Friday talkin'

Been a rather quiet week, which is nice once in a while when I feel I need to get away from this thing (which is more often than you think). So here's what's going on in the media and whatnot.

You say it's your birthday

Only a few scant weeks since Air America turned the Big Five, another radio programming service celebrated an even bigger milestone earlier this week.

At 3P on April 15, 1949, Lew Hill and a staff of four launched the first listener-supported radio station in the world, uttering the words: "This is KPFA Berkeley." And thus began Pacifica Radio, which is now 60 years old.

Since then, local residents created four more Pacifica stations - KPFK in Los Angeles, WBAI in New York City, KPFT in Houston, and WPFW in Washington DC. And there are approximately 150 other listener-supported stations airing Pacifica-created programming.

Pacifica sez:

For sixty years, since the McCarthy era, America’s oldest independent media network has defied political pressures and the conventions and internal censors inherent to mainstream media. A haven and training ground for artists and journalists, Pacifica has been the vanguard of free media. Breaking important news, providing historical and political analysis, and discovering some of our greatest artistic talents, Pacifica Radio has brought us the great voices of each era.

So, happy 60th, Pacifica. You never looked so young.

Now pass the cake.

Reminiscin'

A couple former progressive talkers are in the news this week.

First, KOMY (1340AM) Santa Cruz, which had a rather stormy relationship with the format before switching to oldies a couple years ago, has flipped again.

Since a rival station, KIDD (630AM) had ditched adult standards and gone oldies, KOMY swaps places, dropping their own oldies format and going with KIDD's former format.

The Zwerling family, which owns KOMY and sister conservotalker KSCO, put both stations on the selling block back in September 2007. No word on whether they're still available, but i'm sure they'd sell for the right price. Then again, with so many AM station simply shutting off the transmitters and going dark these days, in the wake of the rotten economy, is there is any kind of demand for two stations such as these?

On the other coast, remember WKOX (1200AM) Boston? And remember that supposed signal upgrade Clear Channel was trying to work out? Well, it has finally happened. Currently, they are pumping out the long-promised 50,000 watts.

The station simulcasts with another Boston AM, WXKS (1430), and both dropped liberal talk for Latin tropical music two and a half years ago.

There is no word on whether WXKS will be split off, since WXKS now has full-market coverage. There is also no word on whether either station will keep the "Rumba" format. After all, if ratings were part of the whole equation, well, let's just say that "Rumba" ain't doing so hot. Overall ratings (I know, I know) are not only lower than they were with progressive talk - they're currently nonexistent. But that's just another one of those crazy things with Clear Channel. But hey, if they feel they're making money with it, well...

The slow, painful death of terrestrial radio

Just as Arbitron and Edison Research released a study saying that online radio listening has risen so much, it's actually shown up in local ratings surveys, the terrestrial pack continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

Clear Channel, most notably, has been sweatin' up a storm. Listening and revenue has plummeted. And the idea of programming ideas being essentially generated by salespeople and bean counters likely hasn't made the situation any better.

So, in order to give listeners what they can potentially offer and what online radio can't - namely localism and immediacy, they have vowed to take a more locally-oriented approach at each of their stations. All fine and dandy. The homogenization and removal of all local flavor has probably been one of the nails in the proverbial coffin. Only thing is, they still don't get it.

Clear Channel's amazing, fantastic solution? Run more PSAs. Seriously.

And they plan on running more local public-affairs programming in better dayparts. And make local station managers available to local officials at all times. It is also part of their plan to mollify President Obama's FCC, which is calling for more localism.

The radio monolith acknowledges that programming needs to improve as well. So, does that mean more locally-oriented programming ideas, made at station level? Wider playlists for music stations? More local talk show hosts? Well, if you thought that, you just don't know Clear Channel.

No, instead, the two-pronged assault announced to the trade publications include adding more distinct HD Radio channels, even though nobody listens to HD Radio. And, in more earth-shattering news, they're adding another hour of Ryan Seacrest. Oh brother!

And that's why radio is dying, folks. They still don't get it.

And the cruiser rides off into the sunset

Couldn't conclude this entry without noting a major broadcast milestone. And for fans of the NFL, this is very notable.

Asked to name a football color commentator, and likely the first name that comes to mind is John Madden. After almost thirty years in the broadcast booth, Madden has announced his retirement. Well, with Brett Favre now retired (?), perhaps Madden has finally run out of things to ramble on about.

All kidding aside, love him or detest him, the guy is a legend.

The good news for fans is that the highly capable Cris Collinsworth will replace him on "Sunday Night Football", which is a pretty darn good idea.

The Top 10 wherabouts of former progressive talk stations

The holidays are over, we're sobering up and playing with our new toys, and we finally throw down our arms in fighting the mythical and nonsensical War On Christmas. So now, it's time to take a look back on 2007.

In this installment, we'll take a look at the corpses left behind during the year. The stations that gave up and flipped from progressive talk to other, often less-successful formats. This isn't a complete list, as I tried to keep it down to ten. But it does show that perhaps the owners of some of these stations were a bit hasty in their programming decisions.

The year 2007 marked the big liberal purge from quite a few AM stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, Entercom and others. So far, none of the successor formats have done anything in the ratings. Check this out:

1. Cincinnati - WSAI dropped progressive talk in late 2006, going with some kind of advice-talk format. Well, that format blew dog, and it lasted a mere six months or so before becoming a dumping ground for leftover programming from sister sports station WCKY. To their credit, at least the station is getting ratings now, though nowhere near what they got with their half-assed and underpromoted approach to progressive talk.

2. Columbus - After WTPG also dropped progressive talk last December, it's replacement, right-wing babbler WYTS turned out to be a complete joke. Unlike its prececessor, which actually got the best ratings the signal had in years, WYTS has dropped off the chart. Not even Michael Savage can save them. Now, with progressive talk back on WVKO, perhaps we'll get proof that Clear Channel screwed the pooch when they hastily dropped the format.

3. Santa Cruz - KOMY ditched the Air America feed early this year. With their replacement oldies format, the station has not shown up in the ratings at all. At least liberal talk showed up on occasion. KOMY and their sister station are currently on the market.

4. Duluth - KQDS dropped from 2.1 to 0.8 overall after switching to an automated oldies satellite feed in February.

5. Fresno - KFPT was forced to switch to sports when they were sold by Peak Broadcasting to Fat Dawgs 7 in February (there was a no-compete clause in the sale papers to protect Peak's talk station, KMJ). A station that quite often floated around a one share completely dropped off the list.

