kkan kkol kkick ass?

It's historic- a heritage radio station started in the 1920's and one of Seattle's earliest. Known proudly for years as KOL (1300kHz), Lan Roberts and Rubber Doe Smith spun the platters and made the jokes in the '60's and 70's). Over the decades, it's been nearly every format you can think of: from rock & roll to oldies to its present right-wing, Christian news talk programming.

Now known as KKOL, it reaches but a few because of its weak signal. Its tiny 1000 watt transmitter is located on aboard the 175 foot cargo ship, the "Coastal Ranger," in Seattle’s Elliott Bay- the only licensed broadcast station operating in the U.S. aboard a ship.

KKOL is owned and operated by Salem Communications, the nation's fastest-growing Christian radio chain.

According to a spokesman, the company reportedly plans to pump up KKOL's power to a KIRO blowtorch-sized 50,000 watts in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of this year.

The low-flying for-profit Christian broadcast empire has a stable of Christian and social conservative talk hosts—James Dobson, Randall Terry, Hugh Hewitt. Janet Parshall- and couple of conservative Jews- Dennis Prager and our own Michael Medved.

Salem communications was the object of an investigative piece "A Higher Frequency-How the rise of Salem Communications' radio empire reveals the evangelical master plan," by the respected reporter, Adam Piore in the Nov/Dec issue of the venerable lefty mag Mother Jones. We learned a few things we think you should know about the company and its origins as this station's potential to become a large player in Seattle increases.

Salem owns five other properties in the Seattle Tacoma market besides KKOL and only two of them show up in the top 30 stations listed in the Arbitron 12+ survey and neither of them are KKOL. One is Christan talk station KGNW-AM  (820 kHz) and the other is KKMO, a Spanish station.

Salem stations at present are no threat to anyone in Seattle except maybe Satan, himself- if for some reason, he's concerned with tiny demographics (and, we have it on good authority...he's not).

But clustering small stations in urban areas in red states where they think the Lord is the scarcest, has been the company's business plan as well ads diversifying its interests in the interest of diversifying its influence.

The left—which for years dismissed evangelical activists as out-of-touch zealots—has nothing on the radio dial even close to Salem’s reach and influence. Air America is broadcast on 70 stations and owns none. Salem owns 103 stations in the nation’s largest markets and broadcasts to more than 1,900 affiliates. It owns radio stations in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta. In fact, it doesn’t own just one station in those markets. It owns two—sometimes more. In Los Angeles it owns four. In Honolulu it owns seven. It also owns 62 websites and a magazine publishing division.

Salem’s founders, Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger III, both Bob Jones University grads have more than a business plan in mind. Theirs is a Christian mission which has ridden the evangelical tsunami and has become a force in the national political scene.

Their goal is to spread the word of the Lord and offer an alternative to what they say is the threat of moral decay come of "creeping secularism."

“When you secularize a culture,” says Epperson, “you lose your moral compass.” A mission statement in Salem’s 2003 annual report reads: “One mended marriage. One regained childhood. One restored faith. One broadcast at a time.”

But it's a helluva business as well as a ministry and a crusade- they've built Salem into a blue chip Wall Street company with their business acumen, political generosity, and having "an unshakable faith in their own moral righteousness." Also, they are tapping into what Michael Medved told Piore is “a conservative religious counterculture” that is “far more powerful and far more significant than anything in the stupid counterculture of the 1960s.”

Their political activism through radio broadcasting has had some remarkable successes- showing the kind of partisan muscle and methodical networking that's typified the evangelical national empire-building we're always harping about.

Salem’s stations allow the religious right to share information, mobilize allies, and galvanize public opinion. During the Terri Schiavo battle, Dobson took to Salem’s airwaves and told listeners: “A woman’s life hangs in the balance. We really have to defend this woman, because if she dies, the lives of thousands of people around the country can be killed, too. There’s a principle here: It’s a paradigm of death versus a paradigm of life.” Dobson’s cohost then reeled off the phone numbers of Florida legislators.

