Bob Lassiter: A Compelling Communicator, Even to the End

I figured I had time to write about him.

I'm not sure why I felt that way. One look at the heartbreaking blog maintained by former Tampa Bay area radio star Bob Lassiter showed his days were seriously numbered.

But I thought I had time to get Lassiter's last story told -- the sad tale of a talent who never quite fit into the radio business and spent his last months fading in end stage kidney failure.

Lassiter passed away on Friday after slipping into a "dream like condition" two days before, according to a final blog posting which seems to have been made by his wife, Mary. He already had said goodbye on his blog earlier this year, but his health rebounded, and he began writing again, stopping for good on Oct. 3. He was 61.

"There's nothing left to say," he told me a few weeks ago, when I heard he had posted his last entry. "I found all I was doing was repeating myself. It's reptitious and frankly depressing."

But like his radio broadcasts, Lassiter's blog was also compelling for its honesty and in-your-face attitude. He wrote Sept. 25: "I always thought that I would live until I died - I did not realize that it could take so long, be so hard.  In some respects, it's amazing how a body that clearly is failing clings on to life - fighting a losing battle, refusing to give in to the inevitable. 

It's one thing to sit in a doctor's office, and be told that you are going to die - and having no real sense of what that means - and quite another experiencing the actual agonizing process.  You ask what to expect, what it will feel like - you are told, but the words ring hollow until the sensation begins to kick in.  The day comes where you hope that you simply fail to wake up - when life is no longer desirable - where the morning is a bitter disappointment as yet another day dawns."

And on Sept. 11: "This isn't the way I wanted to go - so sick at times I can think of nothing but my own misery. I wanted to go with dignity and poise.

I do not regret my decision, nor am I about to change it, but I had no idea of how hard it would be. How easily tears would come, how quickly self-pity could overtake me.

I wanted to be stronger, but as I slowly became everything I always detested about the old and infirm, my will has evaporated - as has my interest in life."

It reminded me  lot of tenor and tone of his radio show, which I heard in his last few years on air at WFLA in the late '90s. Chain-smoking though the early evening, he would hold forth of various topics, presenting an incisely liberal viewpoint that seemed to drive some callers particularly batty -- something the "Mad Dog" as he was called back then, seemed to enjoy.

Turns out, there's a fair amount of Lassiter's material online, including this clip of his appearance with Rush Limbaugh on CNN's Crossfire. Someone has kept up a collection of his on air performances here. And thre's even a 30-minute clip from his 1988 appearance on a Tampa public access show dubbed Hot Seat (complete with an aendorsement from Chuck Norris!)

For folks who don't know the history of Tampa radio, Lassiter's passing may not mean much. But I always found him a uniquely compelling and tragic local figure -- a talented guy whose singular, anti-authoritarian style eventually had no home in the homogenized, conservative corporate world of modern-day talk radio.

Comments

[Dave]

Thanks for writing about Bob, Eric. I will miss him greatly. I was continuously amazed by his command of the language and his ability to take a stance on issues that other hosts would only pay lip-service to. His discussions on religion were almost textbook examples of how to play Devil's Advocate as he drew out people's long-held beliefs and held them up to the light. His ability to make people examine those beliefs was amazing. Long live Bob.

[Lorrie]

hey Eric--

my husband and I have fond memories of listening to Bob on more than one Christmas Eve. The man could spin a mesmerizing yarn and that sort of craftmanship is sorely lacking in radio these days.

I have missed Bob since he has been off the air and I wish his beloved Muffin fair winds and following seas. This must be a tough, tough time for her.

[trace]

After listening to an hour of Bob Lassiter on the web it is morosely depressing to turn on AM talk radio and have to choose between Todd "I'm MJ before noon" Schnitt and Brian Fasulo, graduate of the Mister Rogers school of talk.

[Fred]

The Hot Seat Cable Access show was very interesting. If you listen close, you will find the radio host Lionel crank calling the show. You could also tell Lassiter knew it was the ambulance chaser. Absolute classic Lassiter. Sorry to see Bob go...

