I figured I’d leave the audio alone and just make a few comments here.
I thought it went well and the host, “Rude Jude” was nice and accommodating. I’d love to do it again, and being able to take calls was a new twist for me. Off air, he asked me a couple times about my “demographic” and all I could say is that “my audience is made of of people who like the show.” It was funny to see his slightly surprised reaction that I don’t have more data, but what more do I need to know? I think that’s something comes from years of working in corporate radio, going to meetings, etc. etc.
Corporations like to make things way more complicated than they need to be, and enjoy micromanaging every little aspect so they can sell ads and pander to a certain niche’. I get it, there’s nothing wrong with it, I guess. It was just a funny observation on what it’s like to be a podcaster from a spare bedroom in my own apartment vs a host on the 14th floor of the SiriusXM building in LA. We’re really doing the same thing.
Jude also made a few comments about having limited control on what he can do because of the format and station he’s on. I think all these guys are missing out on the true freedom of podcasting and they’re putting up with a lot of bullshit over what really is a simple issue: Managing your own airwaves. If you’re going to give that control to someone else, it comes with A LOT of baggage. In 1995, you had to make those compromises to get on the air. In 2015, it seems almost counter productive.
As far as the interview itself, Jude did say before going on that he was a bit of a skeptic. That’s okay, so are all my buddy’s from high school, I’m equipped for that.
The only two major points of resistance were:
-The manipulation of Hip Hop- Admittedly, he knows more about Hip Hop than I do. I would say I know more about media manipulation and psychological operations though, which is the more important point. When it comes to the artists and the labels, I tend to forget that stuff. Although, I was vindicated by a called later. To Jude’s credit, he read me the list of called and their comments and he could have gone to anyone, but he purposefully patched in a guy he knew disagreed with him and was more aligned with me. That’s a classy move.
-A caller saying “Conspiracy theorists lose credibility when we bring up baby fucking.” I wasn’t going to back away from that. Luckily I had the Franklin Scandal fresh in my mind, along with the names. I liked that part. I think that was good radio.
I don’t want to overanalyze the whole thing, as it’s really not that big of a deal. I would add that Jude told me off air he wanted me to bring up Reptilians. I did, and I kind of got lost in the weeds there. As I’m talking and staring into the face of a man who’s looking at me like I’m crazy, knowing I only had limited time, I just dropped it. But speaking of “conspiratorial cliches,” of course when aliens got brought up, it had to go to anal probes. I consider some of that to be a bit hack, but we do what we have to do.
I don’t think it was perfect, but if we’re talking about a conspiracy host speaking to a non-conspiracy audience and representing the overarching community in a small way, I’m happy with it. I got a lot of emails that were actually very awesome from people who heard the show. Things like:
“Whoa man, you really got me thinking about what’s really going on out there.”
“I always thought Alex Jones was just crazy, but you made a lot of sense.”
“Never heard someone talk about this stuff like you did, definitely mad me want to go look some of these things up.”
Not one person emailed me to say it was bad or than I was out to lunch, which is a plus.
That’s what I consider to be the more important thing. As someone who grew up watching mainstream shows get the craziest people on to rep “conspiracy theorists,” I was pretty pleased to get to try, in my own way, to do a better job than those I’ve been so critical of. I’m sure I’ll get better at that in time, if more opportunities come up.
It’s a little annoying to hear the “conspiracy theorist” label used as a blanket term for anyone who has alternative ideas, as if we all go to a meeting and decide what we believe and don’t. It’s not a religion. It’s not a democrat vs republican thing where we have to tow the party line….but what can you do.
What do you guys think? Don’t be shy, I can take it.
