BlatherWatch

War of the (radio) worlds

Industry watchers are eagerly anticipating the pending showdown between Clear Channel and Cumulus as the latter is adding new voices and services to their line up. Maybe the most interesting face off starts next week when Mike Huckabee goes directly up against Rush Limbaugh (770 KTTH M-F 9a-12p).  Now that Rush has gotten himself in some hot water, however temporary, will listeners tune in to Huckabee as an alternative? Cumulus certainly hopes so, and also hopes that audience will give the other new voices, such as Ryan Seacrest, a chance as well.

The New York Times has this to say:

 "Cumulus, which is publicly traded, and Clear Channel, which is privately held, mostly by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, are highly profitable. But Cumulus and Clear Channel are also saddled with enormous amounts of debt — $20 billion in Clear Channel’s case and $2.8 billion in Cumulus’s. For years they have been squeezing costs out at stations by laying off employees and cutting local programming."

Cumulus hopes to offer alternative programming with other voices, such as Seacrest and Geraldo Rivera, as well as local traffic news, to advertisers looking to buy time on shows with less controversial hosts.

Our friend over at Daily Kos, Joan McCarter, says, "With Huckabee, it's all of the conservatism, none of the hate. Well, none of the explicit hate, implied maybe, given Huckabee's extreme conservatism shielded under the nice-guy image...Whether this can make a huge dent in Clear Channel's dominance in talk radio remains to be seen. They've got 900 stations to Cumulus' 580. Limbaugh's show runs on 600 of Clear Channel's stations. So far, 140 stations have contracted to air Huckabee's show, but significantly "only about 45 of those stations are owned and operated by Cumulus, meaning that the other stations that agreed to carry Huckabee's show have no affiliation with the company."

 Washington listeners can find Huckabee on the following stations:

                          KBKW AM 145  Aberdeen           

                          KEDO AM 1400 Longview

                          KBSN AM 1470 Moses Lake

                          KNCW FM 92.7 Omak

                          KOMW AM 680 Omak
 

                          KONA AM 610  Pasco

                          KONP AM 1450 Port Angeles

                          KCIS AM 630 Seattle

                          KVNI AM 1080 Spokane

                          KXLY AM 920 Spokane

                          KBBO AM 980 Yakima

BlatherWatch to rick santorum

BlatherWatch will caucus for the pugnacious, glib, ass-o-holic, orthodox religionist, Rick Santorum, Saturday, March 3. 

The PA Senator has suggested (among many other things) that legalizing gay sex could/would lead to recognition of “man on child” and “man on dog” relationships, and would “undermine the fabric of our society.”

Despite his stand against higher education, and a woman's right to choose anything that has to do with her reproductive parts, we believe him to be the best candidate to represent the ruling tea party wing of the GOP and face President Obama in the fall.

Despite embarrassing literal translations of his name that would disqualify any other candidate, we think Rick Santorum would be the funnest to watch being trounced by the President.

Wanna join us helping Rick get the nod from Washington state? click here to find your caucus location. Be a Republican for a day, walk a mile in their Guccis, help save America.

Open thread: the shitstrewn GOP primary trudge$ on...

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Rush and sarah palin agree: romney is "obama's candidate of choice"

We love this: Rush Limbaugh concurred with Palin on the radio Monday:

There is a story on the Drudge Report today from Sarah Palin in which Sarah Palin says that the White House wants Mitt Romney to be the Republican nominee. Now, not only did I tell you that the Broncos were gonna beat the Steelers, for months I have been telling you that the Democrats want Romney — and you all know it. You’ve been listening here and you’ve heard people call me and tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about, that I’m full of it, that they’re scared of Romney. “Romney is the only guy who can win.” And I have said, “No,” and I’ve stood tough, and I’ve said, “They can’t wait for him. What’s Occupy Wall Street all about but running against Romney? He’s the Wall Street guy on our roster — and then Romneycare,” and I’ve laid it all out. So here comes Palin, she says it, and makes news.

He, she are full of shit, of course. The White House has long known Romney is the most formidable candidate (with independents) the GOP's got... he's deeply flawed, but he's not as baggage-burdened as some or out in the deep inner space of the right-wing fringes as the others.

Not sure who Palin & Rush will endorse, but at the moment it's anyone but Romney (author's note: hee-hee).

Yes! the best Iowa caucus... ever! UPDATED!

UPDATE: Perry is still in, Bachmann is out. Thank-you, sweet Jesus, thank-you!

Romney, stinkin' up the tiny, tiny lead, taking the withered trophy on to New Hampshire. Santorum (repeat for emphasis) SANTORUM! statistically tied to Romney's stinkin' tiny, tiny lead. Ron Paul, the  coming up close behind. We're in for a long haul... and that's great for the President.

Perry's gone, Bachmann's neutered (or would the proper word be speyed?) so evangelicals, who make up 60% of the Southern-based Republican party who hate Romney more than sin itself, will coalesce now, around Santorum (SANTORUM?!) and squeaky ol' Ron Paul will help Newt Gingrich shovel dirt on the proceedings.