[Jim]

There really isn't anybody like Bob Lassiter on local radio anyone. Nobody creates controversy. There's only one major all news/talk station station in town now. Local radio used to have more personalities and local shows. Now, it's pretty much all syndicated. Jack Harris, Tedd Webb, and Schnitt are about the only truly local personalities left.

[Ernie Agnew]

I was grateful to you for the even handed notice of the conclusion brought to the saga of Bob Lassiter. He was controversial, to say the least, but my listening days were before I reached the age of old fogeism. He was irritating but much less than his callers whom he bested in any debate they engendered. He also was often dead wrong, but like any expert debater, won his chosen premise.There will be a void in my computer life without the first step of checking the bloglassiter. Now I can read your pieces with new respect but just as critically.

The truth, Eric? Then why don't you write about the SPT. I'm quite sure it claims to be fair and balanced as well, and it sure as hell isn't. Here's my problem with all your anti-FNC diatribes... FNC is a channel that broke into a market and, in a very short time, steamrolled it's competitors. Consider what CNN was before FNC - virtually a brand name for cable news. That's a huge story. This upstart channel beats the pants off of the competition day in and day out, but all you can think to write about is how viewership is down from last year. Nevermind that the same is true of all the cable news outlets. And of course the tiresome babbling about how FNC is a Republican mouthpeice. You chalk up such accusations against the SPT to right wing nutjobs. What makes you any different? It's just disappointing to see a great story turned into slanted blather. Just be honest. You're a liberal working for a liberal paper, and you hate that FNC has succeeded.

[Laura Young]

Oh Eric, this was a beautiful post. I had never heard of Bob but did go to his blog and you are right, poignant, compelling, heartbreaking and so important. I have a very dear friend who has chronic medical issues who has shared with me some similar feelings about the struggle to keep going in the face of increasing losses so this resonated with me on many levels.
Thanks for making me cry...but I mean that in a good way. : )
Seriously, this is a path we are all on, this mortality thing, and taking a very close look at it in an unglamorized, open-eyed way is one of the bravest things we can ever do.
So much food for thought Bob gave us all.
Thanks for bringing this story to us.
L

[GlennS.]

Eric, not only was it tiresome (but predictable) that people turned your Lassiter blog into a typical left vs. right thing, I thought it was downright sad under the circumstances. Hey folks, let's not forget that a man died and left behind loved ones who knew him in a way that us listeners couldn't possibly have. As for the man's politics, Bob himself was the first to reject the easy labels that have come to define "political discourse" in our time. He will be missed.

[Eric Deggans]

I guess you missed the earlier comment about tiresome left/right sniping.

At any rate, I don't control our coverage of politics or crime or anything else. I control our coverage of media.

So when a news anchor comes to our backyard and claims his outlet is largely "fair and balanced" I think it is important to point out glaring examples which belie that claim, aired that very same day.

Sorry that the truth hurts you so much...

I almost lost my breakfast this morning while reading your silly article on FNC. How is it that you're so capable of recognizing slant on FNC, but you remain blind to the slant that goes in your paper everyday??? How is failing to mention Harris' opponent different from running a long glowing article about the democrat Lt. Gov. candidate while virtually ignoring the Republican candidate? How does a talk radio host being busted with unprescribed viagra get more print in your paper than the Senate minority leader being busted for hiding lucrative and shady land deals? Seriously Eric, it's absurd for you to look down your nose at FNC. The SPT is 100 times more biased than they could ever be.

[Eric Deggans]

Personally, I think it's tiresome that i can't even write a post about a great radio talent who died tragically without some people trying to turn it into a predictable, right wing/left wing fight.

The truth of the matter is that Lassiter was no easy-to-peg liberal voice. And i don't think he lost his place in radio solely because of his politics.

Unfortunately, the radio biz is ruled by two things: a lemming-like copycatting of whatever seems to work, and a ruthless focus on corporatism, especially safeguarding profits.

