And I Mean the Left

NashvilleBroadcastingHistory.com

Growing up in New York I fed an early nerdy talk-radio addiction using a bedside clock radio to catch the pompous erudition of the great Barry Farber, the offbeat weirdness of Long John Nebel, and even occasionally (yes I’ll admit it) the original semi-unhinged conservative radio mouthpiece Bob Grant. Whatever the politics and eccentricities of a particular host, the appeal was (mostly) civilized conversation about ideas with smart people for a loyal radio audience.

Each place I’ve lived after leaving the northeast for college always brought me in short order to cruising the radio dial for good local talk — surely I can find a version of this conversation almost anywhere. Landing on planet Nashville in the early 1990s I happened upon this Teddy Bart guy and his morning Round Table of … what, exactly? It felt like an odd mix: one minute serious journalists are kicking around city and state politics, the next minute Teddy is tickling the ivories of an electric piano in the studio and pivoting into sports and weather. So this is Nashville, I thought: You get a talk show only if you can play an instrument and sing.

Once I’d been spewing opinions in outlets like the Nashville Scene for a while, Teddy invited me to be on the Round Table from time to time as a panelist “on the left” (“and I mean the left,” he would always add with a smile). It was great fun, as it would be for any card-carrying political junkie, to chew the fat on issues of the day with other smart humans of diverse viewpoints. But it was serious fun: it was a great privilege to be part of conversations that were informed and constructive, that mattered (without taking themselves too seriously), and that were heard.

The show in its later years may have aired on obscure AM radio stations with obscure cable-access replay — hard to find unless you were looking for it, but it turns out a lot of people were looking for it. Almost nobody turned down an invitation to be on the show, and nine years after it ended I still run into people who recall my minor involvement and lament that Nashville has had no similar outlet for regular meaningful civic dialogue ever since.

He was plenty good with that keyboard, but thoughtful, civilized discourse turned out to be the instrument Teddy Bart played virtuoso.