The Tribalization of US Election Radio 2024

 

I took my Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to New York, eager to explore the role that radio played in the 2024 campaign and to ponder the question, “Did radio really make any difference in the outcome?” Since John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential election campaign, television has undoubtedly taken the lead in campaign influence, from commercials to debates. Yet, radio, which predates television, continues to play a significant role in the daily lives of people across the United States. While I’ve visited New York countless times before, this was my first experience during an election season. Prior to my departure from Ireland, the predictions were uncertain, and there was a palpable tension surrounding the outcome, speculation of violence loomed if the results were contested. To prepare, I started my research while still in Ireland, tuning into various New York radio stations accessible online and through the Radio Garden app.

 

US Radio seemed to reflect the US national mood. The unsettling and tribalization of audio output. While the visual media dominates US politics, the aural input and influence needs analyzing. In a multi-billion-dollar industry with large audiences and attached advertising revenue, could traditional radio and the more recent phenomenon of podcasting, direct or re-direct the course of an election, nationally or locally.

 

On voting day, I spoke to two campaign workers outside the school, PS049 on the edge of Juniper Park on 80th Street in Middle Village, New York. Giovanni was a Harris worker while Meridith was a Trump supporter. They were having some friendly banter when I approached and introduced myself.

            ‘Would either of you know how influential radio has been to this election?’

They looked at each other and both shrugged their shoulders. ‘No’ was the consensus opinion, they had agreed on something.

I had come to New York to see how radio rather than television had shaped the campaigns.

            ‘Their voices were also in our ears like never before.’^[1]

Firstly, I had to acquaint myself with the rules as defined by the Federal Communications Commission with regard to election broadcasts. The rules are clear but as I researched by listening to numerous stations, these rules seemed vacuous. The two main rules are,

 

1.         FCC^[2] rules seek to ensure that no legally qualified candidate for office is unfairly given less access to the airwaves – outside of bona fide news exemptions – than their opponent.  Equal opportunities generally means providing comparable time and placement to opposing candidates; it does not require a station to provide opposing candidates with  programs identical to the initiating candidate.

 

 

2          The FCC has campaign advertising rate rules because the law seeks to ensure that legally qualified candidates for office are not disadvantaged by facing unfairly high advertising rates during the ends of a campaign or rates that differ from their opponents.  The FCC rules require that broadcast stations and cable systems can only charge legally qualified candidates the “Lowest Unit Charges” and “Comparable Rates” for their advertisements.

 

For example if a Democrat candidate purchases an advert on ‘Radio Anything’, the Republican candidate must be offered similar airtime at the same fee. The issue is that on many radio stations both to the left and the right, editorially the supported one side or the other and the listening demographic favoured similar therefore while Republicans took out ads on WABC, knowing that Harris supporters would not be listening and while they were by FCC rules offered similar airtime, they did not take it on.

 

WABC 770 is no longer operated by the ABC TV^[3] channel, it is in fact owned by John Coatsimdas and his Red Apple Media company. As an outsider, this came as news. On this side if the Atlantic, the three main networks NBC, CBS and ABC would be seen as reliable and responsible when it comes to news reporting, the fact that WABC was independently owned came with an element of surprise. On Friday November 1st on the Dominic Carter show during the first ad break, which lasted for seven minutes, there was an advert for the new book ‘Blessed’ and Goya Black Beans but repeatedly the voiceover said how the book and its author were proud Donald Trump supporters, followed by ads were for Resort Living, a Florida based property company and the American Patriot Insurance Company. Then an advert for the Trump's candidacy, announced as a ‘paid advert’ and ‘endorsed by the candidate’, followed by a plea for Republicans to vote for the party ‘Down the Ballot’. This was followed by some station idents then an advert for Mercedes Benz and finally mattresses from the Juni Collection Company. These adverts targeted a certain listening demographic that aligned with Republican ideals and status.

 

The next adbreak featured ads for Trump's own book, his former ally Roger Stone selling Colonial Medals and FOX News presenter Judge Janine speaking about illegal weapons in New York under the democratic administration of Mayor Adams. In one hour there were three seven minute breaks without any paid advertisement from the Harris Campaign. FCC rules allow 18.5 minutes of ads per hour not including station advertisements on news and talk stations, while music genre stations are allowed 14.5 minutes per hour.