6. Burlington, VT - WTWK thought the'd have more luck with estrogen, dropping progressive talk and picking up programming from Greenstone Media back in March. They were thrown a curveball when Greenstone closed up shop, and had to scramble to refill their schedule. They also brought back Stephanie Miller. So far, no ratings.

7. Sacramento - After sponsoring a Christmas season contest on their sister station in which they actually killed one of their listeners in public, Entercom killed progressive talk on KCTC in February. It was replaced by a sports format that has all but killed the 1320 AM signal in Sacramento. Locally-owned rival KSAC picked up some of the abandoned programming from KCTC and experienced a 300% jump in the ratings.

8. Akron - The axing of WARF ("Radio Free Ohio") in March completed Clear Channel's "Ohio Trifecta," where they effectively killed progressive talk on all three stations in the state programming the format. The replacement format was (surprise!) sports, and their ratings are currently (surprise!) nonexistent. They are currently getting their asses kicked by an independently-owned sports station out of Cleveland.

9. Memphis - WSMB was a joke when they did progressive talk. The station suffered from horrible promotion, poor sales efforts and serious neglect. No local presence whatsoever. An amateurish-looking website with an ugly station logo. A real shame, since the signal really kicks ass. But Entercom has never been adept at running progressive talk formats (as seen in New Orleans, Sacramento and other places). The result was a signal that was horribly neglected. So the flip to FOX Sports in early September likely came as no surprise to anyone.

10. San Diego - And now we save the most notable for last. Perhaps the most drawn-out format flip in radio history, Clear Channel in San Diego made few friends when word got out that they were about to flip KLSD to sports, going up against two other station in the area already doing the same. Time will tell if it will succeed, but Clear Channel screwed up royally when they ditched a format that was getting decent ratings and reportedly pulling in $2.5 million a year in revenue. Low-powered AM stations are not known for doing that in this day and age.

NOTE: In attempt to save space, stations such as WKOX in Boston, KDXE in Little Rock, WAVZ in New Haven, WLVP in Portland, ME, KOKE in Austin, KHRO in El Paso, and perhaps one or two others were left off the list. Of those, the new formats of WKOX and WAVZ are ratings dogs, some of the others are too early to tell, and only KHRO went up in the ratings, thanks to actually doing a locally-oriented liberal talk lineup after dropping the straight Air America feed.

Christine Craft rumored to be buying Santa Cruz station

Now here's an interesting rumor worth keeping an eye on.

KSCO (1080AM) in Santa Cruz, which has been on the selling block for a few months, could possibly wind up in the hands of talk radio personality Christine Craft. Yes, that Christine Craft.

Station owner Michael Zwerling, who has owned the station with his mother since 1991, discussed the idea with listeners last Saturday on his two-hour talk show, with Craft as a studio guest. Many of the show's callers liked the idea.

But will it happen? As documented here many times before, the oft-colorful and never dull Zwerlings live for spectacle, and their antics in the past have been widely reported in the media. One would think this is just another publicity stunt. And Craft herself was quoted by a San Jose columnist as saying she doesn’t have the money to buy a radio station, particularly one like the widely-known KSCO.

Craft is a former resident of the area, and currently has her options open since leaving KSAC in Sacramento a few months ago when her contract wasn't renewed and she was told to seek sponsors for her afternoon show in order to keep it.

She is probably best known for suing Metromedia-owned TV station KMBC in Kansas City, after being fired from her from her news anchor job in 1983 because she was "too old, too unattractive and wouldn’t defer to men." Since then, she wrote a book about the experience and went on to do radio, including KGO in San Francisco and KSAC.

KSCO has long had a reputation as a bizarre right-wing radio outlet, suiting the views of the Zwerlings, through off-the-wall commentaries, grandstanding antics, off-the-wall drama and some rather disturbing occurrences. They were picketed by striking station employees for not paying them. They dropped liberal talker Peter Werbe for saying bad things about George W. Bush. They had an anthrax scare. And one former employee died under strange circumstances, though that is likely not related whatsoever to KSCO. They did commit one unfathomable crime against humanity by foisting the Radio Tranquilizer on the masses. Yeah, this is the station where Baloney got his start. For the most part, the station's on-air lineup consists of Rush Limbaugh, a few brokered local talk shows and lots and lots of infomercials. Still, I have to admit I kinda like the Zwerlings. In a world of homogenized Clear Channels, the industry needs a few eccentric characters.

In addition, the Zwerlings also own sister station KOMY, which was an Air America Radio affiliate until they flipped to oldies earlier this year after a ridiculously long drawn-out drama.

So, what would a Craft-owned radio station sound like? Craft said her opinions are more varied than strictly liberal, and said she’d keep the station’s content focused on locally based talk. Don't look for a dedicated liberal talk format here, particularly with rival KRXA already handling that department. The programming would likely run the gamut politically.

Zwerling seems to be more interested in selling to the right person than in getting top dollar. “This radio station,” he told his listeners, “will go for a lot less than houses go for in Santa Cruz.”

Both she and Zwerling repeatedly said the acquisition was “a possibility, not a done deal,” though a proposed contract reportedly does exist.

There has been no further comment from either party.

Stuff I missed while sleeping

Been a while, huh?

Yeah, I took a little time off. A week to be exact. In doing a blog such as this, I feel it is a wise idea to back away from it once in a while and recharge my engines. I'll even go so far as to go out into the real world. So, please do not be alarmed if this place gets a little quiet once in a while. All in all, it makes for a much better reading experience overall.

And no, I wasn't sleeping, but I thought it would make for a cool article title.

So, in the meantime, Dan Rather grew a set and rightfully filed suit against his former bosses at CBS, Bill O'Reilly realized he couldn't make a go of radio, O.J. Simpson switched from knives to guns in his hunt for the real killers er his sports mementos, and Congressional Democrats wimped out and rolled over as the Republicans turned their war on free speech into a wedge issue in condemning the recent MoveOn.org criticism on General Petraeus. And in this little corner of the world...

First on the agenda is a big story/non-story from last week, this one concerning Cenk Uyger of Air America's The Young Turks (or is that The Young Turk, since everybody else left?). He claims Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert stole a joke from him and used it on The Colbert Report, and, just like O.J. Simpson bum-rushing a sports memorabilia swap meet with guns-a-blazin, he's out for blood. Well, okay, $65 million. I was really tempted to make mention of this last week, but it all reeks of a silly publicity stunt.

