Charity Nebbe rocks

What's green and purple and destroying deciduous forests across Michigan? Well I'm glad you asked. The curious path of the Emerald Ash bore...next...on State Side.

I have never encountered a radio program more painful than Michigan Radio's "Stateside, with Charity Nebbe." Seriously, every time I hear the lame, bass-heavy, pseudo new-age theme music, my stomach turns and I promptly change the channel to Oldies 107.3. It even got to a point where I'd start planning my lunch breaks around NOT catching that show. What's the deal? Usually NPR has such high quality programming. Then they churn out this turd of a talk show and completely undermine public radio's credibility.

Perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit. I mean, no radio talk show with a Michigan theme can possibly be that interesting. You'd be hard pressed to find an audience who shows too much enthusiasm about Michigan's thriving cup-manufacturing industry, or the increase of pet-owners in the upper peninsula over the past decade. But Charity Nebbe, the host of the show, is criminally bad. She has a "smiley face" tone of voice that makes even the most grave subjects (racial segregation in Detroit Public Schools) sound like ingenuine small talk at a party (Oh, you're applying to law school? That's great! Oh, your public schools are dilapidated, underfunded, and unsafe? Excellent!!). She also CLEARLY reads from some cheesy script of questions. She never follows up, or catches interesting tangents.

When Terry Gross interviews people, you can almost visualize her leaning back in her chair, brows furrowed, touching her chin pensively as she listens. When Charity puts someone on the hot seat, she sounds as if she's about to lunge forward, grab the mic out of the interviewee's hand, and announce "HEY!! I GOT A RADIO SHOW!!!"

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. I mean, it's not an easy job, and it does bring unusual facts about Michigan to the listener's attention.

Nah.