 

In the swing state of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, WURD is a predominantly African American station. On the afternoon show on the day after Kamala Harris had addressed a crowd in Philadelphia, the station left their listeners in do doubt that they wanted them to vote Democratic but also broadcast the blurb that ‘opinions and comments on the station do NOT reflect those of the owner of the station. In that one hour there were three ads for Harris, none for Trump and a request to all their listeners ‘to go out and vote’.

 

This impassioned plea seems to fall on deaf ears. In the 2020 election between Biden and Trump there were 231,593,000 adults over eighteen eligible to vote. The turn out however was just 66%.

When all votes were counted, Biden had 81,283,502 and Trump had 74,223,975 but the second largest group were those who chose not to vote, 76,085,524.

 

On voting day numerous stations focused on the weather forecast which was an unusually warm November day. On the news channel WINS 1010, the channel covered the two campaigns, announcing that early voting in this election was up 50%. The channel's mantra is ‘you give us 20 minutes and we'll give you the world’. Every twenty minutes listeners were treated to rolling news, weather, business and traffic and while there were ad breaks there was not one campaign advertisement. The two campaigns were treated to exactly the same amount of time for news but there were other news items covered, all domestic including the possibility of a drought in New York, that the subway carried its one billionth passenger of 2024 and a New York policeman suspended after a shooting.

 

Radio in New York fits into three categories, traditional AM & FM, satellite radio mostly through Sirius and finally online only radio. I visited East Village Radio, an internet station with a shop front studio on 1st Avenue. I spoke to Brian, the station owner, who told me they decided to provide an alternative to the non stop political battle by just playing music with their only nod to the election, pleading with their listeners whomever they supported to go out and vote. I spoke with New York based author, radio producer and pirate radio archivist, David Goren, who told me that even for him listening to Caribbean pirate stations in New York city that the election invaded the illegal airwaves. He played me a recording of a station broadcasting entirely in Creole and beamed at the Haitian community, where David said it was the first time he had heard the English language used on the station when the presenter broke into a rant in English trashing Trump and imploring his listeners to vote for the Harris/Waltz ticket.^[4] While these interventions are important to note, by their nature the pirate stations primarily based in Brooklyn and the Bronx are low powered operations and therefore their reach is limited. Many of their listeners are illegal immigrants and therefore not entitled to vote but the fear of Trump's rhetoric to deport illegal migrants fed into a number of the pirate station's output with the hope to influence those listeners who may be able to exercise their franchise.

 

According to Nielsen^[5] US radio reaches 92% of Democrats, 93% of Republicans and 92% of swing voters. But in all cases traditional AM/FM radio is behind Digital radio in reach but ahead of linear and cable television. It also highlighted that younger voters were migrating away from television because there were too many advertisements. But when it came to the major events of the campaign, it was the visuals, whether it was the Presidential debates, major news programme interviews or even assassination attempts, it was television that won the media battle. There were no tailor made radio events for the main campaigns. Third party candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party struggled to get her message across to the electorate dominated by the two major parties^[6]. She took part in a third party candidate debate broadcast on the cable news channel C-Span and her access to radio airtime included an interview on the Ray Hannania radio show broadcast on the Arab News channel relayed by WNZK in Detroit and WDMV in Washington. Stein was reduced to interviews on community radio stations including WMNF in Florida.^[7] Fearing that a vote for Stein would help elect Trump, the DNC took out negative radio ads saying that a vote for Stein was a vote for Trump.

 

Meanwhile, according to Jacobs Media who surveyed 300,000 radio listeners, 94% of those who spend the majority of their time with spoken word audio fall into the “very or somewhat closely” will follow the election period. 83% of those who predominantly listen to music genre stations responded to the same. Jacobs Media President Fred Jacobs shares his belief that the numbers show how powerful an advertising medium AM/FM radio can be for political campaigns.

 

In recent campaigns the voting populace have been polarized and they migrate to TV and radio that reflects their views only and so they are unable to see an alternative point of view. Such is the division, health officials believe that many suffer from election anxiety and as a result there were a number of infomercials that offered help and direction to health care providers to get more help to treat their election anxiety.

