Guest Blogged by Miriam Raftery
SAN DIEGO – “We believe dissent is patriotic. We believe in the constitution and we believe in the United States of America,” AM 1360 KLSD talk show host Stacy Taylor said on his morning show in San Diego on Monday, drawing cheers from a crowd of more than 500 listeners who showed up at 7am to rally in protest of Clear Channel’s plan to convert San Diego’s only progressive radio station to an all-sports format.
Over 1,100 people have signed a petition calling on Clear Channel to keep KLSD’s progressive format since word of the planned format change leaked out late last week. Clear Channel executives have also been deluged with thousands of emails, virtually all in favor of keeping Air America on the air in America’s sixth largest city.
KLSD has received letters supporting KLSD progressive radio received from Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Mike Gravel, and Ambassador Joe Wilson, husband of former CIA-agent Valerie Plame, whose identity was leaked to the press by a White House source.
“Clear Channel has no agenda to shut down progressive voices,” programming director Cliff Albert said at the rally. Consideration of a format change is motivated solely by falling Arbitron ratings and concerns over advertising dollars, KLSD insiders have disclosed.
But some expressed skepticism.
“I think this is another effort to shut down progressive voices where the message is most effective, especially here in a military town,” said Bree Walker, an Air America host in Los Angeles and former San Diego TV newscaster who recently purchased Cindy Sheehan’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, shared that concern. “I suspect they’ll be starting in San Diego and moving around the U.S. to shut down the progressives,” she predicted…
A caller to an Air America program last week offered a tip that the Carlysle Group may be seeking to buy Clear Channel””a rumor that has triggered alarm throughout the progressive community. A global private equity firm based in Washington D.C., the Carlysle Group’s board has included George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of State James A. Baker, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The company operates several major funds and has business dealings in the defense, aerospace, energy, and healthcare industries, among others.
Clear Channel, America’s largest radio company with over 1,100 stations nationwide, was acquired by private equity firms Thomas H Lee Partners, Bain Capital, and the company’s founding family for nearly $US 19 billion in November 2006.
Carlysle and Bain have a history of collaboration. In June, the two firms teamed up to make an offer, along with Clayton Dubillier, to purchase Home Depot’s supply business for approximately $10 billion, PBS reported.
Both companies have also donated to Republican Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign.
“If it’s the Carlysle Group versus Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox News), we’re sunk,” said Walker, who disclosed that a top award-winning investigative journalist is looking into whether Carlisle Group has indeed launched a bid to acquire Clear Channel.
NonStopRadio.com is a website devoted to saving progressive talk radio formats. NonStop Radio recently succeeded in persuading a Madison, Wisconsin, station not to flip to a sports network. According to Aldous Tyler, spokesperson for NonStop Radio, 25 stations around the country have flipped from progressive talk in the past 18 months.
“Of those 25 format flips, not a single one has performed as well in their market as progressive talk did on that same signal,” a letter from Tyler to KLSD’s Albert stated. “We’re talking markets as diverse as Atlanta, Georgia, to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Boston, Massachusetts. Most of the stations have consistently gleaned less than half the Arbitron ratings that progressive talk was able to pull.” Tyler attributes this fact to weak transmitters and notes that listeners will only stick with a station that has poor transmission quality when the content is unique in the market.
Numerous listeners have complained of poor signal quality and suggest that if Clear Channel would invest in a transmitter as strong as those for its conservative talk, sports, and music stations, KLSD would attract a broader listener base.
After a public outcry in Madison, Wisconsin, Clear Channel backed down on plans to convert a progressive station to a sports format. Organizers of San Diego’s rally are cautiously optimistic that the strong community showing will help persuade Clear Channel executives in San Antonio, Texas, who ultimately will make the decision, to keep Air America programming in San Diego.
Of 847 e-mails received by program director Cliff Albert, all but one were supportive of progressive radio. The lone dissenter was an employee asking for a raise, Albert quipped. “I told him `No.'”
Voices from all over the nation are chiming in to support KLSD, recognizing that San Diego County is considered a key stronghold for Republicans seeking to turn California red in 2008.