And what was the joke? Something about Klingons. Yes, you heard that right - Klingons! Sorry, but a Klingon joke isn't worth 65 cents, let alone $65 mil. Cenk's obviously a sharp guy, and I just wished he could come up with a better publicity stunt. Hiring Mike Stark was a cool move. This, unfortunately, is not.

Hey, people crib my shit all the time. All I ask is a return link and the whole 'fair use' thing. But if anyone wants to kick $65 mil my way, contact me and we'll talk.

Radio listeners in Washington, DC, saddled by the horrible signal and questionable programming moves of local progressive talker WWRC, now have another option. In this overcrowded talk radio market, the newly reformatted WWWT (3WT) is mixing it up a bit after ending its "Washington Post Radio" endeavor. This new talk station pledges to carry conservative, liberal, middle-of-the-road and nonpolitical talk. We already knew that Stephanie Miller's show, currently on WWRC, would be joining the station. Well, that's forthcoming. In the meantime, Air America's Randi Rhodes is part of the station's lineup in afternoon drive, 4-7P ET. WWRC does not currently carry her show, but does carry other programs from Air America. And ESPN's Tony Kornheiser, who hosts a pretty good nonpolitical show (when he's actually on, of course) that isn't really about sports, is on weekday mornings. Of course, tuning in for progressive talk options also means occasionally tuning in for the likes of Bill O'Reilly (until his show buys the farm), Neal Boortz and eventually Glen Beck. But hey, at least they have a great signal. And are on both AM and FM, on 50,000 watt 1500AM in Washington (with a signal reaching Baltimore), 107.7FM in Northeastern Virginia and 820AM in Fredrick, MD. Should be interesting to watch.

Many people have emailed me about the recent changes to Air America's schedule. As stated before, The Air Americans has crashed and burned. Replacing it is Richard Greene's "Every Breath You Take" er Clout. The show airs from 8-10P ET. Following it is now Jon Elliot's show, followed by a repeat of the previous day's Lionel show. But wait - wasn't Bree Walker supposed to get a show on Air America? Well, that was the original line. But evidently, that did not come to fruition, for reasons nobody really knows, including me. She still has her weekend show on KTLK (1150AM) in Los Angeles.

Progressive talk station KOKE (1600AM) in Austin will soon be under new ownership. The station, along with two other local AM stations owned by Border Media Properties, will be sold to Jose J. Garcia for $5.5 million. BMP will keep their five FM stations in the market. No word on what this means for the future of KOKE. It could be nothing.

And remember KOMY? That little AM station outside of Santa Cruz owned by the rather colorful Zwerling family? The same ones that added Air America programming to the station and spent more time trying to kill it and threaten to remove it than actually try to make it work? Well, the Zwerlings are hanging it up. Michael Zwerling announced that they're cashing in their chips and selling both KOMY (which now programs a golden oldies format) and conservotalk station KSCO.

I do have to confess. After writing the final "pulling the plug" article, Zwerling himself sent me an email, and actually had a good laugh as I ripped him a new one. I gotta say, I respect him for that. And in the day and age of bland, corporate radio, perhaps a few eccentric local broadcast owners, no matter how irritating they can be, is overall a good thing. Best of luck to Michael and his mother Kay in their future endeavors. It's been a ride, I'll say that much.

And as a change of pace, I will open up the comments below in this article to an open thread. Normally, a common pet peeve of mine is when posters go off topic on an article to post their own stuff (such as the cut-and-paste astroturf jobs by our resident freeper, raccoonradio). You know, stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the article. In this instance, and this instance only, post whatever you want in this article, and this thread only. Got a scoop? A rant? Whatever, just add a comment below. All I ask is no flame wars, no personal attacks, etc. Keep it rational, kids.

Ratings Roundup Winter 2007: Part 2

Earlier, I gave you part one of the Winter 2007 Arbitron reports for various markets across the fruited plain. Today, you get a few more.

Just a quick note to add, these ratings are the overall ones, ages 12+ in all measurable dayparts. Demographic and daypart breakdowns are not publicly released by Arbitron, and are rather rare to come by, unless one pays the money to subscribe. Advertisers don't really rely on overall numbers to place buys, but at least these numbers give a glimpse of how stations are doing. So without further ado...

KQKE in San Francisco is still shaking the bay almost as much as that MacArthur Maze chaos currently jamming up local traffic. This time, they move from 1.1 to 1.3. They beat sister conservotalker KNEW by a tenth of a point and high-powered CBS Free FM outlet KIFR, which gets a 0.8. KGO, which some expected to lose it's #1 perch, stays on top with a significant lead at 5.5, almost a full point ahead of its nearest rival, adult contemporary-formatted KOIT. Oh, and ultra-right wing KSFO edges up slightly. In San Jose (#35), KQKE is down from 1.1 to 0.6. And KGO is at the top of the heap.

Down the road in the Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz market (#80), KRXA makes a spectacular leap, from 0.6 to 1.1. They are only a fifth of a point behind local conservotalker KSCO. The most recent trend report actually had KRXA tied with them. KGO is the #2 station in this market, and other area conservotalkers, such as KSFO, Fresno's KMJ and the new local Clear Channel Hannity/Savage/Dr. Laura outlet KION all sit at the bottom of the ratings, in the 0.4-0.6 range. KOMY, the former Air America affiliate that recently switched to oldies, has dropped off the ratings list.

In Washington, DC (#8), WWRC, usually good for a half-share, is a no-show in the book this time around, but that's not surprising. Talk radio gets mediocre ratings in this market, save for all-news WTOP and, to a lesser extent, WMAL. Free FM'er WJFK has a 1.6 with their non-political shock jock format and the rest, including all-news WTWP, African-American talker WOL and Clear Channel conservotalker WTNT are below a one share. Given the demographic breakdown of this market and the abundance of news/talk stations, an AM station with a puny signal like WWRC has an uphill struggle ahead of it. Luckily, the station is run on the cheap, with no local programming (syndicated progressive talk programming, and most talk programming in general, is offered on a barter basis, with no upfront money necessary). There are quite a few other talk stations that are a no-show in the book, including WFED, which is directed heavily at Beltway political wonks; 50,000 watt WMET, which is basically Greaseman's right-wing morning show, various brokered talk shows, and Music Of Your Life filling in occasional gaps; and suburban talker WAGE. Not to mention noncommercial stations like NPR outlet WAMU, Pacifica's WPFW and C-Span radio on WCSP. That's a lot of talk! Thirteen stations, including WWRC, air news and/0r talk formats.

