Roger Wilkow

Andrew Wilkow accepted a contract with Sirius Satellite Radio, which is good news for Capital Region AM listeners, but bad news for the flailing sanctity of political discourse. For those who’ve never strayed onto the airwaves of Clear Channel Radio’s 810 WGY, Wilkow is the prattling morning political shock jock that grabs the day’s headlines and blasts them through the FOX news filter –although he publicly prides himself on the originality of his thoughts.

This said, here’s a basic summation of his show: anything left of the far right is liberal and should therefore be tarred and feathered. As most people engaged in politics know, this isn’t a new act blossoming from the AM dial, just a new generation of blowhard to further skew the public’s view.

The Long Island born-and-bread Wilkow came to the area after completing a degree in communications at the University of Florida, which is a fact he often falls back on to give credence to his skewed brand of journalism. After serving stints as a rock deejay at several stations throughout the east coast, he gained notoriety with WGY and bumped nationally syndicated conservative host Glenn Beck out of the station’s morning slot in 2005.

Since that time, Wilkow has expounded upon his linear view of the world, which in fact is spherical, as explorers proved some centuries ago. But in Wilkow’s view of things, there’s a straight line with two sides, in which people either fall on one side or the other. He’s the new brand of conservative, the edgy radio host who gets hopped up on a Stewart’s double-large coffee then ridicules all those whom he's deemed the BMW-driving labor union-loving self-righteous leftists that swill fine wine at a socialist garden parties and spit down on working class people –not that this Hanity Jr. doesn’t enjoy a good chortle over martinis.

And while no one could ever fault Wilkow for his tenacity, he comes across as a garden-variety moron more interested in getting in the last insult than engaging in any sort of sensible dialogue. Regrettably, he’s not alone in the polarized market of news talk shows. It’s not to say liberal shock jocks are any better than guys like Wilkow – take a listen to Air America to hammer this point home –just that the one-sided approach often taken by these surprisingly influential jackasses is bleeding the life out of intelligent political discourse.

Truth is, categorizing people as textbook liberals or conservatives is problematic given the ever-changing dynamics of politics, which is something Wilkow’s mighty communications degree probably never hammered home to him. Suffice to say, he’ll bring this blinders approach to life to a broader market, where he’ll inevitably get a hefty raise for proliferating his lunacy, proving once again that ignorance breeds success.

For the Capital Region radio, it’s good riddance to bad rubbish. Sadly, however, there’s a whole new market of people that will now be subject to this flatulent butthead’s rhetoric. Hopefully he keeps quiet about his Albany roots, as the city's property values are low enough as it is.