The deep, dark rents in the Republican Party will never be more evident, as the rubber of the primaries hits the road to November. (author's note: hee hee) 

A battered and scarred Mitt Romney will emerge... and as he crawls off the GOP battlefield to claim victory- he looks up to see a billion $ worth of carpet bombing let loose on his skinny ass by President Obama.

Breitbart attacks beck for attacking newt for attacking romney and other funny valentines

The mighty ship that is the American right is cracking-up on the hostile reefs of ideological purity and old-fashioned personal grudges. Underline the personal.

Remember how we told you that Beck alleged on the Fox Business Channel that Gingrich was so similar to President Obama as a progressive, that the reason tea party baggers would vote for him instead  over the President would be because of race? He as good as called Newt's tea party supporters racists. 

O dear.

Expunging the 'gay' from offensive xmas carols

Dan Savage reports that Cherry Knoll Elementary School in Traverse City, Michigan is removing the word 'gay' from Deck The Halls at the children's Christmas concert.

(photo: Don in gay apparel)

But can you even get The Gay and their nasty sex out of Xmas? We doubt it. As commenter Matt Bernier notes on Cherry Knoll's Facebook:

I for one support this decision, and additionally express my concern at other salacious lyrics involving homonyms the teacher may have overlooked. For instance, geeses "laying," Santa "coming" and finding out who is "naughty," and of course any instance of the word "do" or "did." Also, singing is pretty gay in and of itself, the kids probably shouldn't be doing it at all. Seriously, is the music teacher snickering middle schooler? Did he watch too much Beavis and Butthead? What in blazes is wrong with them? 

Savage writes: "Please bring some attention to this issue! As far as I can find there has been no local press coverage, but you can see outrage from some community members at the school's Facebook page. Information to contact the school's administrators can be found here."

Sunday morning sermon: little ricky

Ricky Goes to Church from Airwave Ranger on Vimeo.

Chuck norris warns white people of homeland insecurity

  You know how President Obama is always persecuting white Christians and pushing his Muslim Black Power agenda with the mighty swift sword of the federal government?

You ain't the only one, Rodney.

Seems White Power Ranger Chuck Norris, 71, is warning the dittoheads that "the federal government is ignoring Al-Qaeda Muslims while shifting its strategy to target anti-big government citizen activists." It's all in a TownHall.com piece, Feds Still Enable Terrorists 10 Years After 9/11.

Wingers loves them some stormy weather!

(photo: Pat Robertson "bringin' in the sheaves."

Sick as we are of having the Sunday morning talk shows (and virtually all other media) walloped by the high winds and swollen tidal surge of East Coast local weather reports, we gotta laugh at the some of the goofy right's reactions to the Big Storm.

Ron Paul:

says FEMA needs to be abolished. On Fox News Sunday, Paul described FEMA as a drain on the economy — a “gross distortion of insurance” that only “bleeding hearts” would support — that “just bail[s] out everybody.”

Wednesday he told a group in a speech:

"We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960," Paul said. "I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district."

Pat Robertson

apparently didn't comment on the storm, but we know what he was thinking! Especially after he said on Wednesday’s 700 Club that the earthquake that struck Washington Tuesday “means that we’re closer to the coming of the Lord.” Then on Thursday, Robertson pointed to the damage to the Washington Monument in the earthquake as a Divine Message (and it wasn't a 'like'):

“It seems to me the Washington Monument is a symbol of America’s power. It has been the symbol of our great nation. We look at the symbol and we say ‘this is one nation under God.’ Now there’s a crack in it... Is that sign from the Lord? ... You judge. It seems to me symbolic.”

Robertson has long called disasters (both man-made and natural) God's punishments for immoral behavior or signs of The End Times. He never fails to pass the teevee collection plate to help out God's victims.

Glenn Beck

also warned about The Big Guy's Wrath, Hurricane Irene and the earthquake.

How many warnings do you think you’re going to get, and how many warnings do you deserve? This hurricane that is coming thorough the East Coast, for anyone who’s in the East Coast and has been listening to me say ‘Food storage!’ ‘Be prepared!’ […] If you’ve waited, this hurricane is a blessing. It is a blessing. It is God reminding you — as was the earthquake last week — it’s God reminding you you’re not in control.

 The Washington Post wrote that Beck's recommendations about stockpiling might come from his Mormonism: 

Section 78 of the Doctrine and Covenants revelation was given, Mormons believe, to Joseph Smith by God in 1832 and includes the command to “organize and establish a storehouse,” which Mormon leaders have interpreted as a requirement to, when possible, “store and save a one-year supply of food.” The church Web site even includes a Food Storage Calculator “to help you determine your longer-term food storage needs.”

The Republican House budget

pledges to fight socialism and stop big government by making Draconian cuts to the NOAA budget to stop or delay the construction and launch of an extreme weather forecasting satellite.

"Thomas" a caller

to the Rusty Humphries Show, Friday, has no doubt where the blame lays: Clearly, he said, "God is pissed at Obama."