Coming later today, books will be released for Minneapolis, Denver, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Buffalo and a few others. You can see all the market ratings results at Radio and Records or Stationratings.com.

Ratings Roundup: Phase 2 Winter trend, part 1

The second of the Winter 2006 Arbitron ratings trend reports is being released over the next week or two. This rolling trend report survey period covers this past December, January and February. It is the run-up to the official Winter ratings books, which will be released starting later this month.

While there really isn't a whole lot earth-shattering to report progressive talk-wise, there are a few interesting tidbits. First off, WWRL in New York (#1) seems to be adjusting well to being the new Air America Radio flagship. They hold at 0.8 overall, which may not sound like much, but given the station's limited and interference-enhanced signal at 1600AM and the dearth of competition, they are pretty close to the numbers achieved by predecessor WLIB, whose ratings dropped in half following the departure of Air America and the switch to a black gospel music format. Even with the signal limitations, WWRL does make a small showing in the books for Long Island (#18), northeastern New Jersey (#39) and the Hamptons (#260).

In Chicago (#3), WCPT is making a strong showing, considering its own limited suburban signal. So, what's so significant about a 0.8 share? Well, considering the station only airs during the daytime hours, transmits from the northwest suburbs and has ratings equal to Salem's strong-signaled conservotalker WIND, I would consider that to be pretty damn remarkable. They are also close to equaling the 1.1 share of WCKG-FM, a CBS-owned talk station airing the company's Free FM format. Speaking of Free FM, in San Francisco (#4), KQKE beats KIFR, which broadcasts on one of the strongest FM signals in the Bay Area.

If Clear Channel was hoping to find better ratings by flipping WXKS and WKOX in Boston (#11) to a Spanish-language format, well, they didn't. Both stations are completely absent from the ratings survey. The long-awaited new tower and transmission facilities for WKOX are currently under construction, but it is doubtful that even this will save the stations.

And in another market that recently lost a liberal talk station, KRXA in Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz (#80) has shot up significantly in the most recent trend, jumping from a 0.8 to a 1.3 share, likely helped by Air America-affiliated KOMY's recent switch to oldies. In addition, KRXA is now tied with KOMY's sister station, conservotalker KSCO. Incidentally, a casual listen to either station shows that KRXA appears to sell a lot more advertising than KSCO. So congrats to the gang out in the Monterey Bay area.

More trend reports for other markets are on the way. If you want to see the overall (12+) numbers for yourself, you can check them out at Radio and Records or StationRatings.com.

Ratings Roundup Fall 2006: Part 2

In part one of this report, LTR analyzed how progressive talk radio stations did in in the recent Arbitron ratings book in the midwest. In this installment, you'll see how stations on the 'Left Coast' did.

KTLK in Los Angeles is still holding steady with a 0.8, up a tenth of a point from the Summer book. They are tied with Salem's conservotalk KRLA, ESPN's KSPN and KTNQ, a Spanish-language news/talk station. Los Angeles, like many other large markets, is a highly competitive market. The news/talk competition is very fierce, with even larger players such as CBS' Free FM affiliate KLSX and their two all-news stations (KCBS and KFWB) not very far ahead of KTLK. San Diego's KLSD is on the rise again after sliding a bit since last fall. In market #17, it moves up almost half a point to a 1.9 share.

Up the coast in Santa Barbara (market #211), KIST, which was recently sold to a local group, is doing very well, tied for 7th place overall with a 3.4 share. Further north, in San Luis Obispo (#172), KYNS, a well-run small market liberal talker that will soon add Mike Malloy to the lineup, holds steady tied for 16th place with a 1.7 share. KFPT in Fresno (#66), recently sold by CBS to local Peak Broadcasting, holds steady with a 1.0, no change since Summer, but more than double what they had last Fall. According to radio industry site AllAccess, KFPT could soon be sold again, with former general manager Chris Pacheco rumored as the buyer. Whether this sale will go through, or if this means a change in format remains to be seen (thanks for the tip, Jim).

In the Monterey Bay area (#80), a market whose sole dominant talk station is high-powered KGO, located roughly a hundred miles away in San Francisco, KRXA is relatively unchanged in the book, as it drops a tenth of a point to a 0.6. They are up a fifth of a point since last Fall. Low-powered KOMY, which carries a mash-up of several Air America Radio shows, infomercials, and whatever else, and recently switched to oldies, is a no-show in the book. Incidently, in response to my article from last week regarding KOMY and their format switch, I got an email from owner Michael Zwerling, which will be posted here shortly. Trust me, you don't want to miss this!

Speaking of the Bay Area, KGO maintains its two decade grip as the top overall station in the market with a rather centrist-leaning talk format. Liberal talker KQKE is tied at #26 overall in the San Francisco (#4) book, and holding at 1.1, which is just a tenth of a point lower than its conservative sister, KNEW. The Quake also has a 1.1 share in neighboring San Jose (#35). In the North Bay, the station has a very strong showing in the Santa Rosa (#119) book jumping all the way up to #12 overall, rising from a 1.0 in the Spring to a 2.5 for the Fall.

In the battle of the Sacramento (#27) liberal talk stations, KCTC, the Air America affiliate, drops slightly to a 0.8 share. KSAC, which airs a mostly liberal talk format, slides to the near bottom of the ranked stations with a 0.4.

The northwestern has been one of the strongest areas for the liberal talk format. Portland, OR (#23) is no exception. Since its debut almost three years ago, KPOJ has been one of the strongest stations in the format. Fall was especially good for them, as they rise all the way up to #5 with a gain of almost a full point, at a 3.7 share. In Seattle (#14), KPTK, a strong performer in some daypart breakdowns, holds at a 2.0 from the summer in this highly competitive talk market. They are down slightly in comparison to last fall. BlatherWatch, a Seattle talk radio blog, claims that conservotalk station KTTH got a huge boost in the recent book, thanks mostly to Rush Limbaugh, who doubled his local ratings from over a year ago (and I assume BlatherWatch's Michael Hood is using last fall as a comparison). Thom Hartmann, who had dominated the 9AM-Noon timeslot in comparison to all other area talk stations throughout the past year, dropped to #2 behind Limbaugh. Hartmann is still the most-listened to host on KPTK. Ed Schultz tied with Sean Hannity among all listeners in the recent Seattle book, though he did reportedly beat him in some demographic breakdowns. In general, conservotalk fared rather poorly in Seattle this past fall, with Limbaugh being the sole exception.

