Belling, Strokes, Formats, and Facts

Something is definitely wrong with Belling's show, and has been for the last several months.

He did have a stroke, which was pretty serious, requiring rehab.  On the other hand, he can still talk, walk, and drive, so it wasn't a catastrophe.

He did change the format; he no longer takes calls.  He's also trying to establish a 'synthesis' among all the stories he does on a given afternoon--an overriding theme, so to speak.

Hmmm.

It doesn't work. 

The synthesis/theme 'moral of the stories' thing?  He doesn't establish the 'theme,' and he doesn't relate each story to said 'theme', at least not very clearly.  Since he has no callers, what material he has must be stretched--REALLY strrrrrretched--to cover the air-time.  Whereas most of his callers were sycophants who contributed nothing, some of them had good insights which Belling did not voice in his exposition.  Those 'good' calls are sorely missed, and frankly, without the calls, the pace of the show is dreadful.

Then, yesterday, he screwed up the facts.  He did a segment on Mequon's blocking of an athletic-field enhancement at Concordia University.  During the segment, he threw shade on Brookfield,  mentioning that Mequon did NOT want a "Bluemound Road strip", nor a "North Avenue strip."  He elaborated about Bluemound Road, mentioning 'all those car dealers.'

What?

There is no "North Avenue strip" in Brookfield, and there hasn't been one, ever.  Further, there have NEVER been more than two car dealerships on Bluemound Road.  Ever, going all the way back to Fred Howe VW. 

Maybe Belling meant to say "Capitol Drive strip"?  After all, Capitol Drive has a car dealer around 130th street, a number of strip malls sprinkled around to about 172nd, and then two more car dealers right at Brookfield Road.  Well, that's only about 3.5 miles away from Bluemound and 1.5 miles from North Ave., so.......hey.......it's close, right?

This is really too bad.  His show was filled with breaking news, hard-hitting, and actually feared by a lot of politicians, (not only Democrats.)  Yah, he screamed a lot (cause of stroke???) but it was mostly fun to listen to.

Now?  It's "Run the Intro" for 15 minutes, full of teases but no substance.  Then it's "Pick On Paul" for 5-6 minutes.  Then commercials, then launch into a topic and try, try, try, to make it last for 20+ minutes until the news.  Ask the Traffic Guy about old rock'n'roll bands or auto racing or Tosa politics, then another topic.

Paul's generally safe after 3:20 or so, as radios click over to NPR.

That's bad.....but the backup guy, a nooz-and-production person,  is a relatively young guy who love to be in "didactic" mode.  Belling's audience doesn't really need Civics 101, ya'know?  So it could be worse.....Belling could retire and make a living on the ponies.