Clear Channel is Destroying Liberal Talk Radio

[Indyfan53]

San Francisco and many other cities are losing their progressive talk radio stations as Clear Channel, owned by Mitt Romney's Bain Capital, replaces them with right-wing radio.

Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and other fascists are infecting more of our air waves with corporate propaganda.

http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5415%3Aclear-channel-to-replace-san-franciscos-only-am-progressive-talk-station-with-glenn-beck-and-fox

I suggest boycotting the advertisers of the right-wing stations.

[brooklynite]

1. Is there a Liberal talk Radio to destroy?

Yes, I know Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller and (I think) Randi Rhodes are still broadcasting, but it's possible that the macro issue is that liberals don't spend their day listening to endless talk radio broadcasts, and the market just isn't there, even in a place like San Francisco.

[lake loon]

2. The issue is corporate propaganda

This is not being done because there are no liberal hosts or listeners or advertisers. This is a planned Goebbels-like maneuver to snuff out dissent. Nothing else.

[Enthusiast]

12. + A shit load!

[RKP5637]

26. Exactly, it is the brainwashing of information limited Americans, and it is contagious. It is

destructive to the future of this country.

[lastlib]

50. VERY good point!!

(Welcome to DU! )

[merrily]

53. There is way more RW broadcasting than liberal broadcasting. Always has been.

[lostincalifornia]

7. The market is there in San Francisco. There is no way that the bulk of the San Francisco populous

listens to the right wing radio all day.

They had a station, KGO, which was not progressive by any means, but did at least make an effort to present some liberal, some moderate, and some conservative views. They are worthless now. In 2011 Citadel Broadcasting sold both KGO and KSFO to its rival Cumulus Media, which already owned four other stations in the markets. How is that Telecommunications Act of 1996 working out?

There ratings have fallen since then:

http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/KGO-Radio-reshuffles-as-ratings-decline-4356439.php

"Citadel was acquired by Cumulus Media, the nation's second-biggest radio station operator, in 2011. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cumulus oversaw the shift to an "all-news" format, resulting in the departure of a number of popular Bay Area radio personalities.

Listener displeasure, which was loud at the time, washed over into the ratings. The No. 1 station in the Bay Area for 27 years, KGO was overtaken by all-news KCBS-AM in 2010, a slide that has gathered momentum since.

KGO slumped to 16th in the Bay Area with a 2.6 audience share, according to an Arbitron survey of listeners 12 years and older published in January. It now rates a decidedly negative 1.5 stars on Yelp."


Here is a sampling of just what think about talk radio in SF:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kgo-news-talk-radio-am-810-san-francisco

[antiquie]

10. Some of us old people

used to listen as we shuffle through our day when Thom, etc. were available over-the-air.

[lillypaddle]

73. Thom is still available

over the air. Listening to him right now. So is Ed, Stephanie, Bill Press, Norman Goldman, etc.

http://chicagoprogressivetalk.com/

[antiquie]

74. I listened to am radio previously.

I am not at my computer long enough to listen streaming. Thank you.

[AtheistCrusader]

30. Who the hell listens to a radio at ALL.

[Inkfreak]

42. Yup! It's less & less relevant.

I don't believe it'll ever die out. It's free & still an effective way to disseminate info. But with digital media advancing so fast & the multitude of choices...who wants to listen to 5 minutes of radio and those endless commercial breaks?

I honestly never listen to FM. And AM in my area is all right leaning programming. So it's podcasts & satellite radio for me.

[madinmaryland]

46. I listen to NPR, and occasionally sports talk radio. That's about it.

[lastlib]

51. "Dumbbell People In A Barbell World"......

The (admittedly still sizable) portion of the population that still hasn't adapted to the Internet world, and which may never adapt before they fade away. They tend to be low-information, technophobic folks who just don't grasp the fact that the world that they knew isn't coming back.

OTOH, I still listen to a radio in the car simply so I don't have to bring along CDs. (I'm one who has never seized the iPod trend--just been to cheap to shell out the $$.......)

[merrily]

54. True, but that's not the point.

[Sirveri]

56. I listen to radio quite often while in the car.

targeted on demand audio entertainment is going to erode radio market share however. That said, I still listen to several music only radio stations. The news and talk radio have been reduced to ashes with the loss of KGO however, I used to leave them on as my preset for my commute. Now it's random 80's music, if I tune into them it's for a traffic report, but that's rare, maybe three or four times a year.

