Local talk radio listeners have probably noticed that hatemongering neocon Mark Levin is no longer on the air on WKBK. Program Director Dan Mitchell explained that Levin has been dumped off of all of Saga Communications’ talk stations nationwide. (Update – Saga’s WGAN told me they still have Levin. So, that was inaccurate.) Unfortunately, WKBK did not opt to replace him with Keene’s own “Free Talk Live“. Thankfully, Clear Channel’s WSPD in Toledo, OH did just that.
To give you some idea of who this Levin character is, I submit the following: In a stunning example of poor customer service, Levin attacks WSPD Program Director Brian Wilson in an email he angrily sent upon discovering his show was canceled by Wilson. In this YouTube video, a listener has cribbed clips from a recent episode of Free Talk Live, where we read the emails, which I shall also paste below: (Also, credit to the Ron Paul Forums for blowing this up viral-style.)
Here’s Levin talking about his cancellation on-air:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eL_JBw_lY0
Here are the emails:
First, Brian sends this email to the affiliate relations guy for Levin’s show:
From:Wilson, Brian (Toledo) [mailto:Brian@WSPD.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012 2:49 PM
To: Darion Melito
Subject: RE: WSPD-AM LevinDarion
This was my reply to your previous re the Levin contract expiration:<
> You will notice there is no “agreement” made or mentioned.
In fact, in response to Mark’s outrageous diatribes, mis- and dis-information slanderously leveled at Ron Paul, Tom Woods, Lew Rockwell – personal and professional friends of mine – I will be exploring other programming options effective immediately.You are welcome to share with Mark my early admiration for his focus on Constitutional principles, their absence from most of what passes for governance and how that compelled me to add his show to the WSPD line-up. You may also share that while I heartily endorse lively on-air debate/discussions on virtually any subject, the verbal and written abuse he heaped on these Constitutional scholars who individually have done more throughout their careers to advance Liberty and Freedom than Mark ever will with his scorched-earth, egomaniacal diatribes is not good radio programming or content on my station. Complaints from my listeners would tend to support that.
I’ve been in this business 47 years, on great radio stations like WABC, WMAL, WBAP, KSFO, WBT; I’ve even owned my own station. Despite being confined to Toledo, I know more than “tiny market” about radio and how it works. Despite his difficult voice quality – about which we spoke prior to signing him to WSPD – I admired his writing and efforts on behalf of Liberty. Now it appears his vanity has been “over-served” Rush Limbaugh’s “ice tea/Kool Aide” and, like Rush, thinks way more of himself than can be objectively sustained.
If Mark ever gets a grip on his rational self – or develops the class and courtesy to apologize to the three gentlemen mentioned above – I’ll give him another listen.
Brian Wilson
News/Program Director
Host – The Afternoon Drive
NewsTalk 1370 WSPD
“Where Toledo comes to talk”
www.WSPD.com
www.brianwilson.net
“One of the Top 50 Program Directors
in Talk Radio”-RadioInk MagazineNext, Levin replies to Brian (it appears as though the AR guy forwarded Brian’s email to Levin):
From:Markrlevin@aol.com [Markrlevin@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 3:37 PM
To: Wilson, Brian (Toledo)
Cc: Owens, Tom – SVP; Talbott, Julie
Subject: Fwd: WSPD-AM Levin
Re Your Email (see below)Dear Brian:
I don’t think I have ever read a more unprofessional note from any program director. If you did not want to extent the show, you could have just canceled it. The fact that you are using your position as a program director and host on a Clear Channel station to front for the Ron Paul campaign and his friends is a disgrace.
As you are undoubtedly aware, Lew Rockwell was the editor of the Ron Paul letter, which were full of racist and anti-Semetic diatribes. His website is full of hateful and vile attacks against me and my religion. In fact, he is such an extremist that he has written about and posted piece attacking Ronald Reagan, William Buckley, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Thomas Sowell, and on and on. But you know all of this, don’t you Brian? After all, Rockwell is a friend, as you say. I could go on, but the fact is you know all about these folks. But when I and my religion are attacked by these people, I respond.
