Malloy does Dallas

Almost a year and a half since KXEB (AM) was sold and flipped to a religious format, progressive talk is returning to the Metroplex in limited form.

AllAccess reports that a group called Airtime Media, led by Tim Disa, worked out a deal for a five-hour block weeknights on KMNY (1360AM), which leases their signal out to Biz Radio Network for their business talk format by day, but their airwaves to whoever else has the money at night. The evenings will consist of a one-hour local show, "Rational Radio," featuring Jack Bishop, from 7-8P, Mike Malloy's syndicated show, which will air live from 8-11P, and another local show, "Empowerment Radio" from 11P-midnight.

The changes are effective January 28.

KMNY, which has a rather strong 50,000 watt daytime signal and meager 850 watts at night, is owned by Arthur Liu's Multicultural Broadcasting, which is big on leasing air time on many of their stations. If that name sends shivers down your spine, that is in fact the same group that infamously had problems with Air America Radio back in that network's early days. The network's programming was pulled off the two stations it was leasing outright, KBLA in Los Angeles and WNTD in Chicago, after only a month on the air, and spurred a rather ugly court battle. Luckily, this is another group that is involved.

Another interesting development happening later this year involves the rumored move of business talk from KMNY to another dial position, the lower-powered KTON (940AM), which Biz Radio's parent company owns and is trying to upgrade. What this means for the future of KMNY is unknown. More than likely, Multicultural will lease out the airtime to whoever will pay. Does this mean a possible full return of progressive talk to the Metroplex? Stay tuned.

Hybrid talker in Oregon flipping to sports

According to AllAccess, KEZX (730AM) in Medford, OR will drop their liberal/conservative hybrid talk format next month and flip to sports.

The station, owned by Opus Broadcasting Systems, will carry programming from FOX Sports Radio and Jim Rome's syndicated sports talk show starting February 4.

The move will displace progressive talkers Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz and Thom Hartmann, as well as conservatives Neal Boortz, Dennis Miller and Tammy Bruce. Syndicated morning show Steve and D.C. will also be gone in the shakeup.

KEZX flipped from easy listening to their current talk format in October 2006, after no doubt witnessing the success of upstate progressive talker KPOJ, as well as a few other similar stations in the state. Since flipping, ratings have been down from the old elevator music format in the one ratings book released since the flip.

When the format launched, I was a bit skeptical of it. Their intent was to compete against the other established talk stations in the market by trying to emulate the massively successful KPOJ. But they went about it all wrong. While they added Stephanie Miller, Schultz and former Air America Radio host Al Franken to the lineup, they also opted to air pseudo-libertarian Boortz, a ratings dud who's usually a last resort for filling midday slots on conservotalk stations, and the oft-cranky Don Imus, who's show has rarely done well outside East Coast markets. While doing right/left talk is a commendable thing, and I certainly wish more stations would return to the way it used to be done, this wasn't what made stations like KPOJ, which got bold and went with an all-progressive lineup, a success. In addition, the schedule seemed to be a slapped together mishmash of random talk shows, with no form or flow. Hybrid talk formats tend to work better with more local hosts that can flow in and out of opposing viewpoint shows. During the 1990s, there were quite a few stations that had left-leaning hosts leading out of Rush Limbaugh, and they were successful at it.

Another problem for KEZX was that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel and taking on lower-tier conservotalk offerings, since the top-tier stuff was scooped up by the other two talk stations. Were hardcore conservotalk fans really going to flip from Sean Hannity and syndicated Oregonian Lars Larson on KMED or Laura Ingraham and Michael Weiner on KCMX to listen to C-list talkers like Boortz or Dennis Miller on the weak-signalled KEZX? Doubtful. It was as if the folks at Opus were afraid to really carve out their own niche. As a result, it just didn't work.

Hybrid talk can and should work. It did for many years. But the case in Medford, as is the one with the similar KRFT in St. Louis, which itself is scheduled to flip to sports soon, shows how not to do it.

Weekend quickies

A few items concerning a few stations. Much of it concerns what you'll be hearing come Monday.

1. 3WT shuffles Miller, Rhodes

Good news and bad news for liberal fans tuning in to the Washington, DC-area trimulcast that is WWWT (3WT, 1500AM, 107.7FM, 820AM). First, Randi Rhodes' show, which had aired on all three signals, is now only on one, as the station, for some strange reason, gives hemorrhoidal harpie Glenn Beck the time slot on 1500AM (Washington) and 107.7FM (Northern Virginia). Rhodes is still on 820AM, which is based in Frederick, MD and serves the area west of Baltimore. No explanation was given, though conspiracy theorists may try to make a connection between owner Bonneville International, which itself is owned by the LDS Church, and Beck, who in recent years has converted to the Mormon faith. But Bonneville has never been a company that attempted to rock the boat or get preachy on their stations. Their M.O. seems to be to please everyone. They're basically a bland, inoffensive company that programs bland, inoffensive formats. 3WT is actually one of their rare forays into partisan political talk, and the station carries talkers with multiple viewpoints.