 

“What is pathetic about the freedom to express opinions on talk shows is the new lack of respect for the truth and facts,” says New Orleans based WWL talk show host Scoot Paisant.  “Why are talk show hosts allowed to go on the air and speak total nonsense about crucial topics concerning a presidential election? Station management allows talk show hosts to say whatever they want to say; and it becomes the audience, or responsible talk show hosts, to call out the abuses of freedom of expression.”^[8]

The WWL Radio host then argued that there is a  mirage of someone telling a truth simply because they have their own news/talk radio show, isn’t real.

Once the polls closed and results began to come in, the mood on radio changed. In New York there were two distinct feelings, gloom and euphoria depending on where you sat on the political fence. On WBLS, a primarily black station that features the likes of Steve Harvey, the morning after with Trump then projected to win back the presidency, the morning presenter said there was ‘nothing to be happy about today'. Listening to various stations on that Wednesday morning the theme was recriminations for the Democratic Party and retribution was the by word of the victorious Republicans.

 

According to AdImpact, 8% of dollars spent by the two main political campaigns were spent on radio. It was estimated by them that by election day $45 million would be spent on radio time. While most adverts were simply the audio of the television ads, some were specifically made for radio including two one minute ads made for the swing state of Wisconsin. One featured former talk show host Charlie Skyes while the other featured longtime former Republican Representative Liz Cheney.^[9]

 

According to Audacy, while radio was expected to have an influence on the 2024 election, the use of social media had increased significantly since the 2022 midterm elections. The rise of politically focussed podcasts also affected radio’s reach. This can easily be seen from the online reaction to Harris’s appearance on ‘Call Her Daddy^[10] and Trump's interview on Joe Rogan’s ^[11]

podcast. According to Steve Johnston, a former COO at FlexPoint Media,

            ‘2024 will be remembered as the Podcast Election. Not because podcasts are new (they're    not) but that this was the first time presidential nominees and their running mates                         leveraged them in a meaningful way.’^[12]

The numbers speak for themselves according to Edison Research^[13] one hundred million Americans listen to at least one podcast per week. Further researchers point to the fact that it's a younger generation, still accepting audio, that are listening to audio on demand like podcasts rather than traditional scheduled radio programming. There is a reported sea change in how Americans consume information, where they get their news from and how divided politically the nation has become. In this changing landscape, traditional radio was going to suffer. Radio is fighting a losing battle against podcasts. The Joe Rogan podcast, which has 14.5m Spotify followers and 17.9m YouTube followers gained an extra 400,000^[14] YouTube subscribers after the interview with Trump. The fact that you could see and hear the interview blurred the lines between traditional radio and television and today's audio visual experience. Call her Daddy figures were not immediately available but the power of her podcast is illustrated that in August 2024, SiriusXM spent $100 million on the rights to her podcast^[15], three years after Spotify paid $60m for exclusive rights.

 

Audacy cited the 2022 election of Democratic Senator John Fetterman. They said,

‘Fetterman’s campaign allocated 20% of media dollars to radio and generated a 10% lift from radio above the local TV campaign amounting to 676,000 additional votes at no extra cost. Fetterman defeated his opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz by less than 300,000, a testament to radios pivotal role.’^[16]

 

In a study by Nielsen’s (citation) they concluded

1. By allocating one fifth of an qd budget to AM/FM radio, the campaign was able to deliver a 12% bump in audience reach without increased spending
2. Radio added 29% more incremental reach among TV viewers who watch less than two hours per day.
3. Adding radio to the campaign media mix resulted in a 23% lift in reaching swing voters.^[17]

 

Their main takeaways in their study in advance of the election campaign were

1. Linear TV is losing voter reach
2. Radio and Digital media reach the most voters
3. 20% allocated to radio reaches more voters at no extra cost.
4. Use radio early and often for maximum lift.

