Goodbye Progressive Talk in San Francisco

[michael hagerty]

I smell a rat but its painfully obvious that conservative radio has an unfair advantage by way of the big corporate ownership of stations thanks to that "liberal" Bill Clinton and the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

Bill Clinton had nothing to do with the 96 Act. Had he veto'd it, there were enough votes in both the House and Senate to override, and he would have been portrayed as a doormat.

It was bipartisan. 91 out of 100 senators voted for it. 4 abstained. Only 5 had the guts to vote no and of those, only one was Republican: John McCain.

Still, Clinton didn't just sign it, he praised it to the heavens. Text of the speech is here: http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/networks/telecom.Clinton.html

 

[TheBigA]

Still, Clinton didn't just sign it, he praised it to the heavens.

Of course he did. He had to. As I said, it passed overwhelmingly. What was he going to say?

Dick Morris was his advisor at the time, and told him to praise it, and it would be good for the administration. That story is in Dick's book.

Also, Al Gore had spent a lot of time pushing through a lot of the technology aspects of the bill. He was, as you may recall, the technology Vice President. So between Dick Morris and Al Gore, plus the reality of a veto over-ride, he had no choice.

 

[michael hagerty]

Still, Clinton didn't just sign it, he praised it to the heavens.

Of course he did. He had to. As I said, it passed overwhelmingly. What was he going to say?

Dick Morris was his advisor at the time, and told him to Xpraise it, and it would be good for the administration. That story is in Dick's book.

Also, Al Gore had spent a lot of time pushing through a lot of the technology aspects of the bill. He was, as you may recall, the technology Vice President. So between Dick Morris and Al Gore, plus the reality of a veto over-ride, he had no choice.

He could have allowed it to become law without his signature. He could have signed it without ceremony.

What he did, Dick Morris and Al Gore notwithstanding, hardly puts him in the position of "having nothing to do" with the Act.

 

[TheBigA]

What he did, Dick Morris and Al Gore notwithstanding, hardly puts him in the position of "having nothing to do" with the Act.

Read Dick's book. It might make more sense to you. When something passes Congress with this much unity, you want to associate yourself with it, even if you don't personally like it. That's politics. You kiss a lot of ugly babies with smelly diapers.

Also keep in mind that the radio aspect was not recognized as the demon it became until a couple years after the bill was signed.

 

[michael hagerty]

What he did, Dick Morris and Al Gore notwithstanding, hardly puts him in the position of "having nothing to do" with the Act.

Read Dick's book. It might make more sense to you.

I will. Which one is it? Morris has written several.

 

[TheBigA]

I will. Which one is it? Morris has written several.

The first one: Behind the Oval Office.

 

[michael hagerty]

I will. Which one is it? Morris has written several.

The first one: Behind the Oval Office.

I'll get it from the library this week. Thanks!

 

[Red78]

I couldn't call the "new" 960 as conservative with two lib talkers on there. I'm betting they'll keep them until their contracts are up and then put conservative hosts on.

 

[Red78]

The lack of a San Francisco success for progressive/liberal talk radio is completely stunning to me. For a city with, at best 20% conservative/Republican registered voters and an over-the-top liberal city government, it would seem to be a breeding ground for passionate liberal dialog.
I blame mediocre radio management and national rather than local hosts for the failure. I was intimately involved with Bay Area talk radio in the '60s (an era with similar social undercurrents) and we couldn't get arrested with any attempts at conservative radio (Pat Michaels comes to mind). And the success we had was despite the crappy 910 frequency and competition from, the very same KGO which was a just dipping a toe in the water in those days.

Considering the quality of the syndicated shows, it's not such a bad thing. On KSFO, you have a great local morning show, then Rush, Sean and Mark Levin the rest of the day. John Batchelor is their weak link then Laura Ingram until Coast to Coast is on. Weekends is a different story. I could really do without the infomercials.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Rachel Maddow is terrific on television..not so much on radio

I never heard Rachel when she was on the radio.

Now that she has been on TV and doing a good job of it, has she "matured".... "grown" in her ability to communicate and entertain? If she returned to radio today, would she do a better job than the earlier effort, or is she a person who does not translate well to radio?

I live near Boston, and the New York City station that carried her show during the AirAmerica days, WLIB-AM 1190 was that rarity: an AM station with MORE power at night AND a directional pattern aimed at my house. I listened to her early-in-the-morning show while eating breakfast and she was GREAT! Now I love her opening monlog on MSNBC, some of the best opinionating on TV!

 

[marshallstax]

The other progressive talk shows now heard on 960, Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller, etc., will move to an HD channel of KKSF-FM 103.7, so for the handful of people with HD radios, liberal talk is not gone completely. And 910 will be relaunched as yet another Conservative Talk station, to be called KKSF-AM.

Gregg
[email protected]

Checking 103.7 HD2 this morning for Stephanie Miller... nope: "Sunny" (soft hits of the 60's 70's & 80's) No HD3 either and no Stephanie Miller.

Plan B is working - WDTW 1310AM, Detroit, (through iHeart Radio) carries her live... cumbersome, but it works. There are at least two other stations on iHeart that carry her show live.

BTW: Glenn Beck's guest this morning was Rick "Don't Google me!" Santorum... yeah! Checked that on my way to a computer and WDTW!

 

[marshallstax]

Maybe a better online choice: 880 The Revolution, Asheville's Progressive Talk - they play music during the breaks, instead of the usual PSA's...

 

[raccoonradio]

Laurence: I'd think this time of yr the 1600 in NYC might come in well for you, as would the Buffalo
prog talker (owned by the same people who pay Howie Carr!) at 1520.

Burl VT...cradle of liberalism. Air America flopped there, too, and the station that had it at 1070
is now Bloomburg News Radio. Who is John Galt...? (In Ben-and-Jerry-ville!)

 

[raccoonradio]

News Talk 910 has Colmes--who may be considered as not a full liberal by the left but he's not really conservative. Syndicated by CC/Premiere. Burns (hope he gets better) has swerved to the left a bit.

KNEW 960's lineup boasts the likes of Randi Rhodes, Nor-man Gold-man, Steph Miller, Bill Press,
Thom Hartmann, Mike Malloy (or are they going away?) Sounds lefty to me (though they do have
Beck, who seems to have lost his mojo lately)

 

[Mike Schwartz]

I think part of it too is that it could be viable, but most progresive talk stations are an afterthought in most station clusters, and get little to no promotion. When CC started rolling out lib talk nationwide, weren't most of those station PD's already programming right wing talkers? I remember reading that at CC San Diego, account execs were actully telling clients not to buy spots on KLSD 1360

They never had to be told formally, it was simply the economics of the situation that dictated ad buys. The average age of the sales reps for these clusters was usually in the 20s and therefore they were out of the demo for both formats (Conserv and Prog Talk). Whether they personally cared for Prog talk or not was never the issue, but when you get an average 10 % commision on ad buys of a $500 spot for Rush versus a $50 spot for Al Franken in 2004, which one would YOU be pushing with your clients.