It helps to remember that San Francisco is a city and county with about one million people but the Bay Area is a nine-county area with 7.75 million people. Registered Republicans as of 2021 (newest I could find) make up 6.75% of San Francisco County voters, but 11% of Alameda, 13% of Marin, 14% of San Mateo, almost 17% of Santa Clara and Sonoma, almost 19% of Contra Costa, and 22% of Napa and Solano.
Michael, I'd appreciate your opinion and commentary: For at at least a decade I have found that there is a political mindset that we might call "financially conservative and socially liberal" in urban California that sets people apart from both Red and Blue.
It's not "Libertarian" (I've never met a Libertarian that had consistent perspectives with the next Libertarian) as that is too "no government at all" for most or us. And, for those of use who believe in some form of a Creator, we see extreme distancing from faith by both Libertarians and Democrats
It is a feeling that throwing money at social issues by treating the symptoms rather than the causes is not productive. This week's Newsome move to give Californians free "gas tax refund money" based on income would be a symptom treatment.
So what we have are a lot of what I'd call West Coast Conservatives who, to give an example or two, believe in first trimester abortion, qualified and screened increased immigration, amnesty and citizenship for "dreamers". But the don't agree with cutting police forces, some of the gender education at grade school level and the strenuous push away from fossil fuels without an adequate replacement infrastructure.
Because of that, many of us who were Reagan Republicans 40 years ago are now not nailed-to-the-wall republicans (with a small "r") today. So we are about 50% philosophically allied with the GOP, and, perhaps, equally allied with traditional Democrats and support universal health care and a lot of the long standing Democrat ideas.
So we register as Independents. We vote mixed tickets, and pay more attention to ballot initiatives than the candidates. We are a de facto and huge third part that has no spokespersons.
Note: this is liberal usage of "editorial we".
Given that the statewide average for GOP registration is 23.9%, some of those places aren't far off.
And there you have the real issue. This is one that makes talk radio programming so difficult in California.
Liberal talk never worked in CA (or anywhere else, either) mostly due to the lack of entertaining talent. Conservative talk using the Reagan definitions won't work. KFI has come the closest with more of the attitude that I'm describing... but mostly the have focused heavily on local issues in the LA metro that are seen as "talking about the news" rather than "political talk".
I used to listen several times a week to KGO when I programmed KTNQ. It had San Francisco flavor and that was what I tried to do with KTNQ: no national politics, absolutely no Mexican politics but lots of stuff about things like a school principal who punished kids for speaking Spanish at recess.
When the PPM arrived, KGO, however, had become too much of a "we are a voice of reason" and somewhat didactic. People don't want "a voice of reason" on the radio... they want someone to express their perspectives out loud, or someone to argue with as they talk. Some KGO talent sounded more like our college professor from Philosophy 101 and less like a voice of the people. They stopped being entertaining when they got too high and mighty. Then the PPM arrived and every "fix" they made was like putting Bondo on a car that was totaled.
So I think that there might be 40% to 50% of the coastal urban population in CA that fits in this sort of central zone. But most don't speak up as they are not woke enough for more progressive democrats (and in sectors ranging from government sector jobs to the entertainment and technology industries, that could put your employment in jeopardy) and they are not radically Trump & His Ship of Fools MAGA to be accepted by the loudest Republicans. So they shut up.
And there is no voice for this segment. Radio has ignored the possibility that there are many who think both parties are significantly wrong in many areas and don't want pure Red or pure Blue radio... they want, in true Hollywood tradition, a technicolor party that dissects both the left and the right and tries to unite somewhere near the middle.
Could that be an actual radio format? I think that it requires a lot of two-person hosted shows and some younger voices. It requires some non-binary voices as well as some believers in God along with some understanding of taxes, government spending and the like.
