![[IMAGE]](theboys.gif)
Below is the full text of an article that appears in the June issue of Graffiti, an alternative newspaper distributed throughout the State of West Virginia. For space reasons, Graffiti could not publish the entire article, so I have posted it here.
by Butch Maxwell
One of them is rude and cynical; he scares some; he annoys some. The other is jolly and courteous; he bores some; he amuses some.
Both have loyal followings. They are a part of the weekday morning ritual of a select group of Wheeling-area rat racers: Morning Radio Talk Show Listeners.
They aren't all ditto-heads.
The exact numbers of these people is a little unclear. The vast majority of the population certainly makes choices other than listening to AM talk radio. Like most other cults, these people do their best to blend into society. But, inevitably, something will give them up. A slip of the tongue, such as "Dittos!" or "Go take on the day!" and you realize it: This person is a Talk Radio Affectionato.
Take heart: Chances are, this person is only a listener, not a caller. It is a known fact that fewer than 10% (and some say as low as 2%) of all talk show listeners ever call a show. Judging from the quality of most calls, we can assume from which end of the barrel these samples come. And while the quality of critical thinking emanating from these callers is painfully clear, the quality of thinking of the listeners is open to argument. They aren't all ditto-heads.
In Wheeling, people are talking about talk radio. Generally the haven of older, conservative people who prefer popping off to pop music, local listeners have been excited enough by recent developments in talk radio to bring it into water cooler discussions as readily as the latest Monica Lewinski jokes.
As reported here some moths ago, WWVA (1170 AM) has moved to a news/talk format, directly competing with WOMP 1290-AM. But the opening battle of the talk show Armageddon was a bloody mismatch. At the time, the morning show on WWVA was hosted by Bob Berry, who is a pleasant announcer and a nice person. It was doomed. You don't win radio wars by being pleasant or nice. Berry has moved on to an afternoon shift and the mornings are now the domain of a real morning muckraker.
Butchering a Few sacred Cows Dimitri Vassilaros is the new WVVA morning talk-show host. The 45-year-old veteran of radio stations from as far away as California came to the Ohio Valley in mid-December via WTAE-AM in Pittsburgh, where he hosted a talk show on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. He also writes two regular newspaper columns, one for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and one for a publication called "Allegheny Attitude," and he tapes two news commentaries per week that air on Steubenville's WTOV-TV 9. "I would do the same thing if I were him... Right or wrong, it got him noticed." ~ Howard Monroe Coming into a market that had one popular local radio talk-show host for nearly 30 years, Dimitri realized he had to enter with his guns blazing. Howard Monroe, the 46 year-old host of WOMP-AM's morning talk show, has been long established as the reigning "emperor" (his term) of talk radio.
![[Dimitri]](dimitri.jpg)
"Live and Dangerously Local" is Dimitri's catch phrase. Dimitri's style is to "stir the pot" with provocative statements. He agitates. And, true to his slogan, he keeps the fighting words close to home. "Tip O'Neill said 'All politics is local.' That's why I try to keep my commentary to local issues. Leave the national stuff to the national hosts."
"I would do the same thing if I were him," Monroe maintains. "Being controversial is always a stimulating position for talk show hosts, but it is particularly important if you're trying to generate attention. He was outspoken and in-your-face with his viewpoints. Right or wrong, it got him noticed."
Monroe is philosophical about his new competition. "It always helps to have someone dogging your heels," he said. "I don't think I ever took my listeners for granted, but I have to admit, having an alternative out there probably forces me to be better."
For his part, Dimitri looks beyond Howard Monroe when he thinks of competitors. "My competition is anything that anyone can be doing aside from listening to me on the radio," he says. "Television is competition. Getting the kids off to school is competition. Working is competition."
In progress now is the first meaningful rating period under the new order of morning gab. Results of the ratings race will not be available until late summer, but both hosts believe they have found an audience. "There's room enough for both of us," Monroe says.![[Howard]](monroe.jpg)
Who You Calling The Establishment?
