Limbaugh on College Radio?!

[RadioinCollege]

OK--I'll probably get blasted for this.. but I honestly want to hear some thoughts!

We have a commercial college radio station in a very conservative town (more liberal campus--but not much). We play alternative music. We are located in an area that Limbaugh doesn't reach--Premiere is very interested in us.

Rush Limbaugh would be very popular in the town--where he can't be picked up very well at all in the next largest city--and I suspect somewhat well recieved on the campus, as well. There are 20 :30 avails per hour--we could probably sell it out most days...bringing in A LOT of cash to the station.

There is also 6:00 at the top of the hour and 3:00 at the bottom of the hour for local spots. My thought would be to have a student come in each day and record (or do live) a 3:00 commentary at the top of the hour and the bottom of the hour--either liberal or conservative--to balance out Rush and give students a chance to practice some talk radio.

It could mean big bucks for our station. We could run Rush live or tape delayed later in the day.. When Rush is not on, we would go back to our Alternative music.

It's a weird fit--I know--thoughts??

 

[gr8oldies]

Might as well go for it! You'd probably be the highest rated college station in the nation!<P ID="signature">______________
Soon to set the world record for recieving Nigerian scam and phising e-mails!</P>

 

[moedog1]

Shame, Shame, for considering such an idea. You are letting your need for money cloud the purpose for college broadcasting. You should be focusing on providing TRUTHFUL, mind-expanding programing--not Limbaugh's lying, bigoted trash. I suppose next you will be putting on Savage, O'Rielly and Dr. Laura. A terrible idea....

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I'm not a big fan of Rush, but why not? I could envision much lively discussion in classrooms as liberal professors would go balistic at having a conservative voice being represented strongly on campus that they can't intimidate by the threat of giving an "F" for those conservative views. Personally, I'd try to air Dennis Prager's show from Salem rather than Rush. His show takes a more intellectual approach to discussing the world's problems and solving them through the eyes of a conservative, which might actually fit a college campus and college radio better. Prager is well educated and very articulate making it harder for the libs on campus to bash his well thought out points of view. However, Rush would pull in better numbers (ratings) and apparently great revenue too, plus be a first in the nation. The libs would go nuts. Could be fun.

An other idea for your station might be, you could offer an hour of either Limbaugh or Prager(conservatives), and then offer an hour of Franken (liberal) , just so folks couldn't say you weren't balanced. Then offer a local talk show for the third hour and see how the students approach those issues discussed on both shows, etc. Could have some interesting local talk radio using the other two shows to help provide various points of view for the students to consider. Good Luck.

> Shame, Shame, for considering such an idea. You are letting
> your need for money cloud the purpose for college
> broadcasting. You should be focusing on providing TRUTHFUL,
> mind-expanding programing--not Limbaugh's lying, bigoted
> trash. I suppose next you will be putting on Savage,
> O'Rielly and Dr. Laura. A terrible idea....
>

 

[Les]

> Shame, Shame, for considering such an idea. You are letting
> your need for money cloud the purpose for college
> broadcasting. You should be focusing on providing TRUTHFUL,
> mind-expanding programing--not Limbaugh's lying, bigoted
> trash. I suppose next you will be putting on Savage,
> O'Rielly and Dr. Laura. A terrible idea....


No question! Air America would definitely be a more fair
and balanced service! (LOL)

Real answer:

Go silent except for a time and temperature check once an
hour. It'd be a genuine public service to have a place on
the dial where people could tune to eliminate all the
confusion of thinking and enjoy something tney just can't
get anywhere else....silence!

Oh yeah...a properly legal ID promptly on the hour. Could
combine it with time/temp if you pause a little bit so
people don't confuse either time or temp with COL.
<P ID="signature">______________
Yes, and even the fleas on their children's pets and the cockroaches under their sinks.</P>

 

[mightynine]

> OK--I'll probably get blasted for this.. but I honestly want
> to hear some thoughts!
>
> We have a commercial college radio station in a very
> conservative town (more liberal campus--but not much). We
> play alternative music. We are located in an area that
> Limbaugh doesn't reach--Premiere is very interested in us.

I think the biggest question is: does money from students' tutition goes toward this station's operating expenses? If so, I think the idea should be put towards the students and let them at least be able to express their opinions on the matter.

