Counterpoint

Here is the response from WTMJ to Dan Shelley's article Secrets of Talk Radio:

We are surprised and saddened that a former employee, who worked with us for ten years, would choose to attack our talk shows hosts and company in this manner. Neither the station nor our hosts were offered a chance to comment on the claims made by the author. Newsradio 620 WTMJ stands by Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner and will continue to give their listeners the opportunity to share and participate in the best local talk programming in Milwaukee.

In great detail, here is Charlie Sykes response on the station's website. He concludes his defense as follows:

And here is where Dan exposes his hand: he obviously did not actually listen to what I said on my show. He did not hear what listeners of my radio show and viewers of my television show saw and heard.

In fact this issue that Shelley chose to highlight as an example of all that wrong with talk radio is actually is an example of just what Shelley says does NOT happen on conservative talk.

That’s what I call irony.

Every day we come to work looking not to enrage our audience, but to engage them. We do this by presenting a different (conservative) perspective on the news of the day. We try to inform them by searching out interesting and compelling stories and points of view. Our listeners don't come to us to decide WHAT to think... they can make up their own minds; what they want is for us to help make them think in different ways by having intelligent conversations with our listeners (and occasional guests).

People tune in because they know that there is more than the point of view spoon fed them from the mainstream elite media. They tune in to hear issues they care about addressed; they tune in to hear common sense; and to realize they don't have to simply accept the liberal line. That is the power of talk radio and its appeal. It is obviously a power that liberal elites regard with fear and loathing. And, apparently, it is a voice they are willing to use the power of government to silence.

Sykes, quite methodically, puts forth arguments to attempt to refute all of Shelley's claims. Somewhere between the two of them is the truth, though Sykes seems to have presented a sanitized version of events that just might not wash with anyone except a conservative talk-show host and his minions.