Radio still has an important role to bring the news to the public. The major TV news networks like Fox CSpan, Bloomberg, NPR and CNN have radio versions of their output. The top five most listened to stations in New York are all music genre stations and they all carried radio adverts for both candidates^[18]. Two of the most listened to News radio stations in the United States are based in New York, WINS 1010 and WCBS 880 both on AM and both owned by Entercom Inc. The top five rated radio shows, which are syndicated and not only available on linear radio but also as podcasts were all conservative commentators including Sean Hannity, well known from his Fox News shows.^[19] The impact of satellite radio such as SiriusXM is significant primarily as their offerings are on a paid subscription service and operated commercial free. Also available in New York is HD Radio as operated by the NPR station WNYC. On their 93.9 frequency with the right receiver you can switch between their regular programming, classical music or a relay of their 820 AM schedule.

 

The financial impact of the campaign and bearing in mind that radio and TV stations must sell their airtime to the candidates at their lowest selling price, the Democrats^[20] spent $1.2 billion while the Republican party spent $653m.^[21] While the main focus of attention was the Presidential race, there were also campaigns for the Senate, House of Representatives, Governor races, Assemblymen and local referendums. According to NPR News^[22]

 

            ‘Altogether, $10.5 billion has been spent on campaign ads in the 2024                                            election cycle, on races from president down to county commissioner, according to data                    compiled by the ad-tracking firm AdImpact and analyzed by NPR.’^[23]

According to Inside Radio 3.5% of that amount would be spent on radio advertising.^[24] That $10 billion is larger than the GDP of fourteen countries including Tonga and Samoa.

 

As the visual media has fragmented from the traditional analogue and digital station, to streaming services, cable and satellite TV and even YouTube, the audio equivalent has also fragmented from traditional AM/FM stations to digital and satellite services such as SiriusXM, to Spotify and podcasts. There is also the rise in money spent on social media platforms like X and Facebook.

 

Of the two main candidates for the White House, Harris made more use of radio. There is however in the choice of talk radio a skewing of the choice in favour of Conservatives/Republican shows and stations as opposed to Liberal/Democratic choices. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of the estimated $31m spent by Harris on broadcast and digital media, $7m was allocated to radio ads as compared to Trump's $560,000.^[25]  They also reported that from July to October Vice President Harris spent $456.3m on radio ads in seven key states while Former President Trump spent $204.3m in the same states. According to Open secrets.org the two largest media beneficiaries of campaign spending primarily by the PACs were FOX News Corp with $299m airtime purchased on TV and iHeart Media Inc with $298m on radio. IHeart Media have 860 radio stations in 160 cities and towns.^[26]

 

There was some fallout for radio in the aftermath of the election result. There was a raft of redundancies across numerous radio markets including in New York where iHeart’s layoffs included the widely respected and experienced Len Berman at WOR Radio.

 

Did radio materially affect the outcome of the 2024 US Presidential election? No. Will its influence diminish in future campaigns? We will have to tune in four years from now to answer that.

---

^[1] Travis Clark in the Current Blog

^[2] Fcc.gov

^[3] Currently owned by Disney

^[4] David Goren, the Brooklyn Sound Map

^[5] Inside Radio February 2024

^[6] A candidate must be polling at 15% to be included in the main television presidential debates.

^[7] September 17th 2024 interview with Meghan Bowman

^[8] Barrett Media Reporting

^[9] The Boston Examiner

^[10] October 6th 2024. Interviewed by Alex Cooper. Episode available on YouTube

^[11] The Joe Rogan Experience October 25th 2024

^[12] Reported in The Current Blog

^[13] Reported in April 2024

^[14] Sophie Clark in Newsweek October 28th 2024

^[15] Conor Murray, Forbes Magazine

^[16] ‘Radio Gets Votes’ by Idil Cakim, SVP and Head of Research & Insights, Audacy

^[17] Optimizing Polictal Campaigns to Win in November by Tony Heresy, Nielson

^[18] Top 5 as of December 2023, 1. WLTW (Lite FM 106.7 owned by iHeart Media) 2. WAXQ (Q104.3 Classic Rock owned by iHeart Media) 3. WBLS 4. WHTZ FM (Z100 owned by iHeart Media), 5. WCBS 101.1FM

^[19] SwinginWest.com

^[20] Originally Joe Biden’s campaign and then Kamala Harris

^[21] This figure includes the money spent directly by the campaign and by the Super PACs (Political Action Committees)