[mac56]

68. I work in radio.

Too bad you don't listen.

[AtheistCrusader]

69. I'd be looking for new work.

What does radio offer that I can't get from the web? Podcasts, net casts, digital means of all sorts.

I suspect even Sirius/XM are going to taper off, given the ubiquitous access to cell data these days. Who wants to buy another device and add a subscription to get what your cell phone gets for less/free? And many cars these days interface with your phone right out of the shipping crate.
I can tune into any digital station anywhere, regardless of market or content, using web services like iHeartRadio, metroradio, etc.

I don't have to listen to as much advertising. I don't have to fiddle with tuning. Fidelity is generally better, depending on distance to transmitter. Etc.

Broadcast radio/TV are going the way of the newspaper.

I do hope you have options to keep ahead of the shift in media. Someday, that shift will be total.

(Someday, my industry is going to 'move on' as well, and I need to plan for that as well.)

[mac56]

70. Your concern is noted.

[AtheistCrusader]

71. Why is it 'too bad I don't listen'?

Out of curiosity?

If I get the content I am seeking, what does the medium matter?

[mrgorth]

75. Because

It's how he makes a living?

[AtheistCrusader]

76. There are other ways to make a living off it.

I guess that did sound a bit crass, but every sector of the market is subject to it, including my own. In fact, as a support pro, my job is essentially to put myself out of a job.

[lillypaddle]

72. I do

Stream WCPT Chicago progressive talk on my computer at work and at home.

[merrily]

52. Very little. Think why.

[dionysus]

60. i *always* listened to liberal talk radio when driving. now it's gone in my area :(

[grahamhgreen]

64. Thom Hartmann gets better numbers than rush. nt

[TexasProgresive]

3. Something occurred to me about "clear channel"

In the days when AM radio was king of the road there were "clear channel" stations that transmitted at 50,000 watts day and night. Other stations had to reduce power at night to prevent interference with the "clear channels"

It always bothered me that a company could co-opt the name clear channel but they were just extending the clear channel concept to the whole nation. One message broadcasted throughout the whole nation.

Well their message sucks and they should, "eat shit and die!"

I seldom listen to radio anymore. Tried Sirius when they had Air America and other progressive stations but they dumped a lot of that and what they called progressive or left was mostly offensive and the straw that broke the camel's back was Patriot radio as if only right wingnuts are the only patriots. FUCK 'em.

[lostincalifornia]

5. Sounds like the same transition you took I did also. AM radio sucks today, and I won't spend the

extra for satellite radio because it has slowly proceeded down the same road, and the music I can get from Pandora or my portable music players is just fine for me.

[CincyDem]

6. I think that's how they got their name

I think the story goes like this...

ClearChannel started as some other small local radio group in San Antonio with a different name and they owned one of those 50k mega stations. They bought JayCor here in Cincinnati which owned WLW (another clear channel) and then, almost the next day, bought the clear channel in Atlanta.

They started snarfing them up and the name was born. I'm not sure the value of these power stations is as valuable as it was 30 years ago but I know you can get WLW in 38 states at night as far west as the rockies and up into Maine.

[TexasProgresive]

14. Thanks for the lesson

I never knew- but being a technician who worked with 2 way radio, radar and nav systems I was offended that some company took a term and used it as their name. At the time I did not twig to their politics.

Back in the day, I listened to talk radio out of Houston, Dallas and Austin. It was a mix of local personalities covering a fairly broad spectrum of opinions. I remember when one of them dumped one of the locals to air Limburger (well he certainly smells enough to be limberer). I was stunned- who was this idiot who called women feminazis and could say nothing bad about republicans and nothing good about democrats. It was a dark day for democracy.

[CincyDem]

24. They are one screwed up company

They're not just killing progressive talk. They're killing radio. In a time when everything is moving to more personalization, they're moving to more centralized programming. It's killing the local talent pool.

When I think of things the world would be better off without, ClearChannel ranks right up there with bubonic plague.

[thatgemguy]

36. Amen Brother!!!

I'm a former Clear Channel Employee, they never should have been allowed to get as big as they are. They have ruined radio!

[AtheistCrusader]

31. Does the average american even know that they change power output depending on

the time of day/atmospheric conditions?

[lostincalifornia]

4. There is very little progressive talk radio in San Francisco today. This only demonstrates exactly

how the right wing has taken over the airwaves. How can one of the most progressives cities in the country not even have a 24/7 progressive radio station?

