to the other side of the microphone, including former Govs. Jerry Brown of California, Mario Cuomo of New York and Lowell P. Weicker of Connecticut; ex-Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado and former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
What explains the phenomenon?
``One, the politicians are out of work,'' says Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers, a trade publication for the talk show industry. ``And two, they see a compatibility. They have bought into the notion that simply by being on talk radio one can influence public policy and build a power base.''
There's a third explanation as well - a chance to become extremely rich if the show is nationally syndicated. Rush Limbaugh, the top dog of the talk show industry, is carried by 620 radio stations across the country and makes an estimated $25 million a year.
Success, however, is hardly guaranteed. ``A lot of politicians are in for a surprise,'' Harrison says. ``Just knowing about politics and policy is not enough. They have to be able to talk about other subjects - about how people feel. It all comes down to whether they're entertaining. There are limitless opportunities to make a fortune, and limitless opportunities to go broke.''
North is off to a soaring start. Stations in at least 60 markets are broadcasting the three-hour program, which airs weekdays at 3 p.m. Promoters boast that North instantly has become the third-biggest conservative talk show host in the country - behind Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy.
Stations in Roanoke have yet to pick up the show.
As with all of his ventures, North's show is the product of high-priced consultants and limitless promotion. The program is owned by Salem Radio Network, a Dallas enterprise that specializes in syndicating Christian-format radio shows. Andy Bloom, vice president of programming for a New Jersey media company that owns WWRC, was stationed in Silver Spring for two weeks to coach North.
The goal is to produce an in-your-face conservative talk show host who will make Limbaugh and Liddy look like pussycats. Bloom could care less that many intellectuals are blaming talk radio for fostering polarization in today's society. This is about ratings, after all.
``If you ask me, polarization is good on talk radio,'' Bloom says. ``You need someone who can get people talking. You can't succeed with a namby-pamby, middle-of-the-road viewpoint.''
North, 51, doesn't need a whole lot of pushing in this direction, as anyone who watched last fall's U.S. Senate election would attest. He can criticize Clinton in his sleep.
``There's not a lot of middle ground when it comes to Ollie,'' says Greg R. Anderson, president of the Salem Radio Network. ``We just want him to be himself.''
Wilder, 64, takes a tamer approach to his program, which airs weekdays for two hours at 9 a.m.
``Those who are looking for a liberal answer to Rush will be disappointed,'' he says. ``I'm not interested in being a torchbearer for any ideology. I want people to think. I want issues to be debated intelligently. I want to get the facts out and let people make up their own minds.''
His is a slower-paced show than North's, at times offering dignified debate on current issues such as welfare reform, health and juvenile justice. Calling on his broad contacts from a quarter-century in politics, Wilder has interviewed scores of congressmen, journalists and state government bigwigs.
But don't think Wilder has abandoned his trademark style of spoiling for a good fight. Wilder spends considerable airtime to get even with enemies from his own days in politics and goes absolutely ballistic when accomplishments of his administration are overlooked.
For example, Wilder has insisted that he - not fellow Democratic lawmakers - deserves credit for not raising taxes in Virginia during the early 1990s recession. He has argued that his endorsement of U.S. Sen. Charles Robb is the single factor responsible for North's defeat in last year's Senate race.
And when Robert Skunda, Virginia's secretary of economic development, recently appeared on the show, Wilder couldn't wait to draw a dagger. He complained that Allen - Skunda's boss - assailed Wilder in the 1993 campaign for not aggressively recruiting businesses to Virginia. ``Knowing what you know today, is that fair criticism?'' Wilder demanded.
The show is the collaboration of Wilder and his former press secretary, Glenn Davidson. They own the rights to the program, book the guests and write the scripts.
Wilder, too, is hoping to syndicate his show nationally, but the effort is off to a slow start. To date, only seven stations in Virginia carry the program, and Wilder's voice has yet to break through in the major markets of Northern Virginia, Norfolk or Roanoke.
Discussion of state and local politics will remain Wilder's bread and butter as he seeks to consolidate his Virginia audience. Going beyond the state's borders may be a difficult task, say industry sources. ``Governors are a dime a dozen in talk radio,'' Harrison says. ``They tend not to have broad appeal.''
Wilder refuses to get personally involved in certain business details of radio, such as meeting with potential advertisers.
``We feel that would lessen his credibility,'' Davidson says. ``Doug Wilder is known for being independent.''
North doesn't wrestle with such things, either. On this day, he arrives at WWRC at 11 a.m. - an hour early - to have lunch with potential sponsors.
From noon to 2:55 p.m., his large ninth-floor office with a picture window overlooking Silver Spring is a beehive of script writers, researchers, consultants and radio engineers. The show is divided into 13 segments of about 14 minutes each, and segues, gags and political barbs must be written for each.
North - clad in glasses, jeans and the ubiquitous blue-check shirt that he wore for all of his campaign commercials last year - is swirling constantly from a conference table to a typewriter.
At 3 p.m., he's on the air. The subject for this day's show is no surprise. ``Today we're going to examine the common sense of William Jefferson Clinton,'' North announces. ``Voters are doing more than just messing with Bill these days. They're pulling the moving vans right up to the White House.''
Today's ``North Poll'' question for listeners is whether Clinton will be re-elected. After a 20-minute interview with Eleanor Clift of Newsweek magazine - ``I try to hear from the liberal viewpoint in each show,'' North explains - 70 percent of the calls favor Clinton's chances.
But those numbers start falling after Pat Buchanan calls from the presidential campaign trail in Iowa to denounce Clinton. And they continue sliding as North lambastes the president for planning to spend V-E Day with Boris Yeltsin and ``for having more millionaires in his Cabinet then any other president in the history of America.''
North says Clinton is so bad ``that if you pull a dollar bill out of your pocket, you'll find a tear in George Washington's eye over what's become of the office of the presidency.''
By now, all nine telephone lines to North are flashing nonstop. Caller Kathy says Clinton ``has no backbone.'' Bill calls the president ``a socialist.'' Craig says Clinton ``has been slapping the American family in the face.''
It's time to sign off, and North announces the final poll results: Only 40 percent of his listeners think the president will win a second term. ``You've done a service, and I salute you,'' he tells his audience. ``Betsy,'' he says over the air to his wife, ``I'm on my way home.''
Of course, that's not exactly true. First, North will attend a 45-minute staff meeting to plan the next day's show. His staff has been surprised that a local television station has refused to air a commercial for North because the ad was deemed unfair to Clinton. They decide tomorrow's topic will be media censorship of the conservative viewpoint, and North directs his workers to find examples from ``The Washington Compost and The New York Crimes.''
Then North slips into a suit for a drive into Washington for a TV interview. As his entourage heads toward the door, he pauses to consider a question. Suppose Clinton is not re-elected, what will he do then?
``It will be the death of talk radio,'' he says with a laugh.
by CNB