The wonders of talk radio

My friend Leendert is on a trip around the world, as I mentioned before. A couple of weeks ago he was in Texas, and one of the things he wrote about on his blog (it's in Dutch), is a phenomenon called conservative talk radio. It works a little something like this: very conservative Evangelist talk show host preaches fire and brimstone, begs for donations and invites audiences to call in the give their opinions on the subjects he tackles. Obviously, when listeners express an opinion that differs from our beloved host, they are quickly cut off from airtime or ridiculed.

Because of his post, Leendert made me very curious about this great outlet for Conservative Right, and since I'm already such a fan of The American Family Association and OneNewsNow, I decided to give it a go. Through the wonders of the internet I'm able to listen to AFAR (American Family Association Radio) which is completely hilarious.

Yesterday evening I listened to a guy named Mike Friedeman (his show is appropriately called The Mike Friedeman Show). I gotta hand it to him, he's a good speaker. Obviously, I don''t agree with a word he says, but the way he says it is bound to get people to fall for him, a bit the way Hitler was also a good speaker, no matter how horrible his message was. Because of the fact I was listening through their website, I was also able to watch live feeds from the studio, so I could see who I was listening to.

Anyway, this guy's a hood! In about 20 minutes (after that I was fed up with it), he tackled the Pope, abortian, Obama, Clinton and Democrats in general. In between his rants, he was begging us for donations (donate at least $100-. and you'll recieve a 'free' 'Jesus is the way' t-shirt, what a deal!). It turns out to be Sharathon Week, which means that every two or three minutes we're summoned to support (i.e. to give money) to the station, to 'proceed the good work'. I wonder whether Sharaton is really an occasional happening or there's just another name for Donation Week every week. These guys really no how to squeeze you for dollars!

The good thing, Mike and his friends are sending us the Gospel night after night (gotta keep them cheques coming, right?) so there will plenty of fun to have!