Daniel announced last week that it was his last radio show on 970 WFLA. He was let go by the station. Stay tuned to this blog because I have many dozens of shows I will load on this blog in the coming weeks including his final show. Below are Daniel’s comments which appeared in the Tampa Tribune this week. Sorry to see you go Daniel. I hope you show up on radio again soon.
Published: May 31, 2008
Over the years whenever anyone asked how my radio show was going my stock answer always has been: “Well, they haven’t told me to stop.”
Earlier this month, they told me to stop. As a master of nuance, I took it as an inkling things weren’t going well.
So last Saturday, after nearly eight years of holding forth for three hours from 9 a.m. to noon on WFLA, 970-AM, I concluded my final broadcast.
Some friends have suggested I was canceled because of the perception that I am some kind of liberal, as if pointing out on a regular basis we are led by a buffo in the White House and believing in the U.S. Constitution somehow defines me as a radical, liberal, troublemaking wisenheimer.
It is true that some listeners have accused me of being a pinko Commie, usually right after I suggested that Global Warming was a serious problem, or maybe it’s a bad idea to execute people who might be innocent, or perhaps it might be nice if after torturing terrorism suspects we let them talk to a lawyer and see the evidence against them.
You know, crazy, wacky, insane, extremist ideas like that.
Marx & Engels
On the other hand, since this is the dollars-and-cents business of radio, I also know if I went before the microphone every week and starting reading the complete works of Marx & Engels, including “The Communist Manifesto” (in the original German), and I was pulling in huge ratings, not only would Clear Channel have left me on the air – they would have syndicated the show across its more than 1,110 stations across the country.
In all fairness to my moonlighting employers, although it’s disappointing to lose my radio perch, I can’t really complain too terribly much.
For nearly eight years I was given a forum to shoot my mouth off on whatever annoyed me at the moment. In case you’re curious, not once in all that time did anyone from station management ever tell me what I could or couldn’t talk about.
Talk Radio? Really?
I was treated very decently by Clear Channel. I worked with a number of first-rate broadcasters and a litany of terrific board-op/call screeners, most notably my last partner Kevin Green.
If I have any beef, it is this: “Talk radio” remains something of a misnomer.
Call it the “Limbaugh Defect,” but all too often the last thing many callers were interested in was talk, or (at the risk of being accused of heresy) a conversation.
More often than not callers merely wanted to give a speech, or a sermon, or a diatribe.
To disagree, to have a different point of view was to invite accusations of being a dreaded liberal, although in my experience 99.9 percent of the time the caller couldn’t even provide a definition of what a “liberal” is. These were hardly Algonquin Roundtable moments.
Callers who decried the “liberal” New York Times, for example, would, with some prodding, admit they’ve never read The New York Times. Is it any wonder why I drink?
Still the job was great fun. I’ll miss it, although I now get to sleep in on Saturday mornings.
Oh, and one more thing – I still believe we need to get rid of all the guns.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
With Lassiter and now Ruth gone, 970 WFLA is dead to me.
Daniel, your show was great, I may not have agree with everything you said, but I loved your insight on the many key issues of today. Perhaps you can follow Roger P. Schulman over to 1040 AM, until then we’ll see you in the Trib.
Sincerely, Don Kruse, Tampa FL
Except for Tony Fatso I do not have much reason anymore to listen to 970 WFLA. If money was the issue and not Dan being democratic, I believe the better choice for the station to ax would be cigar Dave, his comments offend most Americans and especially women. Losing Dan Ruth will cost the station a loss of many more listeners than if they lost Cigar Dave. I may never have a reason to listen to 970 ever again.
Daniel, great show, I sure enjoyed you every Saturday, good luck and let us know where your next radio job is.
A. C. Ely, Knoxville, Tn.
Daniel, I will truly miss your show. You were the ONLY reason I listened to 970 WFLA. It was a ritual for me, hearing a sane voice on talk radio every Saturday morning. I wish you the best…perhaps I’ll hear your voice on another station.
UGH what a awful way to start the weekend, hearing that Dan is no longer going to be on the riado. Please, please Dan, get another radio show. Your the one and only non-pattisan voice on the radio. Your brash, your stuborn, your oppinionated, but you always tell the reasons for your thinking. I am truly hoping you get back on the air.
Best of luck to ya Dan.