“The increasing monopolization of the mainstream media today demands that we stand up for independent-minded, progressive voices out there like KLSD AM 1360 in San Diego,” a letter from presidential candidate Mike Gravel stated. “By focusing solely on the bottom line, corporate owners of media fail to understand the vital role they play in our democracy.”
Republican Mayor Art Madrid of La Mesa also sent an e-mail urging that KLSD’s progressive talk format be preserved to allow the public to hear both sides of issues, drawing cheers from the crowd when his letter was read aloud.
Describing himself as a “frequent listener” of KLSD programs, Madrid stated that he finds the station’s hosts to be “more lucid, credible and genuinely concerned for the total welfare of this country than many of their conservative counterparts. Poll after poll continues to reflect the public’s outrage in the manner our constitution is being shredded; this fact is never pointed out by the other side.”
He added, “As a lifelong registered Republican, I and large numbers of other “R”s are offended by how the party has been hijacked by self-serving zealots…It’s not easy for some to accept the fact that having a different perspective is not unpatriotic.”
For more information, visit www.saveklsd.com. To sign the petition, click http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-klsd-am-1360.html.
Photos by Steve Viele and Miriam Raftery
Miriam,
I signed the petition.
“Republican Mayor Art Madrid of La Mesa” is the kind of American I can support. Note his command of the American understanding:
Well said Mayor. We are trying to help you rid your party of the neoCon element that distorts reality and does harm to our American traditions.
Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Independents, Americans one and all sign the petition for our friends in San Diego.
I was there. It was a great rally.
One of the Clear Channel executives said that KLSD earned about $1.4 million in revenue last year, and that to be considered viable, the station would have to bring in $5 million. That would mean that KLSD needs to bring in about $10,000 per day in additional ad revenue.
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but regardless, that’s how Clear Channel will justify its decision.
I was there too yesterday. It was a great showing. I think many of us there have expressed interest in trying to support their advertisers. I did tell Scooter though, that they have to look for *honest* advertisers that we can feel comfortable in supporting. When we get a lot of ads by the likes of the notorious Corky McMillin (McMillin Real Estate ads), it is really hard to want to throw dollars his way, when he will use them to continue to fund getting Republicans elected here locally. Most listeners who know who he is, can’t find it within themselves to throw money his way, when they know it will likely be more for ill purposes than it will be to help KLSD stay on the air. In short, their ad sales department needs to make sure that they get advertisers that an informed audience CAN support with business dollars.
Didn’t clear channel in receiving their license contractually agree to do what is in the public interest using OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES? Where is the accountability and the disconnect that allows them to be for sheer profit?
Where is Rep. Dennis Kucinich? He is the chair of the commmittee which should be holding oversight hearings about the far right’s pirating of the AM Radio dial into a dirty disinformation operation which the prestigious (conservative funded) Annenberg School of Communcation found has duped 50 million listeners with “false certainty” on almost every issue, swinging the past 5 of 6 elections.
The witless Dems act like they don’t even know what hit them, scared of the paper tiger issue “Fairness Doctrine” when in fact they have the power now to bring in these corporate owners and make them sweat in high profile Congressional hearings that expose to the public exactly how their politics were ruined and became so nasty and false. Kathleen Hall Jamison of the Annenberg School has sat there for a dozen years with the definitive research showing how right wing tricksters set up an AM disinformation operation that would make Goebbels blush. Why hasn’t she been called, interviewed, blogged, or anything else?
High profilie Congressional hearings overseeing the publicly owned airwaves are required NOW. The owners (owing the GOP for millions in tax cuts and dozens of ownership-limits waivers) responded to the Dem takeover of Congress by rolling out ratings clunker Dennis Miller in 150 markets, while ratings winner Ed Schulz can’t get heard in 70% of the country. Hit them hard and hit them NOW! Otherwise the right’s AM radio juggernaut is going to roll right over the Dems and continue recruiting millions of willfullly ignorant dupes.
Miriam did you mean “The Carlyle Group” or “Carlisle Group ” rumored to buy Clear Channel?
Excellent piece Miram! Thank you!!!
