A year after the launch of the Air America radio network, ...

[jefferson_dem]

...progressive talk is making progress

By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff | March 31, 2005

It's morning drive time in Boston, and talk-show host Stephanie Miller is blasting away, criticizing the forces pushing to have Terri Schiavo's feeding tube restored, mocking Fox News Channel pundit Bill O'Reilly, and attacking Senator Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican. A year after the left launched a major effort to combat Rush Limbaugh and conservative dominance of the airwaves, liberal talk is taking hold here and in scores of other cities.

While the big talk stations WRKO-AM (680) and WTKK-FM (96.9) remain strongholds of conservative voices, such left-of-center hosts as Miller, Ed Schultz, Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, and Janeane Garofalo are luring listeners to what is billed as ''Boston's new progressive talk radio network."

That network consists of two ratings-challenged stations -- Framingham's WKOX-AM (1200) and Medford's WXKS-AM (1430) -- that operate with sunrise-to-sundown licenses. But the mere fact that the network exists prompts analysts to deem the embryonic experiment in liberal talk a promising, if qualified, success.

''There's obviously a niche that was not being filled, and they found that niche," said Scott Fybush, editor of the publication NorthEast Radio Watch. ''The question now is: Can they grow it?"

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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/03/31/message_received?mode=PF

[AlamoDemoc]

1. Hallelujah !!!

I say its about about darn time

[Skittles]

2. finally got it in the Dallas area March 21st

I am so happy - it's been non-stop conservative garbage on the radio in this area as long as I can remember

[El Supremo]

4. Incredible!

I lived in Dallas from 1961-1980. It just wasn't as Republican as it seems to be now.

We've had AAR since long before the election. And it is on a Clear Channel station. Why did it take so long to get into Dallas?

[LanternWaste]

8. I had no idea they're in DFW. What channel?

Crap. I had no idea they're in DFW. What channel?

[WillyT]

13. Check Here:

KXEB 910 AM

Top, Left Here: http://www.airamericaradio.com

:hi:

[nookiemonster]

3. I predict a St. Louis affiliate this year

Please..please...please...please... Here's to hoping. B-)

Congrats AA. Thanks for the stream that's a dream..LOL

[n2mark]

5. We have Air America

in the red state of Arizona, Arizona was blue for Clinton though.

[Earth_First]

6. Bravo!

Where are all the naysayers now? Oh that's right, pushing FEC reglations on the content that bloggers may and may not publish. Sounds to me like they are fearful of what a few well-connected progressive minds can accomplish.

LOOK OUT 2006!

[lavenderdiva]

7. I'm watching 'Left of the Dial' on HBO right now

about how Air America got off the ground... Its great!

[dArKeR]

9. I'm buying a Radio Shack outdoor AM antenna tomorrow so I can

pick up Portland 620 better.

I feel this review doesn't give fantastic credit to the real popularity of AA. Isn't AA still the number one highest internet tuning? It was for a long time. I'm sure of that. I heard Franken give the stats many times in their first 1/2 year. I call this a bullcrap story by Mark Jurkowitz.

[Vox_Reason]

10. THANK YOU, AAR!!

I so appreciate having an alternative to all-wingnut, all-the-time radio around here. If only the station had more juice... There's a 50kwatt AM blowtorch featuring most of the usual fascists (Limbaugh/Hannity/Boortz/local wanna-bes just 20 miles down the road.

I had pretty much had it with the lukewarm left NPR affiliate, crystal-clear on a strong FM station and missing the opportunity every day to seriously and aggressively counter the constant stream of Rovian talking points from the local AM dial.

I love NPR and donate regularly, but we needed an attack dog; we got it with AAR, where there are commentators who are just as partisan as the reich-wing fax-readers. What a relief!! Those bastards spend all day viciously attacking progressives and inciting hatred among the weak-minded, and in response NPR runs stories on basket-weavers from the pacific northwest.

AAR was LONG overdue. NOW, Mr. Soros, buy CNN and make it just as liberal as Faux is fascist!!

[Mountainman]

11. I wish they would come to the central valley of CA ! I can't get anything

on the radio when I drive to work but wingnut talk shows or idiotic morning jocks. The only alternative I have is NPR and they are right of center now.

[cascadiance]

12. Try to get KGO from the Bay Area...

... You might get it, depending on where you live. It's on 810 on the AM dial. Bernie Ward and Ray Taliafiero are pretty good to listen to late in the evenings and the rest of the crowd aren't really right wingers. Even their Libertarian in the early evenings, Gene Burns, was pretty heavily anti-war a lot during the Iraq war. Either that or do what I did since I moved away and get Sirius Satellite radio and have at lest two choices of liberal talk all of the time (Air America or Sirius Left).