Thom addresses competition with Franken on his message board...(link)

[dampier]

Re: programming closer to the center

> So I guess you want to see only far left ultraliberals in
> talk radio, and no moderate Democrats like Schultz and
> Colmes???

I don't care who they put on. But if you're wondering why there is a backlash against both Schultz and Colmes by a lot of libtalk listeners, now you know.

> That won't happen, because program directors in more
> conservative areas have to program closer to the center.

And if the right and the left won't listen to them, they might as well be on public radio.

> As for who has lunch with who, I fail to see how that is
> relevant to our discussion.

It's an illustration of the level of irritation people have with Colmes. It's perfectly relevant.

 

[Tom_]

There is no liberal backlash against SCHULTZ

> > So I guess you want to see only far left ultraliberals in
> > talk radio, and no moderate Democrats like Schultz and
> > Colmes???
>
> I don't care who they put on. But if you're wondering why
> there is a backlash against both Schultz and Colmes by a lot
> of libtalk listeners, now you know.

There is no liberal backlash against Ed Schultz. He is on most of the Air America statioins. His success is due to Air America stations, as barooos posted above...

If liberals who listen to progressive stations did not like Ed, there would be complaints and his affiliate count would be DEcreasing, not INcreasing as it is currently...

Are you in radio? I'd suggest you take a look at some of the Air America station web sites - you'll see that Ed Schultz is on most affiliates, often taking the place of Randi Rhodes, with Randi tape delayed later in the day. I will plug another poster's EXCELLENT web site where all the progressive talk station web sites are linked:

http://ltradio.blogspot.com

I'll also mention that Ed does live broadcasts across the country at Air America affiliates...

 

[dampier]

Re: There is no liberal backlash against SCHULTZ

> There is no liberal backlash against Ed Schultz. He is on
> most of the Air America statioins. His success is due to
> Air America stations, as barooos posted above...
>
> If liberals who listen to progressive stations did not like
> Ed, there would be complaints and his affiliate count would
> be DEcreasing, not INcreasing as it is currently...

Clear Channel throws Ed Schultz on radio stations. Considering the launch bonuses and "support" offered to clear his show live, money talks in a new, unproven format. I don't judge listener reaction based on stations adding a new show. That goes for AAR or any other format or network. I base it on listeners, and in message forum after message forum, as well as listening to progressives in person, Schultz is treated with suspicion. He doesn't have the pariah status Colmes has, but he's not considered "part of the immediate family" either. His first major controversy was when he attacked MOVEON and a few other groups who were criticizing members of Congress for supporting the bankruptcy bill. Moveon targeted everyone who supported it, regardless of party. Schultz was having none of that, but pays the price to this day with some callers and a lot of posts from people still very annoyed with him about that issue.

He was also loathed to such an extent by the XM audience that after thousands of e-mails, he was finally booted from the AAR channel to give Randi's show live clearance.

I don't have a big personal issue with the guy myself, but one can't ignore that it all comes down to individual hosts/shows with listeners, not networks as a whole.

BTW, Ed got picketed by liberals in the southwest (I think it was in Arizona - it was a few months back) when he did his remote. The protestors were liberals angry with him about the MOVEON episode.

These days, liberal blogs like Daily Kos and others have few nice things to say about the guy.