My listening is during morning and afternoon drives and sometimes during lunch. Mike Rosen was very good. Opinionated, yes, nor did I always agree with his opinion. But his commentary was analytical and mature. His departure has left a hole. On one of the first days Mandy Connell assumed Rosen's slot she told the listening audience to give her two weeks to see if we can get on board. I gave her that and more, and here are my thoughts.
I took Connell's challenge seriously. I've listened for far more than two weeks. I haven't listed to every minute, but I've listened as long as I could many times. Each time I listened until I wanted to turn the station, and then I listened a bit more. Connell, while clearly intelligent, is not my cup of tea - mainly because I don't like incessant, mindless rabble being shouted at me while I'm drinking tea. Her juvenile banter with the Patriots fan intern is unfunny and annoying. Her nostalgic recollections of how large the bugs are in Florida is uninformative and pedestrian. She doesn't seem to understand that her "amazing Internet search skills" are not a substitute for being learned or accomplished in a field. She is openly supporting Donald Trump's politically motivated position that the Republican nomination process is "rigged." And while I think it's fine that Connell is not subjective and that she openly airs her opinions (that's what commentators do, right?), a good commentator would articulate at least a portion of the opposing viewpoint for the sake of illuminating the commentary. In contract, Connell's repetitive defenses of her side of the argument in the absence of analytical observation makes me feel like I've gotten caught in a coworker's political rant at the water cooler and I can't get away.
When Connell first assumed the slot, the Denver Post's Joanne Ostrow wrote that "Mandy Connell, a conservative talk-show host with neither the years of experience nor depth of knowledge of her predecessor, steps into the KOA midday berth... She intersperses light entertainment with not-so-intellectual conservative politics." Ostrow nailed it on the head, except for the light entertainment part. I find attempts at entertainment in Connell's show and I really want to like the show, but I'm not really entertained by those not-so-intellectual moments. And judging by Connell's recent on-air promises to revisit what had been Rosen's practices of interviewing politicos like Mayor Hancock and Governor Hickenlooper, I'm guessing I'm not the only one not feeling it.
I'm not sure where Connell goes from here. To keep the existing audience she's going to have to add considerable substance to her commentary. That's a hard ask and I wonder if Connell is up to it. If not, the other options are 1) gathering a new audience for Connell's show or 2) lineup changes, or 3) let the show bottom out and see if KOA can live with the ratings. Whatever the case, I won't be a regular listener until they get this figured out.
In short, I'm sure Mandy is a wonderful person, but the drastic difference between listener expectations after years of enjoying Mike Rosen's insightful commentary and Connell's brand of neo-political coffee house chat is too great for me. I'm out, pending addition of more substance to this time slot. read more