^[22] National Public Radio

^[23] Media includes TV, radio, online platforms, social media and newspapers

^[24] Inside Radio August 19th 2024

^[25] Radioink October 15th 2024

^[26] Stations in New York where I was based include WOR 710, Power 105.1, Lite 106.7 and the largest Z100

Linkage Radio, the New York pirate & the FCC Chase

 

In 2022 I was lucky enough to walk the streets of Flatbush and Brooklyn with Professor David Goren, the creator of the ‘Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map’, seeking out the myriad of pirate radio stations that were located in that area. In 2023 I came across an excellent video from Ringway Manchester about pirates in the New York area and they mentioned how a new crackdown had begun in New York by the FCC against the illegal broadcasters.

At this point we must mention President Donald Trump (yes, I must) as during his singular term in office in January 2020 he signed a new Act that would attempt to tackle the issue. The PIRATE ACT, standing for Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement, was designed like legislation in Ireland not just to go after the transmitters and studios of pirate broadcasters but also to implement penalties against landlords and landowners who provide space for the stations. In the video they spoke about a landlord, Michelle Hepburn, in Mount Vernon who had received a notice from the FCC that pirate transmissions had been traced to a building she owned and that as a result she was liable for fines in excess of two million dollars. This set me off on a trawl to find out more about this station which was broadcasting Caribbean music.

 

When I searched for pirate radio activity in the Mount Vernon area of the Bronx in New York, the name Dexter Blake appeared and he is a fascinating character. His first brush with the FCC dates to August 13^th 2008 when the FCC traced broadcasts on 101.5mhz FM to Mount Vernon and a Caribbean restaurant known as The Linkage based at 78 East 3^rd Street. The radio station was known as Linkage Radio. In March 2009, Dexter was issued with an official ‘Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture’. Dexter was deemed as ‘apparently, wilfully and repeatedly violated Section 301 of the Broadcasting Act 1934.’

Dexter was born in Jamaica before immigrating to the United States. He made the headlines in 2017, when it was reported that when Dexter attempted to bring his two young children from the Caribbean Island to join him in the Big Apple, part of the visa process that a DNA test was required from both children and to his shock and horror it turned out that he was not the father to either child. According to reporter Claude Mills,

‘A popular Jamaican radio disc jockey is devastated this afternoon after he got a letter from a DNA agency informing him that the two kids he had fathered with two Jamaican women were not his biological children. He said that he had spent close to US$300,000 on both his kids since their birth.

DNA tests are required by the US Embassy in Kingston as a vital part of its immigrant visa process over the years has confirmed that a number of women are assigning paternity of their children to the wrong man, a term called ‘jackets’ in the Jamaican vernacular. The number of ‘jackets’ was contained in a diplomatic cable captioned ‘fraud summary’ and covered the period March 2009 to August 2009. According to the leaked diplomatic cable, the US Embassy in Kingston “often requests applicants to undergo DNA testing because their fathers’ name is either not on the birth certificate at all, or was added many years after their birth”.

However, one in every 10 men who turns up at the US Embassy is told the DNA test proves that he is not the biological father of the child he is filing for.’

According to the Radio World newsletter in July 2010

‘The Federal Communications Commission has confirmed a $10,000 fine in the case of a radio pirate in New York. The Enforcement Bureau said Dexter Blake didn’t respond to a notice of apparent liability it issued in March of last year for an unlicensed transmitter on 101.5 MHz in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., northeast of Manhattan.

In the summer of 2008, agents out of the New York Enforcement Bureau office traced transmissions to the Linkage Caribbean Restaurant and spotted an FM antenna on the roof. Taken up by the building super, they saw coaxial cable going through a duct to the first floor where Linkage Caribbean Restaurant operated.

The agents said they talked to restaurant workers, who called Blake; one of the agents spoke to Blake, who admitted to operating the station, according to the commission. The commission staff also reported it had done an Internet search and found a website called “Linkage Radio,” which identified Dexter Blake, “DJ Linkage,” as the owner of the station and restaurant.

