Talker's Magazine The quirky talk radio trade mag. Check the Talk Radio Research Project- it's not very scientific, but places on the top 15 talkers list (scroll down to Talk Radio Audiences By Size)) are as hotly contested as Emmys (and mean just about as much).
The Advocate No, not THAT Advocate... it's the Northwest Progressive Institute's Official Blog.
Media Matters Documentation of right-wing media in video, audio and text.
Orcinus home of David Neiwert, freelance investigative journalist and author who writes extensively about far-right hate groups
Hominid Views "People, politics, science, and whatnot"
Darryl is a statistician who fights imperialism with empiricism, gives good links and wry commentary.
Jesus' General An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender, a 12 on the Heavenly Scale of the 10 Commandments and a 6 on the earthly scale of the Immaculately Groomed.
Howie in Seattle Howie Martin is the Abe Linkin' of progressive Seattle.
Streaming Radio Guide Hellishly long (5795!) list of radio streaming, steaming on the Internets.
The Naked Loon News satire -- The Onion in the Seattle petunia patch.
Irrational Public Radio "informs, challenges, soothes and/or berates, and does so with a pleasing vocal cadence and unmatched enunciation. When you listen to IPR, integrity washes over you like lava, with the pleasing familiarity of a medium-roast coffee and a sensible muffin."
The Maddow Blog Here's the hyper-interactive La Raych of MSNBC. daily show-vids, freakishly geeky research, and classy graphics.
Northwest Broadcasters The AM, FM, TV and digital broadcasters of Northwest Washington, USA and Southwest British Columbia, Canada. From Kelso, WA to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, BC - call letters, formats, slogans, networks, technical data, and transmitter maps.
Plus "recent" news.
News Corpse The Internet's chronicle of media decay.
The Moderate Voice The voice of reason in the age of Obama, and the politics of the far-middle.
News Hounds Dogged dogging of Fox News by a team who seems to watch every minute of the cable channel so you don't have to.
HistoryLink Fun to read and free encyclopedia of Washington State history. Founded by the late Walt Crowley, it's an indispensable tool and entertainment source for history wonks and surfers alike.
right-wing blogs we like
The Reagan Wing Hearin lies the real heart of Washington State Republicans. Doug Parris runs this red-meat social conservative group site which bars no holds when it comes to saying who they are and who they're not; what they believe and what they don't; who their friends are and where the rest of the Republicans can go. Well-written, and flaming.
Orbusmax inexhaustible Drudgery of NW conservative news
The Radio Equalizer prolific former Seattle KVI, KIRO talk host speaks authoritatively about radio.
Is it not ironic that the GOP House majority in the Congress might be lost- not only because of a Republican member's homosexual dandling of underage boys- but because it was COVERED UP by the House leadership?
He's a good "get." Not because his presence adds brilliance to broadcasting, but because he plays hard to "get."
It's a lack of supply, rather than demand.
That's what radio producers say about the magnificent head of hair that is the 8th district incumbent Congressman Dave Reichert, who's being seriously challenged by smarticulate upstart Darcy Burner.
"Reichert's people always have an excuse [for him not appearing]- when they even bother to return my calls- which is rare," a conservative talk producer who prefers to remain nameless told BlatherWatch Monday. "Burner's been on several times, and frankly, she made a good impression on [host] and everybody else around here."
Ron & Don (KIRO, m-f, 4-7p) said on-air Thursday that "Sheriff Hairspray," (as he's yclept in King County legal circles) won't return their calls, but Darcy "comes down any time we ask her to."
"I like her," said Ron."She doesn't mind when Don asks her the tough questions."
Burner might even get the coveted endorsement of the Ron & Don Nation; which is not, Don says, based "on politics or any of that stuff, it's based on whether we like the guy."
Darcy, according to the boyz, is a helluva guy.
Maybe Reichert's freticence to appear on live radio- especially with his
opponent- accounts for some of the 8-point drop in his poll numbers in one
month. A KING/5 SurveyUSA poll out Wednesday put the two in a
statistical dead heat. 536 likely voters interviewed between Thursday
and Monday, gave Reichert 50 percent to Burner's 48. The poll's margin
of error is plus or minus 4.3 points.
Our man, the Rev. Hardcider wrote today to tell us that beginning with the 2006 Fall book, things will get even rougher in an already butt-ugly Seattle Arbitron Book.