Our beloved Founders cautioned that the only way to keep the democracy they created for us would be to have a populace fully informed about all sides of the issues.
The San Diego radio market is the 8th largest in the nation.
Just when the 2008 Election Cycle begins, KLSD, this one voice, representing roughly 50% of the people in the metropolitan San Diego area, faces being silenced. If this station is changed to sports talk, Democrats, Greens, and Progressives of all stripes in the metropolitan San Diego area will have lost their sole source of information, and their voice.
This is a miscarriage of the code that stations must act in the PUBLIC INTEREST.
We urge everyone who believes in democracy – our conservative friends – our libertarian friends – all – to stand with us to heed the plea of our Founders, and help to save this station.
It’s the patriotic thing to do.
GWN – Carlysle, thanks. I’ve corrected it above. No more writing in the wee hours of the morning on 2 hours sleep!
That signal is terribly weak with a lot of interference (especially lately). There is some religious station somewhere that broadcasts right on top of the klsd signal. Also the electrical lines seem to cause an inordinate amount of interference on that station. It is almost like it is being “jammed”. I have also gotten a strong signal of the religious station from electrical lines (?)(?) in different areas. A boost of the signal would help a lot.
And while your at it check out what the weasle kevin martin has to say about the Fairness Doctrine:
http://www.orbitcast.com/archiv...-a-reason.html
I suggest any and everyone let him know just what you think of his statement!
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioner...rtin/mail.html
Miriam-
Great post. I was also there for most of the morning and was very impressed by the number and enthusiasm of those who attended at such an early hour. The comments on this thread are very much to the point.
KLSD has a very weak signal. I live in San Clemente, a little bit north of San Diego, and can pick up their signal at certain hours of the day. Increasingly, in recent weeks, their signal seems to be overlapped by an offensive, rightwing Christian station that comes in much stronger than KLSD in the later afternoon and evenings. Lately, I have had to listen on the internet if I wanted to hear the station during those hours. I actually get KTLK, the LA Air America affiliate, a little more clearly (most of the time) but the hosts of the local shows on KLSD (Stacy Taylor, Craig Elsten and Jon Elliott, who now has a national show for Air America that is not broadcast on KTLK) and the line-up of shows on KLSD (which include the syndicated Mike Malloy show), are just plain better than the KTLK local hosts and overall line-up.
Replacing this station with a sportstalk show, as has been speculated, makes NO sense. There are already 2 sportstalk stations in San Diego and 2 from LA that can be heard in much of San Diego. I can imagine NO need for another sportstalk station, other than the seemingly “safe” neutrality of making such a change with the secret agenda being to eliminate a critical progressive voice in San Diego. They will NOT find as dedicated of an audience if they abandon the progressive listeners and they will NOT increase advertising revenues with another sports format, especially if they leave the signal as weak as it is. The sister station in San Diego, KOGO, that is also owned by Clear Channel and broadcast out of the same building as KLSD, has a rightwing talk line up and a much stronger signal. I would be very curious to see what would happen if the situation were reversed and the progressive voice was on KOGO and the rightwing on KLSD. The whole thing is very suspicious, even if the justification is the bottom-line dollar.
I should also give a shout out to Lillian Ritt, a San Diego attorney and progressive activist who was an attorney for Barbara Gail Jacobson, and who, along with Ms. Jacobson contested the CA-50 Busby/Bilbray special election and filed the request to hand count paper ballots and “paper trails” in the disputed contest, ultimately losing that appeal on challenge in CA Court of Appeals (4th District) (see). Ms. Ritt was at the rally for KLSD and pledged $10,000 of her own money to support the effort to keep KLSD in its current format. May not make enough of a difference in the long run but certainly was an impressive example of putting one’s money where one’s mouth and actions obviously are.
I first became aware of right wing religious stations squelching out NPR when I traveled in the South. There religious stations operated by the Big 3 televangelists were allowed to expand their signal to where they block nearly all of the NPR station signals in places like Ft. Lauderdale where the Coral Ridge Presbyterian church is headquartered, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. This appears to be agreed behind the scenes between the religios and FCC technical people. They simply vary their signal allowance and one day the transmitter is turned up and half of the population can’t hear NPR or, in some cases, other adjacent stations.
