WHP 580 Radio talk show host Durgin vents
Talk radio in central Pennsylvania is rich with opinionated and aggressive per
sonalities. One such personality is WHP 580’s Bob Durgin, who broadcasts to
nearly a million listeners everyday.
The themes on Durgin’s show dance around the local political arena. He is usu
ally characterized as a conservative with great contempt for government interfer
ence of any kind. At 60, Durgin talks at greater length on the issues in which he
is most interested.
“I am interested in anything across the socioeconomic and political spectrum.
Anything that pisses me off,” Durgin said. “I talk about anything I feel as though
the powers that be should be held accountable for and things I feel that people are
getting taken advantage of. I try to stay vigilant. We get into the social arena and
the so-called culture war. There’s a multitude of things that both the people and I
are interested in and angry about. Unfortunately, anger seems to be, and has been
for the last 10 years, the rallying cry for different factions and ideologies in
America, namely conservative and liberal. We’ve been at war ever since.”
Durgin is clear in his opinion on what role government should play in the lives
of local community residents.
“As little as possible,” Durgin said. “I’m not a libertarian, although people seem
to think that I am. I do have some liberal points of view, but not too many. I’m a
great believer in capitalism. The more government you have, the less free you are.
The more taxes you pay the bigger and more oppressive the government becomes.
Government can’t have programs and be in power without regulations, statutes,
and different kinds of
laws that take freedom
of choice and freedom of
raising his voice to
callers who argue against him. He is more modest when discussing his knack for
heated argument.
“I don’t try to pick a fight. That doesn’t happen unless the caller starts it,” Durgin
said. “Unless someone is really obnoxious, they have to start it. I will give it to
someone who calls up to disagree with me and finds it necessary to preface their
remarks with some kind of personal insult. I just rip right into their butts when
they do that because I hate that.”
Durgin revealed that he is not a fan of shock jocks, especially Howard Stem, and
with respect to current pop-culture, he feels disconnected and appalled.
“I feel left behind,” Durgin said. “It’s just the evolution of society. The older
one gets the less in touch he becomes with the younger generation because he’s in
touch with his contemporaries. It’s just human nature. I was a kid back in 1956
when Elvis was hitting the scene. My generation invented rock-n-roll. It has just
taken so many different forms and mutated since then into something that the
entertainers have become beyond decadent.”
“I’m talking about all of the rap music and whatever else in is vogue. I don’t like
it and I don’t expect to like it. What I don’t like about the people that perform it
is how they act and what they say on and off stage. Eminem is a perfect example.
He worships murder, suicide, rape, and he objectifies women. He and his ilk do
everything to degenerate human life and when you call him on it he says ‘They
said the same thing about Elvis’. Well, they did. The difference is that they were
wrong. We’re right. When you start talking about murder and screwing your
mother, the sky’s the limit. You turn on any rock station and they have the f-word
and all kinds of cussing and swearing. They’re reprobates,” Durgin said.
Durgin focuses on the commercial promiscuity that some female celebrities cur
rently perpetuate.
“Britney Spears, Madonna, and a lot of these other female pop stars act and look
like sluts,” Durgin exclaimed. “Why can’t they just entertain us without being
such sluts? Sex has sold since cavemen were here but celebrity women didn’t
always act like sluts. They didn’t wear shit like this and act like they’re making
love to a ghost on stage.”
Durgin connects this with the propensity for young people to imitate their role
models and cites our collective decadence as the object of hate from other cultures.
By JOHN FOX
Staff Reporter
movement away from
the citizenry. So, it’s just
a truism. The bigger the
government gets, the
more expensive, power
ful, and authoritarian it
gets. Socialists believe
the exact opposite.”
Durgin is notorious for
WHP 580 radio host Bob Durgin, is known for his high
octane rants about the federal government and rap music
“I happen to know that they sell thongs for eight, nine, and ten year old girls. It’s
like the fall of the Roman Empire. I think it’s at that point. Some people wonder
why other cultures hate us, especially Muslims. That’s the reason why. They con
sider us a decadent, pagan, society.”
Over the last fourteen years, Durgin has been able to get a feel for the general
concerns of his listeners in the central PA area and beyond. He talks about some
of the recurring themes on his show.
“People are alarmed at the amount of taxes they have to pay and what the gov
ernment spends on it,” Durgin said. “Whether it is programs like unnecessary pub
lic education needs or public assistance programs that only expand. The more
taxes we pay, the more programs the government invents to spend it on. That cre
ates socialism.”
Durgin compared capitalism and socialism.
“Socialism is the antithesis of capitalism. Capitalism is personal responsibility,
incentive, competition, and it inspires personal achievement. You get to keep what
you earn. Capitalism’s core value is the harder you work, the more you will be
rewarded.”
Durgin likes to talk at great length on socialism, apparently equating it with the
Democratic Party in America.
“Socialism is the exact opposite. Socialism wants to redistribute the wealth and
the way they do that is with taxation. They take from the rich and redistribute it
to everybody else in America who has less through all these different government
programs. So, the government ends up taking care of a growing number of peo
ple in society who cannot or will not take care of themselves. More detrimental
than that is that socialism kills achievement. It puts a huge damper on incentive.
So, why should an achiever work hard when he knows the government is just
going to take it from him anyway? Socialism, in the end, is self-defeating. It’s a
utopian idea that never comes to fruition,” Durgin said.
Durgin verbalized his contempt for government and taxation.
“I work somewhere between four to five months a year for the government for
free,” he said. “I am a slave. That’s how much we pay in taxes and fees for all
levels of government whether it’s school taxes, zoning fees, permit fees, federal
taxes, state taxes, it goes on forever. People like me resent that.”
According to Durgin’s extreme view of taxation in America, it might be a good
idea for Uncle Sam to hand out some Vaseline every year around April 15 1 * 1
“Oh yeah,” Durgin laughed. “They should at least kiss us first.”
Listeners can tune into The Bob Durgin Show every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m
on WHP 580.
photo courtesy of WHP 580