An effective suggestion for getting more liberal talk stations on the air.

[Radio_Realist]

To get more radio stations broadcasting liberal talk formats on the air, all that needs to happen is for entrepreneurs with deep pockets who support liberal talk radio to acquire more station licenses. Forget about getting liberal talk radio programs syndicated. Concentrate on acquiring licenses and buying stations.

There is a category of radio stations whose licenses are excellent candidates for challenging on the grounds that they don't serve the interest of their communities of license. That category is stations that broadcast in Spanish. A solid case can be made that the term the word "public" in the phrase "the public interest" means only those people who are in the country legally -- citizens or legal aliens. Any station that serves the needs of the illegal alien community is not serving the public interest, any more than a station that airs programs of service to any other criminal group in the country.

If a station specifically targeted the needs of the drug trafficking community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. If a station specifically targeted the needs of the welfare fraud community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. So, any station that targets the needs of the illegal alien community should also be at risk of losing a license challenge.

By challenging those station licenses, and winning the challenges, operations like Air America could stop having to worry about convincing broadcasters to carry their programs. They'd own enough stations of their own that they would not have to worry about ratings ever again.

 

[Gnarlodious]

I would argue that it's not about "Liberal", it's about localism.

The "fix" is to revert to pre-Reagan regulation of licensing to ensure that broadcast radio serves the interest of the community. Since the electromagnetic spectrum is publicly owned by the public (just like national parks) this would reduce the value of radio stations to an intrinsic level. The current vastly inflated value of radio (and all media) is a response to the potential for broadcasting pro-corporate propaganda, which only serves the purpose of preaching the Corporate Gospel.

If this happened, you would immediately see a renaissance in local radio. Giant media conglomerates would dump radio stations and the price would be reasonable enough for a career engineer or other local yokel to own a station. Local shows serving local businesses would become the norm, rather than a constant stream of corporate-sponsored backbiting. Listenership would go way up, and young fresh voices and viewpoints would finally be heard.

And that applies to FM too, local musicians would have an opportunity to serve up new music to an eager audience.

 

[Radio_Realist]

The "fix" is to revert to pre-Reagan regulation of licensing to ensure that broadcast radio serves the interest of the community.

What about the members of the "community" who desire to be served by the being able to hear the best, nationally syndicated, high-quality programs instead of cheap local stuff? Are their interests less important than those who want minor league programming? Are the interests of fans of music radio who desire to hear the best national acts instead of local bar bands less important?

And, the crux of this thread, are the interests of persons who are in this country illegally, and whose very presence within range of a radio transmitter is a crime, "community interests" that radio stations are legally bound to serve?

 

[hammondo]

Radiorealist said;There is a category of radio stations whose licenses are excellent candidates for challenging on the grounds that they don't serve the interest of their communities of license. That category is stations that broadcast in Spanish.
____________
You couldn't be MORE WRONG! The FCC LOVES "minority broadcasters." If there is a few percent of a minority and YOU are BROADCASTING to THEM, that's almost an automatic license.

There are a zillon "English language" stations serving all kinds of white peoples taste.

Realist (HA!) said...
"whose very presence within range of a radio transmitter is a crime, "community interests" that radio stations are legally bound to serve??

WOW! What a bigoted statement that is!

NOT ALL OF any minority are here illegally. Aside from that, there are lots of white criminals, too.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

If this happened, you would immediately see a renaissance in local radio. Giant media conglomerates would dump radio stations and the price would be reasonable enough for a career engineer or other local yokel to own a station. Local shows serving local businesses would become the norm, rather than a constant stream of corporate-sponsored backbiting. Listenership would go way up, and young fresh voices and viewpoints would finally be heard.

And that applies to FM too, local musicians would have an opportunity to serve up new music to an eager audience

There are radio stations like this now, granted not as many as the corporate type, but many high school and college owned stations do just that. In Wilmington Delaware we have two high school stations and the Univ of Del station that do this sort of thing. In Philly, WXPN from the Univ of Penn plays music you can't hear on commercial stations. Even on the commercial radio side, WDEL in Wilmington and WBAL in Baltimore have dropped national talk during their weekday hours for live and local talk. So it is available, if you look for it. My guess is, most folks would prefer national talk to local talk (there are exceptions where a local talker is very good and has a show that essentially could be a national show because of the quality and content, etc; national music artists to local yokel music artists. A special show of local music talent is one thing, but a steady stream of that I don't believe would be a solid ratings builder and as we know ratings = advertisers dollars thus the bottom line.

 

[Radio_Realist]

You couldn't be MORE WRONG! The FCC LOVES "minority broadcasters."

That's a situation that needs to be changed with reference to any minority that is in this country illegally.

NOT ALL OF any minority are here illegally.

