I listen to a lot of talk radio while I work. Well, that’s not completely true any more; I used to listen to a lot of talk radio, but given the gradual rightward shift of KIRO Radio’s daytime talk demographic since the September 11 attacks, my consumption has dropped considerably. At this point I’m down to three hours of the Dave Ross Show from 9–12, with the balance dedicated primarily to NPR and DVRed editions of the Rachel Maddow Show with a sprinkling of KPTK Seattle thrown in for seasoning. I happen to like Ross’ dry humor and formidable mind quite a bit, and having recently added local podcaster and occasional Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me panelist Luke Burbank to the show gives the show a nice new flavor as well. And anyway I was told that I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven, I told Bill that if Sandra is going to listen to her headphones while she’s filing then I should be able to listen to the radio while I’m collating so I don’t see why I should have to turn down the radio because I enjoy listening at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. 😀

This post isn’t really about the show(s) I listen to but about an ad campaign that has been running on KIRO for a few weeks now. KIRO must be having problems securing sufficient ad revenue, because recently they’ve been running these really lame promos for themselves during the program I listen to and, presumably, the ones that precede and follow it. In them the voiceover attempts to paint a word-picture. I haven’t recorded or transcribed any of these ads but I can give you the gist of it:

“[Hard working, family-minded Washingtonian] is hard at work [doing something productive for his/her health/family/career]. [He/She] needs to [pick up the kids after school and run them to dance class/finish the big report by noon/keep him/herself fit and healthy for his/her loved ones], and he/she doesn’t know [how he/she is going to get dinner made/what job cutbacks are going to mean in the coming year/what sort of health challenges he/she may face in the future]. But [he/she] does know that [he/she] can count on KIRO Radio for [real-time traffic reports/the latest business news/a complimentary heart transplant from Ron Upshaw]. KIRO Radio: your source for everything that is beautiful and good in the Universe.”

So far, what we have here is nothing more than a noticeably flaccid act of self-aggrandizement; certainly nothing that would seem to warrant the title of this post. But here’s where things got all spit-takey for me this morning. I just happened to catch the beginning of one of KIRO’s most recent promo, reproduced in approximation here, emphasis mine:

It’s 3:30 in the afternoon, and Rachel has just finished picking the kids up from school. There’s baseball practice to get to, plus a recital later in the evening. Shopping, dinner….she doesn’t know how she’s going to fit it all in tonight.”

Ka-SPLOOEY!

Why yes; now that you ask, I am by all indications twelve years old.