Remember too that even liberal companies like the New York Times and the Washington Post Company played ball with Bush in 2004 in return for major waivers for the number of outlets they could own in a single market. The point man for this was Colin Powell’s son. All of this remains to be investigated by the Dem Congress, but Rep. Kucinich is too busy with his vanity Presidential campaign to keep his promise made on Ed Schultz show.
This needs to be investigated by one of the weeklies.
I first became aware of right wing religious stations squelching out NPR when I traveled in the South. There religious stations operated by the Big 3 televangelists were allowed to expand their signal to where they block nearly all of the NPR station signals in places like Ft. Lauderdale where the Coral Ridge Presbyterian church is headquartered, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. This appears to be agreed behind the scenes between the religios and FCC technical people. They simply vary their signal allowance and one day the transmitter is turned up and half of the population can’t hear NPR or other adjacent stations.
Remember too that even liberal companies like the New York Times and the Washington Post Company played ball with Bush in 2004 in return for major waivers for the number of outlets they could own in a single market. The point man for this was Colin Powell’s son. All of this remains to be investigated by the Dem Congress, but Rep. Kucinich is too busy with his vanity Presidential campaign to keep his promise made on Ed Schultz show.
This needs to be investigated by one of the weeklies.
Idiots,
Airwaves are not free….get a license and you can transmit the revunue losing Air America all you want.
Sports channels sell ads…make money. If Air America would give the transmissions for free…they might stay on…but they have to pay the employees …just like everyone else. Th whole ‘America Hating’ rhetoric could be fun if they could just sell ads…they can’t.
How progressive are you that you cant switch to free podcasts or the guaranteed revenue of XM. Is the point the message or to make make money?
500 and 1100 names…oh yea…that will pay the bills.
Until we are socialist….you have to make money to stay on the air and pay the license fees….Sorry AA you failed at every level.
Hey Wackadoodle, explain how KTLK in L.A. is so crammed with ads the listeners are revolting. And how they get United Airlines and Bank of America who say they won’t consider advertising on hate radio
I’ll bet I’d have to wade through the ads on KLSD too. It’s you morbidly obese rightists who can’t get ads besides Hooked on Phonics and Beano. Except for Snapple, but we’re gonna deal with that soon!
About 90 days ago the Air America Radio affiliate in Portland, Maine took AAR of the air for a 24/7 sports broadcast. The Boston affiliate of Air America Radio switched over to a Hispanic/Christian format.
The Fascist Neo-Cons do not want reality based progressive voices contaminating their airwaves. If they buy up and control the radio media they can dictate that their brand of Fascist propaganda gets air time 24 hours a day.
My sources are telling me that recent new voter registrations in San Diego County are running at an astounding 10-to-1 ratio of Democrats over Republicans. That should give pause to anyone who thinks advertising on right-wing advertising is the way to appeal to a broadening audience.
Hey #15, As far as voting demographics go those born from 43-58 do most of the voting in this country. Check it out:
THE ANES GUIDE TO PUBLIC OPINION AND ELECTORAL BEHAVIOR
______________________________________________________
Age Cohort of Respondent 1948-2004
’48 ’52 ’54 ’56 ’58 ’60 ’62 ’64 ’66 ’68 ’70 ’72 ’74 ’76 ’78 ’80 ’82 ’84 ’86 ’88 ’90 ’92 ’94 ’96 ’98 ’00 ’02 ’04
Born 1975 or later – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 1 5 6 12 14 17 21
Born 1959-1974 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 3 7 10 16 19 22 30 30 33 34 31 32 36 30
Born 1943-1958 – – – – – – – 2 7 10 17 28 34 36 39 37 37 37 38 36 32 32 31 30 30 29 27 28
Born 1927-1942 9 8 7 18 21 21 28 33 31 32 31 27 23 23 25 23 21 21 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 13 16
Born 1911-1926 22 39 48 41 39 38 34 34 32 31 27 25 24 24 21 22 24 19 17 16 16 15 12 11 10 8 6 5
Born 1895-1910 46 30 33 26 26 27 25 22 22 21 21 16 16 15 10 11 8 8 5 6 3 3 1 1 1 1 0 0
Born before 1895 24 22 13 15 15 14 13 9 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 1 – – – – – – – – – – –
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
N 654 1773 1132 1742 1822 1950 1290 1566 1280 1552 1476 2688 2487 2850 2294 1612 1416 2232 2173 2037 1980 2488 1795 1708 1267 1800 1503 1212
PERCENTAGE WITHIN STUDY YEAR
Table 1A.1
Source: The American National Election Studies
This question is variable VCF0103 in the ANES Cumulative Data File dataset.
