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Caller ID Ruined This Art Form -- But Thanks For The Memorie

Suppressed Catholic | Boston | 10/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Enjoy the reactions of radio talk hosts who were humiliated by two high school friends in the DC area. For 14 years the young men -- known collectively as "The Screamer" -- used good telephones, good radio / cassette decks, nimble fingers and nimble vocal chords. They took advantage of DC residents' voracious appetite for debating the 1982 crisis in Libya and other news topics between 1979 and 1993.



The only exception to the Screamer's attack on Capitol Beltway solemnity was a short stint in Boston, where he ridiculed the medical advice of one Dr. Zinakis (spelling?) That segment makes you laugh today.



The Internet has since stolen the thunder of talk radio, but those who've never lived Inside the Beltway know nothing of the cold obsessiveness that STILL characterizes the DC area. Strangers meet there and debate an issue like abolishing Office of Personnel Management for hours. You never find out if they prefer the music of Liza Minnelli to DC's own Fugazi. Nobody has a favorite color or a secret crush. These people deserve to be brought down with humor.



Bring them down "the Screamer" did between 1979 and 1983. One DC - based radio yakker named Tom (something? -- John McLaughlin would remember him) inanely devoted an hour to picking the greatest American of all time. This was pre Rush Limbaugh. Tom's hopes for a consensus of listeners was ruined by the Screamer's suggestion of Samuel T. Chair, who invented the chair. Minutes later Tom becomes incensed by a vote for Arthur F. Lampshade as the greatest American.



My favorite Screamer talk radio call is Sally Jessy Raphael circa 1982 flabbergasted by The Screamer's question about birth control pills. Her "Talknet" radio show was nationwide then, but nobody knew her face.



You can tell that many of the Screamer's phone calls date from 1993. One yakker on WRC AM 980 is heard discussing the David Koresh / Waco tragedy. Dr. Gabe Mirkin makes himself vulnerable to a Screamer attack when he plugs a pre - Viagra treatment for male impotence. In 1993 Joe Madison was making his mark as a civil rights activist years before he popularized the theory that the CIA introduced crack to Los Angeles. Now you see him on MSNBC. He had to start somewhere. Preaching to mostly white yuppies driving to work was Mr. Madison's baptism by fire.



Listen to the Screamer cause trouble on the Madison WRC show in 1993 when Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers plug their production of "Love Letters" to morning commuters on this stop in their national tour. They were not exactly the Angelenos that CIA crack dealers had in mind, but they sure got smoked by the Screamer. The seven - second delay didn't help. Maybe these erstwhile stars of the Aaron Spelling TV series "Hart To Hart" took out their anger on an underpaid radio station employee. And the National Enquirer had no way of knowing about it!



Another online reviewer has expressed hope that the Screamer has been compiling a post - 1993 follow - up CD. That's all but impossible. Later in the 1990s caller ID became more refined and features like Call Drop eliminated the disadvantage that phone screeners once had. Granted, caller ID first became available in early 1990, three years before the Screamer's vicious attack on Madison, Wagner and Powers. But it didn't work with long - distance calls or certain area codes in DC / Maryland / Virginia back then. Joe Madison's phone screener couldn't put a particular phone number on a list of rejects the way Janeane Garafolo can today.



Meanwhile, the Internet has taken over the compulsive arguments that littered the DC airwaves of 1993 and prior. Then you have satellite XM radio.



In 1993 the Screamer could have visited pay phones occasionally if he became afraid of the station manager notifying police of harassment. But these days pay phones in the DC area belong to the homeless and others who ignore contagious disease. So thanks for the memories, Screamer. Your fans will never know what you look like. Maybe you have a face made for radio (quoting Fred Allen)."