Besides the organizing and the steady tattoo of proselytizing, Salem's success owes a lot to Reagan-era deregulation.

Until 1987, the FCC required broadcasters to provide equal time to political opponents. And the last thing a religious broadcaster wanted to do was eat up airtime with liberals “promoting” abortion and homosexuality. But when the FCC repealed the fairness doctrine, the shackles that had forced Salem to tiptoe cautiously around the society’s great cultural fault lines fell away. KKLA station manager Terry Fahy first realized the raw political power Salem now commanded when Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ hit the theaters in 1988. KKLA spearheaded a demonstration at MCA Universal Studios, where chanting protesters mobbed the entrance, waving signs and banners. “They were saying Route 101 is really blocked, you can’t get there,” remembers Fahy, who now manages Salem’s four-station L.A. cluster. Tens of thousands of people also participated in protests at theaters and video stores nationwide. That was a lot of Christians—enough, by any objective measure, to wield significant political clout if harnessed.

It was at about this time that Atsinger joined with some extremely wealthy but largely unknown California moneybags to form the Allied Business PAC to dole out big bucks to conservative candidates for local offices.

Key in this effort was Howard Ahmanson, the reclusive Southern California ultraconservative billionaire who has not only been funding Seattle's Discovery Institute's "Intelligent" Design effort since 1995, but sits on DI's board. (read Roger Downey's excellent Seattle Weekly piece about Discovery Institute and ID here.

Atsinger, Epperson and Ahmanson have since bankrolled and broadcasted activists in efforts all over the country- particularly in California- to fight equal rights, defeat liberal candidates, isolate gays and lesbians, promote creationism, kill off unions, and fund a "vast network of conservative think tanks and special-interest groups that continue to influence policy."

Because of Salem's keeping listeners primed for outrage, the gay marriage issue became a national hot button debate, according to Piore. "And," he writes, "that’s what George Bush owes these evangelicals."

What does it mean if Salem gets a 50,000 watts in Seattle?  Their signature business strategy is to throw a lot of money around. With Entercom's rightwing KTTH on the ropes and reportedly contemplating major format change, and the shambolic KIRO twisting slowly in the wind, a high-powered talker might have an easy time becoming a big player almost by default.

With their demonstrated ability and willingness to forgo profits in order to get established in markets and their evangelical Christian mission, they could raise havoc for established talk stations already in trouble.

Seattle AM talk, despite its progressiveness, is dominated by conservatives- and this could make it even harder to hear the liberal point of view in the sad local radio marketplace.

Comments

[Andrew]

Even though the conservative propaganda machine is gassed up and well oiled, I bet the left has much more mobility that they can excersize if they ever feel truely threatened.

Conservatives have been huffing and puffing about abortion and doers of sodomy for years and yet abortion is still legal and gays are becoming more equal all the time - despite the fact that Republicans have had more representation in government over the past thirty years. No matter how many elections they win they are still continuosly losing the culture war.

If conservatives ever manage to succeed at something I'm certain there is untapped liberal fury waiting to be unleashed. Try us you bitches.

[sparky]

These people wouldnt recognize the Lord if he came up and slapped them upside the head..and I wish he would.

[Ted Smith]

To increase KKOL's power, Salem will kill the former KAPY, the second station in Port Angeles (formerly owned by Charles Herring). In the past, the FCC would never have allowed this merely to add a stronger signal in an already-overcrowded market. Now, Port Angeles will have only one station.

This isn't the first time. Salem killed Hawai'i's only 50,000 watt station to increase coverage of its Los Angeles station.

[George Fielding]

KAPY (now KIKN) has itself twisted in the wind ever since Charles Herring retired (many years ago). The station has always been hobbled by the fact that it has to lower its power to 149 watts at night... not much, considering its high frequency. Post-Herring, it hasn't been much of a competitor against KONP, the other station in the market. After some 20 years, trying to find its way, losing KIKN won't be noticed by many.

