4um: Hmm. Prominent Conservative Radio Hosts Planted Scripted Actors Among Callers

Title: Hmm. Prominent Conservative Radio Hosts Planted Scripted Actors Among Callers
Source: Crooks And Liars
URL Source: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-mad ... minent-conservative-radio-host
Published: Mar 5, 2011
Author: Susie Madrak
Post Date: 2011-03-05 20:44:54 by Original_Intent
Keywords: Pills, Vannity, Propaganda, Radio
Views: 1513
Comments: 62

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Well, looky here! From the Columbia Journalism Review:

Well, here’s a shocker: Some of the people who phone in to talk radio shows (that caller with the pitch-perfect rant, provocative comment or burning question) may actually be hired actors reading from scripts. I’m not an angry listener, but I play one on radio!

Via Tablet Magazine:
If [the actor] passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio. He would never be identified as an actor, and his scenarios would never be identified as fabricated—which they always were.
“I was surprised that it seemed so open,” the actor told me in an interview. “There was really no pretense of covering it up.”
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Curious, the actor did some snooping and learned that Premiere On Call was a service offered by Premiere Radio Networks, the largest syndication company in the United States and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, the entertainment and advertising giant. Premiere syndicates some of the more sterling names in radio, including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity. But a great radio show depends as much on great callers as it does on great hosts: Enter Premiere On Call.

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“Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service,” read the service’s website, which disappeared as this story was being reported (for a cached version of the site click here). “We supply voice talent to take/make your on-air calls, improvise your scenes or deliver your scripts. Using our simple online booking tool, specify the kind of voice you need, and we’ll get your the right person fast. Unless you request it, you won’t hear that same voice again for at least two months, ensuring the authenticity of your programming for avid listeners.”

Ensuring the authenticity of your programming… with paid, planted callers.

#7. To: Original_Intent, eric stratton, lod, christine, jethro tull, farmfriend (#0)

it is very difficult to get through to a clearchannel; type station and get unedited comments on the air without being cut off or edited in the 8 second delay. Mark Dice is an expert at this. it takes a lot of time waiting on hold, and then you have to catch the hosts, and the screeners, and the engineer, off guard.

here is one example of where i did that. they were babbling about the threat of islamic boogeymen the day of the fort hood shooting, and reiterating how 19 arabs killed 3,000 people on 9/11, etc.

After catching their guard down with discussion of 'terr'ism', I said let's not be naive abiout terrorism though, a lot of bush and reagan administration officials say that 911 was an inside job, and the government blew up the twin towers.. LOL!! *score*. it got on air to millions of people. (the station is regularly #1 in the country for ratings). the main host got very mad and said 'THAT IS STUPID'. the co-host admits 'well, that one got by', and the main host says THANKS, to some unnamed person, apparently the screener with the slow reaction. The main host then said i get the stupidest listener of the day award, though I think he was projecting, since I'm not the one who cant control my own radio show. ;-)

my call starts at 1:58. prior to that is their 2 minutes of arab fearmongering. the next caller makes reference to my call too, saying 'hi guys, i hope to improve on that'. lol. hee hee! ;-D

That merits a "Well Done". You can always tell when Rush has been nailed because he will then spend the next half hour talking about how wrong and how stupid the caller was.

I think these guys also share listings of caller I.D.'s between shows because on a couple of major shows I tried to get in on I was preemptorially flushed. The guy on Ollie North's old show didn't want to talk to me AT ALL.

Last week a caller on the neocon John David Wells show here in DFW got a caller who managed to get in "9/11 was an inside job" and the host stopped the show for a two-minute rant about having this guys phone number and he threatened to turn him in to the FBI!! He was LIVID!!!