Post by bossradio93 on Sept 30, 2003 13:12:57 GMT -5
Radio waves: Talk show host pushed early for recall[/b]
By Marjie Lundstrom - Sacramento Bee columnist, 9.28
SAN DIEGO -- Roger Hedgecock has just finished subbing for Rush Limbaugh -- heady stuff for a conservative radio talk-show host -- but now he's turning back to the business at hand:
Firing up listeners for the Oct. 7 recall election.
"I'm going to take abuse today," says San Diego's KOGO-AM radio host, who told his audience the day before that he's backing Arnold Schwarzenegger, a declaration he knows will infuriate devoted Tom McClintock listeners. "Big-time abuse."
Even the guy with the mike, it seems, can have one of those days.
On the short list of people handed the credit -- or the blame -- for California's historic recall election, Hedgecock's name invariably turns up. A popular San Diego area talk-show host for more than 17 years, Hedgecock came to the recall party early, closely following Eric Hogue of Sacramento's KTKZ-AM in using the radio pulpit to whip up unhappy voters.
"Roger and Eric, in particular, are probably the two most focused in California on this," said recall strategist Dave Gilliard. "Without them, it may not have happened -- at least certainly not in the quick time that it did.
"These shows have created activists, created people who actually go out and work and do things."
But Hedgecock, the former San Diego mayor convicted in the 1980s of conspiracy and 12 counts of perjury over failure to report more than $350,000 in campaign contributions, didn't just talk about getting rid of Gov. Gray Davis.
He jumped right into the fray.
This is the guy who conducted "drive-by" petition signings in San Diego County in the recall's early days. This is the guy who in July came to Sacramento -- a place he refers to as "a wannabe rice field" -- and joined in the rollicking "Yes on Recall" celebration outside the Capitol. This is the guy Schwarzenegger picked last month as his conduit to publicly nip at Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, calling the Democrat on-air a "Gray Davis with a receding hairline and a mustache."
And always, always, there were Hedgecock's listeners, tuning in each day for what the Radio Mayor -- who calls himself a "recovering politician" -- would be stirring up in the ongoing political potboiler.
"This campaign has energized a whole bunch of people to believe they could be powerful, that they could hold elected officials accountable," Hedgecock said last week, waving his latest crusade: petitions to repeal the car tax and to overturn the controversial new law to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
"They're sticking a sharp stick in our eye every day," he said. "We're just going to stick it back."
Not everyone, of course, is enamored of Hedgecock or believes his anti-Davis fomenting has had a profound influence on the course of events.
"My sense is that the impact of talk radio has been overhyped -- and most of the hype is done by the radio talk shows themselves," said Roger Salazar, an adviser to Davis. "From the Democrats' perspective, the folks listening to conservative talk radio aren't the ones who are going to vote for you anyway. ... They're pretty much preaching to the choir."
For Hedgecock, 57, that "choir" is not insignificant, with as many as 350,000 listeners tuning in each week to see what the region's top radio talk-show host will say or do next. San Diego County has already been pivotal at various stages in the recall campaign, with Rep. Darrell Issa -- the rich car-alarm entrepreneur from the San Diego area -- helping to bankroll the signature-gathering effort with $1.7 million of his own money.
The county ultimately contributed the third-highest number of valid recall signatures, behind Los Angeles and Orange counties, though Hedgecock says his county led the way in the campaign's early months.
But this is also a place where local politics have turned especially raucous, as three San Diego city councilmen were indicted last month on charges of taking bribes from a strip club owner.
Hedgecock knows a little something about this, having weathered his own local political scandal. Forced to resign as mayor in December 1985 after his felony conviction, Hedgecock found radio. (The California Supreme Court reversed the perjury convictions in 1990, and Hedgecock eventually reached a plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office in the conspiracy case. He reportedly paid a fine, and the conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor and dismissed.)
Still maintaining his innocence and calling the matter "complete BS," Hedgecock says the experience helped shape his life. Rather than lament his legal troubles and wrecked political career, he decided the job would not define him -- that he could find success elsewhere.
He found it in talk radio. And from this new vantage point came bursts of activism.
In 1990, his relentless advocacy of one citizen's "Light Up the Border" idea prompted hundreds more to drive to the border and shine their headlights on illegal immigrants attempting to cross.
"He's the most influential guy in San Diego County," said his off-air studio sidekick, a former Republican assemblyman and state senator, Larry Stirling.
"Oh, stop it," quips Hedgecock during a short break.
"Listen, he has more influence now than when he was mayor," fires back Stirling, 61, a recently retired judge and longtime friend who volunteers to sit alongside Hedgecock during broadcasts, passing him scribbled notes and looking up useful Internet background.
But as both of them well know, Hedgecock's influence is not universally appreciated here, with some residents rejecting his brand of conservatism and sharp on-air style.
"He's like the local Republican madman," said Ray Edwords, a 51-year-old horticulturist who recently stopped to surf at Tourmaline Surfing Park near La Jolla. "For him, there's no Democrat, liberal or independent that deserves to live. What he does is rally the people who have bad attitudes.
