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Media -- Dont Quote Me

Killer coke

Pondering Finneran’s future
The question of the moment in Boston talk radio is whether former House Speaker Tom Finneran, who recently pled guilty to obstruction of justice and resigned from his $416,000 job as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council this week, will sign on as a drive-time host at WRKO (680 AM). With Finneran’s future up for grabs, a trio of fretful conservatives — Matt and Aaron Margolis of HubPolitics.com and Brian Maloney of the Radio Equalizer blog (RadioEqualizer.blogspot.com) — have launched the new Web site SaveWRKO.com, specifically aimed at keeping Finneran from joining the WRKO staff. In one post, Maloney called Finneran the “ultimate Beacon Hill Democrat [sic] Party insider,” and bemoaned “his incompatibility with the station’s audience and lack of full-time talk radio experience.”

Maloney & Co. need to relax. Finneran may have been the quintessential Beacon Hill insider a few years back, but that period is long gone. Given the socially liberal direction in which his successor, Sal DiMasi, has taken the House, Finneran — who was always a fiscal and social conservative — may actually take great pleasure in skewering his former colleagues. Throw in the fact that, despite their shared Democratic affiliation, new governor Deval Patrick and Finneran sit at opposite ends of the political spectrum, and there’s every reason to think Finneran could reinvent himself as a combative outsider. What’s more, forget the bellyaching about Finneran’s lack of radio experience. Whatever you make of Finneran’s politics and ethics, he’s a whip-smart, quick-witted individual who’d be a talk-radio natural. If Finneran lands at WRKO, it would be the best thing to happen to the station in some time.

On the Web
Adam Reilly's Talking Politics: http://www.thephoenix.com/talkingpolitics