As for KKOL: The station has been on that boat for over a year now. It lost its original site on Harbor Island, and diplexing efforts on Salem's KLFE/KTFH site on Bainbridge Island didn't work out either... nor did an attempt to diplex with another transmitter near Tukwila. That they'll be putting up towers near the original KMO site in Fife, and will operate at 50,000 watts day/47,000 night is past speculation. The construction permit has been issued and the transmitters are on the way.

[Lump]

Andrew sez, "If conservatives ever manage to succeed at something I'm certain there is untapped liberal fury waiting to be unleashed. Try us you bitches."

OOOOOOOOOOOH, Andrew, you big tough guy you.

[Critter]

My post has nothing to do with KKOL because I'm not even familiar with that station, nor Seattle radio back in the 60's, for that matter.

However, after reading Michael's blog this morning, I just have to say that one can be a Liberal AND a Christian.

I realize Conservatives and Christians are always lumped into one category, and I understand why, but I needed to make it clear (to the Lord if nobody else) that Conservatives do not own the market on Chritianity. I'm proud to wear that label.

Anyhoo, I'm simply writing this for my own peace of mind; nothing else.

Have a good day, all. :-)

[happy all the time]

o you poor, poor liberals. your sick and pathetic worldliness and secularism must yield to God's Word and His Law. If you only knew in all your arrogance- it was prophesied and inevitable even in wicked, materialist Seattle. You too must face the music- and the music is far sweeter than Blathering Michael and his herd of useful liberal idiots slur it. Come on over- forgiveness feels good!

[Critter]

happy all the time:

Spoken like a true Christian, ah hem, I mean CONSERVATIVE.

*eyes rolling*

[Michael B.]

I can't wait till they light up that 50,000 watt candle! KKOL talkers Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt are two of the classiest broadcasters on radio today. It will be nice to hear them in my car outside the city limits.

[blathering michael]

you know, Critter these fundamentalists do not consider you or anyone else who have not been "washed in the blood", saved, or "born again" to be Christians at all. You are of the Devil, and damned. That goes for Jews like Michael B., Michael Medved and Dennis Prager. They are as Lenin put it, "useful idiots," and according to these "Christians" will go to hell as assuredly as non-secularists like me.

[sig]

yeah, that's right- fuck love.

[Andrew]

Critter says "I just have to say that one can be a Liberal AND a Christian."

I think the reason social trends are heading the liberal direction is because allot of people who identitify themselves are conservative go liberal on specific items and are doing so more and more often.

In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll from two weeks ago shows that %66 of people are against overturning Roe v Wade. That margins is wide enough that it must include allot of conservatives.

Two other polls showed that in 2003 support for civil unions were 40% in favor, 53% against. In 2006 53% are in favor, 40% against. I assure you that by 2009 the ratio will lean even more liberal.

My theory is that when people identify themselves are conservative it's because they think they are part of that "team", maybe because their friends and family are, but when you press them on specific issues they can be more liberal than they realize.

[Critter]

Michael:

You are absolutely correct!

What "those" Christians think of me is none of my business. :)

Besides, I have a direct line to my God, and unless the Bush administration has wire-tapped my conversation with Him, nobody has a clue about my relationship with God or where my heart is.

And they call themselves Christians? Yeah, right. :)

[Michael B.]

Hi Blathering Michael: I judge an individual by their behavior, not their faith system. If an individul is a good person who treats me well, I care not a wit whether or not they think I am going to hell (or even worse Newark). If an individual is a boor who treats me poorly I care not a wit whether or not they think I am going to heaven (or Disney World).

[Andrew]

So, if an individual is a boor who treats you poorly do you care a wit whether or not they think you are going to hell?

[Michael B.]

I live in the real world, not in Hogwarts or Fantasyland. People can believe I am going to any number of places, that doesn't make it so.

Woud you be offended if I believed you were going to the South Bronx?

[Andrew]

I'm offended if it causes you, or people like you, to take action that would affect everyone else, such as overturning Roe v Wade to save -other- people from "going to hell".