You would think there would be at least one that was representative of the community

In general, except for music, I do not listen to free "talk radio" today. It pollutes the airwaves, and over 90% is right wing hate.

I listen to mostly music now. Much better for ones well-being

[randr]

8. Amy Goodman-Democracy NOW-Weekday mornings on many public stations

Our local Community station- www.kvnf.org -broadcasts Amy at 3pm each day. We are an NPR and a Pacifica Network broadcasting station with dozens of volunteer DJ,s with a broad knowledge of many music genres, from swing to electronica.
We cover a large area in Western Colorado, Eastern Utah, as well as streaming live on the web.
Liberal/Progressive radio is out there; you just need to look for it and support it.

[lostincalifornia]

34. True, and you can find some "mostly" progressive talk with glen beck interspersed for variety, and

that is my problem. The progressive really need a full progressive radio voice, something like DU, only having a radio station as the medium

[whathehell]

11. This sounds so strange to an old San Francisco hippie from back in the day..I know things have

changed a lot, of course, but I still thought of San Francisco as one of the most liberal cities in the country.

Who do you imagine will make up the audience for what I understand will now be FOUR right wing talk radio

shows there now?


l

[lostincalifornia]

35. San Francisco still is one of the most liberal cities in the country. My view is they do not have

enough representative media outlets to exclusively represent that view.

[Botany]

9. In Columbus, OH a clear channel station with a crappy signal was pulling in ...

.... good numbers and Steph Miller's morning show double then tripled the
ratings in that time slot ..... Clear Channel pulled the plug right after the
2006 elections when the democrats got back into power. We then had a
short run with progressive radio again but an all catholic network bought
the license and killed off liberal talk again.

Just wait until Clear Channel kills off "the mic" in Madison, WI.
The streaming on the web is good, sirius and phone apps are nice too
but nothing beats turning on your car or home radio and hearing some
nice liberal talk but the PTB know that the right wing lies on work in
an echo chamber and so progressive talk is set for being killed off.

Look @ basic cable and you have show after show for and about dumb
fucks that have a right wing slant ... even though we are the majority
you would think 80% of America wants to watch "Cletus" get his truck stuck
in the mud and then he can't get to work @ the gun shop.

[snot]

13. This is the result of our gov's actions to allow ever-greater ownership consolidation in the media.

While I applaud any helpful effort, trying to influence particular corporations to punish other corporations does not strike me as a winning strategy over the long haul.

We need to elevate media reform to a national campaign issue.

[strikeforce]

15. flush rush

seems to be putting a significant dent in rushes advertisers $ income.
flushrush is on facebook.maybe someone else has a similar movement going on.

[Miss_Underestimated]

16. Henry Waxman's aide says Waxman won't do anything about it due to 1st amendment

I was rebuffed upon complaining to my congressman -- his aide told me that nothing could be done about the Clear channel pulling progressive talk shows off the air -- that it was a free speech issue.

[OriginalGeek]

17. Orlando used to have liberal talk radio

Clive Thomas was a good one. The station went from AM to FM and at some point was bought by Clear Channel. There were still some good shows on the station but they have all steadily declined in content, quality and personalities. I mostly listen to CDs in the car now. And some NPR.

Maybe it's me - I can't tell if their schtick is no longer funny or if it's the same stuff and I just no longer find it funny. And I haven't heard a good Ed Tyll style rant in probably 15 years. I don't know if it was just for ratings or if he really believed it but Ed Tyll is the guy who convinced me to be 100% against the death penalty. I was already leaning that way but still held revenge thoughts for particularly heinous crimes and he made a persuasive argument on his show one day for letting that go.

I don't know if anyone on the air here today would agree. I stopped listening to them.

[diane in sf]

18. There's still Pacifica, but they only cover around 25% of the US.

[brooklynite]

55. ...and the New York Pacifica station had to essentially shut down because of lack of funding...

[adavid]

19. Far right wing...

radio that is owned by a far right corporation, is force-feeding their programming all over the country. So much for the "free market" to decide what people want. You see how that works. The far right has invested millions in media, while the left has not, unfortunately.
That is why I am such a fan of Robert Parry (Consortium News)

[ctsnowman]

20. I quit AM and FM

Even the damn DJs on music stations will offer their RW talking points between songs. The is true blue CT for goodness sake! Books on CD feed my mind better anyway.

Peace.

[Dustlawyer]

21. This move is clearly about thought control. THE FCC IS A WHOLEY OWNED SUBSIDIARY

of the right! It needs to be gutted, the major media conglomerates need to be busted up. This is ridiculous!