Some folks are going to cry and bemoan that you're just doing this for money, but let's face it, you don't run a radio station for free. If the station needs more cash to operate, and this is a possible way of doing that, then it should be considered. It's one thing to sell out, it's another thing to stay on the air.

Personally, I think the idea someone had of running an hour each from all viewpoints is a fine one, and in truth, something very different in a talk presentation. Get a conservative voice, a liberal voice, and a moderate to balance out..possibly even giving an hour to a local host to have that angle. The commentary is a great idea too, because let's face it, I don't know many college stations that prepare a student who might want a future in talk radio opposed to music radio.

All in all, the fact that you're a college station means you can go outside the box that many stations who pick up Rush have to stay within to succeed. It's certainly an interesting idea.

 

[moedog1]

No one said anything about Air America, did they? But Mike from Delaware might be on to something. I especially like the idea of the three tier set-up. That would air all views, including local. But the problem with Limbaugh is that thinking is the last thing he wants to foster/encourage is individual thought.
>
> No question! Air America would definitely be a more fair
> and balanced service! (LOL)
>
> Real answer:
>
> Go silent except for a time and temperature check once an
> hour. It'd be a genuine public service to have a place on
> the dial where people could tune to eliminate all the
> confusion of thinking and enjoy something tney just can't
> get anywhere else....silence!
>
> Oh yeah...a properly legal ID promptly on the hour. Could
> combine it with time/temp if you pause a little bit so
> people don't confuse either time or temp with COL.
>

 

[raccoonradio]

Go for it, and if liberals complain maybe you could also run Democracy Now! tape delayed later.

There are more conservative college kids than one would expect, though the lefty ones
are more vocal/visible.

> It's a weird fit--I know--thoughts??
>

 

[Les]

> .....thinking is the last thing he wants to foster/encourage
> is individual thought.

Yeah, but when is the last time you heard about a college that
wanted to encourage any kind of thought? Regardless whether
it's an Ivy League Liberal Arts College or a Conservative
(you supply the name of the evangelist) Christian College,
they all exist these days to DIScourage thinking and ENcourage
repeating the party line. Whichever party line they prefer.

Trade schools, maybe.....

<P ID="signature">______________
Yes, and even the fleas on their children's pets and the cockroaches under their sinks.</P>

 

[JerryStevens]

And now the word from The US Department Of Truth

"Shame, Shame, for considering such an idea. You are letting your need for money cloud the purpose for college broadcasting. You should be focusing on providing TRUTHFUL, mind-expanding programing--not Limbaugh's lying, bigoted ?trash. I suppose next you will be putting on Savage, O'Rielly and Dr. Laura. A terrible idea...."

Seems everyone these days believes they have a monopoly on "The Truth". I know I've heard Rush Limbaugh at Premiere say he speaks it and I've heard AAR's Mike Malloy say he speaks the truth. Yet they don't say the same thing. How can that be?

Perhaps we need a cabinet level Department Of Truth. Certainly they could sort this all out and keep the non-truth tellers off the air instead of polluting the minds of our youth.
<P ID="signature">______________
Jerry

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts" - late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan</P>

 

[robbbc]

To be honest- this all sounds a little suspicious. An area of the country with no Rush? A commercial college radio station? Premeire is "trying" to get you to play Rush? Premiere/Rush has no other choice than to beg an alternative rock station to play his show? No other stations in town yet the area is very conservative? Come on...

Look, if you want to make a comment about liberal college campuses go somewhere else. I went to a big college in eastern NC with plenty of college Republicans and religious right groups, most colleges across the nation are probably the same nowadays. Rush would do fine in just about any college town.

> OK--I'll probably get blasted for this.. but I honestly want
> to hear some thoughts!
>
> We have a commercial college radio station in a very
> conservative town (more liberal campus--but not much). We
> play alternative music. We are located in an area that
> Limbaugh doesn't reach--Premiere is very interested in us.
>
> Rush Limbaugh would be very popular in the town--where he
> can't be picked up very well at all in the next largest
> city--and I suspect somewhat well recieved on the campus, as
> well. There are 20 :30 avails per hour--we could probably
> sell it out most days...bringing in A LOT of cash to the
> station.
>
> There is also 6:00 at the top of the hour and 3:00 at the
> bottom of the hour for local spots. My thought would be to
> have a student come in each day and record (or do live) a
> 3:00 commentary at the top of the hour and the bottom of the
> hour--either liberal or conservative--to balance out Rush
> and give students a chance to practice some talk radio.
>
> It could mean big bucks for our station. We could run Rush
> live or tape delayed later in the day.. When Rush is not on,
> we would go back to our Alternative music.
>
> It's a weird fit--I know--thoughts??
>

 

[valkyrie777]

> It could mean big bucks for our station. We could run Rush
> live or tape delayed later in the day.. When Rush is not on,
> we would go back to our Alternative music.
>
> It's a weird fit--I know--thoughts??
>


Take your thirty pieces of silver and don't look in the mirror.

