February
2006
Now that McBride is moving to TMJ, Belling must find another GOP shill
Well it’s official. Jessica McBride, wife of Waukesha DA Paul Bucher, is taking over the WTMJ talk radio slot vacated by Mark Reardon.
Why was Reardon fired? Well it’s all speculation but Reardon occasionally showed a glimmer of objectivity — a trait McBride doesn’t suffer from. TMJ claimed Reardon’s firing was a budget cut thing but the fact is that McBride isn’t going to sign up to work for free.
She’ll offer yet another angry voice to the TMJ line-up, but it goes without saying that we won’t hear her angry rants anymore on WISN talk radio host Mark Belling’s television gig on CBS58. It’s that whole competition clause thing. This means Belling will have to find another Republican to fill the seat on his show.
I won’t say she’ll have much of an effect but knowing McBride (Xoff calls her McBucher because of her regular shilling for the hubby), she’ll spend her entire show tearing into Democrats just like her morning counterpart does.
All of this one sided ranting makes you wonder when some well-off moderate or liberal with plenty of income will actually buy a radio station here so the majority of the nearly million people here who tend to vote for Democrats will have someone to listen to that doesn’t make them want to turn off the radio.
Chris Abele, where are you?
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Wow. How profound. This post was almost as interesting as the podcast. Thst is the cool thing about blogging. Nobody is required to have a point and you guys do your part very well.
And yet you keep coming back and commenting. From an IP address lookup I already know you’re from the Brookfield area — close to where McBride / Bucher lives. I wouldn’t be shocked if you were her.
Have you considered using your real name?
Jim!
You have TWO excellent NPR stations to listen to.
(I should know. I listen to both. I mostly don’t agree with the opinions aired on them, but I think they’re both terrific.)
What more do you want?
(And please don’t pretend that the Ideas Network doesn’t lean liberal.)
If it is Bucher, why would she use her real name here? She uses her pro name on her blog.
Yes, I’m a great fan of WUWM FM89.7 for my news and majority of my listening. I also tune into WHAD 90.something…. for talk.
It’s really not the same thing though. Neither is blatantly partisan and both seek solutions and facts. Their commentators are a mix and include Cokie Roberts who is a Republican from a Republican family in the deep south. So if you’re asking me if I think it’s liberal, then the answer is no. The only liberal station I’ve ever listened to was Irish Public Radio and that was only during my trip there. It was tremendous.
Those with money and looking to invest, should tune into Irish radio for an example of what could be.
grumps,
I think it’s fairly safe to say that the person posting as Jane Roe isn’t using her real name.
Let’s not forget the Eric Von show at WMCS-AM 1290, which airs from 3-6PM weekday afternoons in the same drivetime slot that Belling occupies at WISN. Von runs the best local radio news show in the Milwaukee area in my book, giving people plenty of reasons to get off that dry FM educational band.
With Jessica’s hubby running for Attorney General this year, I think TMJ has gone too far. But it goes beyond that — the governor’s race, the Senate race in the county’s west suburbs (Jim Sullivan’s running strong there, a potential major victory for Democrats in the state), and the station just continues to polarize with little concern for where the vast majority of Milwaukee County comes from politically.
We’ve suggested previously that Journal Communications marketing strategy doesn’t make much sense, when you consider that southeastern wisconsin votes Democrat, and is beginning to look more and more like Northern Illinois.
Don’t tell the Journal Sentinel, though, they want us all looking more like Waukesha County [A1 - above the fold story in today's Journal - "Clout Moving to the suburbs]. I don’t think Ma Journal’s business strategy could be any clearer, and Jessica’s hiring is reflective of that.
Remember, McBride writes for the Waukesha Freeman; will Connely let her keep her Freeman column if she’s working for the company that is trying to put the Freeman out of business?