[Cleita]

23. This is what needs to be done.

Supposedly the airwaves are owned by the people. It's time to take them back.

[pscot]

33. And corporations are people

therefore clearchannel is a person. It all begins and ends with The Supremes.

[Cleita]

40. Yes and we need to end monopolies. Where I live there are two

corporations that own all the radio stations and one of them is a subsidiary Premier Broadcasting which is part of Clear channel. I think we should be able to insist somehow that they only own one station in an area. So that would open the rest of the stations up for individual ownership, so this is also a matter of monopolies. Even if we can't get around the personhood thing, we can end monopolies. I think there are still some laws on the books that aren't being enforced. Frankly, we need to look into all these markets locally and see where we get by connecting the dots.

[pscot]

47. Bill Clinton owns that

The 1996 Communications Act opened the door and the monopolists wasted no time taking advantage. There's no way Clinton didn't understand what would happen when he signed away control of the broadcast airwaves. Just one more reason I will never vote for another Clinton.

[Cleita]

48. Me too, which is why I'm very cool about Hillary.

Not saying I won't vote for her if she's all that's left but I really will work to get someone else there first.

[Cleita]

22. I know. They started in the smaller markets and are now

hitting the major ones. It's been done in many other states, red states and now they are taking over the blue states.

[Heather MC]

25. Is clear channel a new nickname for "Whites Only"?

[albino65]

27. I agree with boycotting

However, it needs to be done by a large number of people, communicating to the advertisers the reason for the boycott. We already have good reasons to boycott Walmart and McDonald's. The left needs a boycott wing to co-ordinate the pressure on these companies. There are more of us than there are the R/W'ers. Vote with your wallet.

[kydo]

28. Clear Channel is destroying ALL radio.

They own almost all radio stations period and what they don't own cbs does. Even when just listening to tunes they always push the fundie points in the news,

[bobclark86]

29. Radio?

People still listen to radio? Does anyone under the age of 50 even know what AM ardio is?

I mean, I'll listen to Click and Clack on NPR every now and then, but that's about it. I bought an HD tuner to say I tried an HD tuner (the only HD station around here is the Rush/Alex FM "news" station, but I can almost taste the vitriol!), and I cannot say it was the worst $20 I ever spent. Mostly because I've blown $20 in far dumber ways.

[LTR]

32. This article is two years old!

But it is timely again due to the fact that CC is blowing up KTLK in LA come January. CC is moving Limbaugh and the rest of the syndicated talk off KFI and on to 1150AM. KFI, which has been losing money and ratings, will likely become more local, in an effort to maintain their cash cow status,which has taken a hit with the boycotts.

They're doing something similar with their San Francisco stations, turning KKSF into a local talker to attract abandoned KGO listeners. Again, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc., are being ghettoized on the weaker sister station (KNEW).

The downside is the loss of progressive talk in LA. The silver lining is that CC is acknowledging the growing irrelevance of Limbaugh, etc., and are moving them to weaker, more obscure signals. This further proves that AM radio is rapidly becoming even more of a vast wasteland.

So the wingnuts dominate a dying broadcast band that fewer and fewer people are listening to.Big deal - we liberals run Hollywood! And that can be even more influential.

Right now, AM radio is just giving these loudmouth circus geeks enough rope to hang themselves. Eventually, people will tire of the nastiness and hate.These programming moves show that it's already starting to happen.

[Hulk]

37. You might wonder why teabaggers are so blatantly ignorant...?

..and THIS is the MAIN REASON!

Portland Oregon lost their progressive network, KPOJ, more than a year ago. Clear Channel switched to a sports format the we didn't need, and HAS to be losing money. That's not the issue. We already had two other sports channels, and I'll admit some folks like to listen to that nonsense, but no more than like to listen to Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Mike Malloy, etc. We had, and still have local talent that broadcast in the morning hours, before I drag my lazy butt out of bed.

Just FYI.....drove across the USA half a dozen times from west to east and back, from north to south and back several times; and you'd be nauseated by the radio you find on the highway and the TV in the hotel/motels. fox on EVERY line-up. MSNBC in maybe 5% of the line-ups.

Sometime 4 or 5 stations AT ONCE with rush and sean blathering their garbage, or a dozen or more stations with religious fruitcakes spewing their hate and distortions. Any progressive radio about? NOT! Only in a few major cities, and that's it. Not even NPR.

