Not to crank my own handle, but when Laura Flanders and I co-hosted FAIR's "Undercurrents" on BAI, we did it live, employed music, injected a load of humor into the rather grim business of dissecting the corporate press. I used to get broadsided after shows by a few of the more dour staffers there -- they'd chastise me (but never Laura, who was untouchable) for being too flip, too sarcastic, or as one said to me, "too funny about unfunny things!" But the listeners liked it, and we were told that our show was among the top draws at the station. Indeed, one of the managers offered Laura and I our own show, separate from FAIR's, but since he could scarcely pay us, we passed.
(One week, when Laura was globetrotting, I hosted alone and did a strictly musical show, using songs like NWA's "Express Yourself" as prods to listeners to get involved in media activism. I did a part of that show as Alex Cockburn, whose voice I had pretty much down, and someone poked his head in the studio looking for him.)
"Undercurrents" became "Counterspin" and is now pre-taped and edited for national distribution, which makes sense. But I do miss those live shows when mikes would conk out, a long-distance hook up to a guest would fuzz out and we'd have to improvise to fill the air, and especially those pledge drive shows which could go on for a couple of hours, and Laura and I would write up quips and copy on the fly, try it out untested on a live audience. Fun times.
DP