Jay Severin: Back in Business

Great news for Bay State talk-radio fans: WTKK-FM star Jay Severin will return to the airwaves Tuesday, June 2. Severin, who has been with the station for nearly a decade, was indefinitely suspended in late-April for caustic comments about Mexico’s role in the recent swine flu scare.

It is expected that we will hear a kinder, gentler Severin going forward. That’s a good thing: when Severin avoids incendiary rhetoric and focuses on addressing the national scene from a straightforward, conservative/libertarian perspective, he is at his best. Severin never needed to imitate Michael Savage to become the top dog of afternoon-drive talk radio in the Bay State.

It will be quite interesting to hear Severin address the recent controversy over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whose 2001 remarks about diversity and the law were every bit as obnoxious as Severin’s 2009 comments about Mexico and swine flu. Severin must certainly have a new perspective on the need for civility in public debate: while his progressive critics may scoff at this notion, a chastened Severin might have more credibility in his criticisms of Sotomayor than a sarcasm-saturated Severin would.

The only downside to Severin’s return is the likelihood that his temporary replacement, Philadelphia talk star Michael Smerconish, will disappear from the Boston airwaves. Smerconish’s syndicated show was intelligent and well-produced; while he is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea (and his taste in Presidential candidates leaves something to be desired from a conservative perspective), he is a tremendously talented host. Hopefully WTKK will consider keeping his program on their airwaves in some capacity.

UPDATE: More from Randall Bloomquist.