On the other side of the state, KPTQ in Spokane (#93) holds somewhat steady, rising from a 1.0 to a 1.3 share. In Eugene, OR (#150), KOPT continues its rollercoaster ride, from a 2.4 last fall to 3.4 this past spring and back down to a 1.9 for this past fall. Whether this has to do with the erratic nature of twice-yearly Arbitron ratings reports in small markets (in Duluth, MN, KQDS jumped from 0.9 to 2.1) is unknown.

In Anchorage, AK (#172), KUDO, which is owned and backed by IBEW Local 1547, comes in with a 1.3 share. KUMU in Honolulu (#63), which carries a hodgepodge of mostly delayed talk programming including Air America, Stephanie Miller, Schultz, and various non-political talk shows, rises slightly to grab a 0.7 share.

Coming soon, we'll give you the lowdown on other parts of the country. As always, stay tuned!

KOMY finally pulls the plug

After nearly two years of threatening to pull Air America Radio off their Santa Cruz radio station, the Zwerling family has finally done just that.

On Thursday, KOMY in Santa Cruz finally dropped liberal talk. Taking Air America's place is golden oldies, — from the likes of Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, and Chuck Berry, spun by real live and local disc jockeys, or so they claim.

This finally caps a long, drawn-out drama in which the owner, Michael Zwerling, has endlessly complained about never being able to sell advertising to support the format. Which of course makes sense when you have hardly anybody in the station to sell advertising.

KOMY is owned by Zwerling, along with his mother Kay. The two also own conservotalker KSCO, which seems to be their pride and joy, though it gets horrible ratings. KOMY was perhaps one of the weakest of Air America's affiliates (and that's saying a lot), in that the station was hardly promoted, the schedule was cluttered with infomericials, the ultra-conservative owners obviously hated the programming, and they constantly complained about a lack of advertisers, even though the station appears to have a barebones sales department. The two-station cluster is a mom-and-pop operation (actually, a mother-and-son operation - shades of the Bates Motel?) in every sense of the word, and often, it seems the programming of the two stations have always taken a backseat to the strange antics of their eccentric owners.

Air America Radio made its debut on KOMY in July 2005. When Zwerling announced his intention to put Michael Savage's show on in the evening, Air America execs scoffed. Finally, the station gave in to Air America's demands, and cleared three of their shows: Al Franken, Randi Rhodes and "The Majority Report". And since they couldn't mix Savage in with the liberal talk programming, they made sure to slot in 'owner editorials', which were nonsensical at best, fire-breathing reactionary at worst.

And then came the drama. A couple months later, Michael Zwerling went to his friends in the local media, complaining that area liberals weren't beating down the door to buy advertising time on KOMY. In protest, the Zwerlings yanked "Majority Report" and started airing infomercials in its place, in essence holding the format hostage.

After receiving some not-so-nice letters from listeners, Zwerling went on the air (the Zwerlings are fond of their ridiculous on-air 'editorials') and blasted the listeners who sent the "vicious hate mail", as if they felt insulting their listeners would improve the station's performance. Zwerling didn't appreciate the complaints about the Kay Zwerling editorials, and demanded that “hypocritical Air America listeners” better send in money or they would yank the programming off the station. Yes, he did indeed issue that threat.

The Zwerlings have always detested Air America. They also claim local advertisers think likewise. "It's an angry, nasty, pissing and moaning format where the only thing they say is 'Bush stinks' or 'Bush is bad'," he said. "No commercial advertiser wants to be associated with that."

"We didn't sell a single ad in a year and a half," Zwerling said Thursday. "I thought liberal radio would work as a viable advertising business in the most liberal town in America. I was wrong"

Zwerling did admit that some advertisers were turned off by the ultra-conservative reputation of KOMY and the Zwerlings.

Perhaps it could have been that the Zwerlings didn't have much of a sales department. The Zwerlings don’t even pay their own talk show hosts on KSCO, instead demanding they go out and find their own sponsors! Which of course, explains how Brian "Screech" Maloney got his start. It appears that the Zwerlings seem most concerned about selling ads for Rush Limbaugh's show on KSCO, which they have constantly boasted about being "sold out."

Zwerling finally announced back in October that he was pulling the plug on KOMY's liberal talk format, effective October 25, and everyone hoped that that would be the end of it. Since then, the Zwerlings realized that they really didn't have anything to replace Air America, so the station became an unpredictable hodge-podge of Air America, infomercials, replays of KSCO shows and Alan Colmes (whom they refer to as "a reasonable liberal"). At times, they ran the straight Air America feed, and even aired promos for Mike Malloy's show, though it had been dropped from Air America months earlier. In the meantime, they finally put up a website for KOMY. Perhaps they were giving it a second third chance. Finally, on Thursday, the Zwerlings ended the insanity and flipped to oldies.

As much as the local newspaper seems to suck up to the Zwerlings (the articles in the Santa Cruz Sentinel are always sympathetic and a bit thin on facts), the Zwerlings are not the martyrs that they make themselves out to be. Listeners avoid their stations, people in the industry mock them, and many former employees detest them (except for Screech, I guess). How inept are the Zwerlings? Their main station, KSCO, which carries a mix of local shows and syndicated fare from the likes of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, gets terrible ratings. In the most recent Arbitron book, listenership dropped nearly in half, down from a 2.3 last summer to a 1.2 in the fall. KOMY only occasionally made a showing in the ratings books. Granted, the Monterey Bay area is not a strong market for talk radio (the only truly successful talk station here is KGO, broadcasting from San Francisco, roughly a hundred miles north of Santa Cruz), but similar stations to KSCO in other markets do much, much better. For the market's flagship news/talk station to do that poorly is embarassing.

Meanwhile, across the bay in Monterey, KRXA, which began airing liberal talk at the same time as KOMY, is plugging along with their own non-Air America talk format. Owners Hal Ginsberg and Peter B. Collins are very dedicated to the format, and seem to have few problems attracting advertisers, as quite a few local businesses can be heard on their airwaves. Ratings aren't great, but they've been steady. And the owners and staff do indeed have a passion for what they do. So, the question deserves to be asked, how do Ginsberg and Collins succeed where the Zwerlings have failed? More effort and less whining, I guess.

To their credit, the Zwerlings did make one more programming move recently. Earlier this month, KSCO dropped Michael Savage. However, this was only because the cost to air the show became too expensive.

