Talk-Radio Hosts Turn Up Volume on School Politics

By Drew Lindsay

When dawn broke in Fort Wayne, Ind., on the last day of January, snow covered the ground, and the temperature huddled in the low teens. But inside the WGL radio studio, Paul Phillips basked in the glow of victory as he fielded calls on his morning talk show.

William Coats, the Fort Wayne superintendent of schools and the man Mr. Phillips had tarred and feathered daily on the air for the past 10 months, had announced his resignation.

While munching cake frosted with "Bye, Bye, Bill,'' Mr. Phillips punched up caller after caller critical of Mr. Coats, who resigned to join the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a private philanthropy in Michigan. "I just wanted to thank you and everybody who stood up to that fellow,'' one caller said. "I am so grateful that Kellogg is going...