Dan – Your show became a weekend staple for me in the last year. Just about every Saturday morning was spent starting on a home improvement project, with a cup of Starbuck’s in-hand, and your show on in the background. Tampa needs the type of variety your show brought. I used to enjoy listening to Mark Beiro, too; not because I always agreed with him, but because I enjoy hearing from my fellow citizens in the Tampa Bay area about the topics of the day (with an interesting host to boot). Your show brought that kind of experience, though more refined and with greater breadth in the topics you covered. I looked forward to your conversations, and I will miss them. I was bewildered and disappointed to hear the “Weekend Edition of AM Tampa Bay” two Saturdays ago – I can barely stand those guys during the week. Hearing them on the weekend just makes it feel like another work day (not to mention the constant interruptions and ranting by some of the AM Tampa Bay crew – yuck). You will be sorely missed.
Haha, the loser finally got canceled, nice.
Daniel Ruth is: THE WORST RADIO SHOW HOST EVER!
See ya sucker
Good riddance.
I was away the last two weeks, and come back to find out they cancelled Daniel Ruth. Does anyone know if this indeed was caused strictly by ratings?
Hard to believe they would get rid of virtually their only “alternative” voice. Daniel was by far the best thing on 970 and a naturally entertaining radio personality. I sincerely hope he gets another outliet soon.
-Daniel B.
Given the corporate nature of radio, it’s very likely that Dan was canned because nobody was listening. On the other hand, when he started his show he told whomever was listening that he took the job to pay for his kids college. So maybe there were huge ratings, but his kids were finished? Nah, no listeners. IMHO, worst weekend radio show in history.
Sir:
On several occasions I heard you say “If you don’t like what I say, don’t listen.”
After a couple months, I took your advice. Looks like enough other people took your advice too.
Chris
The marketplace voted and Ruth is gone. He evidently has a drinking problem, for example he frequently says as above “Callers who decried the “liberal” New York
Times, for example, would, with some prodding, admit they’ve never read The New York Times. Is it any wonder why I drink?” as I’ve heard and read that statement frequently.
As far as being a poor host, I called several times and was insulted because I shared with him FACTS about the biased media. Case in point why did the NYT endorse inthe last election only Democrats? Or case in point the following statement:”There is a liberal bias. It’s demonstrable. You look at some statistics. About 85 percent of the reporters who cover the White House vote Democratic, they have for a long time.There is a, particularly at the networks, at the lower levels, among the editors and the so-called infrastructure, there is a liberal bias. There is a liberal bias at Newsweek, the magazine I work for -most of the people who work at Newsweek live on the upper West Sidein New York and they have a liberal bias….”- Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Evan Thomas.
But Ruth ignored that statement. Or for example the recent Harvard study that asked:
“Are insurgents in Iraq emboldened by voices in the news media expressing dissent or calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq?
The short answer: is yes, according to Radha Iyengar, a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in health policy research at Harvard and Jonathan Monten of the Belfer Center at the university’s Kennedy School of Government.
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=16097
STUDY ABSTRACT
Using data on attacks and variation in access to international news across Iraqi provinces, we identify an “emboldenment” effect by comparing the rate of insurgent attacks in areas with higher and lower access to information about U.S news after public statements critical of the war. We find in periods after a spike in war-critical statements, insurgent attacks increases by 5-10 percent. The results suggest that insurgent groups respond rationally to expected probability of US withdrawal.”
And so I am extremely happy Ruth is off the air because he was one of those biased media people that through their support of the thug/barbarians helped prolong the Iraq conflict and thus directly caused needless US troop deaths AFTER Saddam was deposed. Ruth like other politically motivated media didn’t care about US troops but saw a political agenda that could be pursued.
I know if I had called and asked Ruth about George Soros who made $2.9 billion by funding Moveon.org that writes derogatory articles about the US then Soros shorts the US dollar and with the profits buys oil futures!
And Ruth wouldn’t see the connect the dots.
But boy did he connect the dots with Iraq, katrina etc.
Again all Bush bashing without facts which Ruth was fast a loose with. Now if his column will disappear and with this one on Saturday June 21, he shows his voyeurism by agreeing to participate with a peep show sting! That me proved his latency!!! He had some vicarious pleasure in being in those peep shows with the cops. He could watch the movies, see exhibitions that honestly decry after going along. Yup that column may be another dagger in his career.
If only Mr. Ruth were here to cut that previous nutjob post off by the third sentence.
Ah, I miss him already…
Yup that’s exactly what Ruth would have done! Which is why like ostriches with their heads in the sand and their exposed behinds just humongous targets.
Too bad Daniel B is like Ruth accustomed to 30 second sound bytes that are usually hyperbolic and totally based on emotional, highly inaccurate information!