Speaking of 3WT, there is some good news to report, as Stephanie Miller, who's show has aired on an evening delay whenever the Washington Capitals NHL team had the night off, moves to late mornings, 10A-12P, swapping places with pseudo-libertarian Neal Boortz. Meaning that the only way Boortz will be on the air more is if he suits up and hits the ice for the Capitals. The change takes place Monday. You'll notice that only two hours of her show will air. That's because local guy Tony Kornheiser returns that day from his Monday Night Football gig to take back the 8-10A shift. It's a good show, and Tony's pretty middle-of-the-road, politically.

2. If it ain't broke, keep fixing it

I got quite a few emails on this one, and many Bay Area progressive talk listeners are pretty steamed. KKGN (Green 960AM) in San Francisco is totally shuffling its lineup for the second time in less than a month. The most recent change saw local talker Peter B. Collins taking the live 3-6P shift on the station (Collins does his show from San Francisco and syndicates it to several stations out west), displacing program director John Scott's show. Well, Scott hits the air once again, as he will helm a new morning show starting Monday, and airing from 7-9A PT. obviously, this means that Miller's show will be reduced to only the first hour on the station, and it's a move that isn't sitting well with listeners. Some may think the recent oil spill off the San Francisco coast has rearranged a few brain cells over there...

Listeners so far are also not happy that Collins' show will now be bumped into the late night hours, airing from 12-3A weeknights. In the upheaval, Rachel Maddow gets a split shift and Randi Rhodes moves up to the late afternoon time slot.

3. Air America Atlantic City

Across the country to the East Coast, we check in with WTAA in Atlantic City, NJ. The low=powered station flipped to progressive talk late last summer. So far, according to the local Press, the change hasn't resulted in a ratings boost as of yet, but it may be soon to tell. Besides, it's not like that station ever showed up in the ratings before. Still, they're trying. They recently added Don Imus to mornings and a local host, Virginia McCabe, to the 3-6P drive time shift. Station management like the idea of counteracting the mostly conservative AM radio landscape, and plan to carry the format on WTAA at least through the elections.

4. Taylor movin' on up

Okay, so he moves up one hour. Stacy Taylor, of XEPE (1700AM) in San Diego is moving come Monday, as his show will air from 3-6P local time (6-9P ET, for you webcast listeners). The station is slowly balancing its on-air lineup, as it also adds Lionel on delay, from 1-4A PT. There may be another shift open, since Dennis Miller's show runs twice a day currently. Don't be surprised if something else interesting lands there. After all, consider that KLSD, with its all-progressive talk format, just bumped up almost half a ratings point in the most recent Arbitron survey, its last before flipping to sports. San Diego 1700, as perhaps the fourth of fifth conservotalk station in the market, was nowhere to be found. Do the math.

Follow-up: Ward fired from KGO - for now

KGO-TV in San Francisco reports that embattled KGO Radio host Bernie Ward was officially fired by the station, effective at the end of 2007.

Ward has been off the air since he was indicted on federal child pornography charges last month – he admits downloading images from the internet and trading them with people he met on-line. His attorneys have said Ward was doing research for a book at the time.

KGO Radio General Manager Micky Luckoff said the station took the action against Ward before knowing full details of the case, and that he wants him back on the air soon. Luckoff believes Ward’s explanation that he downloaded and traded child porn as research for a book: “Technically, it’s against the law. He admitted what he did. There’s no reason to believe he’s a pedophile.” Luckoff adds that Ward’s arrest “hit us like a ton of bricks.” Luckoff says Ward and his attorneys have assured him that the talk show host’s involvement with child porn is confined to the three incidents outlined in the federal complaint.

The door is still open for Ward to return, and he and Luckoff will meet after the next court appearance January 24th. Luckoff says that he would hire him back, even before a possible trial wraps up: “We really value Bernie. He’s a very capable on-air talent.”

Continued

Bill O'Reilly: Not-so-pretty hate machine

Do I really have to write yet another article just to prove Bill O'Reilly is nuts?

Obviously, the many people who read this blog know the answer to that question. Okay, except for the seven or so people as of this writing that claimed in the poll here that they'll proudly vote for "some Republican dumbass" in the upcoming election. All of that aside, O'Falafel's show is shining and glowing proof that the right wing is guilty of just making shit up to prop up really moronic talking points. Sadly, there are probably way too many people that actually still fall for it.