See also this thread from October, or all threads regarding KOMY.

UPDATE 1/27: It appears Air America has not left the Monterey Bay area. KRXA has picked up more programming from the network, including the overnight refeed of Al Franken and Randi Rhodes at 11PM, as well as the Mark Riley show live from 2-3AM. Rhodes also gets a best-of replay on Sunday afternoon and evening. Laura Flanders' RadioNation has been picked up for Saturday and Sunday nights. Previously, the station had already been carrying Ring of Fire. So, don't believe the wingnut blogs with all of ten readers. AAR is still on in the Santa Cruz area.

UPDATE 2/2/07: Michael Zwerling responds.

Subject: Are You The Author Of.....

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2006/10/komysanta-cruz-to-finally-drop-air.html

If so, my compliments to the chef!

Seriously.

The story is mostly accurate and TOTALLY entertaining reading!

You (or the author) have (has) a true flair for writing.

This is screenplay material.

Best,

MZ

--
Michael L. Zwerling
Owner, KSCO NewsTalk AM 1080 and
KOMY Oldialites AM 1340
Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz

Monterey, CA attorney/radio journalist suffers mysterious death

Following the recent passing of both former President Gerald Ford and music icon James Brown is a death that will likely slide in under the radar. So far, only the local Monterey County Herald has reported on it. Granted, both Ford and Brown are more noteworthy individuals, but this one may be of interest to readers of LTR.

In what police describe as a "probable" suicide leap, a prominent Monterey Bay Area attorney fell at least nine floors to his death at the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay in Seaside the morning before Christmas.

Sunday morning, officers found the body of Paul Sanford, an attorney, journalist and local radio talk show host, in the west end of the hotel lobby, where he had landed on a large ventilation grate.

In addition to his work specializing mostly in DUI cases, Sanford was active in local organizations and causes, and made waves in the national arena. He appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004 when he argued unsuccessfully that the words "under God" should be stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance. A passionate believer in "a dynamic Constitution," Sanford claimed that he "never leaves home" without a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his pocket. He was a vocal advocate of free speech, and for the rights of homeless people.

In recent years, he became a journalist. Almost immediately, he caused a stir after he joined the White House Press Corps in 2005, making waves as the first reporter to ask then-White House press secretary Scott McClellan whether the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name might be considered an act of treason.

"There has been a lot of speculation concerning the meaning of the underlying statute and the grand jury investigation concerning Mr. Rove," Sanford asked. "The question is, have the legal counsel to the White House or White House staff reviewed the statute in sufficient specificity to determine whether a violation of that statute would, in effect, constitute treason?"

McClellan was apparently flustered by the question and replied that "those are matters for those overseeing the investigation to decide."

The White House incident sparked controversy after political bloggers incorrectly described Sanford as a reporter for the Air America radio network. At the time, he was associated with Watsonville radio station KOMY, an Air America affiliate, and Sanford told reporters he never claimed to work for Air America.

Sanford eventually filed suit against KOMY owner Michael Zwerling after Zwerling was reported as saying Sanford had not been authorized to represent the station as a reporter, a statement Sanford refuted. The case was scheduled to begin in Santa Cruz County Superior Court in February. The status of the case is unknown following Sanford's sudden death.

Although the dispute with Zwerling caused Sanford a great deal of stress at the time, his close friend, fellow Monterey attorney Shawn Mills, said his friend was feeling fine about it and believed he would soon be vindicated in court.

Sanford and Mills both co-hosted the "Paul and Shawn Show" on Saturdays at local progressive talk radio station KRXA, where they covered last fall's election.

Friends and associates expressed disbelief at the news of Sanford's death and that it was ruled a suicide, saying Sanford seemed happy and had made many plans for this week and in coming months. Mills said he and Sanford recently decided to open a shared law office to serve Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, something Sanford was looking forward to doing.

He and Sanford spoke on the phone "around four or five times a day," Mills said, and the two had just spoken on Thursday, "tweaking a marketing plan" for their new law practice before Mills went out of town for the Christmas holiday.

"I just don't know what happened since Thursday. There was nothing on the horizon there to know this was going to happen," Mills said. "We were going to get together this week."

Mills said he had spoken to Sanford's wife, Paula, and that she also was in shock. He said Sanford, a father of two, was a devoted family man.

"This is a horrible thing for his family. He would never have intentionally put his family through that trauma. Something's not right, it doesn't make sense."

Sanford recently purchased his mother's home in Pebble Beach, and Mills said his friend planned to retire there one day.

Police declined to state exactly why they ruled the case a suicide.

Mills said Sanford should be remembered for his volunteer work in the local community. "People don't like to work for free, and Paul worked for ideology. He didn't like the attention a lot. The attention he's going to get now would upset him."

KOMY/Santa Cruz to finally drop Air America, so will the Zwerlings finally just shut up?

The Zwerling/Air America Radio soap opera will soon be over. KOMY co-owner Michael Zwerling is vowing once again to drop AAR programming (or what little they actually have of it) by next month.

So, the question everyone, including the media wonks, seems to ask is, why isn’t Air America doing well in that liberal hotbed known as Santa Cruz? Well, if they had to listen to the programming on a station like KOMY, the answer would be obvious.

KOMY is owned by Zwerling, along with his mother Kay. The two also own conservo-talker KSCO, which seems to be their pride and joy. KOMY is perhaps the weakest of AAR's affiliates, in that the station is hardly promoted, the owners obviously hate the programming (they're staunch conservatives), and they constantly complain about lack of advertisers, even though the station appears to have no substantial sales department. The two-station cluster is a mom-and-pop operation (actually, a mom-and-son operation) in every sense of the word, and often, it seems the two stations take a backseat to the strange antics of the eccentric owners.

Some may remember a controversial dustup in October 2001, when Peter Werbe's then-syndicated show aired on KOMY in the mornings. The Zwerlings were appalled by Werbe's controversial attacks on the Bush Administration, and Michael Zwerling went on the air during Werbe's show and denounced the show and its host, 'apologizing' to the people of Santa Cruz for having him on "his" airwaves. On Oct. 18, Zwerling, called Peter an "asshole," because the station was allegedly receiving so many complaints. Local residents were taken aback by the owner's on-air language, a violation of FCC standards.

If that wasn't enough, Mom went on the air with her own editorial, and bashed Werbe for being such a meanie.

