the most popular talk station in seattle

What's the most popular talk station in Seattle?  No, it's not KIRO. Forget pip-squeaks like KVI and KTTH or Air America. It's none of those screaming, hypermanic AM talkers with their cranky conservatives, drive-by debate, chug-a-lug politics and wham-bam-thank-you-sir prurient interests.

It's the gentle, measured, cerebral (someone would say boring)  KUOW-FM (94.9) the Seattle talk format NPR affiliate.

Arbitron doesn't include public non-commercial stations in the 12+ numbers it releases--they're listed separately by the Radio Research Consortium.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer's Bill Virgin, whose weekly "Radio Beat" column is the only regularly reported MSM radio news we have in this town, put together both lists and found that not only was KUOW the highest rated talk station, it was the #2 in the whole market (second only to the mighty country music format KMPS).

This has always been common knowledge in the radio business around here, but Virgin does a good job of crunching and integrating the numbers and documenting it for us lay folk.

KUOW isn't the only non-commercial station to register in the combined overall rankings. KPLU-FM (88.5), along with Port Angeles outlet KVIX-FM (89.3), finishes in a tie at 16th on the adjusted rankings, while KEXP-FM (90.3) places 27th. Also registering on the list are Bellevue Community College's KBCS-FM (91.3) and Clover Park Technical College's KVTI-FM (90.9).

Yes, Seattle is different. Virgin writes that public radio does well in certain markets, like San Francisco, and Minneapolis -St. Paul and college town markets like Raleigh-Durham. He says "...KUOW's ranking has to be one of the highest in the country."

(A little disclosure: we love NPR here at BlatherWatch and have had many commentaries on the national "All things Considered" and have appeared many times on KUOW).

One of the reasons that right-wing talk has become so powerful in the Northwest, is that so many of us liberals are escaping the crassness of the commercial-strewn AM stations and tuning in to the nuanced and intellectually satisfying NPR.

Meanwhile many other folks, apolitical or non-aligned, and trapped in their cars, have become politicized by the repetitive drumbeat of conservative talk. While we're getting the finer points, others are having partisan polemic literally pounded daily into their brains at the cellular level.

It's a big problem for Air America or other liberal AM talk. The commercials, the tone of voice, and unmitigated bias of AM talk is a turn-off to the on-the-other-hand crowd.

Nuance is cool intellectually but Sean Hannity, Kirby Wilbur, John Carlson, Rush Limbaugh, et al, not only deliver punchy intense entertainment, but also turn listeners into passionate partisans. They have perfected- written the book on- making political rhetoric a popular entertainment medium.

NPR doesn't try to do that, but while they get big numbers in Seattle, their listeners are kept naive about the reality of local partisan politics.

~~They have, through salacious repetition, helped poison the minds of people against politicians, government and government process. While skepticism about government is good, the total distrust is unwarranted and problematic to the Republic.      

~~The extreme anti-tax I-912 was conceived by two talk hosts who used their shows to accomplish the amazing feat of getting it on the ballot in record time. It took a huge effort and millions of dollars to defeat the regressive measure.

~~Tim Eyman and his monkey-wrenching tax revolt initiatives would be nowhere without Seattle talk radio. Neither would the anti-affirmative I-200. Or the one-size-fits-all justice of "3-Strikes You're Out."

~~The attempt to unseat Christine Gregoire, though a failure in court, was a tremendous political success for Republicans. They succeeded, through talk radio, and triangulation with blogs, in convincing citizens that a) the King County Elections Dep't committed fraud and b) that Christine Gregoire had something to do with it. They put her numbers in the tank, a place from which she is only now recovering.

During all of this, we progressives in Seattle were listening to KUOW, considering all things and were amazed when the fruits of the talk radio conservative activists fell from the tree.