[Michael B.]

To Andrew: Huh?! Can you say non sequitur?

[Andrew]

I'm offended if [your belief system] causes you, or [religious people] people like you, to [pass laws] that would [limit the rights] of everyone else, such as overturning Roe v Wade to save [non religious aborters of babies] from "going to hell".

[Michael B.]

My dear Andrew, you can choose to be offended by anything you like, that is your prerogative. But you would probably be happier if you developed a bit of a thicker skin.

I have yet to meet a human being who doesn't advocate for a society that (at least in part) reflects their own values and beliefs.

In our country ideas (whatever their source) must compete in the marketplace of ideas. Those that pass muster succeed, the others fail.

So it might be preferable for all of us to tone down the vitriol and anger towards those with whom we disagree and work towards building up strong, positive arguments for our own ideas.

[Andrew]

The Constitution is supposed to ensure that the values and beliefs of some people don't restrict the freedom of all people.

[Michael B.]

Andrew:

Although I am not certain you have a clear idea of the function of our constitution, I do agree that in a federal republic such as ours there is always the risk of a tyranny by the majority. This is the reason why our founders advocated for limited government.

The less our government is able to interfere in our day to day lives the less likely it is to infringe on those rights "endowed by our Creator".

[Rolls Eyes]

Ahh... how quickly these discussions degenerate to the depths of communicable thought! :)

[sparky]

"The less our government is able to interfere in our day to day lives the less likely it is to infringe on those rights "endowed by our Creator".

Excellent point! Please send your comments to our Attorney General and the President. They seem to think that we should not mind if the government pokes into our private lives, phone calls and emails.

[Michael B]

Ooooooooh Sparky, how incredibly clever and wonderfully ironic, I sure didn't see that one coming.

[sparky]

Zippy says " Are the STEWED PRUNES still in the HAIR DRYER? "

http://home.xnet.com/~warinner
/zippy.cgi

[Andrew]

I'm all for laws in general. Some of the ones like "don't kill people" are pretty awesome. I don't even care if there are lotsa laws. As long as you don't "legislate morality", such as the idea that aborting a fetus is murder, we have no problem.

[joanie]

What's a non-secularist?

[sparky]

non secular means non-religious...secular music in church are they hymns....non-secular music would be singing "Feelings" at a church wedding....lol

[Lump]

sparky sez, "Excellent point! Please send your comments to our Attorney General and the President. They seem to think that we should not mind if the government pokes into our private lives, phone calls and emails."

And how and when are they doing that?

[sparky]

Lump, at some point you have to do the work yourself. Perhaps Fox news isnt covering the Gonzales hearings that went on today.

[KS]

Interesting piece on KKOL. They seem to have an above board business plan that is profitable. Unlike Air America, which only stays on the air because George Soros and wealthy like minded secular progressives (permissives) keep pumping money to the stations so they will carry their programming - a modern day payola...

To those who feel threatened by KKOL increasing their signal - Consider paying attention to the Islamofascists, noting that a cartoon of Mohammed wearing a bomb-like turban, caused them to torch some Danish embassies, and the secular progressives and ACLU want to sing cum-bye-yah with Al-Qaeda, the merciless enemy - their actions are showing that. If I had to choose between the two, I find it more constructive to listen to KKOL over AA in this day and age when listening to newstalk. Overall, I find the mainstream talk stations KOMO and KIRO more entertaining to listen to for newstalk.

[Lump]

sparky sez, "Lump, at some point you have to do the work yourself. Perhaps Fox news isnt covering the Gonzales hearings that went on today."

I haven't watched the hearings from the blowhards on the committee. I can hardly contain myself watching Sen. Leahy spout off since he was booted off the Senate Intelligence committee for leaking classifed documents to the press. I did watch the General who used to be in charge of the NSA say to George Steponallofus on his Sunday program, and that's hardly Fox News, that all that has been reported in the press is absolutely false and wondered where the article in the WA.Post came from that was widely being quoted from including the Seattle fishwrappers. Why is the MSM screaming "domestic spying" when it's International calls to and from the USA being monitored? And why is the MSM calling it "spying on Americans" when they don't even know who the calls are really to and from? The ones who blew up the Towers certainly were not locals. To me this is just another manufactured scandal. BTW why are you watching Fox News?