I also don’t appreciate you lecturing me about what I have done in my career over the last 40 years for the cause of liberty — whether serving Reagan, litigating against Obama policies in the Supreme Court, writing best-selling books on liberty and conservativism, and of course, my radio program. Your personal attacks about my career and my voice are outrageous. I also think your attack on Rush, who helps pay your salary and is the anchor of your company, by belittling his work and his audience is mind-boggling.
Perhaps you should consider leaving your job as PD and host in Toledo and joining the Paul campaign full-time, rather than abusing your positions as you are. I have been on WSPD since September 2006. Interesting that only now, during this phase of the Paul campaign, I don’t meet your standards. I have asked Darion, my affiliate relations manager, to send you a cancellation notice, given what you have written.
Mark
Finally, Brian lets Levin know how he really feels:
From:Wilson, Brian (Toledo) [mailto:Brian@WSPD.com]
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 10:11 PM
To: Markrlevin@aol.com
Cc: Owens, Tom – SVP; Talbott, Julie; lewrockwell@mac.com; woods@mises.com; Fritz Wenzel
Subject: RE: WSPD-AM LevinDear Mr. Levin
Thanks for taking the time to write. Your missive confirms all my original misgivings about you – and then some.
I’m only surprised you didn’t type in ALL CAPS to better convey your Kindergarten temper fit.If I “did not want to etent the show…”? Wow. Weren’t you typing with both fists?
FYI, counselor, your contract had already expired so you won’t be needing to send that “cancellation notice”. As with your mis- and uninformed diatribes, Due Diligence is as absent as your intellectual courage to respond to your spurious comments about Tom Woods and the War Powers Act. Or have you re-written the Constitution recently?
As to your continuing efforts to libel Lew Rockwell, maybe you could become pen-pals with LRC contributor David Gordon. I’ll leave it up to your crack research to determine Mr. Gordon’s religious convictions.
“Hateful attacks on me and my religion”? Seriously? As a renowned practitioner of law, please cite specifics. How about a link or two? Meanwhile, would you care to read Lew’s glowing articles on Murray Rothbard? Probably not. They would surgically remove the”un” from your uninformed.
If “extremist” Lew Rockwell “posted piece [sic] attacking….Tom Sowell”, how do you explain Dr. Sowell’s article archives at LewRockwell.com ( http://www.lewrockwell.com/sowell/sowell-arch.html)? I know the answer: you’d wouldn’t. Instead, you would treat us to a typical Levin soprano concerto, packed with flaccid repartee and void of fact.
No worries. Everyone here knows nothing deters The Grate One — which is sad knowing how desperate the Republic is for common sense, Constitutional fealty and reasoned response. Congratulations on your part in nurturing the collective ignorance via megalomania.
Yes, when not mercifully pre-empted by sporting events, you have been on my station since 2006, failing to produce even a modicum of the ratings produced by a former county commissioner (with no prior radio experience either) but a sharp eye for Liberty and Freedom and a respectful ear for the opinion of callers who disagreed with her. Sadly, I never got the same performance from you. Rather than improve with age and experience, you became spoiled and rancid, unfortunately following the roll model of others who started out exciting, compelling and entertaining only to swoon at the sound of their own voice (or “naked body”), blinded by the glare of their paychecks and taking the hysterical blathering of myrmidons as inspired hosannas. Along with them, you succumbed to the delusion of adequacy.
It’s true: you have your “radio program”, about as successful as your “litigation…in the Supreme Court”. But when you’re response to an objective programming decision based on vile, prejudiced, uninformed content combined with 5 years of poor ratings performance is met with adolescent ad homonyms, distortions and incoherent scribblings, your screed has the intellectual depth of a damp sponge.
As an obscure philosopher once wrote: “Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you’ll suck forever.”
Suck on, Mark, suck on.
And I say that with all due respect.Brian Wilson
