This scandal over Howard Sattler's blunt and stupid questioning of the PM has got me thinking about Perth radio culture as compared to Sydney's.

Sattler is a local "shock jock" that PC types love to hate. But he really is the only one here. Pretty much every other broadcaster is drearily right-on. (I suppose Paul Murray might fall into this category. But from what I've heard he's hardly provocative.)

Being a bit of a right-wing death beast myself, I'm a supporter of the politically incorrect stirrers of the airwaves. But I think Sattler gives the term "shock jock" a bad name. Unlike, say, Alan Jones -- who is articulate and well-informed, and consistently flays Labor for its hypocrisy, sanctimony and incompetence -- Sattler just blunders in and says things that are thoughtlessly, stupidly offensive.

I mean, fancy asking Gillard whether Tim Mathieson is gay because he's a hairdresser! It's just a boneheaded appeal to ignorance and prejudice; the lazy invocation of an outdated, inaccurate stereotype. It's actually the mirror image of what the Left does all the time in its relentless campaign to slime the Catholic Tony Abbott as a misogynist, homophobic racist.

If Sattler ever tried to carve out a niche over in Sydney he wouldn't have a hope in hell. In that city there are several true shock jocks. And they are very good at what they do. They have got riling PC types down to a fine art, have immense audiences and a lot of political clout.

Jones, of course, is the most well known. Then there's Ray Hadley, who is equally reviled by the Left. They love to deride him as an idiot but he's way smarter than the vast majority of them. He's got a real nose for a story and can use his huge reach to get issues that incompetent pollies are desperate to remain unknown onto the mainstream agenda. The pink batts debacle was an example of this, as was the BER.

It would be great if there were a broadcaster of Hadley's calibre over here in Perth. Someone like that could really shake up the scene and put a lot of noses out of joint. But I suspect that's exactly the reason we don't have one. Perth radio, like so many other aspects of the city, is smug, staid and set in its ways. The powers that be are quite happy the way things are and are determined to keep them that way.