Dan Rea

We hear the former 'BCN DJ is now fulltime producer for Nightside with Dan Rea. Dan Rea? WBZ political talk guy Dan Rea? Yep, Dan Rea. As producer, he books guests and helps decide what Rea will talk about each night.

D.R. is a regular listener:

... Listening to Rea requires intelligence - the intelligence to understand that not everyone agrees with your view, the intelligence to recognize that people of good will can come to different conclusions. Rea panders not to the lowest common denominator, but to the highest common denominator - and that quality will make him an iconic figure in Boston talk radio. ...

That would be local TV newscasts, according to former Channel 4 reporter(and now WBZ radio talk host) Dan Rea. Dan Kennedy profiles Rea in a CommonWealth article that asks the question: Can Rea survive as a genteel local host in an age of screaming invective?

Local television news is one of the great purveyors of racism of our time. They don't understand that. But if you are somebody who lives out in one of the 128 or 495 suburbs, and never have a reason to really interact with people of color, the only time you're going to see young black males is when they're being arraigned, they're being arrested, or they're dying in the street. We ignore the 99 percent of the kids in that community who are trying to do the right thing, trying to go to school, trying to participate in community programs and athletics.

Details.

And speaking of TV reporters making the jump to radio, let's not forget David Boeri on WBUR.