The “New” Media Gets Top Blogger As Blog Talk Radio Grows
Mar 16th, 2007 | 14 responses
Watch out Sean, Rush, Randi and Ed. Talk radio no longer just belongs to the broadcast airwaves — or even the relatively new frontier of satellite radio.
Blog talk radio, which has been around for a bit but seems to be gaining more participants and listeners, seems to be taking off. And what better indication do you have of it than Blog Talk Radio hiring one of the blogosphere’s top and most thoughtful conservative bloggers to work for them full time? The blogger: Ed Morrissey:
Just a little over three and a half years ago, I began this blog as a creative writing outlet and a chance to hone my skills. When I launched Captain’s Quarters, I had no idea how it would grow, that it would attract this wonderful community of readers and commenters across the political spectrum, or that it would change my life.Today, with the support of family and friends, I made the transition from hobbyist to full-time worker in the New Media. I have accepted a position as Political Director of Blog Talk Radio, an exciting new venture known to the CQ community but one which I hope to help expand exponentially. It’s a chance to work full time in the field which I have grown to love, and an opportunity to help others literally discover their voices.
Why Blog Talk Radio? After weeks of interaction with the owners and the staff, I have come to believe in the product and see it as the next frontier in the democratization of media. In a way, it has even more accessibility and enterprise than blogs did when they first began. For no cost, anyone with a decent broadband connection and a phone can host their own live “radio” show, streamed on the Internet, and accept callers and conduct discussions. When we start adding advertisements, hosts will earn money for their work in a revenue-sharing arrangement with Blog Talk Radio. To top it off, the show automatically podcasts itself and the replay stream is available within minutes of the end of the broadcast.
Yours truly and other TMVers have been on a blog talk radio show and even considered doing one (although in the end TMV may cooperate with a host who’s already doing it).
And Morrissey points out that it isn’t only bloggers who are inching into this new aspect of the new infomedia:
It’s on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream. Last night — opposite my show, of course — Blog Talk Radio featured Jennifer Hudson in her own show. The Academy Award-winning actress and singer could interact directly with her fans and talk about her life and her experiences in Dreamgirls and on American Idol. The show attracted over a thousand live listeners and at one point had 125 live callers waiting to talk with Ms. Hudson.That, by the way, happened with just hours of promotion time available to plug it.
How serious is Morrissey about this new job and the potential of blog talk radio?
VERY. He is quitting his job as manager of a call center. And his new bosses want him to blog more than ever and continue is steady ascent into not just blog “hits” but also being a key member of this new info frontier. Morrissey’s huge pluses (aside from his blog and writing skills) is that he has done an internet talk show for some time and he also enjoys warm ties to many bloggers of many political viewpoints.
Can talk radio on the internet ever really compete with broadcast? It’s really too early to tell.
Computers, the Internet and blogs are really in the Fred Flintstone age, even though most people involved with them want to believe they are now on the cutting edge. This era is to the new technology and new media what silent films were to today’s movie industry.
And, now, Morrissey is leaving his secure job to become one of its highest profile pioneers.
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14 Responses to “The “New” Media Gets Top Blogger As Blog Talk Radio Grows”
I have read your post with great interest considering the fact that I am the founder and CEO of Blogtalkradio.
I am an entrepeneur who has built businesses in the past. I created Blogtalkradio because I believed that an entire community of bloggers who devote many hours to researching their ideas would be terrific candidates to host their own radio show.
Ed has indeed chosen to join me and the rest of the BTR staff and thousands of registered hosts on a fun expedition. Ed brings a lot to the table and we are thrilled that he has joined Blogtalkradio.
Best,
Alan Levy
CEO
I remember doing Internet radio shows from 1999 to 2003. Interviewing music artists and playing music seemed like the limit of Internet radio at the time. Blog Talk Radio warms my heart. All I see is upside, unless the telcos start neutering bandwidth.
I agree with T-Steel. And to Alan: thanks for your comments and for visiting TMV (do stop by here regularly!).