Consult the Cumulative Data File codebook for complete question text and annotation.
Weight variable VCF0009A was used to produce this table (see weight documentation).
Table generated: 27NOV05
So tell me, how many of that age group get their news from ipods and satellite news programs. The fact remains right wing nuts are being allowed to influence the majority of the voting public which still turns on the radio or tv for news, because of the consolidation of media the FCC is allowing to happen!
Thanks #19 for the shoutout and the stats”¦to bad they are irrelevant.
The argument is the validity of Air America”¦they cant get enough listeners to charge enough for the advertising and thus can’t pay the paychecks of the admins and jocks. I was suggestion a cheaper route for them”¦ so they don’t fold it up like Fonda and Fraken did. I want them on air. so people can see how whinny, stupid and unfunny the other side is. It only makes the straight arrows stronger.
The LA station KTLK cant break the top 35″¦and thus can only charge 1/3 the cost for advertising that the top 20 stations can. The suits don’t care about politics boys and girls.
Strangely enough the fairness doctrine might help air America”¦forcing them to have on conservatives”¦will increase the listeners.
Tangent #1: Are you are saying that Rush Limbaugh is converting Democrats to vote Republican? Or are you saying independents and Greens are too stupid to sense bias?
Tangent #2: If NPR wasn’t government subsidized it would fold. And I know a lot of people that listen to it. But not enough to compete in the market that it is trying too. You want to get the hippie message out”¦go rent “Pump Up the Volume””¦.and follow the directions (lemme know when you get naked in the backyard”¦I’ll bring my camera). I’m dying to know how to make a tofu burger taste like chicken anyways.
I was at Monday’s rally at KLSD and made a mini-documentary which I posted on YouTube today.
Viewable at:
http://www.youtube.com/joydogs
or by clicking:
KLSD PROTEST VIDEO
It isn’t that AirAmerica isn’t a profitable enterprise; its a liberal enterprise. Its not that AirAmerica had low ratings; it’s the high ratings that that that freaked out the Neocons. Keep AirAmerica on the air!
Clear Channel says the same thing in every state about losing money with progressive talk radio. Actually they send these shows out on the weakest channels so that it is almost impossible to hear them. Most of the time the sound travels in and out or is overrun by another station. Seemed to always happen when Randi Rhodes is on.
They replaced our only progressive station with sports junk also.
Clear Channel is owned by right wing liars.
These monopolies must be broken up.
They are shutting down progressive radio all over the US. In Phoenix, the Air America station was turned over to a reich wing religious station. Now there are at least 9 religious stations in metro Phoenix.
In Davenport, Iowa, last December, their Air America station was sold to a (you guessed it) a reich wing religious station and they played Christmas carols for 3 weeks without any advertisements.
Nova M radio is now in metro Phoenix, AM 1480. They are also on the net so you can stream the station at http://www.1480kphx.com/. So we finally have progressive radio back in Phoenix but again with a weak signal but at least a signal.
They also have Mike Malloy (formally on Air America in New York) on at 6PM Mountain Standard Time and he is still giving the Booosh crime family the what for. Also Randi Rhodes is on from 12-3Pm MST.
These people will not be happy until they only have reich wingers on from coast to coast. You can’t tell me 9 religious stations are needed in any market. It’s all part of the plan of dumbing down America. Get your computers going or get satellite radio so the truth still gets out.
KLSD ends its run as San Diego’s Air America station, and also for Ed Schultz, and Stacy Taylor. The new format starts on Oct. 15.