Earlier this week, he featured progressive talker Ed Schultz on his show (video here). The topic was how the presidential candidates are handled on talk radio. Of course, Captain Constipated wanted to sidetrack that. The current target of his ire is Air America Radio, which obviously must be keeping him awake nights, because he mentioned them at least four times in the past week. He started at the top of the show:

...The mainstream media — print and TV — is largely liberal, so talk radio gives conservatives a voice, so to speak. Liberal radio networks like Air America have been disasters, with low ratings and even lower presentations.

O'Reilly doesn't mention, of course, that in many markets, his own radio show gets equal or lower ratings than Air America programs. That's even with the backing of big syndicator Westwood One.

Obviously, this so-called 'bankrupt, failed radio network' must be pushing the right buttons, since it's evidently replaced George Soros, Daily Kos, Media Matters for America and MoveOn at the top of O'Reilly's shit list. With the knowledge that Schultz and Air America don't get along very well, Falafel-for-brains saw this as an opportunity to use him to fight his own personal childish grudge, a typical O'Rambling tactic. Of course Schultz is too smart for this, and could care less about doing O'Reilly's bidding against his percieved enemies. O'Reilly wasted no time, it was the second question directed at Schultz, on a show that was supposed to be about the election:

O'REILLY: OK. Air America traffics in the personal attacks. That's what they did 24/7. It did not work. Did you learn from that? Were you appalled by what they did?

SCHULTZ: Well, you know, I've been in this racket since 1978. I've been around TV and radio for a long time. I've never based my career on how well I can attack somebody. I mean, we can be pretty creative when we decide we want to go after somebody. But I can't really say that I've learned anything from any particular network.

Of course I'm independent from them. I've got my own company and my own radio show that's independent, but I'm on a lot of their stations. Bill, I don't pay attention to other talk show hosts. I feel strong in my...

O'REILLY: The reason I asked that question is you said that your progressive listeners are getting fed up with the personal attacks. I hope that's true.

SCHULTZ: It is.

O'REILLY: But I'm hoping that maybe they saw what happened, because Air America did have an opportunity in this country, because as I said, most talk radio is right wing. They came on, in the beginning they were financed, they put on Franken and Garofalo, and all they did was lodge personal attacks after personal attack. It was monotonous. It wasn't funny. It was disgusting. And progressive people, obviously, didn't listen. Because if they did listen, it wouldn't have gone bankrupt, and they fled.

See what I mean?

I guess I should mention that later, in that same segment, Captain Phonesex refuted Edwards' claims that there are far too many veterans that are homeless. Yes, he claims that there is no such thing as homeless veterans. I'll be sure to mention that to the several I see along the streets holding signs that I frequently pass on the way to work. Obviously, he needs to tone down the tint on the back windows of the limousine he takes from Long Island to his workplace everyday. he's not living in the same world as us.

Another recent segment was about the USO, a long-time organization that organizes entertainment tours for the military overseas. It's a great group with a long history. But according to O'Reilly, they're 'under fire' because they allegedly took donations from MoveOn. Oh, the horror! Conventional wisdom in the media would dictate that he would feature a spokesperson from the USO and grill him/her about it. Well, this is Faux News, and there is no conventional wisdom. The featured guest is someone from a 527 group called Vets for Freedom. Uh huh. Some of O'Really's choice comments from the interview:

A few weeks ago, we told USO President Edward Powell that more celebrity visits to the troops were badly needed. Mr. Powell did not disagree. But now some USO board members are furious with Mr. Powell, because he took donations from the radical left organization MoveOn. You'll remember that organization took out this despicable "betray us" ad...But my question is this. If this organization, which we think is despicable, move on. We think that they're bad and nothing good about them.

...Radical left. Trying to undermine the military, no question, irresponsible.

Earlier this week, former FOX Noise goon and Bush-appointed mouthpiece Tony Snow went on "The Factor" to whine about the liberal pile-on while he appeared on "Real Time with Bill Maher" last Friday. Pot, meet kettle. Welcome to our world. Here's an excerpt:

...he was up against far-left loons on the panel and in the audience...

...Now I've seen people outnumbered, but nothing like Tony Snow was on that program (I guess he doesn't watch his own network, where he could easily see the flipside of that)...

...By the way, I will do the Bill Maher program, but only one on one with Maher, not sitting there with Mark Cuban and Catherine Crier and the other nut. Not going to happen. Now this incident just reinforces the bitterness and attack strategy of the far left.

Typical. In other words, O'Liely is afraid of getting into a situation where he doesn't control the guests. Never mind that Crier is a TV pundit just like him and the other guy is a political writer for Rolling Stone magazine. Cuban is a businessman and media executive, just like O'Puhleez's boss. O'Reilly's background is basically as a jerkoff who reads a teleprompter. What makes him more qualified to discuss politics than you or I or anyone else?

