Conservative talk, the rattlesnake in the baba ganouche of Seattle nice wriggled in quietly one day in 1992, nearly unnoticed.
Station manager Shannon Sweatte was willing to try anything. In a desperate move to save the failing oldies station, KVI, (then owned by Gene Autry, “the singing cowboy”) Sweatte brought in newly-syndicated Rush Limbaugh and bare-knuckle talk jock, Mike Siegel, a liberal New Yorker freshly fired from the now defunct, KING AM
Grokking the possibilities, Siegel became a born-again conservative, liberal hosts were offed, and Seattle “hot talk,” was born.
Michael Harrison, publisher of the trade, Talkers magazine says,“Conservative talk radio appealed to the anger and independent-mindedness of people in the early ‘90’s."
Spurred by hatred for the Clinton presidency, there was a geometric national expansion of conservative talk stations like the pioneering KVI. They became distributors of Republican talking points, sources of presumptive gossip, gleeful scorn and heavy breathing by Clinton enemies.
In Seattle, short time listeners became first time callers by the thousands. Suddenly, the right had a voice. Anti-abortionists, states' righters, anti-tax grouches and the prayerful in schools took to the airwaves like rats to cheese.
They came preaching the gospels of family values, free markets, sexual abstinence, and Official English. They railed against the evils of the welfare state, gay rights, flag burning, the Post Office, condoms, the UN, political correctness, fluoridation and the mainstream media elite.
Inheritance taxes became “death taxes;” public schools became “government schools.” Diversity replaced the demon Communism. Big government's “jack-booted thugs,” be they agents of HUD, PUD, IRS, DSHS, or the County Extension Service were trashed as overpaid, lazy, incompetent, and/or down-right evil.
Political homeboys with no radio experience were hired and became trusted and beloved. Affable conservative KIRO TV commentator, John Carlson; Republican activist Wilbur; and Tacoman Floyd Brown, notorious for the 1988 anti-Dukakis Willie Horton ads, all got their own shows.
Programming flowered with all stripes from the right: a perky suburban home-schooled 17-year old cheerleader whose main conservative credential was her allegedly intact virginity had a weekly show as did libertarians, Perotistas, gun-dementalists, and a bad stand-up comic whose schtick was jokes substituting “liberals” for “Polacks.”
The Saturday morning car guys bemoaned the big government injustice of smog devices; the weekend real estate host held forth on the Growth Management Act. Even poor old Ed Hume, the mild-mannered Northwest gardening icon, found himself fielding irate calls about the government regulation of garden chemicals.
There was an energetic politicization. Folks who’d previously done nothing more political than eating Ben & Jerry's, now started jamming legislators' fax machines, canceling their daily papers and replacing them with the truth according to KVI blabber-jockeys.
There was plenty of smoke, but Seattle media and Democratic politicians dismissed it as an amusing anomaly until the fire broke out in the 1994 Republican landslide.
Talk radio is still stunningly under-reported in Seattle MSM. It’s the elephant in the living room, covered only when its excesses blast their way into the comfortable local sensibilities buttressing pre-conceived notions of its inherent "hatefulness."
And the excesses have, over the years, been high-profile.
Siegel had success confronting Seattle establishment politicians and officials over a wide range of issues. He shed real light on the weird Wenatchee sex/civil rights abuse case and Olympia's OK Boy’s Ranch scandal and made national news by exposing Frugal Gourmet Jeff Smith’s juvenile sexual dandling abruptly ending the food celebrity's TV and publishing careers.
But his investigations didn't involve the shoe leather and sourcing that constitutes responsible journalism. Callers, many with personal agenda unrelated to the public good, would phone on-air tips to be followed up by Siegel. This led to raw rumors flying around and someone was bound to get hurt. Ultimately it was Siegel and KVI radio.
In 1996, Siegel encouraged (or at least didn't discourage) on-air discussion about an apocryphal sexual incident involving Mayor Norm Rice who was running for governor. Rice held an emotional press conference denouncing the rumors as "hate talk." Siegel was fired.
A year and half later, John Carlson was hired to take the reins (from Tim Eyman) of the failing anti-affirmative action initiative, I-200. Signature gathering perked right up--and no wonder, given the hours of free on-air daily spin by Carlson. When 2,500 mostly black high schoolers marched around the station with signs reading "KKK: KVI, Karlson, KOMO," Fisher Broadcasting, faced with a broadside of blistering editorials and retreating advertisers, fired him.
After the stunning success of I-200, Carlson triumphantly returned to his drive time slot where he remains today (the only hiatus being his intensely futile campaign for governor in 2000).
Talk falls below the ratings of music programming--country music KMPS FM has been number one in Seattle for years. Tom Leykis, testosteronic syndicated shock-talker on KQBZ FM, says, “When conservatives say talk radio speaks for any kind of political majority, it’s just bullshit when you know that talk listeners comprise only 15% of the total radio audience--and only 1% of them actually call in.”
But in these days of tight elections and slim majorities, those numbers represent a lot of voters and the Republicans have played that well.
Talk radio hasn't elected any Republicans to statewide offices, but it has certainly driven the debate and loomed large in the state.
- "Talk radio--particularly KVI--was really helpful getting out the word for I-695," says anti-tax activist Tim Eyman about his first successful initiative campaign. Indeed--and it didn't cost him a dime. Talk hosts statewide aired campaign logistics and activated citizens who'd never before voted to make the grassroots tax revolt an historic success.
- "We made a real impact defeating R-51," says Kirby Wilbur of the 2002 transportation package that infuriated the talk radio demographic with a 9 cent gas tax increase.
- Ward Connerly, the black University of California regent and businessman who spearheads anti-affirmative action movements all over the country said said, "KVI radio was absolutely crucial in passing I-200 in Washington."
- In just two drive times in April 2003, Wilbur and Carlson raised
$70,000 in small donations for a national pro-war TV spot. "We even put
it on 'The West Wing.'" Wilbur laughs because the national show is
often excoriated on talk radio as leftist propaganda. A drive for a
similar anti-war ad never got off the ground.
parts of this are from The Jocks of Talk, by Michael Hood, Seattle Magazine, Nov. 2003
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