Lassiter failed because he wasn't a drone who would do whatever Clear Channel ordered, he wasn't an over-the-top conservative who fit the current programmnig trends and he wasn't successful enough to convince executives to ignore his shortcomings.

And conservative talk radio works because the overwhelming majority of people who listen to talk radio are older and conservative and sponsors love its pro-business perspective.

[RattlerGator]

Eric, that closing line is still bouncing around in my imagination:

"a talented guy whose singular, anti-authoritarian style eventually had no home in the homogenized, conservative corporate world of modern-day talk radio."

Singular.

Anti-authoritarian.

Shouldn't you question your presumption that it was a "homogenized, conservative corporate world" that squeezed him out of radio? I think it was the "heterogeneous" corporate world (last I checked, as open to liberal entrepreneurship as conservative entrepreneurship) that kicked him in the behind, precisely because he (more than likely) wasn't simply "singular" and "anti-authoritarian" which, contrary to the prevailing opinion of some, aren't necessarily badges of honor.

He lived in a nation that is entrepreneurial in spirit, commercial by nature, and its business class is hesitant (quite rightly) to reward folks who don't seem to respect that history. Singular and anti-authoritarian and respectful of the demands of business? Cool. Singular and anti-authoritarian and DISrespectful of the demands of business? Not cool.

Amazing how many progressives can't quite seem to wrap their hands around that concept. A conservative corporate world CAN'T squeeze out liberal talk radio. However, a liberal corporate world that can't find a market for liberal talk radio can decline to support a format that can't find a sufficient audience.

About the only thing the last poster got right was that he was the epitome of a liberal talk radio host - largely unknown.

[Penforth]

Bob Lassiter always expressed his skepticism about the existence of a Supreme Being. Lassiter is gone before his time, replaced by the smarmy phony Glenn Beck, and the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and Schnitt rule the airwaves. There! You wanted proof there's no God? There it is!

Lassiter would deny it till his last breath (almost literally), but he was the ultimate example of what a liberal talk show host should be. If Air America had been smart enough to find the next Lassiter, they wouldn't be facing a judge in a bankruptcy court trying to justify their continued existence. How many of you can remember when Lassiter was up against Jay Marvin in the same time slot? Two LOCAL liberal hosts against each other?

Look at how many sites on the Internet are devoted to preserving Lassiter's legacy. Do you seriously think that 20 years from now, people will be listening to old Limbaugh tapes from the 80's, 90's and 00's. Lassiter created something timeless and universal from the grubby, ephemeral medium of radio.

Let Lassiter's legacy be the ultimate spit in the face to those right-wing robots who scream "Liberal talk radio can't work!"

Mourn Lassiter's passing, and curse the nearsighted morons who drove him out of the radio business. Take consolation in the hope and expectation that commercial radio, the Clear Channels and Cox Radios of the world, will not long outlive Mr. Lassiter.

[DaleS]

Thank you for the comments on Bob. I was a frequent listener of his 970 show in the 90s. It was sad to see him replaced by more neo-con blather. Even sadder to learn of his struggle during his passing.

[GlennS.]

I was on vacation last week and missed the news of Bob Lassiter's passing until I saw your blog today. I was a major fan of Bob's show during the 80's, even taping it when I couldn't be near a radio. No wonder my knowledge of 1980's TV is so limited ... I was too busy listening to Lassiter! I even enjoyed Bob's "lighter" shows on WSUN in the early 90's. I had almost forgotten that he was back on WFLA in the late 90's. At that time I was dealing with some personal losses, so hard-hitting discussions on politics and religion were not what I wanted or even needed to hear. Guess I'll have to download some of those later shows now to see what I missed.

[Paul]

Thanks for this post on Bob Lassiter. I'd largely forgotten about him, though I often listened way back when. Glad to know he's remembered.

Your column is exactly why FNC is number 1. What do you get when you pick up the SPT? A completely misleading front page smear peice written by an avowed liberal who openly criticizes FNC. Funny how you didn't mention that O'Reilly has about quadruple Olbermans veiwers.