BlatherWatch

Peter B Collins talks about the rise and fall of Progressive Radio

40year radio veteran and pod caster Peter B Collins outlines the slow demise of progressive radio and what went wrong along the way in spite of big political wins by the Democratic party. Read the story here 

 

 

 

Some snippets from the article :

As someone who took substantial personal risk in syndication and station ownership, I can tell you that progressive talk has not panned out as a viable business. Clinton's 1996 deregulation of broadcasting and the end of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 didn't help. I do think the FCC should require some balance of viewpoints on the stations it regulates, through the license renewal process, but there is simply no interest on the part of Obama and his appointees in regulatory reform - even as the president is pilloried by right-wing radio on a daily basis. Air America's parade of management blunders produced the downward spiral that brought us to this tipping point for progressive talk radio, and most station owners, rightly or wrongly, see that failure as an indication that audiences won't support liberal talk radio.

'Aw shucky-ducky!" talk radio's 2011's contributions perhaps may well should be forgotten

Talk radio’s feet forward in 2011 were not exactly covered by Prada or smothered with glory. Actually the newsmakers who broke out of radio were kind of a black-eye for the suffering industry.

(photo: Ted Williams, voice of angel and thirst to match)

(Loudest was b-grade Atlanta talk host, and a-grade horndog Herman Cain, who slithered away from the 2012 GOP presidential race with  a clean shirt and a veneer of dignity. The cloud of shame, however, couldn’t be cleared, even with a moving quote from Pokémon.

The other was Ted Williams, the honey-throated, homeless, Cleveland basso who wowed radio execs and callers-in to a local radio show with his vocal prowess after The Columbus Dispatch posted video of his mellifluous panhandling. He was given a full-time job doing voiceover work for the parent company, a reality show, and a free house in Cleveland. It all went hugely viral after being YouTubed in early January.

Both men were given outsized opportunities; both blew them publicly, magnificently. Both were talented posers who were able to fool some of the people some of the time.

Cain exclaimed<  “Aw, shucky ducky! I feel good today.” But dropped out the race [sic] after a covey of womenfolk with whom he’d dandled (consensually or not) fluttered in at about the same time it became painfully obvious that the proudly low-information candidate doesn’t even read the paper. (Not good for a potential leader of the free world- even a Republican one). Seems talk radio ebullience, hyperbole and self-promotion isn’t enough to get a presidential nomination (not yet, anyway).

Williams ended up drunk, and back in and out of rehab despite a sit-down or two with Dr. Phil. He hasn’t been heard from since.

That leaves Sen. Al Franken and Rep. Mike Pence as the only two national politicians (that we know about) who came from talk radio. Neither are making much news outside their states these days. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Al Franken: the senator from talk radio...

Remember the dire right-wing predictions that Al Franken, the first US Senator from talk radio and a comedian by trade, would be a clownish, partisan bomb-thrower? A pie in the face of the dignity of the most august body in the world? (One could argue that the US Senate is somewhat less than the most august anything in the world).

The clip above shows him factually destroying an anti-gay marriage presentation by Focus on The Family. It also reveals who Senator Franken actually turned out to be. 

Thom hartmann heading to DC

Thom Hartmann (KTPK, m-f, 9-noon) is moving his show and his own self from Portland, Oregon to Washington DC.

Hartmann, 60, said in a press release: "This is a great opportunity for us, broadcasting from the belly of the beast."

As with Dave Ross, BlatherWatch hasn't covered Thom Hartmann much. But we most always agree with him, and dig how his measured, educated, reasonability has made him a big talk star.  According to his syndicator Dial-Global, more people listen to Hartmann's show on more stations than any other progressive talk show in America.

He's a screamin' liberal who doesn't shout.

A favorite story about Hartmann was when the robots got mixed up and beamed him down for hours - not to lib-talker KPTK - but to conservative KTTH as the bloaty, old cigar-butt, Billo Reilly was supposed to be pontifying. Hilarity ensued when we called KIRO demanding an explanation.

Seriously, al franken...

Senate Republicans lengthened the arc of justice today by filibustering Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and the DREAM Act. Why do they hate the troops? Why do they hate gays and Hispanics? Why do they act as if politics will be over November 2, 2010?

It’s what they do, dep't: pawlenty doing “the dino” on al franken

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is now insinuating publicly that there was fraud in the Al Franken/Norm Coleman Senate race in 2008.

(photo Sen. Al Franken)

Great Moments in Blather: WELCOME AL FRANKEN: a seattle radio market analysis just for you

May, 2005: the blogosphere and Air America were young, and Barack Obama was just a sparkle in his own eye, Al Franken, who was to later to become the county's first talk radio host elected to the US Senate, and the hottest ticket on AAR (m-f, 9a-12p) was to speak to Seattle as a AM1090 promo at Town Hall. The ace-boom Seattle libs, BlatherWatch included, lined up to hear. We welcomed him with this early, rather naïve post. We were so much younger then... 

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Come on in, Al, we’ve been waiting for you since the Al Franken Decade.

Poised at the continental edge; Seattle is at the end of the great western terrestrial migration.  We’re where solid ground ends and the Pacific Ocean and the ether of the new paradigm (buddy, can you paradigm?) begins.

~~

Come on in, Al, we’ve been waiting for you since the Al Franken Decade.

Poised at the continental edge; Seattle is at the end of the great western terrestrial migration.  We’re where solid ground ends and the Pacific Ocean and the ether of the new paradigm (buddy, can you paradigm?) begins.

~~

Come on in, Al, we’ve been waiting for you since the Al Franken Decade.

Poised at the continental edge; Seattle is at the end of the great western terrestrial migration.  We’re where solid ground ends and the Pacific Ocean and the ether of the new paradigm (buddy, can you paradigm?) begins.

A cautionary tail: air america

After a recent auction of the intellectual and real assets of Air America, which went silent early this year, veteran radio suit and Air America founding president, Jon Sinton and others are writing about the rise and fall of the progressive network.

We were interested in his remarks about radio’s meta problemos.

Mouthing off, 2008-1010 R.I.P.

There goes the next generation...

KVI has dropped Mouthing Off, with Dave Carson and Kevin Dodrill (Sundays 6-7p) who were attempting to make a talk show that might be listenable to the Millennials, and drag the lagging KVI into a generation of listeners under the age of 50. 

Sadly, their last show was Sunday.

Air america down: what does it mean?

It’s been a tough week for progressives.

First, the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts severely damaged the prospects for the vital Obama health care measure. Then the same old men who gave us George W. Bush in a radical, precedentless decision made another one Thursday which will open elections to floods of corporate money, a boon for the right (they’re crowing).

Then Air America suddenly turned off the lights.