I'm telling you, this nation is kept in the dark and pumped as much BS and propaganda as we can. No opposing views or even straight talk. It's ALL right wing and religious crap.

In my opinion, THIS is why the rural areas are so red, and the fight is so futile with teabaggers in a discussion. They have all the propaganda they can lap up, and what your or I might present is repulsive for them to even listen to.

[lordsummerisle]

57. wow

what a downer post...thanks for the reality check though...

[kenichol]

38. Non-corporate owned talk radio

Non-corporate owned talk radio are few and far between. There is Free Speech TV and Link TV on satellite. Both are viewer funded and uncensored. Worth the money.

[caballojm]

39. Clear Channel is toast.

Their debt is unsustainable. The only way for them to survive would be through some impossibly gigantic resurgence of interest in AM radio. To make matters worse (for CC), car makers are saying they're going to stop installing AM/FM radios in new cars within the next couple of years. While I hate to see the workers at the stations lose their jobs, I'll be happy to see CC go the way of the dinosaur. Good riddance to bad trash!

[link:http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/113178/2016-looms-large-for-clear-channel-s-10-billion-de|

[dougolat]

41. The sterilization of the airwaves continues....

Just the way we cringe upon hearing Rush or his imitators, the RW react to a rabble-rouser like Mike Malloy, or the diligent Randi Rhodes, or the educational Thom Hartmann,or the irreverent Stephanie Miller, or the most well-spoken of them all, Peter B Collins, or anybody else.
But, like Howard Hughes, who could buy a restaurant to fire an annoying employee, they have the means to muzzle - and they use it.
When they can't buy-out the irritant they can block the signal, such as LA's KPFK being lost to Orange County and San Diego by the Mexican classical music station.
On the battle-ground of ideas, one side is handicapping the opposition, buying the refs, adjusting the lines, and tweaking the rules.
This IS a Big Deal ! The public airwaves have become the "Bloody Money Bullhorn!"

[zappaman]

43. I think they destroyed it quite some time ago.

LA has nothing even remotely progressive on the air...

[NBachers]

44. I listen to San Francisco's KNEW liberal broadcasting- a great lineup. It's going away in January

I think the liberal cleansing of radio that's happening now is in preparation for the 2014 and 2016 election seasons.

[blkmusclmachine]

45. ,

,

[Doctor_J]

49. they don't care about boycotts

boycotts accomplish nothing, and this post might have been news 15 years ago

[lordsummerisle]

58. Liberal talk radio

it's practically an oxymoron. Unfortunately, talk radio is 90% right-wing and that will probably never change much. If Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and LA have lost progressive talk programming than there is little hope left for it, I would think. On the bright side it seems that fewer and fewer folks are listening to AM radio...

[CFLDem]

59. Liberal talk radio destroys itself.

Way too serious and sanctimonious all the time to be entertaining.

Now if more liberal talk radio hosts learned to be like Bill Maher or George Carlin, it might actually have a chance.

[dionysus]

61. uh, ever listend to the stephanie miller show? now there's some uptight folks...

[snowshadow]

62. Clear Channel is not the only station in Town

There's no doubt that Clear Channel pushes their RW agenda. Living in the Albany NY area, there must be at least 6 stations that are owned by this conglomerate. Being 66 yrs., old my wife and I listen to WRPI in the morning hosted by a guy approximately my age who happens to be left of central, very refreshing. He turns his audience on to different programs on line, Democracy Now, the Progressive Radio Network and others. His name is Hair Man Do, smart man and he does the show for free 6 days a week.

[madrchsod]

63. chicago has an am and three fm frequency liberal talk radio.

the owner has liberal radio then late night the owner switches to club dance music. on the weekends they have football games on sunday. the three fm frequencies cover the entire chicago region out to 100 miles. the owner also streams all the programing.

it`s all about the money

[UCmeNdc]

65. Clear Channel is a propaganda apparatus

Buy up all of the media markets and own the airwaves.

[RBInMaine]

66. Rich liberals and liberals in general refuse to INVEST in their own radio network.

[davidpdx]

67. I posted a thread about this in both GD and V&M

Ben Wikler The Good Fight

http://thegoodfight.fm/episodes/4-fast-food-strike-mcquiz-the-ballad-of-healthcare-gov?ref=mo

[c588415]

77. SIriusXM: channel 127...all Liberal Talk Radio

I listen to Steph Miller's show on my way to work, and it would be fantastic if the station were to find a spot Randi Rhodes.