Shock Jock Schlock! (The Naked City)

Shock Jock Schlock! is the latest column (April 14, 2025) from Coffin Ed‘s The Naked City column – featured exclusively on City Hub.

Whilst the accuracy of the quote has long been disputed it’s still widely reported that Doanld Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump once stated:

“Yes, he’s an idiot with zero common sense, and no social skills, but he is my son. I just hope he never goes into politics. He’d be a disaster.”

Accurate or not Mary Anne was still known to express misgivings about young Donald’s eventual career choices and maybe it was fortunate that she died in 2000, long before he ascended to the throne of the batshit crazy.

Whether you regard Trump’s bumbling real estate enterprises, marred by six bankruptcies and endless court cases as a successful career, remains open to question – however it has made him very rich. There has however been some speculation that had he not gone into politics, just where would he be today?

No doubt he would still have his tiny hands in the real estate game and he did have a fleeting moment as a TV personality in ‘The Apprentice’. Some have suggested that he would have made a great ‘shock jock’ and given that his current political style apes the provocative, inflammatory and thought bubble output of radio’s most notorious shock jocks, it’s possibly a career gone begging.

Trump’s vacuous, monosyllabic rhetoric and crude gutter talk have often been labelled as ‘shock jock politics’ and no doubt he’s preaching to the same audience that have lapped up the likes of Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh and Mancow Muller. Admittedly the days of the classic American radio jock spruiking hate speech and prejudice or a barrage of smutty humour, seem to have dissipated – often replaced by more extreme podcasts and influencers, like the charming Andrew Tait.

Here in Australia the old school of fist thumping shock jocks like Ray Hadley and Alan Jones appear to have run their course, although Sky News is doing its best to keep the conservative flame alight. The closest we have to an American style shock jock is the long time KIIS FM breakfast host, Kyle Sandilands, who apparently pulls in a salary of around $10 million a year.

A regular target on the ABC’s Media Watch, Kyle and co-host Jackie O have constantly raised the ire of the Australian Communications and Media Authority by breaching broadcasting standards. They have regularly been called out for their shabby ‘off the cuff’ comments on everything from monkeypox to the Paralympics. ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin has described numerous segments as deliberately offensive and not in line with broader community standards. She noted:

“Even having two program censors employed by the broadcaster in place following previous ACMA enforcement action, this has not stopped occurrences of unsuitable content going to air.”

When it’s a crude reference to body parts or a pissing competition (as they once hosted) it often becomes downright nasty. The bloated puff face Sandilands once told listeners that a dieting Magda Szubanksi could have lost more weight in a concentration camp.

Their modus operandi is nothing new and in the US Howard Stern has built a fortune, approaching $700 million with a litany of cheap on air stunts and outrageous comments. In commercial radio it’s little more than a cynical play for ratings. You make a crude or smutty remark, it offends some people but the majority of your listeners think it’s all a laugh and tune in again for a repeat performance.

Earlier this year Sandilands told listeners he had made $700,000 in just a few hours after investing in Trump’s newly-announced crypto meme coin, $TRUMP. Whether this was an endorsement of Trump’s politics or just a case of financial opportunism, I hope he declares it on his income tax.

The unfortunate thing about Trump’s daily broadcasts, shock jock style, is that they are virtually inescapable – unless you switch off all TV, radio and internet, never pick up a newspaper and disconnect from all social media. He currently dominates the news cycle like no other individual in history. Admittedly much of his exposure is part of a massive backlash – a critical scrutiny and ridicule to which no other American president has been subjected.

There’s almost a perverse fascination on the part of some podcasters and social media observers in documenting Trump’s multitude of shortcomings. Some YouTube sites like the constantly vigilant Meidas Touch do an excellent job in a round the clock exposure of the current White House shambles.

On the other hand when it comes to the potty mouthed Kyle Sandilands, we should all be grateful that it’s just a simple avoidance. Just never switch on KIIS FM. Silence is golden!