"I think people are mad at government and don't know why, and they lash out," said Edwords, who opposes the recall. "That's who Hedgecock appeals to."
At Balboa Park, Janella Davidson, who was accompanying her 5-year-old daughter on a first-grade field trip, said Hedgecock's influence is undeniable -- and grating.
"I can't stand him," said the 41-year-old property manager, who also opposes the recall. "You probably won't be able to print what I have to say about him."
But the recall still appears to have strong support in this populous county, which went solidly with Republican Bill Simon in the 2002 gubernatorial race.
At the Cuban Cigar Factory in downtown San Diego, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Rick Ferreira of Pensacola, Fla. -- in San Diego to attend a military training school -- said most of the local military people he has talked with are backing Schwarzenegger.
So is the cigar shop's salesman, 37-year-old Mike Broemer, who thinks Arnold's been good for cigar aficionados. "Arnold definitely stands up for cigars," said Broemer.
But as Hedgecock predicted, his endorsement last week of Schwarzenegger is not going over well among diehard McClintock supporters.
"I appreciate a lot that Roger has done, but ultimately, he made a mistake," said Sylvia Sullivan of La Mesa, president of the East County California Republican Assembly. The state CRA has backed McClintock, as has her local group.
"Roger has turned his back on his party's principles," she said.
Wednesday, Sullivan organized a debate-watching party at Shirley's Kitchen in La Mesa, where her hosts, restaurant owners Robert and Gina Caro, are solidly behind the recall.
Before the debate was even over, 40-year-old Maria Garcia of Chula Vista said she was considering voting against the recall -- a radical turnabout for the Republican and staunch McClintock supporter.
"As a conservative, it's getting too risky. It's too close," she said. "Davis is gone in two years anyway, but we're risking 10 more years with a liberal."
That's the kind of thinking that makes Hedgecock crazy, as he tries to steer listeners into sealing a Republican victory next month for Schwarzenegger. For three hours Wednesday, leading into the televised debate, he fielded phone calls from "Russ on a car phone" and "Donna in San Diego" and dozens more -- coaxing, cajoling, sometimes berating.
"The yearn to win here is huge," he said. "I've not seen this in the Republican Party since 1980."
If his role is out of the ordinary in the historic recall attempt -- even out of line, some would say -- Hedgecock makes no apologies.
"Every once in a while," he said, "the requirement of citizenship is: You gotta act."[/i]
Source: Los Angeles Radio People 9/30/2003
By Marjie Lundstrom - Sacramento Bee columnist, 9.28
SAN DIEGO -- Roger Hedgecock has just finished subbing for Rush Limbaugh -- heady stuff for a conservative radio talk-show host -- but now he's turning back to the business at hand:
Firing up listeners for the Oct. 7 recall election.
"I'm going to take abuse today," says San Diego's KOGO-AM radio host, who told his audience the day before that he's backing Arnold Schwarzenegger, a declaration he knows will infuriate devoted Tom McClintock listeners. "Big-time abuse."
Even the guy with the mike, it seems, can have one of those days.
On the short list of people handed the credit -- or the blame -- for California's historic recall election, Hedgecock's name invariably turns up. A popular San Diego area talk-show host for more than 17 years, Hedgecock came to the recall party early, closely following Eric Hogue of Sacramento's KTKZ-AM in using the radio pulpit to whip up unhappy voters.
"Roger and Eric, in particular, are probably the two most focused in California on this," said recall strategist Dave Gilliard. "Without them, it may not have happened -- at least certainly not in the quick time that it did.
"These shows have created activists, created people who actually go out and work and do things."
But Hedgecock, the former San Diego mayor convicted in the 1980s of conspiracy and 12 counts of perjury over failure to report more than $350,000 in campaign contributions, didn't just talk about getting rid of Gov. Gray Davis.
He jumped right into the fray.
This is the guy who conducted "drive-by" petition signings in San Diego County in the recall's early days. This is the guy who in July came to Sacramento -- a place he refers to as "a wannabe rice field" -- and joined in the rollicking "Yes on Recall" celebration outside the Capitol. This is the guy Schwarzenegger picked last month as his conduit to publicly nip at Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, calling the Democrat on-air a "Gray Davis with a receding hairline and a mustache."
And always, always, there were Hedgecock's listeners, tuning in each day for what the Radio Mayor -- who calls himself a "recovering politician" -- would be stirring up in the ongoing political potboiler.
"This campaign has energized a whole bunch of people to believe they could be powerful, that they could hold elected officials accountable," Hedgecock said last week, waving his latest crusade: petitions to repeal the car tax and to overturn the controversial new law to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
"They're sticking a sharp stick in our eye every day," he said. "We're just going to stick it back."
Not everyone, of course, is enamored of Hedgecock or believes his anti-Davis fomenting has had a profound influence on the course of events.
