March 2 Assignment: "Host" by DFW Response

In the piece by David Foster Wallace on John Ziegler I noticed that Ziegler seemed, at least to me, to be similar to other talk show hosts that I have listened to. I am not the type of person to listen to talk radio, however, the times that I have listened the hosts seems to feel the need to have strong beliefs and ideas. In order to gather a following and an audience I think that they need to be a little extreme in their views and ideas. They need to be slightly controversial. If a radio talk show host is boring and never has an opinion that they feel the need to defend, then no one will want to listen to their bland show. However, like Ziegler, a controversial and opinionated host will maintain a following because people will tune in to hear what they are going to say next. They are interesting. Ziegler seems to fit the same type of hosts that I have listened to in the past because he is controversial. This proves that controversy and opinion increases the popularity of a talk show host.