 

The FCC remained on his trail and in May 2010 transmissions on 101.5mhz was traced to 238 3^Rd Street, Mount Vernon. The building owner, NWO Properties Corporation received a NUO a Notice of Unlicensed Operation’.

Dexter Blake championed Caribbean artistes in New York giving them an outlet on the air and even created an annual awards ceremony to celebrate the music. In May 2016 in a report published by the New York State Broadcasters Association, ‘Field Measurements of Unauthorized FM Band Radio Signals In New York, NY Metropolitan Area’, they identified 2874 Grand Concourse Bronx, NY as the location of pirate transmissions on 104.5 which was a second frequency now being used by Linkage Radio. They described the signals as a ‘very strong pirate signal’.

On the left is a photo taken for the New York Broadcasters association highlighting the FM aerial on the roof in 2016. On the right is a Google Map image from 2023, the aerial has gone.

The Notice of Forfeiture did not put him off the air and his next brush with the law was in 2017 when the landlord of the restaurant he was now located in received a NUO, the owner of the 53 Sea Lounge, Bar and Restaurant, George Brown received the notice to his business at 53 Mount Vernon Avenue. The station was now broadcasting on 104.5mhz FM. The station was described in an article in The Radio World as not only the HQ for Linkage Radio but also as ‘a cosy spot to play checkers and chow down on curry shrimp’

His most recent brush with the FCC was when transmissions on 104.5 were traced to Michelle Hepburn building at 159 South 13^th Avenue, Mount Vernon. As the landlord, Ms. Hepburn received the notification and was threatened with fines in excess of $2million if the broadcasts continued from her building. 

The building on South 13th Avenue with the FM aerial on the roof. (2022 Google Map)

The station continues today playing their cat and mouse game with the FCC. A check on MapQuest shows the location of the station at 5 Fulton Avenue, Mount Vernon. We hope that Dexter and Linkage Radio has many more years of out running the law and entertaining his loyal listeners. His station can be found on Tune-In

Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show' Exposed as a TV Program in March 2022

 

For many years as a politics junkie and a lover of political satire, I enjoyed clicking onto YouTube and finding the latest episode of Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’ on the Comedy Channel. One of the stalwarts of the show was contributor Stephen Colbert. In 2015 Stephen departed his highly entertaining and funny ‘Colbert Report’ to take over from the legend David Letterman on the popular late night show ‘The Late Show’ on CBS, I wasn’t sure if the move would suit the comic presenter.

 

Thankfully, despite the fact that I lived three thousand miles away in Dublin, the good people of YouTube were yet again on hand to provide the conduit whereby the Late Show could upload clips of their nightly show. I fell in love. Stephen’s opening monologues were pure genius, hilarious, stinging and on point. This was helped by the fact that his taking over the big shoes to fill of Letterman, the former President of the United States (who will not be named by Colbert on his show) announced his unorthodox candidacy for America’s highest office. The show went from strength to strength. The quality of the monologue, the guests and the musicians on the show, led by Grammy winner Jon Batiste, made the show compulsive viewing.

 

Every night I would come in from work (I was a bartender), head up to bed and lay quietly in the darkened room and watch the recent uploaded clips, tears of laughter falling to the pillow and it was as though everything was right with the world. It would be a huge disappointment as suddenly a week would go by with no shows. When the pandemic struck, Stephen and his team adapted, broadcasting from his home, originally fully dressed in the bathtub but then, with his family acting as his crew, from an spare room in his own house. I have many favourite musicians and bands, that I have paid money to see in concert, but getting a chance to visit a TV show like the Late Show seemed a forlorn dream.

 

 Following the lifting of many Covid imposed restrictions in Ireland and the US, I managed to buy a ticket to New York to visit with my aunts and Uncles over there but on a whim, I applied for a ticket to be in the audience of the Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. It was like opening a Christmas present that I had pleaded with Santa to put under the Christmas Tree when I got an email from ‘1iota’ offering me a ticket for the show at the Ed Sullivan theatre, on the famous Broadway in New York, on Thursday March 31^st 2022. It is hard to find the words for the excitement I felt.