Arbitron will begin including public radio in their Local Market Reports, then satellite radio after that. NPR is already mightily popular in the Seattle market and this will surely dilute the ratings and therefore the shares and ad revenues of commercial stations.
Public radio stations have been invisible to advertisers, even though in many markets they have high rankings. Rev. HC says:
In Seattle, this will mean that KUOW will be in the top three, and KPLU and KEXP in the top ten. Therefore, just about everybody will drop down a couple of notches, which will effect their ability to sell time to national agencies. Most of the commercial stations will take a hit on revenue.
It's not pretty out there, now, but with those changes, it'll be a lot worse, especially for KIRO, KOMO and KING-FM.
Hear2.0 Entertainment consultant Mark Ramsey says the implication is that the "profitablity and prestige of public radio has just skyrocketed" while commercial radio sales has taken another hit.
More hopeful is his prediction: "Public radio will now be on commercial radio's radar like never before. Commercial radio will more aggressively learn from public radio, compete with it, and counter-program it.
Satellite radio is coming on, and it isn't being accurately measured, either. Once figured into the rankings, they say there'll be even more erosion of terrestrial radio's market.
The ignoring of non-commercial and satellite radio has been a head in the sand by the industry, a status quo protection of an old order that was bound to come to an end.
~ why does Bryan Styble (KIRO Sun-Fri, 1-5a) wear two watches, one on each arm? And why did he tell listeners on his radio show his phone number was in the book ? Maybe it's because he never goes home, just hangs out at KIRO like stray cat.
~ boy are we glad for her that theresajoy.com is not the website of KTTH morning babe Theresa Joy.
~ our theory is that Bryan Styble has been given the overnight job at KIRO behind our back. He's been filling-in for a long, long time. There are now, we're told, bumps coming into his show from breaks that say, "You are listening to the Bryan Styble Show." This is new, say aghast staffers. His official AQH (average quarter hour) listener stood at 200, until yesterday afternoon, when Edna Dilman, of Perineum Bluff, B.C. passed in her sleep, leaving Bryan with only 199 stalwarts.
~ wisdom (or is it WISDOM) according to The Tina, producer of the The Dave: "They are great at terminology! "LIBERAL" - (come on, say it with a snarl like "they" do - it's catchy) -- I was recently a guest on KTTH our sister station and I was clearly introduced as a "LIBERAL"- I wasn't Tina, producer of the Dave Ross and Ron Reagan Show, avid dog lover, cheese lover, ultimate frisbee player, hiker, big book reader, lots of friends haver....nope...I was "Rachel Corrie lovin', Bill Clinton Votin', Goddess Lovin'...LIBERALLLL..."
~ Bill Clinton gave Democrats permission to finally show their anger about Iraq in his excellent abraiding of Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday. Judging from what we heard all day on the radio, D's are emboldened, and shouting it out. (did you see Al Franken on Hard ball today?) The election gets closer and closer; Republicans' prospects look worser and worser. Barring dirty tricks and an October surprise, they should be able to more than offset the Bush Administration's blatant blameblitz on Clinton to change the subject from the utter disaster of the war.
The Summer Phase 2 Arbitron ratings were released Monday, and it's another dog's breakfast for local talk radio.
KOMO is ranked third overall with a 4.8., and KIRO is the lowest we've ever seen it at ninth with a 3.4. Right-wing rivals KVI and KTTH are in the tank tied for twentieth place with a 2.2! Air America's KPTK is at least holding its own in a lackluster 21st place with a 2.0.
This book is for the early summer, and ratings are down across the board, the nation, and in all formats. There are larger issues here, we know, but we're also pretty sure lame local programming has something to do with these doldrums and bad ratings.
The afternoon especially is a plague of forgettable or infuriating insipidity- so many of us turn off KIRO for the day after Ron Reagan (m-f, 12-1p) or Dori Monson (m-f, 1-4p).
Tonight's line-up on the David Goldstein Show (KIRO Sundays, 7-10p)
7p: Is it time we stop electing judges? The articulate, liberal Deborah Senn will talk about the role of the US Chamber in her 2004 AG race, as well as the hundreds of millions it has spent in judicial races nationwide.
