Fleming's Days May be Numbered

Good news, I think, about the Memphis talk radio scene, as Leon Gray will be hosting his own show from 4 - 7PM, weekdays, on the Air America affiliate, AM680 WWTQ.

Mike Fleming, over at AM 600 in the same time slot, publicly couldn't care less, but I think privately must be worried. Mike long ago passed from talk radio into parody. I force myself to catch the first 10 or fifteen minutes (which is about 25 minutes in real time, what with all the ads and promos and suchlike) just to see if he has important local stuff. Nine times out of ten, he's playing "me too!" with the national story of the day, and badly. I'm told he sometimes has good stuff later in the show, but I really don't have the stomach to listen that long.

Fleming can't do think-on-your-feet, intelligent analysis and so goes with hot-button-pushing topics. He doesn't let his callers have their time, but will mostly cut them off, finish their thoughts for them or just pass on to the next call or topic or whatever. You can just about predict what he'll say because he's simplistic and sticks to the same topics over and over and over. And over.

That's why, even if he is a lefty-liberal, I welcome Leon Gray. Any option is likely to be a better option than Fleming. Provided Gray can let his callers talk and can provide some intelligent thoughts, I'll give him a listen. I suspect his first few days will be filled with "Finally, a show I can listen to" calls, but I'll give it a shot.

I'll even recommend you do, too.