Who needs to address this is the Democratic Party, who incredibly blows off AM talk radio. They should, like the Republicans, recruit and groom young people to get into broadcasting; and take the medium seriously- they're getting their ass-kicked. The talk radio audience are, for the most part, the swing voters--they can be won over

This is our favorite rant, we'll stop now. Here are some interesting factoids about KUOW from Virgin's piece:

So what are people listening to when they tune in to KUOW? The most listened-to hour of the week, according to program director Jeff Hansen, is the nationally syndicated "Car Talk" at 9 a.m. Saturdays.

That's followed by the 7-8 a.m. weekday hour of "Morning Edition," "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me" at 10 a.m. Saturday, the 8-9 a.m. segment of "Morning Edition," "This American Life" at 11 a.m. Saturday, the 6-7 a.m. segment of "Morning Edition," the 8-9 a.m. segment of "Weekend Edition" on Saturdays, the Sunday rebroadcast of "Prairie Home Companion" (it actually outdraws the Saturday broadcast) and the 5-6 p.m. segment of "All Things Considered."

Comments

[Scrilla]

Well. With all due respect to Bill, I used to work in the Portland (PDX) market AND the Bay Area. Nothing, and I mean nothing touches the impact that KOPB (TV and Radio) has on the PDX market.
I had Ken Burns in studio prior to "Lewis and Clark" and you'da thought The Beatles had reunited by the crowd in the parking lot. Think of it! KEN BURNS groupies!
Only in PDX.
Their friggin pledge drives are about 2 hours long, ONCE a year.

[chris]

I agree that KUOW has a good format in that it dosen't go into the full-fledged NPR programming after 9 am during it's weekday programming. I like the morning show with Steve Shere (sp) along with the Conversation at 1p and the World at 3. They seem to shuffle their programming occasionally when certain shows become lackluster like Talk of The Nation was when Ray Saurez moved to PBS. Unfortunately, they or NPR dropped The Tavis Smiley Show when his program ran contrary to then CPB president Ken Tomillson's conservative agenda. He is now on in the evenings again with a different syndication. I still tend to flip the dial as Stephanie Miller and then Thom Hartmann and DemocracyNow! vie for my attention as well. KUOW's weekend programming dosent hold much sway for me as I tend not to listen to talk radio and instead music and satire.

[Andrew]

Why is it that during the begathons they have people asking for money you've never heard before and then never heat until the next begathon? Are they professional guilt trip artsists that hop from station to station to do the begging for them? Do they get payed well do something so demoralizing?

[blathering michael]

We hate the begathons, but aren't they a fair trade-off for the multious, loud, obnoxious, repetitive Bad Breath Bible, vinyl siding and Gutter Helmut spots more'n likely read by Dori Monson? I think so.
I really love NPR on the weekends- especially Saturdays when AM sucks so bad...

[Scrilla]

But...NPRites are insufferable as peers owing to their "martyr for radio" attitude. They canter their high horses all over Seattle/Portland, until they need a new gig. Then, suddenly, they embrace commercial radio. There are 6 minutes of commercials per hour of NPR national programming. Call it whatever you like, it's a paid message.
Brought to you by TIAA/Cref

[Trip]

I'd much rather hear a short spot about underwriting by TIAA/Cref than "GutterHelmet" which sounds like the kind of item kept behind the counter at Toys in Babeland.

The Splendid Table vs. Savage Weiner? No contest.

[Andrew]

As liberals, does anyone think KUOW is particularily liberal? The only thing about it that seems liberal to me is that they sometimes seem to make a point to report on topics that are unfavorable to Republicans such as stories from wounded soldiers or Bush's sagging poll numbers, and when they do these reports they seem to be out of the blue. No context, they're just there.

It's easy to see how conservatives, who expect news to be filtered in accordance with their own values, could consider that liberal.

[sparky]

My thought exactly, Andrew. I, like, chris, like the shows like "Wait Wait dont tell me" and "Car Talk" and " Prairie Home Companion " which are rarely political. I found, especially around election time last year, that NPR's coverage was no different than other MSM broadcasts and it was often " Bush Apologist" in tone. So all these posters on this blog who say that they go to NPR for their dose of " liberal " news, baffle me.