Also Daniel B.. Evidently you ignore empirical, objective material that runs counter to public perceptions. Again another validation that you, like Ruth have a political agenda. Because you most likely can’t explain why oil and coal is found in Arctic which means GLOBAL WARMING” occurred long before civilizations. And you like Ruth fell for Gore/Democratic “global warming” baloney.
Yes you and Ruth are like the guy with his fingers in his ears yelling “don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up”!
Spend a little time researching… but naw… stay as dumb as you are because Darwin Effect is working on people like you and Ruth… heading for extinction…
Daniel B..
Why are you offended by President Bush’s efforts to keep you safe (no terrorists attacks since remember 9/11!) and are not the least concerned about Soros making $2.9 billion by helping artificially raise gas prices to $4.00 when he buys oil futures with devalued dollars he shorted after funding Moveon.org to write derogatory articles about the US, our President, our troops, our country, our policies!
If you can’t connect those huge dots you are not only dumb but totally blind! You can find it easy to Blame Bush for all things bad and yet can you explain directly how like Soros Bush has benefited? If he were politically motivated by polls like Clinton do you think you would be safe today?
All I ever needed to hear from Daniel was that when he was in grade school he figured out there was no God.
Kids know everything of course.
There couldn’t be a connection to Daniel Ruth hanging up on 80% of his callers and his abysmal ratings could there?
i love your shows &wish there was more men like you on the radio. you,er a real man. thank for the good time.
Daniel, not only did My husband and I agree with you on most things, it was refreshing to hear you politely disagree with a caller without yelling and screaming them down like some of the the other well known radio talk show host. Now since you are not on the air and neither is Lionel except for Air America which we don’t get, there is no reason to listen any longer. Nothing personal against Jack Harris and Jeff Fisher, but they really don’t have anything interesting to say.
Miss you every Saturday as I sit in silence in my car to work.
I’m sure that Dan’s show was canceled due to low ratings (as Dan noted in his column). I remember first reading a Dan Ruth Tampa Tribune column, and afterward called him at the Tampa Tribune complementing him on his humor.
However, on more than one occasion I called into his radio show and was rudely disconnected after disagreeing with his point of view (with Dan following up with name calling and personal denigration of me) while having no basis for such personal attacks other than the fact that he didn’t agree with my opinion and was unwilling to discuss facts or different points of view.
After several such occasions I figured ‘I’ll vote with my radio dial’ and turned off his show. Obviously, enough radio listeners did the same and now he’s reaped what he sowed.
I’ve spent the last two years of my life in Iraq working to complete a water treatment plant for Sadr City and the experience has broadened enormously my perspective on US foreign policy, the US military, the US government (in general) and the culture clashes the US faces within the Middle East and (indeed) the world outside the US.
I would have enjoyed an opportunity to discuss in any public forum my perspective on the current Republican Administration, the War Against Islamic Fascism, Iraq invasion, Iraq ‘Reconstruction’, the upcoming election, and other world views, but knowing Dan’s penchant for rudeness over reasoned debate, I doubt that I would have been granted such an opportunity on his show.
I sincerely believe that had Dan not routinely ‘blown up’ with derisive comments and name calling against his radio callers who disagreed with his opinion (callers who form the economic basis for his show ratings), he would still be on the air.
The reason you were let go, Danny boy, is because your program was terrible and few people wanted to hear that garbage. Too bad we have even worse garbage with Jeffy.
Won’t miss him when The Trib folds, either.
Just a worthless, fat alcoholic slob. Do the world a favor Dan, put the shotgun in your mouth.
What amazes me, is that Dan’s sorry excuse for a “talk show” lasted for as long as it did! What an uninformed, biased, disconnected load of drivel! Good riddance to bad baggage!
Perhaps the pros and conns of Daniel Ruth’s departure boiled down to the fact the guy was BORING.
His monotone voice was a total bore, his left wing slant on EVERTHING was all to obvious.
I thought that 970 only had him on the air because they felt sorry for him.
He will find a nest with his like minded people at the St Pete Times.
Bye,bye Dan. Don’t youall come back now!
That shotgun comment was really uncalled for. Now that I have that out of the way, I have to say that on the occasions I listened to the show, I was awed at how a man who gives such a lethargic performance could remain on the radio for as long as he did. This isn’t NPR, you know. A station needs listeners who are still fully concious when the commercials are played so advertisers keep buying air time. Stick with your day job at the newspaper.
Wait…. Aren’t you contributing to the clearing of some rain forest somewhere by working in print? Global warming is all your fault, gasbag.
Like all other left wing nut jobs on the radio he obviously couldn’t connect with an audience that would put up with his nonsence. Good riddance. I hear Air Amerika is looking for some talent, maybe he knows someone.