operation 'Bring Air America Radio to St. Louis'

[codegreen]

you know we need it here. our economy is crap,
our airwaves are full of willful ignorance and hate,
and we're a fairly high electoral vote swing state.

we need AirAmerica in St. Louis!
(and Kansas City and elsewhere in MO of course, but StL is probably the best initial priority)

so, how shall we do it?
gather money to build or buy a radio station?
petition local stations to sell out?
what can we do?

this is the planning thread for Operation: Bring Air America Radio to St. Louis, or BAART STL, or whatever

[w13rd0]

1. Fellow Saint Louisian here...

...I second thy call.

[nickinSTL]

2. aar

I agree too.

What can we do to bring it here?

[jay-3d]

3. i don't have cable

i can't go to cnn.com ?

[jay-3d]

4. sorry wrong thread

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Use the internet or get a Sirius receiver

http://www.airamericaradio.com
http://www.sirius.com

[nickinSTL]

6. aar

I can listen to it online at work.

But, I think we should have a station.

[codegreen]

7. no no, i mean getting it on the air here, for everyone.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. Get a petition, and get in touch with AAR

They have to buy or lease a station.
It has to make financial sense for them (advertising revenue).

Oh, Dish and XM carries them too

[codegreen]

9. will get in touch with AAR

[ikojo]

11. Hopefully you will get a response soon...

Ani DeFranco is going to be at the Pageant in St Louis on May 6. That would be a good place to gauge support for an Air America station in St Louis. Also canvas the loop. Of course most people will not know what Air America is because most people are not political junkies.

[Roy]

22. I have looked for AAR on Dish (sirius)

But all my Sirius stations are music.
What channel do you pick it up on?

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. It's on channel 144

on Sirius. I listen to it every day.

AAR rocks!!!

:bounce:

[ikojo]

10. Well, since it seems like the people running Air America

either buy stations outright or purchase air time we need to concentrate on stations in the area who could use the money (from a sale) or the ratings...

We could send letters to various station managers (forget KMOX or KTRS because they are doing well, I think). I'd concentrate on the smaller stations. 104.1 FM seems to go through a format change fairly often, but I think it's owned by the evil empire (clear channel).

Hmmm....

I live in U City..any U City folks here?

[Solon]

12. I LOVE U City!!!

Too bad I had to move back to St. Charles, oh well. Lived off of Olive, right next to Olivette, barely a couple of hundred feet into the city, but I love the Loop. Mother was born and raised there, my grandmother wrote "The History of University City", unfortunately she's a repuke now. At least Mom is liberal. Grandmother wants me to help her update the history, but we haven't got around to doing it yet. Loved the restaurants especially the Vietnam Star, didn't know what I ordered but it was good. :) Loved the variety of people there, unlike (mostly) whitewashed St. Charles.

[nickinSTL]

13. Clear Channel

I won't disagree with the 'evil empire':P but AAR is being carried on Clear Channel stations in other markets.

Apparently, they realize there's a market, even if they might not like the content much.

[DUJunkie]

14. Higginsville here,

I would love to hear free speech radio in my blue state.

[Syn_Dem]

15. Ladue High School!!

My YD club is actively canvassing in the Loop among other places.

[nickinSTL]

16. What's up with the idea of bringing AAR to St. Louis?

Any progress?

Anything we could do to help?

Anyone seen the billboard on 40 near Grand? (just west) 97.1 FM Talk. Is it new? Or have I just not known?

They run both O'Reilly and Hannity (along with a few others I've heard of, Glenn Beck? Tony Snow?)

Be nice to have AAR to counter the rw crap.

[RazzleCat]

17. AAR in St. Louis

The best bet would be to find an AM station for them, say one that has the signal, but due to technical difficulties (say need repeaters, new tower (or new tower location), new transmitter) Best Bet, station located in Illinois that can send over. Here is a list of stations in the area link http://www.stlmedia.net/ remember AM is no longer music, all talk, so think AM, next think one that is in trouble (or small town with strength).

[RazzleCat]

18. more on AAR in St. Louis

I don't know the structure of AAR, however in most radio stations they (the station owner) will purchase programming from the supplier. In turn the supplier gives the local station time within the program to sell advertising in. As a second note, some suppliers will also equip the station, (satellite's, land lines et al), some do not. Now if AAR is standard (as noted above) then what we need to do is find a station that believes it can turn a profit on the advertising it can sell. So what needs to be done is to create some sort a demographic profile of the average AAR listener. This would have to include their income level, age, and sex. If the numbers look good then a station will buy it. Its simple if the radio station can sell the time (with ease and at a good profit) then they will purchase the program.
Now remember we are a Conservative area, so don't think grand scale, think once again, struggling AM station that needs to do something to continue to compete.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Get a satellite radio

It's awesome. Air American is channel 144 on Sirius.:toast:

[nickinSTL]

20. I listen at work over the internet

But money's really tight due to the Bush economy, so extra money for satellite radio isn't going to happen

I'd really like to have it available on the airwaves...

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. Me too

but the satellite radios aren't that expensive.

And the service from Sirius is only $13 a month.

It is worth every penny to get to listen to Al Franken and Randi Rhodes - she really rocks.

:bounce:

[nickinSTL]

24. has anyone looked into this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1936537&mesg_id=1936916

"Read up on that group of people who

Got clear channel to switch an underperforming station to AAR....you can do this in your market. They researched the arbitrons and got 1000 signatures and Clear Channel switched it to AAR."

[scratchtasia]

25. The Air America Recipe

Here's a helpful Daily Kos post you should look at:

The Air America Recipe: Bring progressive Air America Radio to your community

It's being worked on for Kansas City. Let's get it on both ends of the state!

[pstokely]

26. all over the state, not just in the cities

[scratchtasia]

27. Well, yeah . . .

Absolutely, but I think it'll be a while before it's seen as viable in the more rural areas.

[scratchtasia]

28. ProgressiveTalk.org

I just realized how old the original post here was. Someone was digging around! Regardless, I also just stumbled across this effort to bring progressive talk radio to St. Louis. Those of you on that side of the state may want to check it out, if you haven't already.

http://www.progressivetalk.org/