 

[JerryStevens]

Ahh.. a suspect

"Look, if you want to make a comment about liberal college campuses go somewhere else."

Don't you think you should wait until someone actually <u>makes</u> a comment that offends your political sensibilities before counterattacking or are we now shooting suspects? Your determination that his post is "suspicious" is pretty thin evidence.

College towns are often far from major metropolitan areas so it's not at all unlikely that a college town doesn't have an RL affiliate. Come to think of it, little 1230 WAIM in Anderson, SC is the closest RL affiliate to Clemson University and it's unlistenable in most of that county of 110,000 people plus 10,000+ students. It can't be the only University town in this situation.
<P ID="signature">______________
Jerry

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts" - late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan</P>

 

[Tom_]

Re: Has ***Ed Schultz*** approached you yet?

Is there a conflict of interest in announcing the market? If you do put Rush on, you might log-in again anonymously someday and vaguely say if your advertising revenue increases.

And Rush L. on an FM station, or are you a college with an AM station?

How about the liberal ***Ed Schultz*** after Rush. Indeed, with Ed on the move nationally, more so called "conservative" stations will consider replacing Hannity or Dr. Laura with Ed Schultz. Ed can be tape delayed as well. Then you could kill two birds with one stone: 1) diversity in political perspectives w/ Ed and Rush 2) ratings/revenue from two successful syndciated talk programs

I wonder if Ed Schultz's new boss Randy Michaels approached you yet like Premeire did.

Ed is close to the center when it comes to all the liberal talk hosts out there, and he appeals to conservatives, and that's why he will make it in Republican areas, unlike Malloy, Rhodes, Garafallo, and Franken on Air America.

And...if you want another "Anti-Rush" for balance like Ed Schultz, Doug Basham is stronger in terms of content and delivery than Ed, nightly 10p-1a Pacific.

 

[Tom_]

Re: "Fairness Doctrine" for the Communications Dept. Charter...

you wrote:

> Personally, I think the idea someone had of running an hour
> each from all viewpoints is a fine one, and in truth,
> something very different in a talk presentation. Get a
> conservative voice, a liberal voice, and a moderate to
> balance out..possibly even giving an hour to a local host to
> have that angle. The commentary is a great idea too,
> because let's face it, I don't know many college stations
> that prepare a student who might want a future in talk radio
> opposed to music radio.

tom responds:

Maybe they could write a "fairness doctrine" into the Communications Dept. "Mission Statement" in order to allow hosts from different perspectives as you suggest. The integration of the fairness doctrine into the Mission Statement, and development of the 24/7 truly fair and balanced all talk radio program schedule could be a masters' thesis for someone!

 

[Tom_]

Re: Kucinich's "US Department of Peace"

JerryStevens wrote:

> Perhaps we need a cabinet level Department Of Truth.
> Certainly they could sort this all out and keep the
> non-truth tellers off the air instead of polluting the minds
> of our youth.

Tom responds:

This is a great discussion! I have to ask...would Dennis Kucinich's proposed Cabinet level Department of ***Peace*** take precedence over Jerry Stevens' proposed Cabinet level Department of ***truth,*** or is it the other way around! < grin >

 

[rockthisworld]

> I went to a big college in
> eastern NC with plenty of college Republicans and religious
> right groups

ECU? Suddenly you're becoming a much better person <P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>

 

[ChemE]

I'd say it may be better to not try and bring back the Fairness Doctrine, on campus or off. I think it is generally well agreed upon that the Fairness Doctrine resulted in a couple of boring old men in their underwear talking about usually sometime like toasters as to attempt to be as fair as possible without getting into trouble. However, with this being a college station and trying to get students ready for the real world, it should operate like a real station. So, if it is only Rush they want, fine. Let some liberal college feed in a bunch of AAR. But let it be a free-market station that does not get tied down to a bunch of "Fairness Doctrine" stuff that was proven to be dismal in the past. If its supported, fine. Ideally, this is a learning experience for the students, and in more than just sitting behind a microphone reading liners.