[sparky]

ok ok I dont watch Fox..but I thought you did.

The law says that you have to have a warrent to do wiretapping. Even a President. And, President Bush has been shown on tape as saying he will always get a warrent. There are even FISA rules that allow a warrent to be given AFTER the fact. But he has said he doesnt need to do that because Congress gave him the authority. Even Republican members of Congress say that is NOT so.The FBI spoke out last week and said that thousands and thousands of innocent americans have been spied upon and they have nothing to do with terrorism. Included is a group of Quakers who are against the war in Iraq. They have nothing to do with terrorists. President Bush says he needs to be able to break the law because we are at war, yet he cannot tell anyone when that war on terror might be over. Most of us agree that it might never be over. So we want a President who is basically saying he doesnt have to follow the law? I don't. President Bush has argued that he needed to ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because it was an old law.Bush gives the impression that he’d very much like to have the program work within the confines of the law but it’s just too old to accommodate it. That isn’t true.

Bush’s warrantless domestic surveillance program began in October 2001. Amendments to the law were requested from Congress by the Bush administration, and enacted with Bush’s signature two months later. The December 2001 amendments to FISA aimed to provide additional flexibility in emergency situations. For example, the FY 2002 Intelligence Authorization Act amended FISA to extend the amount of time that the government could conduct surveillance without securing a warrant from 24 to 72 hours!
When President Bush says that FISA is an “old law,” it’s not true. It’s a law that was recently amended at his request and by his signature. Bush’s decision to circumvent the law was not one of necessity – it was his choice.
The President does have the authority to engage in eavesdropping. He just needs judicial oversight to ensure that the surveillance is needed and doesn't violate an american's 4th amendment rights. That's all that FISA says.
To be perfectly honest, FISA seems extraordinarily generous to the president. The 72 hour exemption and the 15 day exemption for ongoing threats seem like more than enough time to get a warrant. Considering that most of the eavesdropping would be routine and focussed on the same group of people and their affiliates, it is surprising that Alberto Gonzales doesn't have a paperwork "kit" with everything needed to ask for a warrant. All that would need to be done is change the name, reason for warrant and some links and references to related warrants.
This is an issue that bothers Republican AND Democratic congress critters alike, and they are speaking out against it.

[sparky]

Also, Gozales represents the citizens of the United States, NOT the President. The President has his own counsel. AG Gonzales cannot be the counsel to the President because it is a conflict of interest.

[Lump]

sparky sez, "ok ok I dont watch Fox..but I thought you did."

So how do you know what you think they say?

As far as the "illegal and warrantless" intrusions upon citizens, I guess it will go to the courts eventually. Bush says they are OK with the authority granted him by congress and a minority of US citizens say it's illegal. I'm in the majority who say I don't care if they catch bad people who are trying to hurt and kill us.

As far as the FISA court, didn't they deny the chance to examine the hard drive of the 20th hijacker, Moussaoui, which might have prevented 9/11 from happening? The law says you have up to 72 hours to apply for a warrant, but it may take weeks for the FISA court to act on the request.

[sparky]

My understanding from what I read is it is not supposed to take that long for the warrent..thats why they let them do it after the fact.

Nobody wants to stop the President from getting the bad people. But there are things in place to allow him to do that without trampling on the rights of innocent citizens, and he has said he doesnt care about that, and furthermore, will continue to do so. THAT is the issue that has people angry. Congress did not grant him the authority to do it this way.

[Lump]

sparky sez, "Nobody wants to stop the President from getting the bad people. But there are things in place to allow him to do that without trampling on the rights of innocent citizens, and he has said he doesnt care about that, and furthermore, will continue to do so. THAT is the issue that has people angry. Congress did not grant him the authority to do it this way."

