Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Joe Pyne Was America's First Shock Jock
I remember the guy.
Hat tip, the DCRTV.com Mailbag, for June 19: http://www.dcrtv.com/mailbag.html
< No direct DC connection, though some here might remember Joe Pyne's weekly nationally syndicated interview program that aired on WTTG-5 in the 1960s. Here's a June 2017 Smithsonian Magazine piece about this forerunner of many of today's conservative media talk hosts. Pyne was pretty abrasive, but he usually had interesting guests and it was always fun to watch him tangle with them. I'm also including a link to a website about his life and his radio and TV careers. www.smithsonianmag.com... www.joepyne.com (6/19/17)
Joe Pyne Was America’s First Shock Jock
Newly discovered tapes resurrect the angry ghost of Joe Pyne, the original outrageous talk show host
By Kevin Cook
Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe
June 2017
....
Nearly forgotten today, Joe Pyne ran roughshod over America’s airwaves in the 1950s and ’60s. A charismatic bully in a jacket and tie, he grilled hippies, Black Panthers, “pinkos,” “fairies” and “women’s libbers,” practically inventing the attack interview. The New York Times called him “the ranking nuisance of broadcasting...hitting a jackpot by making a virtue of bad manners and wallowing in the cheap sensationalism of an electronic peepshow.” To Time magazine he was “Killer Joe, host of a tasteless electronic peepshow.” By 1968 Pyne had more than ten million viewers a week—comparable to the audience Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly combined to reach last year.
According to media historian Donna Halper, author of Icons of Talk, “Pyne was one of broadcasting’s truly unique figures—the original angry talker. He rose from the lowest level of radio and founded the modern TV shoutfest.” ... And then, just as quickly, he was gone.
....
{Charles Churchman, one of several techies, archivists and vintage-TV fans who hope to save “The Joe Pyne Show” from history’s scrapheap} would love to come across a fabled exchange between Pyne and Frank Zappa. According to Pyne lore, he invited his audience to “Say hello to a musician—and I use that term loosely—representing a rock ’n’ roll band known as the Mothers of Invention.” ... Zappa, 24, nodded to the booing crowd. Pyne looked him over and said, “I guess your long hair makes you a woman.” ... Zappa shrugged. “I guess your wooden leg makes you a table.”
If they find that one, it’ll be news. Meanwhile Kogan, Churchman and a loyal crowd of Pyne fans hope to keep Killer Joe’s memory alive. “People ask me if he was like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly,” says Levy, who produced Pyne shows half a century ago. “I say yes—but Joe got there first.”
A former senior editor at Sports Illustrated, Kevin Cook is the author of The Dad Report and Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America. His ninth book, Electric October, about the epic 1947 World Series, is due out in August.
Newly discovered tapes resurrect the angry ghost of Joe Pyne, the original outrageous talk show host
By Kevin Cook
Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe
June 2017
....
Nearly forgotten today, Joe Pyne ran roughshod over America’s airwaves in the 1950s and ’60s. A charismatic bully in a jacket and tie, he grilled hippies, Black Panthers, “pinkos,” “fairies” and “women’s libbers,” practically inventing the attack interview. The New York Times called him “the ranking nuisance of broadcasting...hitting a jackpot by making a virtue of bad manners and wallowing in the cheap sensationalism of an electronic peepshow.” To Time magazine he was “Killer Joe, host of a tasteless electronic peepshow.” By 1968 Pyne had more than ten million viewers a week—comparable to the audience Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly combined to reach last year.
According to media historian Donna Halper, author of Icons of Talk, “Pyne was one of broadcasting’s truly unique figures—the original angry talker. He rose from the lowest level of radio and founded the modern TV shoutfest.” ... And then, just as quickly, he was gone.
....
{Charles Churchman, one of several techies, archivists and vintage-TV fans who hope to save “The Joe Pyne Show” from history’s scrapheap} would love to come across a fabled exchange between Pyne and Frank Zappa. According to Pyne lore, he invited his audience to “Say hello to a musician—and I use that term loosely—representing a rock ’n’ roll band known as the Mothers of Invention.” ... Zappa, 24, nodded to the booing crowd. Pyne looked him over and said, “I guess your long hair makes you a woman.” ... Zappa shrugged. “I guess your wooden leg makes you a table.”
If they find that one, it’ll be news. Meanwhile Kogan, Churchman and a loyal crowd of Pyne fans hope to keep Killer Joe’s memory alive. “People ask me if he was like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly,” says Levy, who produced Pyne shows half a century ago. “I say yes—but Joe got there first.”
A former senior editor at Sports Illustrated, Kevin Cook is the author of The Dad Report and Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America. His ninth book, Electric October, about the epic 1947 World Series, is due out in August.
JOE PYNE -- THE FIRST AND BEST OF THE SHOCK JOCKS!
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