Fast-forward three years later. KOMY and the Zwerlings give it another go. They affiliate with Air America after some tough negotiations (the Zwerlings wanted to put Michael Savage's show on the same station, and AAR would not allow it). Finally, KOMY cleared three shows from AAR - Franken, Rhodes and the Majority Report. But this was not the end of it. A couple months later, Michael Zwerling went on a whinefest to the local media, complaining that area liberals weren't beating down the door to buy advertising time on KOMY. In protest, they even pulled "Majority Report" and started airing infomercials in its place. After receiving some not-so-nice letters from listeners, Zwerling even went on the air again (the Zwerlings are fond of on-air editorials) and blasted the listeners who sent them. They aired another announcement that they had received “vicious hate mail” critizing the Kay Zwerling editorials, and saying that they want “hypocritical Air America listeners” to send in money or they would yank the AAR programming off the station.

Of course, the conventional wisdom was that they amped up the drama a bit in 'playing the victim', and it was likely that the Zwerlings' over the top editorializing was turning off listeners.

And the most likely possibility is that the Zwerlings are rather inept at running radio stations. They don’t seem to have much of a sales department, and if they do, they’re certainly not doing their job. Heck, the Zwerlings don’t even pay their on-air talent, instead demanding they go out and find their own sponsors!

Of course, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. And a combination of only two Air America shows, surrounded by unpaid local hosts and lots and lots of infomercials does not a successful station make. Obviously, the Zwerlings misunderstood the message of “Field Of Dreams”, because, quite frankly, they didn’t build much, and as a result, nobody came to listen. KOMY doesn’t even have its own website. Rather, there are a few mentions of the station on KSCO’s site, along with their own webstream. Otherwise, one would never even know that KOMY existed, or what they put on the air.

One really wonders what the Zwerlings hope to accomplish by dropping Air America. They only carry Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, last time I checked. And those shows are offered on a barter basis, meaning that they cost nothing to carry. Are they going to put on more unpaid local hsots? Infomercials? And they wonder why nobody is listening. Why would they? It all seems like a lot of grandstanding to me.

Meanwhile, across the Monterey Bay, another independently-owned AM station is also airing a liberal talk format. While KOMY airs only two or so Air America shows, surrounded by a ton of infomercials and whatnot, KRXA is fully devoted to the format. The station is owned by Washington, DC lawyer Hal Ginsberg and Bay Area radio legend Peter B. Collins. Ginsburg and Collins purchased the station and signed on their talk format shortly after KOMY. Since KOMY had the rights to the regular Air America programming, KRXA worked around it, signing a whole slate of non-Air America talk talent, including Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, and Thom Hartmann from Air America’s secondary syndication arm. The experienced and talented Collins himself hosts an afternoon show on the station, which is currently in syndication. They also do other local shows, and as far as I know, employees are being paid. So yes, to answer the questions everyone seems to ask, liberal talk can and does work in the Monterey/Santa Cruz area.

In the battle of the two stations, KRXA’s full-time liberal talk format easily beat KOMY’s half-hearted on-air train wreck. Collins is serious about the format, and the on-air presentation of KRXA proves this. While the station is not a massive success yet, local advertisers do seem to be buying time on the station. And the station is slowly rising up the ratings chart.

So, let this be a lesson to radio owners. As the saying goes, you get out what you put into it. The Zwerlings are running their stations on the cheap, and it shows (the ratings of their main station, KSCO, are pretty poor compared to what they should be doing). Air America should be happy that this melodrama will soon be behind them. Now the Zwerlings can go off and simmer in their own self-pity without being an obnoxious distraction.

And for listeners, fret not, since there happens to be a very good station on the air in the Bay Area. One that is dedicated to the format. That is KRXA, and they can be found at 540 on the AM dial. Give them a listen, and be sure to support their sponsors, and tell them why you do.

Conservatives find humor in terror scare

It all started with a gossip column in the New York Post:

POWDER PUFF SPOOKS KEITH

September 27, 2006 -- MSNBC loudmouth Keith Olbermann flipped out when he opened his home mail yesterday. The acerbic host of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" was terrified when he opened a suspicious-looking letter with a California postmark and a batch of white powder poured out. A note inside warned Olbermann, who's a frequent critic of President Bush's policies, that it was payback for some of his on-air shtick. The caustic commentator panicked and frantically called 911 at about 12:30 a.m., sources told The Post's Philip Messing. An NYPD HazMat unit rushed to Olbermann's pad on Central Park South, but preliminary tests indicated the substance was harmless soap powder. However, that wasn't enough to satisfy Olbermann, who insisted on a checkup. He asked to be taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where doctors looked him over and sent him home. Whether they gave him a lollipop on the way out isn't known. Olbermann had no comment.

Of course, Olbermann did not tell anyone about the scare. The police advised him not to, and he complied. He went in, got some Cipro as a preventative measure, and went on his way (and no, he did not get a sucker for his trouble). However, the Page Six author, Paula Froelich, obviously got the information somehow, and inadvertently messed up an investigation just to get a cheap laugh. And of course, help to encourage the lunatics who do this sort of thing.

And rightly so, there was outrage. Editor and Publisher thought it was extremely tasteless to make light of a major media figure being the target of a terror scare, or at the very least, a cruel prank. Especially since the anthrax scare that rocked several media outlets, including the National Enquirer, NBC News, AND the New York Post five years ago.

Of course, the Post is owned by News Corp, which in turn owns FOX News, a constant target of Olbermann’s barbs. Nonetheless, to poke fun at someone who received a legitimate scare is very bad journalism (if gossip columns are indeed ‘journalism’). To do this after the paper got it’s own scare years earlier is unconscionable. And to interfere with a pending federal investigation is appalling.

And yes, Olbermann did make mention of the incident later that evening on his show, “Countdown”, but only because he was backed into a corner:

The Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, The New York Post, may have just impeded an FBI investigation into terroristic threats.

I know this because I was a recipient.

I still cannot confirm many of the specifics -- again in order to make the jobs of the FBI and the New York Police Department a little easier. But I find it necessary to respond to the genuinely shocking tone with which Murdoch's paper reported the event, and the string of factual errors they made either through negligence or a premeditated disregard for the truth.

“Powder Puff Spooks Keith," reads the headline. The article then gives the details of the event which we were asked not to divulge.

Olbermann was not going to make any mention of the scare, because the authorities asked him not to. But since the Post decided to publish it, he felt he had to set the record straight.

…a New York Post reporter attempted to gain access to me by falsely identifying herself as a friend of mine.