No, but those who claim to be "Hispanic" who are here legally, as either natural born or naturalized citizens, or as legal immigrants, either can speak English, or are learning to. Of those in this country who refuse to learn our language, the majority are here illegally.

I am not saying anything against any American citizen, or any legal alien within our borders. This is only about illegal aliens.

Aside from that, there are lots of white criminals, too.

First, last time I looked, Spain was in Europe, and Spanish people are as much white Europeans as are Italians or Greeks. Second, I said that targeting any criminals as a special market should be grounds for a license challenge. Did you not read "If a station specifically targeted the needs of the drug trafficking community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. If a station specifically targeted the needs of the welfare fraud community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. So, any station that targets the needs of the illegal alien community should also be at risk of losing a license challenge."

 

[hammondo]

Radiorealist said;There is a category of radio stations whose licenses are excellent candidates for challenging on the grounds that they don't serve the interest of their communities of license.
____________

I'd like to hear how you PROVE a station is targeting illegals. If Anything Hispanic stations SUPERSERVE their communites, providing government and health information to a specific community who cannot primarily use English media.
__________________________________
Realist said; Spanish people are as much white Europeans as are Italians or Greeks.
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I LEARNED something;

(from the US Census websiite
The misconception that Hispanic is a race is so ingrained in this country that many Hispanics are confused themselves. This creates a big problem in marketing research, because many would check “Other” if “Hispanic” were not included in the race category. Yet, many Hispanics would check “White” or “Black” and not “Hispanic”, if “Hispanic” was included as a category.

For years, however, the U.S. Census considered Hispanic a race. They have changed that definition since before the 1970 census and in 1977 the Office of Management and Budget issued the “Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting”. They established the U.S. racial classifications to be American Indian, Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and White. They added ethnic classifications of “Hispanic Origin” and “Not of Hispanic Origin”. Unfortunately, we continue to see the race question in most market research studies and marketers in this country continue to label Hispanic as a race.

Hispanic is NOT a race. There are many races within the Latino community, including White, Black, Native Indian, and even Asian. Some segments, like the Cuban community, show very few mixed-race individuals.

The answer is to divide the question like the census does and to pay close attention to how the questions are worded.
______________

I DO however, agree with David E, who you aregued this same question with in another post that no broadcaster in their right mind would TARGET illegals.

 

[Radio_Realist]

I'd like to hear how you PROVE a station is targeting illegals.

You simply have to convince the FCC officials that the number of illegal aliens who only speak Spanish should not be considered as part of the "community", and then demonstrate that the number of people in the range of the transmitter who can only speak Spanish yet who are in the country legally are so few in number that the station not adequately serving the interests of the entire community. Remember, this isn't about real proof, it's about legal proof. It's about making a good and convincing case to a bunch of government bureaucrats, not providing proof to reasonable people who care about anything other than protecting their Civil Service pensions.

Hispanic is NOT a race.

No, it's not. It's also not an ethnic group. Hispanics are, basically, anyone who claims to be Hispanic. People whose ancestors spent a generation or two living anywhere in the Western Hemisphere south of the Rio Grande are allowed to call themselves "Hispanic". The Italian man who founded Ghiardelli chocolate was Hispanic. He settled for a while in Uraguay, then Peru before eventually moving to San Francisco. Former President of Peru Alberto Fujimoro is Hispanic, even though his ancestors were Japanese. The former leader of Paraguary, Alfredo Stroessner was Hispanic, though his ancestors were German. In this year's Miss Universe contest, Miss Argentina's last name was Romitelli, yet she is Hispanic. Linda Rondstadt is Hispanic. Martin Sheen is Hispanic. Linda "Wonder Woman" Carter is allegedly Hispanic. Same goes for Sammy Davis, Jr., giving him yet another hyphen for his identity.

Except for the Hispanics listed above who never immigrated to the United States, they all share one thing in common. They all became Americans, or their ancestors did. And they all spoke English.

It's real easy to tell if an immigrant is serious about becoming an American. First, they enter the country legally. Second, they learn to speak our language.

 

[hammondo]

Realist said; You simply have to convince the FCC officials that the number of illegal aliens who only speak Spanish should not be considered as part of the "community"...It's about making a good and convincing case to a bunch of government bureaucrats, not providing proof to reasonable people who care about anything other than protecting their Civil Service pensions.


This whole statement is ludicrous and absurd. First, WHY are you discriminating against Hispanics?

The Vietnamese, Poles,Laotians, Koreans and others have RADIO programs too. Many of their residents live in Ghettos (just as lots of new arrivals do so they can survive).

Your idea here is very racist. Happy 4th of July. God Bless America.

 

[Radio_Realist]

The Vietnamese, Poles,Laotians, Koreans and others have RADIO programs too. Many of their residents live in Ghettos (just as lots of new arrivals do so they can survive).

