Alex Pierson has been on AM 640 for a while now, competing with CFRB’s Barb DiGiulio. As I walk the dog at night, I find myself looking for something to listen to. And the winner, to me, is now obvious. It’s Alex. By miles (kilometres?) It’s not even close.
 
Why? For one thing, her pacing is a lot better. She keeps her segments short, about 15 minutes per topic, and she and her guests get a lot said in a brief time. Her show really moves along at a quick clip, which I find refreshing.
 
But to me, the major difference is the topic choice. Where Pierson talks about actual stories in the news, Barb seems endlessly stuck on the most generic, dullest conversations imaginable.
 
Take Wednesday, for example. Alex’s show dealt with the fallout from the Prime Minister’s idiotic “peoplekind” gaffe, had two guests talking about the Tory leadership race, discussed the Steve Paikin story, interviewed a former soldier about sexual harassment in the armed services and noted Kathleen Wynne’s rather bizarre threat to start a trade war between Ontario and some U.S. states. And that was the first two hours or so.
 
And what was Barb yakking about?  Who handles the chores in your house? What generic brands do you use and are they as good as the bigger names? How do you manage relationships at work? And on and on. At each one of these, I was long gone faster than when a Tom Mihalik commercial airs. 
 
Night after night, it seems to centre on parenting, homework for your kids, teachers, schools, marriage, shopping, relationships etc. Enough already!   
 
Add to that frequent “guests” like Angel the Psychic, which is perhaps the worst radio on the dial (yes, it gets lots of calls, but unless you were born on November 3rd at 9:15 AM like the caller, what she says could never apply to you.) It stops being broadcasting and becomes narrowcasting. And man, is it dull. Not to mention psychics are a complete sham.
 
I really like Barb DiGiulio. I know she has the talent to deal with newsworthy content. She carried the show when the Patrick Brown drama hit like a bomb a few weeks ago. I can only surmise that someone is advising her to do topics that skew heavily toward women, which seems to explain the non-controversial pabulum that goes out on her show every night. I just wish they would let her put the “news” back into Newstalk 1010.
 
So kudos to Alex Pierson. When you want to hear local content that’s not just filler after sundown, there’s only one choice. And it’s not the most listened to talk station in Canada.