Not everybody is angry, only the majority of the lefties and there is unanimous consent of the American people that don't agree with you. And it's not true that all the Congress agrees with you either. Maybe you better start watching Fox instead of CNN and Harry Reid. BTW, you're not referring to the Patriot Act are you?

[KS]

To amplify more on Lumpy's thread, the wiretapping tactics of the White House should be investigated and revised, but not stopped... what are you leftists and your ACLU thinking by trying to constantly undermine the War on Terrorism ? The Patriot Act needs some tweaking also.

The Democrat party is collectively flipping the bird to the Repubs and the Administration. They have been too secretive and need to be called on it, but we are in this war together - aren't we ? If not, we might as well have another civil war.
By the way, this is a war, even though it is not against a specific country. With that said, I was not for us going into Iraq when we did, but now that we are there - we don't cut and run next month - that will send the enemy (the Islamofascists) the wrong message.

[chris]

"To amplify more on Lumpy's thread, the wiretapping tactics of the White House should be investigated and revised, but not stopped... what are you leftists and your ACLU thinking by trying to constantly undermine the War on Terrorism ? The Patriot Act needs some tweaking also."

Bob Barr(ACLU board member) the NRA, the Heritage Foundation among other non "lefty" groups are trying to "undermine" the so-called patriot act as well

[joanie]

I lookedup non-secular in Merriams online and it didn't have it . . .

I thought that secular music was the non-hymn/non-religious music. To be non-secular would be to be religous, wouldn't it?

Isn't it sacred vs. secular?

I'm still confused.

PS: I find this more interesting than Lou Pate.

[Michael B]

Joanie is right, secular means non-religious, non-secular would mean religious.

[sparky]

Lumpy you need new glasses. I never said everyone in Congress agrees.
And the American people are UNANIMOUS in their consent? okkkkkkk

[KS]

A Patriot Act is needed at this time, but it needs to be tweaked - otherwise it will eventually be abused, especially if another Clinton gets into the White House in 2008 - God forbid !

I don't have much regard for Bob Barr - he talks out of both sides of his mouth, as exemplified by claiming to be conservative and a member of the American Criminal Liars Union. How is the Heritage Foundation trying to undermine the Patriot Act ?

[sparky]

Congress did not grant Bush the authority to wiretap, even when Gonzales went to the Hill to beg. They suspended the program for awhile in 2004 but started it up again without the authority of Congress.

[sparky]

re-posting on the correct thread:

oh and by the way, Republican Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an interview that she had "serious concerns" about the surveillance program. By withholding information about its operations from many lawmakers, she said, the administration has deepened her apprehension about whom the agency is monitoring and why.

Ms. Wilson, who was a National Security Council aide in the administration of President Bush's father, is the first Republican on either the House's Intelligence Committee or the Senate's to call for a full Congressional investigation into the program, in which the N.S.A. has been eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of people inside the United States believed to have links with terrorists.

[chris]

"How is the Heritage Foundation trying to undermine the Patriot Act ?" Actually, it is the Eagle Forum I was thinking of, you know, Phyllis Schlafly. I get those two righty groups confused but at least she is thinking this time.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/phyllisschlafly/2002/07/30/163948.html

[chris]

We already have laws btw , the FISA search warrants, 18,000 issued since 1978 with only 5 refused by a panel of judges who sole purpose is to review each case. More snooping by a president who stated back in 2002 that "he wasn't interested in where Osama was" should be grounds to deny this lazy bastard any more excuses to slough-off on the job. BTW, I love it that 23 prisoners of the USS Cole bombing 'escaped' and are most likely to be back in the midst of al quida again, How Brilliant! DO you Feel any Safer now under this adminastration?

[chris]

Im hoping Hagel leads the charge to investigate Bush lying

[chris]

Lumps sez "Maybe you better start watching Fox instead of CNN and Harry Reid."
Nah, I listen to my neighbors who won WW2, and those from Korea and Vietnam who have no time for chickenhawks.