Fast forward to 5pm on that Thursday and I’m already feeling extra special and loved when I discover that not only is Stephen recording one show but two as he is also recording Friday’s show and this was not an April Fool’s joke. The queue outside the Ed Sullivan theatre stretched around the corner or as they say in the Big Apple, around the block, and the first thing that struck me was the amount of ‘meet and greet’ staff the show had, all miked up, taking each attendees details. This included my passport details (yes that famous Irish passport) and my documentation stating that I was vaccinated and boosted against Covid 19. This was a well-oiled machine, very impressive and all so friendly. 

Occasionally a member of staff would travel down the line reminding us that once we entered the theatre, we must wear our masks at all times and also making us raise our arms in the air to prove we were in possession of the blue wrist band that guaranteed entry. They entertained the crowd now slightly dampened by a squally shower of rain but spirits were high. The doors opened just before 5pm and this was my first experience of such tight security at an entertainment venue. I had attended numerous live recordings at RTE’s headquarters at Montrose and the nearest to a tight security was a polite request to leave our wine glasses behind in the reception area as we entered the studio to be seated. There was an explosives sniffer dog at the door and then a metal detector that we had to pass through but the line moved quickly and efficiently. I was ushered to my seat on the ground floor, four rows back from the stage. Could this experience get any better? To comply with Covid advice, fresh air was continually being pumped through the theatre, which gave it a bit of a chilly feeling, so the jacket was coming off any time soon.

Eventually, once the theatre was full of ticketed and stand by attendees for no shows, a warmup act took to the stage and despite the fact that he invited a fellow Irish person, a lady from Cork, onto the stage, the less said about this warmup act the better. I wish him success in his comedic career, if he decides to pursue it. We were then given one opportunity to visit the bathrooms, as the shows recording would take almost three hours. I felt quite guilty as the queue for the ladies was five times as long as that for the gents, but needs must. The stage manager Mark came out and was far more entertaining and to be fair on par with the floor managers at RTE’s late night chat shows like the Saturday Show or the Ray D’Arcy Show. Waving his rolled up script in the air as an indication when we were to clap, stand amd clap, cheer or laugh, he reminded me of the unofficial parking attendants on St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin who would wave a newspaper at the reversing drivers screaming ‘lock hard’. Ah the good old days. Mobile phones were to be turned off and staff moved through the aisles checking to make sure no extra recording was going on. (oops)

The next thing I noticed was the presence of professional looking black suited security guards at the sides and at the edge of the stage. No chances were being taken that a audience member might attack any of the stars of the show. 

The LSSC house band ‘Stay Human’ then took their places, minus Mr. Batiste was he was in LA collecting multiple Grammy awards and entertained us with multiple solos including one from the temporary band leader Louis Cato. Great fun. I was smiling from ear to ear.  Then 49 minutes and 12 seconds after we took our seats in the impressive theatre, out came the great man himself, Stephen ‘The Genius’ Colbert. We were on our feet cheering and clapping. ‘Stephen Stephen Stephen’ went the chant. I was in awe. I was in the presence of one of my heroes. He told us it was a ‘chance to say hi to each other’ and that ‘we are one big happy family’. He teased us on the lower half that we were not getting a chance to see the wonderful dome that dominated the roof of the theatre. A camera panned up and that evening projection onto the dome popped up on the monitors hanging from the balcony for us to watch. Ah well, can’t have it all. He then generously spent twenty minutes answering audience questions. You get a once in a lifetime chance to ask a famous comedian, a star of US late night television (always in the battle for ratings with Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, but always winning) a question and what was the first question he had to field from a lady was

‘How because of your beliefs, do you reconcile your religion and science?’ wow, what a question.

Stephen’s answer was pure gold, ‘God made science’.  Then in keeping with real world events at the time and in reference to President Zelensky in Ukraine, a gentleman asked him ‘if we were to have a comedian here (the USA) as President, who would it be?’ Immediately answered by the audience with another extended chant of ‘Stephen Stephen’ but once again in keeping with the events of the day Stephen’s answer was ‘Chris Rock’ following his Oscar bust up with Will Smith where he was punched on stage by Smith. Next up was another deep and thoughtful question, ‘With the success in your professional and private life, what are your goals dreams and aspirations?’ was the next question. Stephen said he was doing quite well where he was, i.e., CBS, had a lovely wife (Evie) and great children but lamented what he would like was ‘abs’. We were eating out of the palm of his hand. Then he was asked would he consider writing his own autobiography but he moaned sardonically that would be a lot of work. After continuing to answer questions at ease, the final question was,

‘What have you learnt as a comedian during Covid?’

