WKVL’s The Rude Awakening
I’ve been enjoying listening to The Rude Awakening in the mornings on WKVL (with hot facebook on facebook action here). I wish, though, that they’d go FM because AM kind of stinks.
It’s a good, thought-provoking show that discusses current political happenings. They even have a handy smart phone app so that you can, basically, comment on their show like you would a blog. I’ve sent a couple of messages to them correcting certain factual errors made, such as when Shine said there was not right to vote mentioned in the constitution or the time he said the Senate can’t enforce it’s actions or the law. And, unlike other hosts you correct, they read both corrections on the air and thanked me. I’ve even heard Steve call in on a few occasions.
Beats the other news/talk shows and definitely beats music circa 2013.
So, if you’re local, give them a listen.
June 12th, 2013 at 9:22 pm
I’m up here in Bristol. Love it!
holler sometime when you get a chance and want to shoot some. I have a range in the back yard if you want to make the trip. otherwise your range or a wrf area!
warmest regards,
towerclimber
June 12th, 2013 at 9:37 pm
I’ll give it a listen. Got it on TuneIn Radio app.
June 12th, 2013 at 9:55 pm
I have been listening for a few weeks. Good show.
June 12th, 2013 at 10:20 pm
Agreed, they’re the best morning show in the area right now. As to the AM, they didn’t really have a choice at the time; Johnny Pirkle (I may not have the name right) saved the talk format by leasing 850 AM from the uncapable Horne Broadcasting. South Central, the operator of most of the crappy stations in the area & the buyer of 100.3 FM, wasn’t interested in talk.
June 13th, 2013 at 7:09 am
If the station is making money, someone should suggest HD Radio to them. This is an “in-band, on-channel” system that encodes a high-quality version of the audio into the signal. When you tune in with an HD receiver, it first sounds kind of thin and scratchy but after a few seconds, the digital decoder locks in, syncs up, and the sound crossfades from “AM” to “they’re in the from with me!”
Short-term, if you listen at home, an old radio is (generally) better than a new one, a tuner or hi-fi receiver is better than a boombox and even a short antenna helps AM have better signal-to-noise.
June 13th, 2013 at 9:17 am
Thanks for the plug man!
I go back and forth between HHH and Rude Awakening if my only weapon is a radio. If I’m on a computer, The Morning Majority and Chris Plante on WMAL DC are added.
As for callers to WKVL, does anybody know who Blue is? If I was listening right, she works on libertarian campaigns during election season.
I have no idea what it takes to make money in radio, but hearing sponsor after sponsor mentioned is a good indication that they are doing something right.
June 13th, 2013 at 10:00 am
Is there a right to vote mentioned in the constitution? I suppose there is room for interpretation.
Here’s a quote from the Wiki page:
“The “right to vote” is not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution except in the above referenced amendments, and only in reference to the fact that the franchise cannot be denied or abridged based solely on the aforementioned qualifications. In other words, the “right to vote” is perhaps better understood, in layman’s terms, as only prohibiting certain forms of legal discrimination in establishing qualifications for suffrage. States may deny the “right to vote” for other reasons.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_States
June 13th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
Arrgh. I meant to write the sound quality was “They’re in the room with me!” for AM HD radio. Stupid autocorrect.
June 16th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
Since political elections are creatures of the state, voting really should not be considered a right, even thought it is mentioned as a right all over the Constitution. Who gets to vote where has always involved some state defined qualification, be it residence within the jurisdiction, owning of property, or a host of other things.
These qualifications change from time to time, and the trend for 100+ years is to expand the license by class.
14th Amendment section Two provides for reducing representation in the Congress if non-criminal adult males are prevented from voting. This was modified by later amendments. Presumably, any crime will do for removing your “right” to vote.
15th Amendment removed race tests and any former property status from being used. IIRC no State was required to prevent blacks (free or not) from voting. The 1796 Tennessee Constitution allowed all free men to vote, including free blacks. The second Tennessee Constitution removed voting for free blacks, then the post-reconstruction Constitution brought it back.
17th Amendment removed the practice of indirect Senate elections to required direct elections.
The 19th Amendment did not give women a right to vote, it prohibited States from excluding women from federal election voting. IIRC, New Jersey entered the Union with women voting, then ended the practice (with little or no fanfare), then the 19th Amendment brought it back.
The big one most people are confused on (probably nobody on this blog) is the “right” to vote for President. That has never been the process in the USA. Today we get to vote directly for electors. Some States attach a penalty to the electors to vote the way they were elected to vote, but most do not. Also, it is not a requirement for States to do “winner take all.” Two States have had proportional voting for quite a while. I read somewhere that those folk in California just started a national popular election system, where their electoral votes will be cast for whomever wins the national popular vote, no matter how their citizens voted. Maybe someone else knows more about that craziness.