> I'm not a big fan of Rush, but why not? I could envision
> much lively discussion in classrooms as liberal professors
> would go balistic at having a conservative voice being
> represented strongly on campus that they can't intimidate by
> the threat of giving an "F" for those conservative views.
> Personally, I'd try to air Dennis Prager's show from Salem
> rather than Rush. His show takes a more intellectual
> approach to discussing the world's problems and solving them
> through the eyes of a conservative, which might actually fit
> a college campus and college radio better. Prager is well
> educated and very articulate making it harder for the libs
> on campus to bash his well thought out points of view.
> However, Rush would pull in better numbers (ratings) and
> apparently great revenue too, plus be a first in the nation.
> The libs would go nuts. Could be fun.
>
> An other idea for your station might be, you could offer an
> hour of either Limbaugh or Prager(conservatives), and then
> offer an hour of Franken (liberal) , just so folks couldn't
> say you weren't balanced. Then offer a local talk show for
> the third hour and see how the students approach those
> issues discussed on both shows, etc. Could have some
> interesting local talk radio using the other two shows to
> help provide various points of view for the students to
> consider. Good Luck.
>
> > Shame, Shame, for considering such an idea. You are
> letting
> > your need for money cloud the purpose for college
> > broadcasting. You should be focusing on providing
> TRUTHFUL,
> > mind-expanding programing--not Limbaugh's lying, bigoted
> > trash. I suppose next you will be putting on Savage,
> > O'Rielly and Dr. Laura. A terrible idea....
> >
>

 

[FloridaBear1776]

Distorting life under the Fairness Doctrine

> I'd say it may be better to not try and bring back the
> Fairness Doctrine, on campus or off. I think it is
> generally well agreed upon that the Fairness Doctrine
> resulted in a couple of boring old men in their underwear
> talking about usually sometime like toasters as to attempt
> to be as fair as possible without getting into trouble.

There were plenty of loud, boisterous and controversial talk shows on radio in the 1960s and 1970s. A few examples:

Joe Pyne
Bob Grant
Neil Rogers (began working in talk in 1976)

There were also plenty of conservatives doing talk before the doctrine
was repealed and back when it was (Presumably) enforced. In addition to the aforementioned Grant, a few names....

Ray Briem
Gene Burns (libertarian, began in talk radio around 1970 in Baltimore)
Stan Major (first talk radio gig was in 1966!)
David Gold (began working in talk in '76)

Of course, it's questionable how strongly the doctrine was enforced to begin with. I think the only station that ever lost a license over it was run by a fundamentalist who refused to grant airtime to Catholics.

Rush Limbaugh would have risen to the top, Fairness Doctrine or no. His rise was not made possible by the repeal of FD but by his skillful combination
of conservative ideology with baby-boomer rock'n'roll sensibilities. This was more radical than it sounds because many if not most conservative talk show hosts before Rush hated rock, associating it with Sixties decadence. The days after John Lennon's assassination in 1980 were filled with hate calls on talk radio, as some callers and hosts blamed Lennon for drugs, crime, etc. and almost implying it was a good thing he was offed. One caller even tried to explain how the song "Back in the USSR" proved the Beatles were communists!
Rush got rock 'n' roll, and THIS is what distinguished him from his predecessors, not an open field allegedly created by the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, which was unenforced for years before its official 1987 repeal.

Of course Rush is opening his own generation gap by attacking rap and hip-hop.
This will probably alienate Generation Y to conservatism until a "hip-hop conservative" comes along in talk radio circa 2020 and bridges the gap.

To conclude, spare us the misinterpretation of the (nonexistent) relationship between the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine and the growth of talk radio. This link was invented after the fact by newspaper and magazine writers trying to
identify a cause for the rise of Rush. <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by FloridaBear1776 on 07/17/05 04:11 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[Les]

Re: Kucinich's "US Department of Peace"

> This is a great discussion! I have to ask...would Dennis
> Kucinich's proposed Cabinet level Department of ***Peace***
> take precedence over Jerry Stevens' proposed Cabinet level
> Department of ***truth,*** or is it the other way around!

Wait a minute....don't I remember a "Ministry of Truth" from
one of Orwell's novels???
<P ID="signature">______________
Yes, and even the fleas on their children's pets and the cockroaches under their sinks.</P>