October 16, 2006
'A WORLD THAT HAS NO ESCAPE'
It's over; former Bay area radio talk show host Bob Lassiter has died of kidney failure.
I didn't ever listen to his show, but I vaguely remember that he was well-known while I was growing up in St. Petersburg. And I didn't run into him once I moved back into the area; he had been off the air for years by that point.
But I became incredibly moved by his blog, Blog Lassiter, which became no less than a death diary for him this years as his kidneys slowly shut down and he decided not to seek a transplant.
The blog essentially went offline on Sept. 19 with the last posting by him. Today, someone has posted some of his thoughts since then, with a final goodbye.
It's incredibly raw and painful to read. But then, you'd expect that from him.
On Sept. 25, he wrote the following:
I have chosen to keep what amounts to a diary that you will not see until the end. I am no longer able to function in the world you live in – I am no longer able to pretend that I have anything in common with everyday people. I am dying – I know it, am not at all happy about it, and have retreated into my own world – a world that has no escape.
I always thought that I would live until I died – I did not realize that it could take so long, be so hard. In some respects, it’s amazing how a body that clearly is failing clings on to life – fighting a losing battle, refusing to give in to the inevitable.
It’s one thing to sit in a doctor’s office, and be told that you are going to die – and having no real sense of what that means – and quite another experiencing the actual agonizing process. You ask what to expect, what it will feel like – you are told, but the words ring hollow until the sensation begins to kick in. The day comes where you hope that you simply fail to wake up – when life is no longer desirable – where the morning is a bitter disappointment as yet another day dawns.
Michael J. West at Blog Critics summed his appeal up well:
If you don't know Lassiter's work, he's far too complex to describe easily. I once said on the BC threads that he was "he was brilliant, honest, funny, and the meanest sonofabitch in talk-radio history." Which is all true, but it's only half the story. "Mad Dog" Lassiter prided himself on his intellectual honesty and made it a point to challenge his listeners' every belief.Mostly he confronted Conservatives, Christians, and the elderly, but he wasn't afraid to turn on a dime and hand liberals and the young their asses (he did remain a staunch agnostic). He gauged his audience carefully, did his homework diligently, and skewered their sacred cows such that they would call him in a blind rage, when he would then rip them to shreds. But he was also capable of being extremely sensitive and revealing of his own life: "You probably know more about me than you do about your own spouse," he once said. It was no wonder that at WPLP and WFLA in Tampa Bay, he was far and away the most listened-to talk host in the market (the second most listened-to radio show, period.) Even those who despised him tuned in every day.
To learn more, check out the Wikipedia entry. You can hear examples of his work by clicking here. His Mr. Airstream call is one of the all-time best radio moments I've ever heard.