"The Progressive" interviews Stephanie Miller

Just wanted to share an exerpt from a pretty good interview with radio talk host Stephanie Miller. You can find the whole interview here.

Q: How many outlets do you have for the show now?

Miller: We’re adding every week. I’m not even sure. I think we’re up to fifty-sixty stations. There are only about seventy-five or eighty commercial progressive stations in the whole country, as opposed to the 600 Rush Limbaugh is on. We’re still a really new format. And for as much as Bill O’Reilly can go and scream, “Oh, liberal talk isn’t working,” someone should ask him why Clear Channel and other huge companies are flipping a different station every week to progressive talk. Because they’re making money. They’re taking stations that are at almost zero ratings and getting ratings.

And listen, everybody says, “Oh, the evil Clear Channel.” Let me tell you something: They will put anything on the air if it makes money. If someone pitched hippos farting for three hours, they would put it on the air if it makes money. That’s what it’s about. I keep trying to make that point: This is not a political movement, progressive talk. The minute we think it’s a political movement—about getting Democrats elected or whatever—we’re dead. It’s entertainment. We’ve got to get ratings.

Q: Do you think a lot of progressive talk has been too medicinal?

Miller: Oh, I don’t know. I’ll let the Republicans eat their own. I go out of my way to say good things about other liberal radio shows. But you know Rush Limbaugh, whether you hate him or not, he’s a great entertainer; he’s a great broadcaster. That’s what this takes. It’s a business. That’s what people have to understand.

Sometimes liberals get very, “Why don’t you talk about this? You should be doing this.” This is not some kind of a committee meeting; this is an entertainment show. And we’re not going to get our message out unless we can stay in business.