Anti-Crap Radio: The antidote to red-and-blue bickering
Published: May 14, 2009
By Kristi Niemeyer
Uncle Daddy, aka Peter Rosten, is rockin’ the airwaves on Missoula-based KMPT with his talk show, Anti-Crap Radio.
The two-hour program, which airs live on Saturdays (4-6 p.m. in May and 9-11 a.m. in June) manages to be both bawdy and bold, smart and irreverent, with guests opining on a wide range of topics, from forest management to music, and sex to astronomy.
Since the show’s inception April 4, his roster of guests has included rocker Huey Lewis, Indian activist Elouise Cobell, medical marijuana care-giver Jim Hayes, film producer Jerry Molen (whose credits include “Schindler’s List” and “Jurassic Park”), and Mary Roach, the author of Bonk, The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.
Physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, author of The Pluto Files and a frequent guest on “The Daily Show,” is paired with local rock group Joan Zen May 16; and Corey Busch, former vice president of the San Francisco Giants baseball team and chief of staff for Mayor George Moscone, is at the microphone May 23.
Uncle Daddy is an ideal talk-show host – inquisitive, voluble, opinionated. But “I’m not doing this as a career move,” he says. “I’m doing this because it’s fun and interesting.”
Rosten, a former Hollywood television and film producer, created the successful Media Arts in Public Schools program in Corvallis a few years ago, and ran and lost a campaign for the state legislature in 2008. During his campaign, “I tried to reflect the trans-partisan message, to get beyond all this red-and-blue bickering.”
Although an avowed progressive, he says he’s trying to take the same solution-oriented approach to his radio show. “Progressive talk – like non-progressive talk – has a fairly acute filter,” he says. “That’s one of my gripes.”
“We’re making an effort to be trans-partisan, and perhaps dust it up,” he says. “We’re not going for political stuff, necessarily. We’re going for interesting stuff.”
Well, certainly politics are part of the patter, especially in the “Dick of the Day” (Fox News, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh have each taken a turn) and the “Anti-Crapitorial.” But, Rosten contends, “I’m more interested in solutions than belaboring problems.” (Hence, a segment dedicated to “news that doesn’t suck.”)
Although his background is film and TV, Uncle Daddy is no stranger to the airwaves. In 1967, at age 18, he hosted “Freak Freely” from midnight-6 a.m. on a Pacifica station in Los Angeles. Guests included such ’60s rockers as Canned Heat, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Butterfly and Three Dog Night.
On air, Uncle Daddy seems absolutely at ease. “I’ve never lacked communication skills,” says Rosten – and it shows.
But other talents are apparent too, possibly gleaned from 30 years in the media business. “I don’t have a fear of failure. I trust my instincts and do the best that I can.”
That doesn’t mean the show is effortless. Rosten pre-interviews each guest “so I know where we’re going, where we might have fertile conversations,” and creates an outline, with the components in place.
“It’s not scripted, but it’s certainly organized,” he says. “There’s lots of room for spontaneity.”
The show went promptly from its one-hour debut April 4 to two hours the following week, and switches in June from 4-6 p.m. to a “prime-time” talk-show slot of 9-11 a.m.
In May, Uncle Daddy was interviewing candidates for co-host. His first try, a young man known as The Dude, didn’t work out. “When you get two guys together, you tend to rely on sophomoric humor,” he says. “I can do that all by myself.”
Now he’s shopping for a woman to co-anchor the show, “someone who can add balance and personality, and some yin to my yang.”
June’s roster of guests continues to range from locals (Judy Smith of Montana Women Vote, Terri Elander and Greg Boris of Missoula Children’s Theatre) to people with a national profile (Michael Duffy, assistant managing editor of Time Magazine, and Matt Singer, author of Left in the West).
Anti-Crap Radio is the only local show currently broadcast on KMPT, which otherwise offers a steady diet of Air America. “For a local show to have this caliber of guests is pretty amazing,” says Rosten.
Rosten is confident the mix can appeal to Montanans while attracting a broader audience. The interview with Huey Lewis, he notes, elicited calls from England, Michigan and Arizona. “Of course, a guy like Huey, day or night, would get phone calls.”
For listeners beyond KMPT’s broadcast range, the program is available as a live stream (www.missoulasprogressivetalk.com) and as a podcast from www.anticrapradio.com.