But back to the Snow pile-up. Did O'Reilly bring Snow on to talk about it? Of course not. Snow was on Captain Phonesex's radio show earlier. On "The Factor" that night, was yet another conservative pundit nobody's ever heard of:

...With us now to analyze is Mark Smith, author of the book "The Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy..."

...Well, we've been saying that — I don't know if it's against America. It's certainly against the war...

...The issue is off the table now because the elite media won't cover it anymore because things are going better. So now it's the economy. We see The New York Times everyday front page: recession, recession, recession has replaced bombing, bombing, bombing...

...the left now is fighting each other. They're tearing each other apart. Do you think that's getting through to Americans because you are seeing lively debate on the Republican side, but nothing like the vitriol on the Democratic side?

...And the malice, the level of malice on the far left is now rising. I mean, Air America was bad. They went bankrupt. But they took that mantel of malice. And now they're just riding it to the mainstream media. And I'm saying to myself, Americans don't like that...

As most media junkies know, FOX and MSNBC are at verbal war with each other. MSNBC is owned by General Electric, so naturally, GE, one of this country's largest defense contractors, is in cahoots with the terrorists. Of course, GE automatically became the bad guy not for some ridiculous degrees of separation between an American concern and supporters of terrorism and enemy nations. It was likely because of a humorous bit on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann' called 'Bill O’Reilly Puppet Theater,' which parodied the recent incident where O'Reilly tried to muscle through presidential candidate Barack Obama's security detail. O'Falafel evidently was not amused at the puppet show. Nobody from GE came on the program. Instead, one guest was from a right-wing think tank, and the other was from an obscure group called 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America:

...Syria also involved, you know, also on the list of the State Department. They do help terrorists in Syria. GE does a lot of business with them as well. So I don't know, man. It's just looking pretty bad here...Do you think GE's actually helping the Syrian government? Or is it just a private thing?

Not much really seems to amuse Mr. Pout. Here, O'Loony gives his take on the war positions of the presidential candidates:

...It's interesting because Ron Paul, a Republican congressman, and John Edwards, a Democrat, both saying basically the same thing, get the hell out of the Gulf. And Paul doesn't want any intrusion in Pakistan at all. And I'm sitting here going, am I crazy? Or would this heighten the danger for Americans like by a 1,000 percent?

...OK. Now you know that the American media per se, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the network news, CNN does not believe what you just said. Their point of view is, we illegally invaded Iraq.

...As you said, John Edwards is a loon. I think he'll be out soon...

One can also detect a pattern O'Reilly uses in his attacks. He often brings on surrogates (hence all the right-wing goons he features as guests) to do much of his bidding. Who better than the oft-nutty Melanie Morgan from KSFO in San Francisco?

MORGAN: Well, I will take it as far as to point out the fact that (Hillary Clinton) is a woman who would not be a good president for all the people. Why do I know that? Because she has personally attacked me through her surrogates and through her Media Matters, which she's claimed credit for starting. She is trying to get you fired. She is trying to get me fired.

O'REILLY: Is that right?

MORGAN: Yes, it's real personal for me.

O'REILLY: Well, everybody knows that Media Matters is a far-left smear machine. So if I were you, I would just ignore them. They've tried to get me fired every hour on the hour for 11-and-a-half years, Melanie.

MORGAN: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: They ain't going to do it unless my ratings go down. Then it won't be them — it'll be FOX that fires me, OK. So they have no — all they can do is dish out the vitriol. But I agree with you. I get angry about the lies and the distortion because there's nothing we can do about it because we're in the public eye.

(snip)

O'REILLY: Well, we know on talk radio in the last, I don't know, five years with the advent of Air America, there's never been a more vicious network. You have right-wing kooks out there as well. You know who they are.

MORGAN: In comparison to the left-wing kooks, they are small in comparison.

O'REILLY: Yes, but there's one that is really out there. I mean, you know, not going to give the guy any publicity, but I mean, you know, it's hard to measure hatred on the level that these people bring to the table.

And all of this was just this week. I could go on and on, like how he compared actor/activist Tim Robbins to a Nazi officer. Or that time he claimed reporter Helen Thomas "is consistently anti-American in her point of view." Oh yeah, and then there was that time that he equated “reading far-left websites with devil-worship”, and that the Daily Kos, a longtime target of his ire, is run by Satan Himself.

Suffice it to say, Bill O'Reilly is full of shit. A far-right rabble rouser who spouts hateful and insulting rhetoric complaining about how the other side spews hateful and insulting rhetoric. My opinion is that FOX Noise, in general, is for people too lazy, too busy or too stupid to comprehend the news in general, and need someone to do the thinking for them.

And perhaps Bill O'Really should concentrate less on building his ego and building his humility and self-esteem and admit that he is indeed a hypocrite. All it takes is a good look in the mirror.

Yeah, that's a start.