Re: Oh, C'mon
fred flintstone said:
Maybe there was something to what those execs had to say. As Louis Rukeyser used to say, "Let's look at the numbers." Liberals do prefer public radio. In every market (including Portland) with progressive talk and a public radio news-information station, public radio wins. Those earlier liberal talk efforts you cite were failures (you left our Jim Hightower, plus three liberal hosts on WABC when Rush started). About the only successful liberal host (and some of you don't like him) was Michael Jackson with close to a 40 year run in the nation's most competitive talk radio market. But, then again, Jackson was nuanced, like public radio. Only one progressive talk station is above a two share (and most are below one). Only that one station has share numbers in the range of the top performing news-talk stations with syndicated conservative hosts.
If Michael Jackson is so successful, why did they cancel his national show? Answer: ratings. The non-confrontational style that works for public radio (and without endless commercials) has never been a ratings success, and throw in ads every seven minutes and bye bye listeners.
I also love this propping up public radio. Listen to most conservatives and they'll tell you nobody listens to that either, but when you put it up against AAR, the latter causes more hatred so it's better to give props to NPR. Public radio stations offer a far wider variety of talk programs, including hard news, lifestyle talk, and niche/ethnic programming. If you ask public radio people on here if they are comparable to AAR, they will tell you they are not. The only people making a different assumption are conservatives who lump the two together (carrying forward the liberal bias stereotype they have had about public radio for years). There are plenty of public radio fans who don't listen to any political talk radio.
Maybe Drobny has good reason to be frustrated with the incompetence of AAR management dragging down the progressive talk concept. And the dumbest thing they are doing is trying to copy Rush's act for liberal listeners.
This is another guy with another opinion about AAR and libtalk. Considering he's on the outside now, there is probably a reason for that, so let's not dismiss the presumption he may have had a different opinion about how AAR was being run for quite sometime now. Rush's show used to be entertaining talk radio, even when you didn't agree with it. It has since gotten a lot more shrill and a lot less amusing, but there are far more conservatives who copied that format than there are liberals. As we have talked about before, good talk radio is ENTERTAINING talk radio, no matter what politics you inject into it.
I don't believe that's an established fact. If AAR CLAIMS not to pay clearance or launch bonuses, can you provide a citation?
We have been through this discussion at least four times in this forum. Do a search.
If they don't pay clearances or launch bonuses (although it has been reported that they do in some markets), then they are dumb. They should. Instead of trying to rack up a number of "pathetic" weak-stick stations desperate for latchkey programming, maybe they should play "let's make a deal" and get cleared on some decent signals. They appear to have a knack for the throwing money around when they shouldn't and getting cheap when they shouldn't; at once both penny foolish and pound foolish.
Where was it "reported." We have been through this as well and there was never a shred of evidence to back it up. And besides, let's say AAR did pay launch bonuses or clearances. We already know that would bring comments from you about how AAR can only remain on the air by paying to remain on the air. Let's not play games here.
AAR tries to establish itself as THE BRAND in progressive talk radio. People say "Air America" when they are talking about a local station or about programs not associated with AAR. Same thing happens with public radio and NPR (despite the amount of programming from local stations, PRI and APM). As a result, when stations or other hosts do something, people blame (or credit) AAR. AAR has created the impression they are a monolith. AAR appears to view the stations as "repeaters" and apparently so do many listeners. If AAR gets blamed when local station do fund raising or other stunts, they brought it on themselves.
Where has AAR claimed it is THE BRAND of libtalk? In fact, on shows like Randi Rhodes, Lionel, Stephanie Miller, and Majority Report the hosts have openly discussed the fact there are multiple entities of liberal talk. Lionel and Stephanie in particular talk very openly about the business side of radio, although the latter claims she hates to talk shop.
When it comes to injecting hyperbole, confusion, accusations and rumors, it isn't AAR bringing it on themselves. It is the obsessed conservative elements out there like the Unequalizer who spend every waking moment trying to inject their personal hatred for the very presence of liberal talk radio on their blogs, talk shows, Fox News, and columns. So when AAR offers premium memberships, Unequalizer readers are told it is a public radio-style fund drive to bail them out before the feds come and arrest everyone.
I have yet to find an AAR listener who is sitting there wondering about Al Franken's involvement in a loan or whether premium memberships are a bailout, or if Randi Rhodes is hiding a drug problem, or if Franken left NY to avoid arrest, or if AAR's choice in traffic news providers is an indication of their success or failure. No, they honestly don't think about those things. To those of us who do listen, we care if the shows are entertaining and interesting and the topics they cover. If they are, we listen. If they're not, it's time to change shows. Like this doesn't happen every day in the world of radio. The only difference this time is that there is an element that fears the breaking of a virtual conservative monopoly on talk radio, assuming I guess that if the other side is on the air, it means the conservative movement is on the verge of breaking down. Ohmygod. What will they do then.