8p: Tunnel, rebuild or no-build? The Stranger's transcendent transportation Czaress Erica C. Barnett will join Goldy in the studio to take calls about the Viaduct replacement controversy, as well as other pressing transportation issues.
9p: Is torture a family value? author/blogger Dave Neiwert of Orcinus will discuss Congress's torture "compromise", and what it says about American morality, and might mean for American soldiers and civilians who could eventually be subjected to the same.
And if you miss David's show, it's podcast on KIRO's site- go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
"Do they even like each other?" a reader writes. "Sometimes there's a bad energy between them that's obvious to me even over the airwaves."
She speaks of the KIRO morning news "team," of Gregg Hersholt and Jane Shannon, and according to our spies, clearly, the answer to her question is, "hell, no!"
The longtime professional relationship on the award-winning news program was not made in heaven and has quite obviously gone to hell and has been there for some time.
We shook our KIRO branches and it wasn't peaches that fell out of that tree. The more we shook the more we got: "Jane and Gregg just flat out don't like each other, and it shows on the air," said a colleague.
"There's bad blood on that morning show," says a KIRO newser, "Gregg lords over the show with an overbearing intolerant personality."
Disregard the jokes and over easy morning camraderie. Newsroom people say the long knives are out and Jane Shannon is apparently the intended victim of a personal vendetta by Gregg Hersholt, the objective of which is to rid KIRO of her sooner than later.
"The Greg and Jane thing is coming to a head," says yet another daytime employee. "He is working it hard, aiming for her hopeful December departure. Since he is not getting anywhere with management, he is making her life during the news a living hell."
Another former KIRO-ite says, "I've heard from a couple of other people in there in the last month or two that he's really shifted his backstabbing away from the others in the newsroom and toward her directly. In the past he usually went after easier targets, people that were easier to bully. I feel bad for Jane."
Gotta tell you- we've been pinned down lately listening to Rachel Maddow (KPTK m-f, 3--5p) the Air American host newly brought to afternoon drive in Seattle.
You know how we love local. But in the present wasteland of local PM drive programming, we started exploring the options.
We found Rachel. And found her bright, funny, upbeat, packed with good liberal news and great guests. We couldn't touch the dial (as is our wont) she must have TSL (time spent listening) like a Yogi orgasm!
But then again, what are the afternoon choices? There's Dori and Ron & Don on KIRO. You know how we feel about them- although we're tempering our criticism about the Big Dopes (KIRO, m-f, 6-7p). We think they're probably going to make- they connect with people and they're not bad radio, even though we think they've dumbed down the station and will start drawing a less, how you say, discriminate? listenership.
(We don't like the testosteronic/moronic-FM-morning-show tone they bring to AM afternoon talk. Their success, if they have any, has much to do with some enlightened producing (and great patience) by the talented Jennifer Andrews).
What's worse, they seem to be lowering the level of their rival (?) Bryan Suits over at KVI (m-f, 3-6p) who's seen fit to let loose his inner idiot since Ron & Don lowered the level and he thinks he needs to compete.
Thursday, in his introduction, he said something like "[If you have a problem with that] why don't you look around and see how the weather is... in your ass." Now we love stuff like that, and think it's the funniest thing the Bad Lieutenant has said since approximately March, but we're thinkin', This is on Kool Konservative KVI? Staid ol' Fisher Broadcasting? Our inner idiots loved that he said that and yelled, "Yahoo! what else has he got?" And we came up, sad to say, with pretty much nothing.
We love Al Franken, in many ways, (none of them biblical, btw). He now follows Rachel, but he causes our fingers to do the walking on the car radio buttons with his long slow periods between his usually wonderful guests. We're hoping someday KPTK can get it together to have all three hours of Rachel in the drive and Franken live again in the 9 ta noon (and don't forget: a live and local host!).
In the mean time, we have Rachel and NPR's "All Things Considered." (KUOW 4-6:30p) What more do you need?
Prosecutors will retry Mike Webb for insurance fraud Oct. 25 at 9a in Judge Spector's court, in room 733E in the King County courthouse. Opening statements should take place Oct 30, according to the prosecutor's spokesman Dan Donohoe.
In proceedings marked by Webb's behavior his own attorney termed "bizarre," the first trial was declared a mistrial Sept.14 after the jury was tainted when some of them witnessed Webb being handcuffed and put into a police car after an altercation on the street outside the courthouse during a lunch break.