Stylistically, they are much further apart than their apparent proximity on the AM dial.
Monroe is arguably The Establishment, a distinction that may cause him to cringe. He is a liberal. Much more liberal than most of his callers. He is responsible: An active member of the community, one can often find him at council meetings and public forums. He even sits on committees with community development agenda.
Dimitri is the Anti-Establishment. He is a Libertarian, which is generally regarded as on the extreme right wing of the political curve, although he argues with that notion. "To say my views are right wing implies that if I moderated, I would be a Republican," he contends. "But those distinctions are meaningless. There is no significant difference between Republicans and Democrats."
"We believe that less government is better," Dimitri says of the Libertarian philosophy. "The Constitution is our contract with America. We really don't need much beyond that. But everywhere we turn, we see more taxation, more regulation, and for what? Our children are poorly educated by government-run schools, federal tax dollars are used as pork-barrel incentives for the likes of Senator Byrd, and the government still tries to run our lives from the board rooms to the bed rooms. I think the government should be much more limited. The 16th Amendment (which established the federal income tax) should be repealed and replaced with nothing. That would force the government to live within the confines of the Constitution."
Monroe's views are unabashedly more moderate. "I'm tolerant," he says, "even of things I might personally find reprehensible. Gay rights is an example. While I am not at all an advocate of homosexual lifestyles, I think it is inane to hate people based upon their sexual orientation."
Not that Dimitri has taken a firm position against gays. But on a topic such as gun control, the differences are vast. "The Constitution guarantees citizens of this country the right to bear arms," he asserts. "There is no asterix at the end of the Second Amendment. We have a right to own guns."
"I believe in limited gun control," Monroe says. "Just because we outlaw machine guns doesn't mean the next step is Federal agents coming to our doors to confiscate our hunting rifles." But Monroe will shift his stand from "slightly left of the middle of the road" for the sake of argument.
"It's no good if the callers and I agree all the time," he points out. "I'll play the devil's advocate sometimes just to stimulate conversation. But my real viewpoints are clear. I don't go out of my way to enrage people."
Contrast that with Dimitri. "I'm here to butcher a few sacred cows," he says. Of course, that leads to a world-view skewed by mad cow disease. Perhaps Dimitri is the Hamburger Helper.
"Up to now, the local media has done a piss-poor job of asking the hard questions." For example, when Dimitri first came to Wheeling, the new "Intermodal Transportation Center," a part of the National Heritage development was nearing completion. Despite the fancy name, everyone knew what it was: a parking garage. And it was to replace a 40-year old steel albatross a block away known as the Wharf Parking Garage. The older structure was to be demolished to make way for the development of a riverfront park.
"Why are we tearing down a perfectly good garage and using Federal Tax Pork to build a new one?" Dimitri cried. Unrelenting, he hammered on the point for days. Perhaps it was unrelated, but shortly thereafter local businessman Stan Klos publicly presented plans to save the Wharf Garage and suggested filing legal action to stop the demolition.
Ultimately, the plan failed. The new building, referred to by Dimitri's listeners as "the Inter-Commodial" opened and the old garage was demolished. But Dimitri's impact is indisputable.
Dimitri's favorite word...
Another early issue for the newcomer centered on the City of Wheeling's study of salary structures for municipal employees. The results of the study called for raises to be given to many employees. Dimitri pounded on the issue for weeks, calling it "The Million Dollar Heist." He unsuccessfully tried to get City Manager Will Turani to explain the rationale for the raises on the air. Requests turned into downright baiting. Shouting slightly off-mic to Producer Darren Feast, Dimitri would say, "Has Will Turani called back? Unbelievable!"
It may be Dimitri's favorite word: Unbelievable. His constant state of incredulous aggravation lends itself well to the expression. "How can the City of Wheeling justify an $800,000 pay grab for employees, yet they don't have enough money to fix potholes?" he cries. "They paid a consultant from Arizona $40,000 to compare Wheeling to affluent cities like Mt. Lebanon and Shaker Heights and guess what they find out? We don't pay our secretaries as much as they get paid in those rich suburbs. Our tax dollars at work! Unbelievable!"
