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Monday, June 3, 2013

Akron Radio: WNIR Talkers Chat With "Neighbors"

John “Couchburner” Denning was near the end of his Friday talk-radio shift at WNIR and he was in no mood to let a caller rant about labor relations at an area company.

“I absolutely hate unions, I’m sorry,” Denning said during his 10am to 3pm shift..

The guys at WNIR 100.1-FM will tell you that listening to their talk-radio format is like chatting over the fence to a neighbor, reports Akron's Beacon-Journal.

John Denning
They do it for fun and profit.

The laughs come easily and few topics are too serious for making fun.

But there is an edge.

When late-afternoon 3p-7p host Bob Golic discusses the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, he doesn’t hesitate to call President Barack Obama a liar.

When midday talker Denning refers to the lawyers representing the man accused of bombing the Boston Marathon, he calls them “bleeding-heart liberals.”

When the news summary included an item about homosexuality, Denning facetiously claimed to be a lesbian and the newsman adopted a falsetto voice.

Denning and Golic start their shifts with monologues offering talking points, but the callers turn the conversations wherever they want.

Bob Golic
Most of those issues are in the news but Denning and Golic don’t want to be called journalists and don’t want to be held to the same standards of civility expected from more serious television and radio shows.

“We use techniques to be entertaining, yes,” said Bill Klaus, chief executive officer and station manager. “We use sarcasm. We are satirical like Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart. We use entertaining ways, humor and exaggeration to elicit a response to point out something. Sometimes extreme exaggeration sheds light on an argument.”

The humor is similar to The Daily Show, but the presentation is different.

Stewart labels his show “Fake News” but the WNIR hosts say they do their best to get the facts right. Denning and Golic keep a laptop computer nearby for reference. Denning often shakes a newspaper near the microphone so readers know the source of the story he is citing.

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