I think I've finally figured it out...

I've been listening to The Jim Rome Show on local AM radio for years. For the most part, I enjoy it. Far more often than not, Mr. Rome has a fine talk show, knows what he's talking about, invites great guests (typically sports figures, naturally), is an excellent interviewer (one of the very best), and sets up thought-provoking topics for good discussions. 

During his show, Jim Rome has an open phone line and takes phone calls from his listeners, and if his show has a weak spot, it's possibly this: oftentimes these callers are just terrible and they end up embarrassing themselves to a national audience. The pace of the show can slow after each one of these silly calls is rejected and Mr. Rome admonishes the caller for some silly or stupid or rude thing that was said. 

Now, calls can either be racked --- the show's term for its acceptance of what it deems a good call --- or rejected, usually with Jim Rome offering a vocalized buzzer sound-effect to end the rejected call. 

But it's which calls are racked and which are rejected that is most interesting. 

Apparently, if callers manage to copy the call style of previously acceptable callers, they are racked (they are deemed acceptable), but if callers do not copy other callers properly --- have a "take that sucks," to use the show's parlance --- they are rejected (they are deemed unacceptable), and oddly enough, Mr. Rome refers to his avid listeners as Clones, which is something I've not been able to figure out... until recently.

Although Jim Rome might take exception to this comparison, the name Clone is somewhat similar to Rush Limbaugh's Dittoheads (Limbaugh's listeners), and although the only things Rush and Jim seem to have in common are that they're both white males with talk shows on AM radio, it seems there is a certain similarity in the monikers of their respective listeners.

Dittoheads tend to repeat and reinforce the ideas offered by Mr. Limbaugh, and, in a similar way, Clones tend to clone the jargon of Mr. Rome as well as the call styles of other successful callers, so much so that the show has an annual Smack Off program for the best Clone callers to call in and talk smack on any topic they wish (or about other Smack Off callers), and the show also has an annual Hack Off program for the worst Clone callers (the hacks) to compete with one another in similar fashion. 

No, this is not at all important to anything or to anyone, but it's something I've been trying to figure out for a while, and I think I finally have. At least I feel better now.