Monroe uses the word, too, but not nearly as often. Perhaps because he has lived in Wheeling long enough to find most things believable. "I have a pretty good perspective on how things work here," he says. "And that's not to say I always - or even often - agree with it. But the garage issue was something most people here saw evolve. I think Mr. Kloss made some excellent points, but why wait until the eleventh hour?"
One of Dimitri's Favorite Tactics...
The Good Old Boy Network is Dimitri's declared target. "The City Manager refuses to go on the air with me. I even offered to go to his office and tape an interview, and he still refused. What are these people afraid of? Is this what the people of Wheeling are used to? It is unbelievable to me how people in this area are not used to public officials being held accountable to their employers - the people," Dimitri says. "I tell them, this is your government! This is your community! You have the right to know."
"The Federal Prison project is another example of people falling in lock-step with their leaders," according to Dimitri. "County Commissioner Art McKenzie said that if the prison comes here, it would create 350 to 400 new jobs. What he doesn't tell you is that at least 40% of those jobs, the higher-paying jobs, will be filled with people from out of the area."
Posing a loaded hypothetical is one of Dimitri's favorite tactics. "Sometimes," Dimitri urges, "you just have to state the question simply: What would you rather see being developed in your back yard? A federal prison or a K-Mart? What kind of community do you want?" Never mind the fact that no one with the means to accomplish it has shown any interest in developing a shopping mall on the site under consideration for the Federal Prison.
You would think he would sometimes step on the wrong toes. Maybe he does. But toes were not the part of the anatomy he annoyed when he encountered former West Virginia First Lady and Conductor of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra Rachael Worby. When she was in the Atlantic Star Radio Stations suite appearing on a "light rock" morning show, Dimitri urged her to come into the studio to talk with him. According to several witnesses at the station, she shouted "my ass" to him and stormed out of the lobby. "If I'm not good enough for Rachael Worby," Dimitri says, "then she's not good enough for me."
At this rate, how long can he last? The answer: as long as station management is happy with him. And that is more contingent upon selling commercial time than it is on irritating power brokers. Dimitri says, "If you want to know if station management has been supportive of me, just look at our general manager, Larry Anderson. He's used up lots of heat shields standing up for me, and I'm indebted to him for that."
For most talk shows, some topics are nearly forbidden. Such as abortion rights. "It is a nasty subject I avoid on the air because generally it does not lead to productive or enlightening debate," Monroe maintains. "It easily degenerates into emotionally-charged squabbling, founded in religion or some dogma that cannot be resolved."
"I'm pro-choice," Dimitri asserts, in one of the few instances in which he agrees with Monroe. "Always was, always will be. But talking about dead babies at breakfast time is not good radio."
Gun control is the other topic. "People have their opinions on these matters," Monroe say, "and generally, they are not about to be swayed by intelligent discourse."
"I have made the conscious choice to offer something a little different."
~ Howard Monroe
From Dimitri's sign-on time of 5:30 a.m. until about 8:30 a.m., his format is so full of scheduled "updates" he barely takes any calls at all. He generally discourses about a topic or two, incessantly repeating it for the benefit of those joining him late. But if you expect him to take a call, don't hold your breath. He may take one or two throughout the early hours; he may not. Oddly, he is fond of criticizing his fellow talk-show host George Kellas for having the same 11 callers every day. But, outside of his 8:30 to 9:00 segment, Dimitri himself barely ever takes that many calls a day. The format of his show doesn't allow it.
Every ten minutes or so, the format calls for an interruption. About five minutes of news updates fall every ten minutes. Weather updates from TV 7 follow those. At 8 a.m. is "More News at Eight," which is extended to about ten minutes. Twenty/twenty sports comes at 20 minutes before and 20 minutes past each hour. Then there are commercials. Lots of them. No wonder he doesn't have time to take calls.
