Marty Gold & Red RIver College

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Fri, 2012-11-02 22:35

The Analyst The Analyst's picture

Does anyone know what the deal with Marty Gold & KICK-FM is? I know all the facts, aside from the fact that his program was cancelled, haven't exaclty come out. Most of what I could find about the controversy were either written by Marty Gold or his supporters.

Additionally, most of what I've found is quite polemical & doesn't exactly provide a concise summary of the case (sounding, at times, almost conspiratorial - with insinuations of "power players" like "Margo Godhand" or "Greg Selinger" somehow being involved). Maybe if I listened to Marty's podcasts (which I don't), I'd have a more organized understanding of (his side of) the case.

Btw, does anyone know what Marty's show was like? I got the sense (from blog posts of his I read) that it was anti-establishment, perhaps rightwing populist, and somewhat sensationalist (particularly given all the complaints about the "bike lobby" of his I've seen).

According to Winnipeg's rightwing tabloid, Gold is sueing Red River College btw.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/10/31/ex-radio-host-suing-rrc

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Sat, 2012-11-10 17:28

Winston

My partner used to insitis on listening to Marty Gold's show just so that he could get all pissed off and rant about it for hours later. So I have heard his show on a few occasions.

He is a willfully ignorant, populist blowhard with a very tenuous grip on the facts (especially those pertaining to anything scientific). I remember one particular episode where he and his co-host, Spirited Kenny, came to the conclusion that if the world stopped turning we'd all just fly off the surface. Brilliant stuff!

While many of the views he expressed on the show tended to be very right-wing, I would fashion him as more of a populist than a right-winger. While I may not agree with a lot of his proposed solutions, he admirably spent a lot of time on his show advocating against poverty. He would plug for Siloam mission and/or the food bank several times each show. He REALLY hated the bike lobby and any one who chose to bicycle around town...it was somewhat of an obsession of his.

Overall, however, I found him and his guests to be spectacularly stupid. After one of the provincial budgets was brought down, he went on a two-hour attack against it. The premises of his attack were fourfold: 1) The NDP is running far too large a deficit and should be reining it in; 2) Taxes in Manitoba are too high; 3) Manitoba is far too reliant on federal transfers to fund its services; and 4) The NDP's budget didn't go far enough to help the poor.

Now, while I think that each of these attacks has some merit and validity, surely I am not the only one to see that the individual solutions to them are mutually exclusive and at odds! Manitoba could not become less reliant on federal transfers without a) increasing taxes or b) cutting services. Taxes could not be cut without a) cutting services; b) increasing the deficit; or c) getting more federal transfers, etc.

I also note that, not only is Gold's show no longer on the air, it seems that CKIC radio itself is no longer broadcasting (at least not at 92.9 MHz). This is rather a pity in my view since I found CKIC to be the only radio station in Winnipeg (other than Radio 2 on occasion) that ever played any decent music.

Sun, 2012-11-11 16:12

The Analyst The Analyst's picture

Old link dead, new link here: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/10/31/ex-radio-host-suing-rrc

I think you're assessment of Gold is right (even though I really never listened to his show, except for a online copy of an interview with then provincial NDP leadership contender Steve Ashton he did). A lot of his fans in the local blogosphere (and he has a fair bit) insist that he's attentive to detail and well-documented, though.

Arch-Marty Gold fan Graham Hnatiuk seems to have some hypothesis about why KICK-FM's off the air. I don't know how sound they are, though.

I've watched his Shaw public access show and he seems a lot tamer there. He's also attacked Sam Katz & occassionally sided with Gerbasi when she requested info from the mayor, so I guess it is more accurate to describe him as a generally anti-establishment populist, even though he leans right & really hates the supposed "bike lobby".