"My sense is that the impact of talk radio has been overhyped -- and most of the hype is done by the radio talk shows themselves," said Roger Salazar, an adviser to Davis. "From the Democrats' perspective, the folks listening to conservative talk radio aren't the ones who are going to vote for you anyway. ... They're pretty much preaching to the choir."
For Hedgecock, 57, that "choir" is not insignificant, with as many as 350,000 listeners tuning in each week to see what the region's top radio talk-show host will say or do next. San Diego County has already been pivotal at various stages in the recall campaign, with Rep. Darrell Issa -- the rich car-alarm entrepreneur from the San Diego area -- helping to bankroll the signature-gathering effort with $1.7 million of his own money.
The county ultimately contributed the third-highest number of valid recall signatures, behind Los Angeles and Orange counties, though Hedgecock says his county led the way in the campaign's early months.
But this is also a place where local politics have turned especially raucous, as three San Diego city councilmen were indicted last month on charges of taking bribes from a strip club owner.
Hedgecock knows a little something about this, having weathered his own local political scandal. Forced to resign as mayor in December 1985 after his felony conviction, Hedgecock found radio. (The California Supreme Court reversed the perjury convictions in 1990, and Hedgecock eventually reached a plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office in the conspiracy case. He reportedly paid a fine, and the conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor and dismissed.)
Still maintaining his innocence and calling the matter "complete BS," Hedgecock says the experience helped shape his life. Rather than lament his legal troubles and wrecked political career, he decided the job would not define him -- that he could find success elsewhere.
He found it in talk radio. And from this new vantage point came bursts of activism.
In 1990, his relentless advocacy of one citizen's "Light Up the Border" idea prompted hundreds more to drive to the border and shine their headlights on illegal immigrants attempting to cross.
"He's the most influential guy in San Diego County," said his off-air studio sidekick, a former Republican assemblyman and state senator, Larry Stirling.
"Oh, stop it," quips Hedgecock during a short break.
"Listen, he has more influence now than when he was mayor," fires back Stirling, 61, a recently retired judge and longtime friend who volunteers to sit alongside Hedgecock during broadcasts, passing him scribbled notes and looking up useful Internet background.
But as both of them well know, Hedgecock's influence is not universally appreciated here, with some residents rejecting his brand of conservatism and sharp on-air style.
"He's like the local Republican madman," said Ray Edwords, a 51-year-old horticulturist who recently stopped to surf at Tourmaline Surfing Park near La Jolla. "For him, there's no Democrat, liberal or independent that deserves to live. What he does is rally the people who have bad attitudes.
"I think people are mad at government and don't know why, and they lash out," said Edwords, who opposes the recall. "That's who Hedgecock appeals to."
At Balboa Park, Janella Davidson, who was accompanying her 5-year-old daughter on a first-grade field trip, said Hedgecock's influence is undeniable -- and grating.
"I can't stand him," said the 41-year-old property manager, who also opposes the recall. "You probably won't be able to print what I have to say about him."
But the recall still appears to have strong support in this populous county, which went solidly with Republican Bill Simon in the 2002 gubernatorial race.
At the Cuban Cigar Factory in downtown San Diego, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Rick Ferreira of Pensacola, Fla. -- in San Diego to attend a military training school -- said most of the local military people he has talked with are backing Schwarzenegger.
So is the cigar shop's salesman, 37-year-old Mike Broemer, who thinks Arnold's been good for cigar aficionados. "Arnold definitely stands up for cigars," said Broemer.
But as Hedgecock predicted, his endorsement last week of Schwarzenegger is not going over well among diehard McClintock supporters.
"I appreciate a lot that Roger has done, but ultimately, he made a mistake," said Sylvia Sullivan of La Mesa, president of the East County California Republican Assembly. The state CRA has backed McClintock, as has her local group.
"Roger has turned his back on his party's principles," she said.
Wednesday, Sullivan organized a debate-watching party at Shirley's Kitchen in La Mesa, where her hosts, restaurant owners Robert and Gina Caro, are solidly behind the recall.
Before the debate was even over, 40-year-old Maria Garcia of Chula Vista said she was considering voting against the recall -- a radical turnabout for the Republican and staunch McClintock supporter.
"As a conservative, it's getting too risky. It's too close," she said. "Davis is gone in two years anyway, but we're risking 10 more years with a liberal."
That's the kind of thinking that makes Hedgecock crazy, as he tries to steer listeners into sealing a Republican victory next month for Schwarzenegger. For three hours Wednesday, leading into the televised debate, he fielded phone calls from "Russ on a car phone" and "Donna in San Diego" and dozens more -- coaxing, cajoling, sometimes berating.
"The yearn to win here is huge," he said. "I've not seen this in the Republican Party since 1980."
If his role is out of the ordinary in the historic recall attempt -- even out of line, some would say -- Hedgecock makes no apologies.
"Every once in a while," he said, "the requirement of citizenship is: You gotta act."[/i]
Source: Los Angeles Radio People 9/30/2003