"What killed the liberal radio star?" - Answer: Corporate Sponsor Boycott

[TomCADem]

This is a pretty good piece, but it does ignore the elephant in the room that corporate sponsors have often boycotted progressive media. A few years ago, a confidential ABC was disclosed that showed several sponsors specifically boycotting progressive shows. Conversely, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh get a significant amount of money from corporate sponsors and the 1 percent who are eager to support the spread of these viewpoints.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/killed-liberal-radio-star-article-1.1557670

Next week, when WWRL 1600 AM flips its format from progressive talk to Spanish-language music and talk, New York will have no left-leaning commercial talk station for the first time in decades — an ironic development just as an unabashedly liberal mayor and City Council are set to take office.

It’s not as if liberal voices will vanish — noncommercial stations like WBAI and WNYC are still alive and kicking — but they can’t replace the local flavor and crackling energy of commercial radio, where shows move more quickly to accommodate the ads.

The changeover at WWRL comes as a personal blow: I was the morning drivetime host at the station from June 2008 through October 2010. Sad to say, the steady elimination of progressive radio from the airwaves is part of a nationwide crisis facing commercial radio.

In Los Angeles, the last remaining all-liberal talk station, KTLK, will do an about-face and start airing only conservative talkers on Jan. 1. Ditto for KNEW in San Francisco. Last November, progressive stations in Portland, Ore., and Seattle switched to all-sports formats.

[qazplm]

1. for whatever reason

I just don't think nearly as many progressives as conservatives listen to talk radio.

I honestly have no interest in listening to talk radio...I prefer the comedy channels or music or during football season the fantasy football channel.

I'll listen to MSNBC once in a rare while if there is breaking news going on, or an issue of import...but that's it.
I would rather read progressive blogs than listen to progressive radio.

[House of Roberts]

2. I listen at all hours of the day.

I work third shift, so I sometimes sleep in the morning, and sometimes sleep later in the afternoon to the evening.

I generally use Progressive Voices on Tune In, but I listen to Thom Hartmann on Free Speech TV, if I'm up.

If a corporation advertises on shows I listen to, I try to use their product if I can.

[shenmue]

3. There are more apps and online services every day

Yes, AM radio is still used by a lot of people, and it's good if we can have that. But there are now satellite stations, online stations, lots of new things coming in to replace the previous examples.

[TomCADem]

5. Any recommendtions for online progressive radio stations?

It would be great if there was an online equivalent to Air America.

[ReRe]

6. NormanGoldman.com

6-9pm EST, M-F Try it for a week and you'll be adicted to it.

[elzenmahn]

7. There are some GREAT podcasts out there...

Personally, I like Sam Seder's Majority Report, as well as Peter B. Collins, Randi Rhodes (who is moving to I Heart Radio), Mike Malloy, Stephanie Miller, and the Dean himself - Thom Hartmann. Also, there's Ben Burch's White Rose Society website, where he archives the shows for dozens of progressive shows. There are many other good ones out there, and as mentioned above, I Heart Radio is one place where you may be able to stream some of them. SiriusXM's Progress 127 is another option.

You'll have to dig more to find progressive voices, and it might involve ponying up a bit of $$ for subscriptions, but they're out there. And as for any subscription fees - remember that Corporate America has proven that they won't support progressive media (MSNBC? Progressive? Ha. Ha. Ha.) It's going to take direct cash support from we, the listeners, to keep these voices active - and it's money well spent, in my book.

It's up to us.

[ybbor]

9. WCPT in Chicago

They are a privately and locally owned station that you can stream to any device. I listen M-F in my car through my phone. Stephanie Miller, Bill Press, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, ...

[shenmue]

12. Here are some

http://headonradionetwork.com/

http://www.siriusxm.com/ (for pay but has two liberal channels)

https://www.freespeech.org/

http://www.whiterosesociety.org/

http://www.americasdemocrats.org/ (look under 'listen')

[bananas]

14. Several recommendations...

I'll try to add more tomorrow...

The Amy Goodman Network - stations which carry Amy Goodman are likely to carry other good radio...
Go to Democracy Now's list of stations, try to find some which are local and near you,
odds are they will carry locally-produced shows about local issues...

[El_Johns]

20. kboo portland but you can stream it.

http://kboo.fm/listen

[tech3149]

8. That's all well and good but there is a serious problem

with that frame of thinking.
The broadcast media is the LCD (lowest common denominator) that is accessible to everyone. When that is channeled and controlled by one POV, there is every expectation that peoples viewpoint will be influenced by that one-sided discussion.
I'm lucky that I can pay for cable broadband, even if it is too expensive, but there are far more than you would think that can't pay that. They don't have the range of ideas presented to them when "free media" is so obviously biased.
I had spent a few months discussing politics and policy with an old friend living in Indiana since he was a teenager. He had bought into the RW philosophy and POV but I knew how smart he was. His intelligence wasn't a safeguard from having his perception being managed by the available media.

The consolidation of ownership, and especially ownership by financial institutions has helped focus the discussion on trivial secondary matters rather than the real reason we are being bent over and fucked up the ass.

[whathehell]

10. Progressive radio isn't restricted to AM,

it's on FM as well. Just sayin'

[bananas]

15. The Amy Goodman Network

The Amy Goodman Network - stations which carry Amy Goodman are likely to carry other good radio...
Go to Democracy Now's list of stations, try to find some which are local and near you,
odds are they will carry locally-produced shows about local issues...

[FreakinDJ]

4. Corporate America gearing up for the 2014 elections

[MisterP]

11. also, neo-Nazis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Berg
for opposing "guns everywhere" back in the day when it wasn't an axiom for the "entire" political spectrum

[CFLDem]

13. Wealthy entities aren't going to pay to have their values mocked. N/t

[Doctor_J]

19. or undermined, or disproven

Rove's propaganda apparatus puts those of Hitler and Mao to shame. they're now working on slanting the internet the same way that TV, radio, and the newspapers are.

I think when we decide to fight, there will be a period of a few months when it becomes extremely bad to be a member of Big Media.

[GTurck]

16. Que4.org....

in Chicago is now on Internet and soon at 1720 A.M. Small station devoted to progressive ideas, local artists.

[alp227]

21. *1710, which is the highest AM frequency. N/t

[Doctor_J]

17. There are DUers who still believe this is supply & demand

that every radio station in the entire country broadcasts lies & hate 24/7 because "that's what the people want"; that "no one would listen to Dem/liberal radio", even in deep blue areas. IMO this proves many of us have Stockholm Syndrome.

[Bozvotros]

18. Exactly right

There is a deep fear of progressive populism among the very wealthy who own these stations. It is not in their best interest to have these ideas take hold. A few thousand listeners who can be swayed to change their thinking can change local and state elections. Hence there are huge areas of the country where right wing hate radio is the only game in town. This needs to change and its impact on local and state elections is being underestimated.