The Pulse Morning Show

[mae]

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/08/23/entertainment-us-people-stephen-king_8638313.html

Stephen King is offering an antidote to what he sees as the biases of right-wing radio talk shows by hiring a former Green Party vice presidential candidate to co-host a morning talk show on two stations he owns.

In a rare public appearance, the horror writer held a news conference Tuesday in Bangor, Maine, at the headquarters of his three-station Zone Radio network.

"The Pulse Morning Show" will be co-hosted by 50-year-old Pat LaMarche and 43-year-old Don Cookson, a former television reporter. LaMarche ran for vice president as a member of the Green Party in 2004.

During the news conference King said, "We're a little to the left, but we're right."

The show will begin airing on WZON-AM and WZON-FM at 6 a.m. on Sept. 12.

[jhanic]

Interesting. A couple of AM radio stations here in the Cleveland area tried this a number of years ago and failed miserably. Market share dropped drastically (like from 40-50% to 2%!)

John

[mae]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/24/stephen-king-pulse-radio-show

Stephen King is hoping to "make some people a little bit angry" with a new, left-leaning morning talk show which will offer a counterbalance to the proliferation of conservative American radio hosts.

"We're a little to the left, but we're right," the bestselling horror author said at a rare press conference announcing the new show. To be hosted by Pat LaMarche, a Green party vice-presidential candidate in 2004, and former reporter Don Cookson, The Pulse Morning Show will air on the King-owned radio stations WZON 103.1 FM and 620 AM from 12 September on weekday mornings and online at zoneradio.com.

"We're going to try to be informative. We're going to be provocative. We're going to be amusing, and we're going to try to be a positive community force," King told reporters at the press conference, according to local paper the Bangor Daily News.

LaMarche said the show would be targeting politicians who bully Maine residents – in particular those struggling with the welfare system. "There's an awful lot of bullying going on out there right now [and] nothing is more fun than standing up to a bully," she said. "We want you to laugh all the time because if you don't, you'll cry."

"We'd like to burn some feet once in a while – make some people a little bit angry," King added. "There are some people who deserve to be taken to the woodshed from time to time."

[mae]

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/08/23/news/bangor/author-stephen-king-offers-left-leaning-talk-show/

Horror novelist and Bangor radio station owner Stephen King announced on Tuesday a new talk radio show featuring a former vice presidential candidate and a former Maine secretary of state’s communications director.

“We wanted to shake things up a little bit in the market,” King said.

King, the owner of Zone Radio Corp, said WZON 103.1 FM and 620 AM will launch “The Pulse Morning Show” on Sept. 12. The show will air 6-10 a.m. on weekdays and online at www.zoneradio.com. The station also is expanding its news department.

King said he was thrilled his station could grow at a time when others have had to cut staff and decrease the amount of programming and production.

Former journalist, Bangor Daily News columnist and gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche will be joined on the show by Don Cookson, a former reporter and communications director under Secretary of State Matt Dunlap.

LaMarche, who was the vice presidential candidate in 2004 under Ralph Nader for the Green Party, said the show would target politicians and public officials in Augusta and Washington, D.C., who push around Maine residents, especially those struggling with the welfare system.

“Nothing is more fun than standing up to a bully,” LaMarche said. “There’s an awful lot of bullying going on out there right now.”

“We’re going to try to be informative. We’re gonna be provocative. We’re going to be amusing, and we’re going to try to be a positive community force,” King said.

LaMarche and Cookson said humor would play a big part in their program.

”We want you to laugh all the time because if you don’t, you’ll cry,” LaMarche said.

King said the show would balance the conservative leanings of other stations in Maine. He hopes the program will produce “all-day, in-depth coverage of Maine events, Maine news, Maine politics and really try to get beneath the surface.”

The morning show hosts have pledged their support to community and regional service causes. On the first day of the show, the station will begin collecting gas and grocery gift cards for the Wounded Warrior Project to help veterans, servicemen and servicewomen and their families.

“Unfortunately, we’re in a situation and we’re in a time when there are a lot of people in need of that help,” Cookson said.

