A couple small items to fill y'all in on...
First up, as Ron Kuby prepares to begin his career as Air America Radio's new afternoon host, it appears he'll have one less station carrying him. WXXM (92.1FM) in Madison has opted to pick up a delay of Thom Hartmann's show to fill the 2-5P CT slot.
So far, Kuby's new program will be on WWRL in New York and WVKO in Columbus. His predecessor, Randi Rhodes, who jumped to rival Nova M Radio in April to continue her show, has held on to most of her affiliates in the time slot.
Speaking of Rhodes, she is one of the first confirmed additions for Dallas' new progressive talker, KMNY, which expands the format to full-time on July 1.
And speaking of WVKO, they need money. About $50 grand. Running an independent radio station in a big market like Columbus is hard work, especially when doing battle with the Citadels and Clear Channels of the world. They have a donation link on their site. More importantly, they need sales professionals. They do have some good clients, and also make some money carrying local sports broadcasts. But they need salespeople, and past experience with progressive talk stations such as KOMY in Santa Cruz and KSAC in Sacramento proves that stations don't make money if they don't even bother to hire account executives to bring in new advertisers. The management staff of WVKO, who actually seem to have their act together, should be commended for making the effort to do something about this obvious dilemma, rather than just expect advertisers to hunt them down, which is what killed weaker small operations in the past.
So, if you live in the Columbus area (or are relocating there), have sales experience (radio preferred, but not a deal breaker) and love progressive talk, then contact them here.
Finally (unless something else happens today), the kind folks at Air America have forwarded this link. It's from Aaron Barnhart at the Kansas City Star, and it's a recorded interview with Rachel Maddow. In the clip, Rachel addresses Aaron’s question of whether, in her opinion, Barack Obama would help increase the presence of left wing talk radio, if elected President. You can find the clip here.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Friday this n' that
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Eureka, CA 
5 comments:
Thanks for the link.
I found some of the blog comments as interesting as the actual interview. One person said Maddow in headphones looked like Dukakis in the tank. For me, she looked more like Princess Leia in Chapter IV (A New Hope).
I don't buy the interviewer's premise that Rush coming to prominence in the 90s was the result of Newt and the "Republican Revolution" rallying the right wing audience. From all I've read seen and heard, Clinton was the best thing that happened to Rush, not Newt. The appeal of political talk radio for the last two decades has been to angry listeners; talk radio gives voice to their rage. People gravitate to talk radio because of what (or whom) they oppose, not what (or whom) they support. Liberals launched a liberal talk network when they were out of power - not in. Notice Maddow, in the interview, attempts to argue a continued need for liberal talk if Obama wins because, she says, Obama is not liberal enough.
The comment from Jeffrey makes an excellent point: "I think people on the right like to hear their views reinforced over and over again. They seem especially vulnerable to being scared all the time about something." I think this applies to liberals, too, only liberals respond less to fear, more to righteous indignation.
Actually, according to their site's schedule, WXXM will be airing one hour of Ron Kuby from 5 AM-6 AM on weekdays, plus a few more hours on the weekend.
Hi, Is there a link a person can use to send a news tip to all the liberal talk show hosts nationwide? If so, please send them this tip:
DennisThompsonBackgroundQuiz.blogspot.com
This is a quiz I made (short, 10 questions, multiple choice, online),
about the actual background of a new superintendent of schools here in GOP Collier County, Naples, FL.
100+ people have already taken it.
He is a retired Army colonel who I believe actually has faked all his educational credentials.
The local newspaper here seems government controlled by the GOP and will not investigate despite overwhelming evidence that something is very wrong here.
Thank you for sharing this with any liberal radio talk show host who needs a show topic and would like to invite their listeners to take this short quiz. They will learn a lot about what goes on here.
Also, Education Week magazine just mentioned this school district this week because Collier County Public Schools here may lose its accreditation. The link to that article is on the left side of the above quiz site; scroll down to the color photo. Thanks again.
Sincerely,
summer aka flcertifiedteacher
You're right Casey. Air America has been feeding a repeat broadcast of the previous weekday's PM drive program, and may well continue to do so with Kuby's show. In that case, he will probably pick up some hours in early morning drive and pre-morning drive. Columbus, SC has been taking the network feed in morning drive and Albuquerque has taken it before 7am (when Stephanie Miller's show starts).
Kuby may give liberal talk more of a presence in New York than it has had before. The question elsewhere becomes is recycled Ron Kuby better than live Bill Press?
FYI: interesting article on Kuby's debut in today's Daily News...
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2008/06/10/2008-06-10_ron_kuby_makes_his_air_america_debut.html
Update: I've had a chance to listen to some of Kuby's new show.
Bottom line: No reason for Randi Rhodes to lose any sleep.
He really needs somebody to talk to. Mostly he rambled on - and on - sounding sort of like Thom Hartmann except with out any passion and with a lot of legal jargon. The show came alive in moments when his producer tried to play the role of Charles McCord or Robin Quivers (or Sam Seder or Katherine Lanpher).
Interviews were OK and more might help.
Kuby seemed to be making a conscious effort to focus more on water-cooler and lifestyle topics than politics.
The show is a work in progress and if they get the kinks out, could find a niche in New York. In this case, however, it may not be true that if you can make it there, you can make it any where.
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