As you may have noticed (or expected), I’ve been doing a lot of radio lately, discussing the AZ Shooting and related issues, such as the RW media and Democratic Party culpability and what needs to be done about it.
A discussion I had earlier this week with the non-partisan Allen Handelman on North Carolina’s powerful 100k watt “Super Station,” FM Talk 101.1 WZTK was particularly enlightening, I think. Most interesting was that the bulk of the callers — even though I had been hoping for folks to call in disagreeing with my take — seemed to generally agree with me. That, even on this station in supposedly “red” NC which features both non-RW talkers as well as far RW misinformants and miscreants such as Michael Savage and Neal Boortz who use our publicly owned airwaves to skew the nation with damnable lies and propaganda.
Happily, NC’s FM Talk 101.1 is the exception to the national rule, as it uses its licensed airwaves to serve the public interest, as they are supposed to by law, by offering a variety of political viewpoints. In the bargain, they are the area’s #1 talk station (yes, even beating the stations which carry Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc.). That, of course, would go against a lot of the “conventional wisdom” (propagated, naturally, by RWingers) which says that NC is “red,” that RWingers only want to listen to RW talk, and that folks like Limbaugh and Hannity are so “good” and so many people agree with their “point of view” that they can’t be beat. Of course, having the biggest 100k watt blowtorch in town never hurts either, as is the case in most places where the most powerful signal also seems to receive the most listeners for some odd reason.
So where RW stations are placed on 50,000 watt clear channel transmitters, they tend to handily beat the 1k and 5k and 10k stations where one may be able to hear progressive talk — if you are in a town lucky enough to have such a station and live close enough to its transmitter to actually hear it.
If you’d like to listen to my two “hours” (with commercials already removed, they’re really about 40 mins each) with Allen, they can be downloaded or listened to online below. My thanks to Allen for both having me and for sharing the audio files. He also informs me that he’ll be re-playing these two hours on his nationally syndicated show as well this weekend…
- First “Hour”: Download MP3 or listen below…
The BRAD BLOG on the Air 1/14/2011Brad on ‘Red’ NC’s ‘Allen Handelman Show’ on Tucson Shooting, RW Radio & Restoring Fairness and Balance to OUR Public Airwaves… · · · · · Brad on ‘Red’ NC’s ‘Allen Handelman Show’ on Tucson Shooting, RW Radio & Restoring Fairness and Balance to OUR Public Airwaves…0:00 0:00 - Second “Hour”: Download MP3 or listen below…
The BRAD BLOG on the Air 1/14/2011Brad on ‘Red’ NC’s ‘Allen Handelman Show’ on Tucson Shooting, RW Radio & Restoring Fairness and Balance to OUR Public Airwaves… · · · · · Brad on ‘Red’ NC’s ‘Allen Handelman Show’ on Tucson Shooting, RW Radio & Restoring Fairness and Balance to OUR Public Airwaves…0:00 0:00
Just listened to both hours of you on Halderman’s show. Fantastic.
You got just about everything of importance in this discussion, including the Assange situation.
I watched you interview the “Tea Party” guy. It never ceases to amuse me, although I’ve heard it several times, and have passed it on other sites a few times. Poor guy.
I didn’t know about Halderman before and it makes me even more aware of how many fair minded broadcasters there are and are not known about, including you, who should be on the air on a regular basis.
Much success.
Greatly appreciate the very kind words, Caroline, and that you took the time to listen to the entire program!
BTW, Allen’s last name is Handelman, not Halderman. But that’s an easy mistake to make! 🙂 I just recall that I referred twice to “Rep. Carolyn Maloney” (D-NY) during the show, when I meant “Rep. Carolyn McCarthy” (D-NY) instead! 🙂
I love this station and Handelman’s shows. They’re morning team is great also! I flip between them and NPR in the Raleigh area. I just wish they would dump Michael Weiner and Neil Booring.
And Brad, thank you for keeping pressure in various media outlets on the lies promulgated as RWing “talk”
Just listened to the show on delay here, Brad (thank goodness for the option to do so) and I have to say, great job!
Czaragorn & PO’ed –
Thanks to both of you, friends!
No offense , but you only want to fairness doctrine enacted so liberal ideas will be propagated through the radio air waves. If 91 percent of mainstream talk radio were liberal rather than conservative , you would not care if the fairness doctrine were passed as law. Radio isn’t owned by the public , anymore than the internet is owned by the public. What about the libertarian, anarchist, socialists views that are often ignored on talk radio as well as liberal mainstream cable news. You just want only the liberal side and the conservative side to be aired on radio. There is NO need for the fairness doctrine because I don’t need to go mainstream talk radio hear my kind of politics(free market anarchism) to be aired. I can go to the podcast directory on itunes and typed the word libertarian and the results will show a plethora of libertarian based shows. I listen to the anarcho capitalist show free talk live and its on everyday for two hours and downloaded to my ipod. ITs on over sixty stations and yet they don’t need assistance from the fairness doctrine. Conventional Mainstream talk radio is a dying medium and will be overtaken by internet radio in a few years.