At 8:30 he runs his "Radio Graffiti" segment. Similar to an identically entitled segment on a now-defunct nationally syndicated show, Dimitri takes a barrage of calls, usually inane, about any subject. Callers say a short piece (sometimes they sing or do imitations) and without interacting the host moves on to the next call. Hardly stimulating much thought.
At 9 a.m. he features a guest. If you are looking for substance, that's when you may find it. He spends an hour with a scheduled guest, sometimes taking calls, and usually sticking to the subject.
WWVA's news is notable. The station actually has a staff that goes out and gets stories, as opposed to WOMP's news. News Director Margie DeFede and her cohort David Demarest have years of experience in the field and do a fine job of reporting, although the quality of their sound bites is often poor. Former TV 7 Sports Director Bob Finnegan provides sports reports throughout the morning. Tom Miller, the afternoon news anchor, has one of the finest radio voices and delivery styles in the market.
WOMP is not really a "rip and read" news service, because they don't have a wire service from which they "rip" news. Up until recently, the primary source of new has been "published reports" (in other words, according to what the newspaper ran). Now, however, they have developed a news sharing relationship with WTRF-TV. WOMP already broadcasts the first hour (5 - 6 A.M.) of WTRF's morning news show.
"I have made the conscious choice to offer something a little different," Monroe said. "My philosophy is to keep my show primarily talk. The other format is news/talk, and that's one of the main reasons that I did not want to go to WWVA last fall."
On that point, Monroe is deliberate. "I've consciously decreased the amount on news coverage during my show, because I am assuming that people have other primary sources for news: TV 7, the Intelligencer, the News-Register, the Times-Leader… They all have fine news reporters. We just don't have the staff, so we try to limit ourselves to doing what we can do well."
WWVA has an arrangement with TV 7 to have the television personalities voice their weather updates.
"We are the only local radio station that has a weather service that actively works for us first," Monroe points out. "We contracted AccuWeather, and each morning at about 7:20 I chat live with staff meteorologist Kathy Francis, as well as running her taped reports throughout the morning. Weather is something everyone wants to know about."
"Just after the 7 a.m. news each morning I talk live on the air to our Washington D.C. correspondent Ellen Ratner. She is the only person in all of talk radio who has White House Correspondent credentials. That gives my listeners a little extra edge on what is really going on with the President." Ratner is a principal in the Talk Radio Service Company, which serves talk radio station as across the nation. She is also an analyst for Fox News.
Monroe features regular guests on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. Wheeling Mayor Jack Liphardt is featured once a month. Monroe also offers his airwaves to a local advertising executive whose client, a lumber company, is represented through him in a home improvement advisory show. Similar segments are devoted to a veterinarian, and a few others. In the past, Monroe offered a "car care clinic" and gardening tips with expert guests. He also talks with a local stockbroker weekly to gather insights on the world of finance.
Monroe also does frequent remotes. Dimitri stays in the studio.
The Rest of the Story...
A.) They are two "regular guys"
or
B.) They're blandly conservative...
A.) They are unrehearsed and off-the-cuff
or
B) Poorly prepared and unfocused...
A.) An interesting balance of styles
or
B.) Totally without chemistry.
Dimitri calls Berry "the high tech redneck" and Sloan "the low-tech no-neck."
Rounding out the schedule is sportscaster George Kellas, who devotes his first hour, 5-6 p.m., to "open talk." He follows that with an hour or two of "No Bull Stuff Sports," a show he originated over on WOMP. George is smooth and comfortable with his role, and he does it well.
Generally speaking, Monroe and Dimitri are the best of their ilk, locally. And that's not bad. Each has his strengths and weaknesses. In the grand scheme of things, of course, it's just talk radio. But it is an interesting little war. And since the owners of WWVA, Atlantic Star, own all the radio stations in town except WOMP, it is really the only possible battlefield for a radio war.