Of Jay Severin dismissed, Voltaire, WTKK-FM, and hypocrisy.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It's usually at night that bats, creepy crawlies, and radio shock jocks come out. Of these by far the most noxious are the shock jocks... and of these Jay Severin is one of the worst; meaning he is one of the best.
First, the facts.
James Thompson Severino, professionally known as Jay Severin, has a plum position: he is paid almost a cool million a year to go on air and hurt, verbally maim, shred, destroy, demean, pulverize, abash, humiliate. When you listen to Jay and his ilk what you want is maximum pain for the maximum number. You want it raw, fast, funny, stomach churning. And you want it now!
Jay, a pig of a fellow, obliges.
He's called Mexican immigrants "primitives," "leeches," and exporters of "women with mustaches and VD."
He's called the Reverend Jesse Jackson a "pimp, a race hustler."
He's called Hillary Clinton something gross and offensive, deliberately, without qualification or regret.
He's said that in his rarefied world "the poor and stupid would starve."
Jay's job was about dishing out this cretinous rubbish night in, night out, anything to keep listeners frozen to the dial, expectantly waiting for his next outrageous stink bomb. It was always on the way...
From time to time, his employers at WTKK-FM radio determined that he had transgressed some arbitrary line separating "acceptable" verbal slogging and slops from the "unacceptable." As a result, Jay would do his usual potty-mouth routine for a while; then say some "no no" (no worse than his usual stock in trade) that would result in suspension by his suddenly sanctimonious employers, all incense and Ave Maria.
These latter-day purists would chastise Jay, take him off the air, reprimand him, fine him, and return him to insult another day. Such folks clearly wanted to eat their rancid cake and keep it, too. It was a well recognized game in the industry.
First, WTKK-FM wants you to know that they are purveyors of the very best in on-air content; they are good corporate citizens, too. But there is the flip side of that coin. They can, without missing a beat, talk about high standards and merit awards on the one hand... while giving Jay Severin's always hurtful remarks the widest possible play on the other.
Having raked in the money for a while with Jay's utterly tasteless remarks, his employers, citing one of these remarks no more repulsive than the rest, intervene, pooh-pooh the matter, cite their non-existent community standards, fine the bugger, take him off the air for a time... then return him for more. It's a dance... and it is well known to all the participants.
Problem is, the times they are a-changing.
There is reason to hope and to believe that the "glory days" of Jay Severin and his kind are waning. There is so much pain in the world these days; so much real tragedy, so many people in despair without hope, that we really need to ask ourselves whether we truly need artificially engendered pain dished out by jerks like Severin? Haven't we got more than our share of miseries without him?
That argument, powerful though it is, wouldn't begin to cut the mustard at WTKK-FM radio or anywhere else, if Severin's ratings were through the roof, generating the really big bucks. They'd let him insult, abuse, degrade all the way to the bank.
However, to the consternation of the hotshots at WTKK-FM purveying filth and slime hasn't delivered the audiences of ancient days. Both crucial ratings and more crucial revenues are down, down, down, with no sign of a turn- around coming anytime soon.
Thus WTKK-FM had a problem. They liked Jay, they loved Jay when he was the golden boy, for all that he was stupid, ignorant, a bully. What did that matter when the money was rolling in? But it was an entirely different matter when it slowed to a comparative trickle.
The corporate big shots didn't like the idea of admitting they had misread the trends by keeping Jay (now old hat) on longer than warranted. That would have made them look like they goofed, and no executive likes that when there's a likely scapegoat at hand, Jay himself.
First, understand that no one but no one actually ever liked Jay. To the senior execs at WTKK-FM he was a necessary evil; tolerated but that's all. The truth is, he was a trained dog, hired to do a job that was distasteful to virtually everyone concerned with it but who were, in the heady days, all in on the take. It was sordid... it was disgraceful... it was never anything other than filth. It was, and is, the American way at our all too frequent worst.
Just the other day, Jay was being Jay (tasteless, boorish, bombastic), talking about a lawsuit involving a CEO who is being sued for sexual harassment by former female employees. Severin called the women "whores and liars" and said they belong in jail. He also said he didn't understood what all the fuss was about, telling his listeners that as a former company owner, he had hired "mostly attractive young women" and had sex with nearly all of them over two decades.
The folks at WTKK-FM, glancing at the ratings and revenues, discovered they had an "appropriate level of civility" and that Jay has affronted it. They fired him pronto... letting the world know that Jay, the voice of the gutter, no longer had a place on the schedule of their suddenly simon-pure institution. How they could have said and published this with a straight face is anyone's guess.
Jay, of course, will probably sue them; he will in any event turn up somewhere amongst other folks working to spin slime into profits. But let's be real clear on this: had his remarks increased ratings, he'd still be spouting on air today. And because we value the First Amendment, we'd all have to support him in the exercise of his free speech; support him, yes, but always change the dial. For, like Voltaire, I defend his right to say it.... I also value my right not to hear it.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. , providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lance Sumner http://Profit2Riches.com Check out Mass Traffic Leak -> http://www.Profit2Riches.com/?rd=sf25EErf
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