Tale of two joes: bellingham gets live & local & liberal!

What's Bellingham radio got that Seattle radio doesn't?

The answer (aside from slightly less irony and bile) is: A liberal talk station with live and local programming!

As shameful as it is that a little station in a little city has something the big stations in the big city don't got, we're happy to report that Cascade Radio Group's KGMI has launched AM 930 Progressive Talk — Radio Free Bellingham, KBAI with Joe Teehan, host of KGMI's The Liberal Outpost (m-f, 6-7p) and such national lefties as Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes (live) Ed Shultz, Rachel Maddow and Alan Colmes.

(Photo: above, "Out-in-the-County Joe;" right: "Bellingham Joe")

Flipping KBAI from an "Adult Standards" format (that's not porno -- it's oldies) Radio free Bellingham started-up just last Friday with Teehan's KGMI hour being simulcast on the new station.

(KGMI is a right-wing lion's den of such as Big Pants, Herr Falafeloofa, some local "values" villains with Dutch names and other scrubbed-up local blabbermeisters of the red state persuasion).

Joe's show is kinda "nice" by our mean city standards, take a listen, here.

Teehan, 50, told BlatherWatch, "Bellingham is a pretty liberal town; but when you get out in the [Whatcom] County there's lots of conservatives -- KGMI has served them for a long time."

Now progressives get a few hours on our precious publicly-owned airwaves in a rural, exurban, small town market. What a concept!

The veteran broadcaster has been doing Liberal Outpost for three years on KGMI. And although he says he's treated convivially, he can't deny it's a little like holding down Fort Apache.

(We gotta be honest: keeping the KBAI call letters may not be such a great idea: according to urbandictionary.com kbai means "signs off" in an, er... final sense:
1. An abrupt way to end a conversation. Usually used in online forums and in instant messengers.
2. To die. To expire. To cease to exist. To push up daisies. To buy the farm. To kick the bucket. As in:
Sad emo kid: LIFE JUST ISN'T WORTH IT ANYMORE!!! *sob sob sob* (grabs razor)
Nerdy internet kid: *busts in* No go kbai! Want to go get tacos?
Sad emo kid: okay. Just sayin'...)

 

After a career that's taken him to Denver, Phoenix, Teehan started his career in talk at Denver's KNUS but spent years as a rock jock: he and his wife Laurie Michaels have been in Bellingham about five years.

Laurie, who's a morning DJ at sister station KISM, was the center of a story that shows how much people love the people who come out of their radio; and how communities can rally around them.

In December, Laurie, in the last trimester of pregnancy was diagnosed with a brain aneurism. After two brain surgeries, a baby girl was born by Caesarian.

Then, in what could be described as a  mass, head-shaving community fugue: dozens of people, both men and women, led by Michaels' co-host, Brad Cash, and assisted by Teehan's 8-year old son,Tommy shaved their heads to show support and to promote a drive to help the family financially with the medical bills.

Laurie Michaels is still in Harborview recovering while Joe Teehan schleps breast milk up I-5 to his new daughter who's at home in Bellingland where he's holding down another fort with Tommy.

It's hard to write about this with the usual snark: so in a rare moment of taste and restraint, we won't.
(Photo: Laurie Michaels)
We're just embarrassed that the small town in the northland should get a live & local & liberal station before we do;  and wish the Teehans, and liberal radio in Bellingham, godspeed. 

Comments

[Duffman]

I detected a moment of 'softness' there. Like Mrs Clinton's moment I find that impressive and revealing.
:)

[storsie]

I would not trust the host in the cowboy getup. There are many rural ultraconservatives who dress up in cowboy garb for realistic shooting contests, termed 'Cowboy Action Shooting.'

The costumes make it seem innocent, but it's really just a front for militia-style groups. Chucks, are you familiar?

[Duffman]

Yet more evidence of Gorebull Warming. :)

[wutitiz]

Thnaks, Duff, very interesting.
Is it just my imagination, or have Seattle winters been getting colder? I used to commute (from Seattle to Kirkland) almost every day by motorcycle, and usually there were only 3 or 4 days per years when I couldn't do it due to ice/snow.

The last couple years, it seems like its been much more than that.

[Vic Tanny]

I think you're just getting soft in the belly, go work out in the gym and you'll be fine.

[Bill]

Your problem is you think that Global Warming means that the weather would be hot all the time. My kids know the difference between weather and climate. Long term effects on long term conditions are being disrupted, over a period of time. My 10 year old has a better grasp of science than you do.

[Science vs. Duffman]

Sorry Duffman (and this might sting slightly), But:

One cold winter in One country is not indicative of the total average global temperature since the late 1800s - which indicates elevated global warming. See for yourself:

Global Mean Surface Temperature (since 1850
from The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Global Mean Temperature over Land and Ocean (since 1880)
from NOAA

Global Temperature Anomalies (since 1880)
from NASA

Summary:
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, NOAA, NASA all indicating global warming
vs.
one news story on yahoo about one cold winter in one country.

Science, Duffman. Science.

[Duffman]

I figured that would draw you in, merci - just couldn't fight the temptation, eh. Haha

Yet again, posting under a phony moniker...Wow!

[8th graders of the world]

Do you know the difference, duffs?

[wutitiz]

Bill, actually neither Duff nor I said we thought that. Hope your 10-yr-old has better observation skills than you as well. We know that science begins w/ observation, after all.

We know that the temp has been increasing overall. My real problem is that the issue is being pushed by politicians, in particular those offer tax hikes and bigger gov't as the solution to every problem. And as with all hustles, it's an emergency requiring immediate decisions. No time for better data, or for science based on something better than computer sims. .

So we're a little skeptical, and a story like this gets our attention.

[mitzy]

The idiotic, off topic comments notwithstanding, thankyou Blatherwatch for this story. This is the type of positive articvle we always love when when you do them. I used to live in Bellingham, and Joe Teehan was a breath of fresh air on the terrible radio up there. And I had missed it about Laurie. Thanks again.

[Duffman]

I agree with mitzy. I injected that post/link on global warming which started a chain reaction. It was off topic and I apologize.

[Claude Mains]

More feature-type stories like these, Michael. Let's hear the good news about radio and radio people. Tell me more about David Boze. I want to get to know Thor Tollefson.

[Frosty]

This is another great story for radio. Smaller stations are able to broadcast valuable content, without the distractions of breaking news and traffic. KIRO and KOMO cannot be expected to thoroughly grasp the pulse of every unique community in Western Washington. With broadcast technology now affordable, stations in surrounding areas can compete with and sometimes surpass the quality of broadcast of the larger station clusters. There exists a growing demand for thought provoking content which has not been diluted or dictated by advertising agencies, audience size and management.

[Nevets]

Duff, they don't include temperatures from China in their Global Warming calculations. So what happens over there is no indication that the planet on this side is not warming.