Good for Ed. IMO, he’s one of the finest conservative bloggers out there and I wish him the best.
I have to admit, though, blog radio hasn’t taken off with me yet. I still prefer to read, but maybe that’s just me.
[...] [Turn Signal: The Moderate Voice] [...]
So Blogtalkradio gets its Rush. Sorry, Joe but I don’t have nearly the high opinion of him that you do. He does the same kind of name-calling and denigration of those who don’t share his viewpoint as most highly partisan bloggers.
The difference is that Ed isn’t blindly partisan.
Check out the recent posts by him calling out other right-wing bloggers for saying the Gonzales scandal isn’t a big deal, or that “Clinton did it too”. For example
UPDATE: Yes, Clinton fired all 93 federal prosecutors at the start of his term. Yes, it interfered with investigations in process. Most of them, if not all of them, were approaching the expirations of their terms of office, however, and Clinton’s unprecedented act was mainly that he “fired” them without having nominated most of their replacements. US Attorneys serve four-year terms coincidental to the presidency, and are retained or dismissed at the end of their terms at the pleasure of whomever occupies the Oval Office. It is unusual to sack US Attorneys mid-term, unprecedented to do so with eight of them at a time, and in the case of Iglesias, to do so with one ranked by the White House as a high performer but whose home-state Senator pushed for termination because of impatience in indicting activists from the opposition party for corruption.
I’m not saying that the firings were illegal, but they were certainly strange, and politically stupid. And, yes, very worthy of criticism — as have been Gonzales’ attempts to explain them away.
And since when do we accept the Clinton standard for ethical conduct, anyway?
Could you imagine Rush saying that?
I do find it strange though that I’ve seen make comments that are similiar to comments Joe has blasted Cheney and Bush for, yet for some reason it doesn’t bother Joe as much when Ed says them.
Jim,
If you read Ed regularly you’ll know he isn’t blindly partisan. Conservative? Yes. Kool-aid drinker? No. He’s an honest conservative and nothing at all like Rush or Hannity.
Entropy: well said. There is nothing even remotely dishonest about Ed.
Ed is completely partisan on the war issue, though. He uses the standard phrases about “cut and run” and how Democrats are determined to lose the war. Yes, that kind of stuff irks me. I will also admit that he’s not anything like the dunces at Power Line or LGF.
Jim,
While you may be right in the type of rhetoric Ed uses on the war, he isn’t partisan about it. He makes those same kinds of complaints against anti-war Republicans, so apparently his commentary is based on what he actually believes about the policy issues rather than a partisan attack. I can understand your objection to the use of those phrases, but it’s not accurate to say that this makes him a partisan.
Good for Ed and congrats to him; good luck to BTR!
I’ve always seen him as a dedicated conservative but a fair man who offers his readers independent thoughts, unlike Hannity, Limbaugh, Levin, and others in the right-leaning talk radio arena. His is an important voice in the right-leaning blogosphere, and any chance to amplify it to his fellow conservative bloggers and blog readers is a step in the right direction.
How cool is that? The man gets to make a full-time living in the New Media! Hopefully, he will view this development as an extremely important RESPONSIBILITY more than an “opportunity”. Its both, of course, but moreso the former than the latter — the Citizens MUST take their media back to its roots; the roots our Founding Fathers specifically protected as “The Press”.
[...] In related news: A huge H/T goes out to our good friend Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice who directed me to Captain’s Quarters via his “must read” piece entitled “The “Newâ€? Media Gets Top Blogger As Blog Talk Radio Grows“… [...]
I don’t read Ed much but when I do I get the feeling he’s the friend you go out for a couple of drinks with to argue about how you’re both completely wrong about everything while both secretly changing your views just a little whenever a valid point is made — and smiling the whole time. Thanks for hiring him Alan instead of going with the common “wisdom” that mudslingers bring in the best numbers…could you do me a favor and try to convince him to take that stupid comic off his blog?