“It is staggering to think that people can go and be willing to pay the ultimate price and come home unable to feed themselves or get the fuel to get to their doctor,” LaMarche said.

The first show, which airs the day after the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, likely will focus around how that day affected Mainers, according to LaMarche.

WZON will continue to cover sports, including Bruins, Red Sox and Celtics games.

“The Pulse Morning Show” will ruffle feathers and worry state leaders and officials, the hosts and their boss said.

“We’d like to burn some feet once in a while — make some people a little bit angry,” King said. “There are some people who deserve to be taken to the woodshed from time to time.”

[Hammer]

Stick to writing novels King

[mae]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXkAVPZaWqQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF36OWlYNfU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeqFCYAjX0s

[mae]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pat-lamarche/stephen-kings-new-woodshe_b_939609.html

I changed jobs this week. I went to work for one of my heroes. Perhaps you've heard of him, his name is Stephen King. Lots of folks like his books. He's more than an author though. He's a guy who gives a darn about his fellow man. A simple web search will tell you about the many soldiers, students, athletes and regular Joes he's helped over the years.

There's a quote attributed to Mr. King -- it explains humanity's most powerful ability: "love is what moves the world, I've always thought... it is the only thing which allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always seems to want to pull them down, bring them low, and make them crawl..."

Hopefully our new radio show will spread a little of that empowering love around to the folks that are on their knees right now and help them get back on their feet. Our first day on the air, we'll be collecting gift cards for our "gas and grub for our guys and gals" promotion via the Wounded Warrior Program. Seems our returning injured fighting peeps are unable to buy food or get to doctor's appointments and they need some love. Oh, and this show is progressive talk radio so pathetically inhumane realities such as this and the elected officials who legislated them will be getting a little good-natured bashing in the process.

Suffice to say that Mr. King's got a vision going forward of a daily tongue-in-cheek radio broadcast where love is the central motivational force and sticking up for -- and empowering -- the little guy is the end result. I know that's his vision because this week when a reporter asked him what his vision for his new radio program was he answered, "Whatever Pat's vision is for it." And well, quite frankly, that's it.

You can read more of Becca Gregg's interview with Stephen King at the Carlisle Sentinel. That's the hometown paper for the homeless shelter where I used to work. That's where I got my secondary degree in the school of hard knocks. Not to mention where I got daily practice sticking up for the underdog.

The grimmest truth of all, here in the US of A, is that as a country we don't live up to our potential. We've prioritized killing in other lands, while our own people are faltering.

Too many Americans have accepted the rhetoric that innocents have to die so that we can clobber a bad guy or two that might be in our midst. That's the same logic used by Timothy McVeigh by the way.

Still, the biggest problem facing a daily four-hour program that exposes the pitfalls of our society is that the buzzkill potential is overwhelming. So we plan to make listeners laugh at the bad guys instead of just hating them. At the end of the show we want empowered listeners walking away with the necessary mirth in their hearts to get stuff done.

It doesn't seem at first glance that anger and good cheer belong together, but my new boss wrote in his book Bag of Bones, "Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on."

So yeah, while it's infuriating that -- as comic genius George Carlin once said -- "I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed," best describes the 2008 elections. We're not going to let that stop us. Every weekday morning we'll just apply another of Carlin's maxims, "it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."

If you want to prep yourself for our show, I suggest you watch Carlin's rant on the American Dream. We're going to give the power brokers of this nation just what Carlin says -- in that video -- they don't want, "They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests."

But it's in our interests. And as the most powerful nation in the world, it's in the world's best interests. And thanks to Stephen King we'll be pursuing those interests starting September 12th at 6 a.m. If you'd like to listen live on line, go to zoneradio.com and click the Pulse "listen live" icon. And then we'll give you our toll free number, so that we can have your input.

Here's the last word from Mr. King, when he spoke about the morning show at our press conference last week, "We'd like to burn some feet once in a while -- make some people a little bit angry." Because, King added, "There are some people who deserve to be taken to the woodshed from time to time."

The article says that "You can read more of Becca Gregg's interview with Stephen King at the Carlisle Sentinel" but I couldn't find it.

[herbertwest]

By the way, did anyone recorded the first show?