The incident and the subsequent mistrial ramped up media interest of the case.
The new trial comes in fairly short order after the first fiasco. Prosecutor Nancy Balin had called Mike Webb's "mental deterioration," a delaying tactic, telling a reporter "Webb was aware that the jurors were watching" during his apprehension and that at least one witness said she heard Webb say: "This is going to end my trial."
If it were a delaying tactic, it apparently didn't work.
Balin's well-organized and clearly documented case with the squadrons of insurance and police investigators still awaits Webb.
We wonder if he'll change his defense. His story has changed several times over the months since his arrest; and his taking the stand as the only testimony in his defenseproved to be disastrous.
The twenty-two year old is also the certified winner of yesterday's Democratic primary for the state House in position one in Eastern Washington's sprawling 9th District. She was unopposed.
To the folks of the 9th District, she's a young Democratic woman who wants to be a legislator.
But to us, she's the daughter of talk host and 2004 8th District Congressional candidate Dave Ross (KIRO m-f, 9a-12p).
We got wind of her candidacy a week or two ago, when the right-wing blog Palousitics (poetically named after a particularly virulent testicular itch cattle get from lice) snottily announced they'd uncovered that Ross had "voting residence credibility issues."
They breathlessly reported that her name was at two addresses in the district- one in Pullman, and another in Valleyford.
If they'd bothered to ask Ross, they'd have found that Whitman County elections dep't hadn't yet erased her name after she moved to the Valleyford address from Pullman.
Calling her a "carpetbagger," they asked whether anyone could believe she actually lived in the 9th, and hinted at something darker: "...behind the eager beaver intern enthusiasm, something unpleasant is lurking."
Tighty-righty Sound Politics passed the innuendoson and thus it became a certified Blog Scandal (BS). Of course, two blogs a scandal does not make; and fortunately, 9th District voters depend more on the retail politics of county fairs, community BBQs, Kiwanis Club luncheons, and letters to the editor than the snide insinuations in bloggerspace.
And nothing, for once, came of nothing. (how refreshing!)
Ross is self-describes as a Democrat more conservative than some- she's a practicing Roman Catholic, and wants to stick to the practical issues of a rural district, rather than right/left arguments. "It's not about right vs. left," she says, "it's right vs. wrong." (you can see she's been honing her teeth for sound bites).
She says growing up in the Dave Ross household and working in his 2004 campaign certainly influenced her decision to get into politics. "His going out there and putting out a strong campaign was definitely instrumental in believing I could do it too."
Her age will be an issue. But, she says: I'm as qualified as my opponent. Neither of us have experience in the state legislature."
Ross is running against Steve Hailey of Mesa, a third generation farmer, Vietnam vet, grandfather and Republican in a district that hasn't put a Democrat in the Legislature since 1976.
KIROFM 97.3 Multi-format: news and nearly all local talk. This is where classic KIRO AM news talk radio went... hopefully, not to die. The home of Dave Ross & Luke Burbank, Dori Monson, Ron & Don, Frank Shiers, Bill Radke, Linda Thomas, Tony Miner and George Noory.
KUOW FM 94.9 Seattle's foremost public radio news and talk.
KVI am 570 KHz Visit the burnt-out husk of one of the seminal right-wing talkers in all the land. Here's where once trilled the reactionary tones of Rush Limbaugh, John Carlson, Kirby Wilbur, Mike Siegel, Peter Weissbach, Floyd Brown, Dinky Donkey, and Bryan Suits.
Now it's Top 40 hits from the '60's & '70's aimed at that diminishing crowd who still remembers them and can still hear.
KTTH am 770 KHz Right wing home of local, and a whole bunch of syndicated righties such as Glennn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larsony, and for an hour a day: live & local David Boze.
KPTK am 1090 KHz Syndicated liberal talk. Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Randi Rhodes, Norman Goldman fill in the large hole to the left on Northwest radio dial.
KLFE AM 1590 kHz Syndicated right-wing 2nd stringers like Mark Levin, Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Dennis Miller and Hugh Hewitt inhabit this timid-voiced neighbor honker for your radio enjoyment (unless you're behind something large like Costco).
KOMOAM News, traffic, Ken Schram and John Carlson.
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