Talk-radio hosts using scripted actors

[General Zod]

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this but none of it is positive.

Well, looky here! From the Columbia Journalism Review:

Well, here’s a shocker: Some of the people who phone in to talk radio shows (that caller with the pitch-perfect rant, provocative comment or burning question) may actually be hired actors reading from scripts. I’m not an angry listener, but I play one on radio!

Via Tablet Magazine:

If [the actor] passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio. He would never be identified as an actor, and his scenarios would never be identified as fabricated—which they always were.

“I was surprised that it seemed so open,” the actor told me in an interview. “There was really no pretense of covering it up.”

Curious, the actor did some snooping and learned that Premiere On Call was a service offered by Premiere Radio Networks, the largest syndication company in the United States and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, the entertainment and advertising giant. Premiere syndicates some of the more sterling names in radio, including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity. But a great radio show depends as much on great callers as it does on great hosts: Enter Premiere On Call.

“Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service,” read the service’s website, which disappeared as this story was being reported (for a cached version of the site click here). “We supply voice talent to take/make your on-air calls, improvise your scenes or deliver your scripts. Using our simple online booking tool, specify the kind of voice you need, and we’ll get your the right person fast. Unless you request it, you won’t hear that same voice again for at least two months, ensuring the authenticity of your programming for avid listeners.”

[AMT]

Hmmm... the site is still up to audition. Sent them one in. Morally bankrupt? Sure, but a few extra bucks doesn't hurt.

[Lagmonster]

Query: The article doesn't say that any of these people actually USED the service; they named the service, tied it to the broadcaster, then they named a bunch of popular talk show hosts which air on that broadcast service. Even the unnamed actor didn't drop names of places he'd appeared. That's...not really evidence. It's enough to start a search FOR evidence if you really give a shit whether shock radio is staged or not, but it's piss-poor journalism.

[Julhelm]

Glenn Beck used to have a bunch of scripted caller on his syndicated radio show. Not really news.

[Patrick Degan]

So they borrowed the practise of a lot of charlatan faith healers to salt the audience with shills. I've long suspected this as a standard feature in right wing talk radio. Rush Limbaugh was quite open when he said his show was not about debate but to make him look good and to allow him his soapbox. That the Goebbels Media Brigade would use shills to deliberately set up talking points and spew scripted outrage is not at all surprising.

[Spoonist]

Part of the problem is when the 'caller' has a more extreme view and the host 'agrees' but reign them in a bit.

That way you can express a view harsher than what you can peddle nornally.

[loomer]

I'm pretty sure half of George Noory's callers have got to be paid plants. There can't be that many people who think everything involves angels.