RADIO HELL

Birthrates are declining. You need a kevlar vest to go out in Milwaukee nowadays. China's the bad guy, and it's not racist to say it. They're cancelling the bible now. This should be national news. The traditional media is choosing not to report this story. Don't be a sheep. The Democratic party is a neo-Marxist party. This is common sense. The right wing needs to stop cowering from the radical left. The Democrats are organizing. We need to start thinking about local government. 

Did you know that conservative talk radio station 1130 WISN is the most-listened-to station in the Milwaukee area? Podcasts haven’t killed the radio star yet: terrestrial radio still dominates the airwaves, at least in the car.

I recently challenged myself to listen and learn what so many of my neighbors are hearing day in, day out. Quotes from various 1130 WISN shows over the past couple weeks are collaged into a kind of prose poem above. These right-wing talking points may sound predictable, and while most of it was truly odious (hardly a segment would go by without a potshot at trans women or immigrants), it was also deeply boring.

But you know who doesn’t think so? Tom Tiffany, Maria Lazar and Britney Kinser, all repeat guests on the station.

Little Limbaughs Everywhere

For years, angry and provocative talk radio has not only reflected Republican messaging, it has shaped it. It’s a mistake to think of this punditry as a mirror of the ghouls in charge; it’s really more of a two-way street. While the conservative base – and the media infrastructure which stokes and corrals that base – gets cues from the politicians, those politicians in turn get cues from the Rush Limbaughs of the world. And nowadays, there are little Limbaughs everywhere.

It is not anew idea to suggest that Trump and the MAGA movement owe a lot to Limbaugh (may he rest in piss). The combination of cruelty, “comedy” and relentless lying was a true innovation of Limbaugh’s. When popular lefty podcast Behind the Bastards covered the Limbaugh legacy, host Robert Evans had this to say: "Conservatism is owning the Libs. That's where we are now. [...] Because improving the world, changing or making positive alterations to the world, is difficult and complicated and involves a lot of debate and trial and error. That's hard. All I want to do is own the libs. That's what Rush Limbaugh created.”

The hosts on 1130 WISN each take after Papa Rush in their own way. Some flutter papers dramatically into the microphone, a Limbaugh staple. All frequently adopt a joking tone when they talk about their enemies, coming up with cute nicknames. (Francesca Hong, a frequent boogeyman on the station, is known as “F-word Frannie” or “Hookers-Bill-of-Rights Hong.”)

Local Elections Are Their Weakness… and They Know It

Unsurprisingly in the lead-up to the April 7 election, the buzz on 1130 WISN has been all about getting out the conservative vote. Kinser and Lazar, in particular, have appeared on the station multiple times: Kinser has talked at length about the importance of various school board races and the protection of school choice (a euphemism for the conservative pet project to funnel tax dollars into religious schools). Lazar, for her part, is still clinging to the hope that she might be the next state supreme court justice, denouncing competitor Chris Taylor as a radical “activist judge.”

And they have reason to be worried. Research supports the oft-made assertion on 1130 WISN that blue-leaning voters tend to show up in greater numbers in off-cycle elections. This phenomenon is the source of ample fearmongering by the hosts: Liberal wins at the ballot box will trigger an inevitable loss of gun rights and the immediate “transing” of school children against the will of the parents. Not to mention the scariest consequence of all: higher tax rates.

Fear and Loathing in Wisconsin

I listened to dozens of hours of conservative talk radio over the past few weeks – at 1.5x speed, because I am not a total masochist. In their world, everyone from Chuck Schumer to Tony Evers is a far-left radical. (Indeed, because they have painted everyone to the left of Mitt Romney as a dirty red, it puts them in a position where they have to accurately describe Hong, for example, as a Democratic Socialist in order to differentiate her from the mainstream of the party. They are terrified of her, by the way.) Any regular person who is not a dyed-in-the-wool conservative is a blue-haired they/them, or a Black Lives Matter activist, or a Karen, and we are all so, so mad at how much Trump is winning.

If you're not familiar with the medium of conservative talk, you may be imagining the closest thing the left has to it: public radio, known for its pretentiousness and for hosts with ASMR-like voices. Rest assured that 1130 WISN is nothing like that. Like Limbaugh, the hosts all speak in a bawdy, lively tone, and I cannot emphasize enough how little actual news makes it onto the radio. 

Instead, the vast majority of the airtime is devoted to impassioned rants inspired by the headlines. After Sala Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, was reported to be in ICE custody on April 2, one host took the opportunity to mock the public’s outcry over the event. Democrats are doing what they do – getting mad and screaming racism! But the headline need not be local, or even timely. Four years after the fact, they're still talking about Riley Gaines tying a trans woman for fifth place in a swim race. And where are the feminists on this issue? The left can't even define what a woman is! The intent, it seems, is not to inform, but to inspire fear, outrage and derision.

Early on in my experiment, I would note down things to fact-check. No, most people do not approve of ICE’s terror campaign in the streets. No, the US will not be out of Iran within the week. No, Milwaukee is not the murder capital of the country right now. This practice proved tedious, as most of their claims are not worth fact-checking.

I have resisted quoting from these radio shows much in this piece because, most of the time, what they have to say isn’t that interesting to me. But it is interesting to a lot of people. Some of them, like Lazar, probably won’t be the public’s problem any time soon. Others may be, though, so it’s worth noting what conservative thought leaders are feeding the people who will potentially hold power over all of us. 

I don’t see much point in trying to appeal to the folks at 1130 WISN, to get them to change their ways, much like I don’t think it would be worth appealing to Senator Ron Johnson. But I also don’t think this version of society – where almost half of us live in an alternate reality where this guy is Che Guevara – is permanent. The shows on 1130 WISN respond to their public, frequently taking listener calls and texts on-air. And if the public (that is, the conservative public) gets tired of being fed the same boring lies, the hosts will change tack. There was a time before the radio hell Rush Limbaugh created and, fingers crossed, there will be a time after it.