Right. There are a handful of programs on the radio for some immigrants who are working towards becoming Americans. A small portion of the American public's airwaves is used for those legal immigrants who are striving to become Americans. Buy where is there, here on Radio-Info.com, an entire forum dedicated to just Polish radio programming? Or just to Korean radio programming?

There are dozens, if not hundreds of American radio stations using the American airwaves to broadcast to one single group of non-Americans who demonstrate their unwillingness to become American by refusing to learn our language. There are millions of illegal aliens in this nation who speak Spanish and who refuse to learn English and to otherwise become Americans. How many of the stations who cater to those who refuse to learn English also provide news coverage or airtime to anti-American groups like La Raza?

If this was 1937 instead of 2007, and there were radio stations broadcasting in German to illegal aliens from Germany and those stations included propaganda from the National Socialist Workers Party in their German language broadcasts, I would encourage broadcasters to challenge those licenses. And that is despite the fact that most of my ancestors came (legally) from Germany.

Your idea here is very racist.

That is patently impossible. It is absolutely impossible for you to claim that my antipathy towards American public airwaves being used to broadcast to illegal aliens is racist, not after you said, "Hispanic is NOT a race. There are many races within the Latino community, including White, Black, Native Indian, and even Asian. Some segments, like the Cuban community, show very few mixed-race individuals." If "Hispanic" is not a race, then antipathy towards those people who refuse to learn to speak English, regardless of their nationality, is not racist. Period.

This topic is no different from similar discussions that call for changes in laws that lead to an excess of syndicated programming at the expense of local programming because of "the public interest" and "the airwaves belong to the American people". There are discussions that call for mandating more liberal talk shows because "the airwaves belong to the American people". Those discussions stand. Those aren't considered racist. My contention that since the airwaves belong to the American people, they should not be used to extreme excess by broadcasters targeting non-Americans is no different from those other two topics. It is totally germane to the general theme of news/talk radio programming.

If the liberals want more of the American public's airwaves for their message, then take some use of the airwaves away from those who use it to broadcast to non-Americans, not from those who would use it to broadcast to Americans with a different political point-of-view.

And if any Hispanic person has a problem with what I've said, let him say it to me directly. In English!

 

[raccoonradio]

>>If the liberals want more of the American public's airwaves for their message, then take some use of the airwaves away from those who use it to broadcast to non-Americans, not from those who would use it to broadcast to Americans with a different political point-of-view.

Say, what happened to the Air America stations in Boston?
They went...Hispanic (tropical/"la nueva rumba"). The slogan is "Latin Pride". While some commercials
do air in English, I believe their primary focus is Spanish-language. A peek at their website:

http://www.wkoxam.com/main.html

>>unwillingness to become American by refusing to learn our language.

Making English the official language? How racist... :

 

[evnlee]

RR makes a vaild point: to advance LibTalk, supporters of LibTalk should try to own stations instead of being syndicators...The problem is he accurately used the 'public interest' argument against them in a very politically incorrect way..

If he had made the case that 'sports' formats do not follow the public interest, progressive types might not have been upset. But he chose 'spanish' formats, which are a protected minority group.. But when Lib Talk flips, where do they go? Spanish or sports.

His initial point is brilliant: aquire station licenses instead of force feeding substandard libtalk via the FCC.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Making English the official language? How racist...

I forgot. Language is a racial characteristic, like skin color, right? Caucasians are born knowing how to speak English. They don't learn it from their parents.

 

[gr8oldies]

Realist, I'm not quite following you here. The leasing and buying of stations was already tried by AA and if I'm not mistaken some liberal group owns a libtalker in Buffalo. It still does no good if the audience doesn't show up.

 

[Radio_Realist]

It still does no good if the audience doesn't show up.

You know that. I know that. But they don't know that.

 

[rockroll0617]

liberal talk stations

I submit that there are so few progressive/liberal talk
stations (as compared to the number of conservative
stations/shows) simply because progressives feel little
need to be led around by others who want to do their
thinking for them. It's one of the reasons I proudly call
myself a former Republican voter- I got awfully tired of
the "our way is the only way" noise level from Republicans.
Just a bit too arrogant, pushy and self-serving for my needs.

;D

 

[Radio_Realist]

I submit that there are so few progressive/liberal talk stations (as compared to the number of conservative stations/shows) simply because progressives feel little need to be led around by others who want to do their thinking for them.

Then why are so many liberals working so hard to get more liberal talk programming on the air?

 

[rockroll0617]

I submit that there are so few progressive/liberal talk stations (as compared to the number of conservative stations/shows) simply because progressives feel little need to be led around by others who want to do their thinking for them.

Then why are so many liberals working so hard to get more liberal talk programming on the air?

"So many"? Please name the many.