And, most relevantly, the New York Post never called NBC News or MSNBC seeking any comment. They would have been told that the FBI had requested we try to keep this quiet.
But of course that would have interfered with the New York Post making fun of a terror threat.
It's almost melodramatic to ask why the New York Post would choose the side of domestic terrorism, rather than choose the side of the FBI…

(snip)

…Murdoch's newspaper did not even make the single phone call that could've told it the potential damage it was doing.

One way of telling that a person has hit the big time is when that person gets his own attack blog. And Olbermann Watch, for lack of a more substantial blog, is it. But OW doesn’t think this scare is a laughing matter. Or do they?

And then there’s THIS asshole. Yep, Brian Baloney, the Radio Tranquilizer, the failed part-time talk show host who has created what loosely passes for his current blogging career by eliciting fake sympathy over the loss of his Sunday afternoon radio gig. Two years ago, he cried like a baby, claiming KIRO in Seattle canned him for badmouthing Dan Rather. In fact, he played this whole crybaby fest across the country! KIRO management, probably not used to fired weekend jocks throwing temper tantrums in the national media, replied that they were expanding Seattle Seahawks programming, and that the other Sunday shows were better than his. In other words, he was the weakest link.

Of course, instead of sucking it up and taking his dismissal like a man, Maloney became the first weekend jock drama queen, begging for sympathy from gullible freepers across America. And who better than to take out his vendetta on – Yep, you guessed it – THOSE DAMN LIBRULZ!!! So, anyone who has had more success in radio than him (well, that would be everyone, I guess) felt the Baloney Pony’s wrath. Even if he had to make shit up (the Gloria Wise thing was blown up to ridiculous proportions, and he missed many of the facts). You’d think that he was secretly in love with Al Franken considering how many times Baloney writes about him, or how many Photoshopped pics he has of him. Note to Maloney: You sucked in radio. That’s why you were on Sunday afternoons, when nobody was listening. Then you got fired because you couldn’t cut it. That’s life, get over it. I worked in radio. And I got fired once. Life sucks, get a helmet.

But I’m getting off track here. ‘YOUR Radio Has-Been’ took the NY Post route and decided to accuse Olbermann of being a drama queen. In his words, “...we'd never put it past Olbermann and his lefty friends to try and score partisan points over such a story.” Ironic, in that just the day before, he reported on another white powder scare, this time at the studio of his former employer, KSCO, a conservative talk radio station in Santa Cruz. The owners of KSCO, rabid conservatives Michael Zwerling and his mother Kay, also own KOMY, which airs a couple programs from Air America Radio. By coincidence, I had pondered writing an entry about this station the other day, but shelved it out of respect for what happened. The article is totally unrelated to the powder scare, but it’s still an interesting story, and I’ll eventually put it up, but not now. Nonetheless, ‘YOUR Radio Dramatizer’ certainly didn’t accuse the Zwerlings of playing the victim for brownie points, did he?


Technorati fun: Keith Olbermann MSNBC New York Post anthrax terrorism Brian Maloney Radio Equalizer KSCO

Suspicious white powder scares Santa Cruz stations

A KSCO radio station worker opened an envelope filled with a mysterious white powder Monday afternoon, prompting authorities to quarantine the station and close a half-mile stretch of Portola Drive for more than four hours.

The county Hazardous Materials Team and county Environmental Health Department officials sealed the area off because of concern the powder could be a dangerous substance, such as anthrax, said Sgt. Fred Plageman of the Sheriff's Office.

"We have no idea what it is," Central Fire Protection District spokesman Mike DeMars said Monday afternoon.

Three station employees were exposed to the powder, but none showed symptoms of exposure to a hazardous substance, authorities said. The three were hosed off with decontaminants and changed out of their clothes and into so-called clean suits. They were allowed to leave around 5:30 p.m. Monday, about 15 minutes after Portola Drive reopened. Three other workers at the station were not exposed to the powder.

Plageman said there was a "preliminary indication" the substance is not hazardous. Tests will be done today to determine what it is; a sample was sent to the FBI, authorities said.

"We're just erring on the side of caution," DeMars said.

The powder came out of a legal-size envelope with no return address delivered to the building Monday, DeMars said. An employee opened the envelope, which contained nothing but the powder, around 1:15 p.m., DeMars said.

The station is KSCO in Santa Cruz. KSCO's owners also own KOMY, which is an Air America Radio affiliate. KOMY is perhaps one of the weakest of AAR's affiliates, in that the station is hardly promoted, the owners obviously hate the programming, and complain about lack of advertisers, even though the station appears to have no sales department. The two-station cluster is a mom-and-pop operation (actually, a mom-and-son operation) owned by Michael and Kay Zwerling.

Some may remember a controversial dustup in October 2001, when Peter Werbe's then-syndicated show aired on KOMY in the mornings. The Zwerlings were appalled by Werbe's controversial attacks on the Bush Administration, and Michael Zwerling went on the air during Werbe's show and denounced the show and its host, 'apologizing' to the people of Santa Cruz for having him on "his" airwaves. On Oct. 18, Zwerling, called Peter an "asshole," because the station was allegedly receiving so many complaints. Local residents are considering a license challenge and a complaint for the owner's language.

If that wasn't enough, Mom went on the air with her own editorial, and bashed Werbe for being such a meanie.

Fast-forward three years later. KOMY and the Zwerlings give it another go. They affiliate with Air America after some tough negotiations (the Zwerlings wanted to put Michael Savage's show on the same station, and AAR would not allow it). Finally, KOMY cleared three shows from AAR - Franken, Rhodes and The Majority Report. But this was not the end of it. A couple months later, Michael Zwerling went on a whinefest to the local media, complaining that area liberals weren't beating down the door to buy advertising time on KOMY. In protest, they even pulled "Majority Report" and started airing infomercials in its place. After receiving some not-so-nice letters from listeners, Zwerling even went on the air again (the Zwerlings are fond of on-air editorials) and blasted the listeners who sent them. They aired another announcement that they have been receiving vicious hate mail critizing the Kay Zwerling editorials, and saying that they want hypocritical Air America listeners to send in money or they would yank the AAR programming off the station.

Of course, the conventional wisdom was that they amped up the drama a bit in 'playing the victim', and it was likely that the Zwerlings' over the top editorializing was turning off listeners. Nonetheless, yet another adventure in the continuing adventures of perhaps the country's weirdest progressive talk station.