‘What I learned was how much I miss you’ gesturing to the entire audience

His folksy, North Carolina accent had us in raptures. We were his minnows, his followers, his sheep. We were his, and for that brief few hours, he was ours. ‘Let’s do it ye all’.

One thing I did notice and it has up to that point happened in every theatre and every TV studio I was ever in, and this was a bit of both, there were no ‘in case of emergency’ announcements directing us to the nearest exit. A shame, when everything else was so professional and rewarding. Safety of your patrons should be paramount. Rant over time for the show.

 

The credits roll and once again we are on our feet as Stephen takes to the stage as the eight, yes eight, cameras roll. This is the opening monologue from the Thursday taping.

To see that monologue delivered in person was just as funny even more funny probably because of the community of laughter in the theatre. Then the first and only slip came at the ‘Rocky’ film joke but pleaded us not to tweet his mistake as it would take away from the persona of being perfect all the time. Postproduction would sort it out. But to be fair, if we didn’t laugh loud enough on the evening, that too could be sorted in post-production.  Postproduction came to the rescue of the network when they would also bleep out the ‘what the fuck’ that we heard during his segment on the CBS hiring of former Trump staff member Mick Mulvaney.

 

Monologue one done, time to immediately move on the Friday night monologue and we had to pretend we were a different audience to Thursday. Thursday audience was good but this Friday audience is better. This is Friday’s monologue and one must marvel at the staff of writers that produce this kind of up to the minute quality nightly. Then the next monologue delivery interruption was when Stephen coughed, immediately declaring it wasn’t Covid (their staff are rigorously tested) but that it was a piece of celery string that had caught in his throat. Throat cleared and on with the monologue, postproduction once again to the rescue.

 

I think that was perhaps the worst April Fools ruse ever perpetrated on the US TV viewing public. Really Stephen ‘It’s Friday’? Alas fake news that Friday monologue was delivered on a Thursday. Now who’s the fool? (Let’s wee you try a Mr. T impression on that one)

The recordings then zipped along. James McEvoy, the Scottish actor was first and his interview was hilarious but a sneak peek behind the scenes were the ‘in and outs’ that Stephen recorded so that the show that night, broadcast at 11.35, could take a number of ad breaks during the interview. As the show was recorded ‘as live’ we watched the inserts that filled the show including the pre-recorded musical guests. Quickly onto show number two and this was flying by far too fast. The Friday night guests were Ken Burns, the documentary maker and Mandy Patinkin of Criminal Minds fame who had collaborated on and narrated a new documentary on Benjamin Franklin. Brilliant interview, funny, educational, relatable and entertaining. Then a pre-recorded segment with John C. Reilly, who had been the international Grand Marshall at the St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin the previous March. It was interesting to see, that even though Stephen was the interviewer, he was enjoying watching it back and chuckled away to the very funny actor as they discussed films that should have been made.

 

And in an instant, three and a half hours after I entered the theatre, it was over. I lingered a little but the ushering out had begun. It was over but I had been there, I had been within touching distance of one of my heroes of television (although a couple of burly men at the edge of the stage would have dealt with my attempted touching quickly). It was brilliant, entertaining, funny and an unbeatable experience for this Dubliner. The only downside, and I’m sure this is probably covid related but even at the smallest of concerts, in small venues, there is a merchandise stand. There was none. No chance to buy a mug, a memento of my visit, a signed photograph or a sweatshirt. Them be the breaks in showbiz. But my recommendation, if you are heading to New York, on a budget and you want some brilliant free entertainment, apply to the Stephen Colbert Late Show for a ticket, you will not be disappointed. Thanks to Stephen and your entire staff, I hope to be back some day soon.

All Rights to the Broadcast of Stephen Colbert's Late Show are reserved by CBS. 

All rights to be entertained reserved by me. (c) 2022