Living on a Wing and a Prayer, Part One

On normal terrestrial radio, Commentator Rush Limbaugh has been the vanguard for the New Media of AM talk radio, inspiring hundreds of other talk show hosts across the country. With the advent of the New-er Media (ie. the Internet or the Wide, Wide World of Web as it is called on My Name is Earl ) talk shows have been popping up via podcasts and the like, but thanks to Blog Talk Radio, new voices are being heard.

And in this sea of opinions and speakers of Blog Talk Radio, Diane Student, a Floridian talk show host based in the Orlando area, has been carving a name for herself because of her unique Conservative spin. And having only been on the air for just about a year, her show, Freedoms Wings (which is found at blogtalkradio.com/freedomswings) has totaled over 12,000 listeners. Not bad considering Blog Talk Radio has, according to their media kit tens of thousands of hosts, and Blog Talk Radio is just one of many web sites such as this on the internet.

What makes Student’s show so unique is that she is unapologetically a Born Again Christian; a Conservative, with a libertarian bent; and she is gay. And she admits all this with an acerbic sense of humor and parodies leaving and taking no prisoners.

On a recent show she announced that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the earthquake ravaged areas of Haiti. Haven’t these people suffered enough? Do they really need to deal with Plasti-Girl?

Student talked with us about her journey in politics, her faith, her sexuality, gays being accepted by the Conservative base and what goes into a good parody.

QUESTION: First, let’s get this out of the way, is there a bigger anathema than a gay Conservative Christian?

DIANE STUDENT: I think of that Skittles commercial with the Koreans in kilts and red hair and speaking like Scotty in Scotland are a bigger anathema. But I am pleased to be in my own category. After all, rugged individualism is what makes America great.

And yes, I get the humor in me being a lesbian and saying, “Rugged.” Feel free to giggle.

QUESTION: [LAUGHS] I have heard you say in the past you are not a big fan at using the term “lesbian” are you?

DIANE STUDENT: [LAUGHS] No, I’m not.

I think it is just another label for people to use and I prefer to use the simplest term which is gay. And frankly, the thought police or the politically correct watchdogs can jump anyone who does not say it properly.
So I say call everyone of us who share their lives with someone of the same gender “gay.” It just makes it easier.

QUESTION: And you have never been a fan of dealing with the “thought police have you?

DIANE STUDENT: Oh heavens no

The politically correct people of this world I find are these personally insufficient people who have to project their idiocies and sadness on others so they have to hold to these dogmatic regulations.

Just more sad than anything.

QUESTION: And sad is something you are not. I know we have talked in the past that you like to have
fun with your show. How did you get started with it?

DIANE STUDENT: Actually, I started the Freedoms Wings blog, at Freedomswings.wordpress.com, in 2008, and to be honest, I always wanted to be a talk radio host. In early 2009, I was surfing the internet and I found a Blog Talk Radio widget, and I listened to it for a couple of months and then one day I decided to host my own show.

To be honest I was not even sure anyone was listening, but then I started getting e-mails and responses. And now we have had 10,000 listeners up today and our increasing continue to increase. I find my chat rooms that are open during the show are doing well.

Originally, I was doing one show a week, but now I am doing five hours a week. And for everyone one hour, I do two hours of research, recording sound bites, uploading video and information, working on my puns and the like.

I actually use a simple Sony program to produce my parodies and bits, and it so simple, if I can do it anyone can And considering, I am in the amateur stage of this, I have to say I spend just 15 hours a week on my show, and that is not counting the other shows, BTR or Cable News wise, I listen too, the research I am always doing, and I constantly have current issues and current events running through my head.

QUESTION: Your sure clearly has a conservative bent. How…

DIANE STUDENT: (LAUGHS) How can a homosexual be a conservative?

QUESTION: Yeah.

DIANE STUDENT: Actually, I consider myself a Libertarian Conservative because I do not believe the government needs to have a say in my life.

CONTINUED