[P1] truth in advertising... very [OT]

[Robert Crawford]

On Friday, December 20, 2002, at 05:24 , Dale Critchley wrote:

> on the fateful day of 12/19/02 3:07 AM, in a dazzling display of 
> literary
> acumen, Charles Martin at chasm at mac.com altered the course of history by
> digitally penning the words:
>
>> If there really is a "liberal media," why is it that conservative talk
>> shows succeed and liberal talk shows fail?
>>
>> No, please don't answer that (at least, not here). So far we've managed
>> to stay largely on-topic.
>
> I don't understand this one. No liberal political talk shows? Oprah, 
> Rosie,
> etc.... I don't watch any of them any more, but if you don't think 
> they're
> political, watch them sometime. They're just less overt than Rush, but 
> no
> less political

In the rural area where I live we have a number of liberal political 
talk shows and no conservative ones.  How this happened in a 
conservative area (Siskiyou County, CA) is rather interesting.  The 
local AM station covered the entire county and carried Rush, Oliver 
North, Michael Regan, and others of a similar vein.  This station also 
covered local news and (very important in an Ag. region) weather.

So what happened to this popular station that covered a county that is 
larger then the state of Connecticut?  It was really quite simple, a 
group of rich leftists bought it.  It now runs all liberal talk shows 
and no local news or weather (because they get the feed form out of 
state).  What is more, because they now have no income for the station 
(and really no listeners)
they have cut the power down so much that instead if covering the entire 
county but instead only covers a small town of about 5,000.  They are 
still on the air and this interferes with anyone else trying to get a 
permit to put up a competing station.

It is important to understand that this station went in quite a few 
years ago.  When it went in there was quite a bit more money in the 
local economy.  At this point there is no real way to put in a radio 
station and expect to be able to pay the bills even if it were possible 
to get a permit.  The people that the station was purchased from did try 
to put up another station but could not afford to, and never expected to 
have to, fight the army of lawyers that the purchasing group fronted.  
The permits to put in a new station were continually blocked in courts 
several states away (Seattle, WA).

So yes, there are liberal political talk shows.  They run unopposed  in 
largely conservative markets.  But, it seems that they cannot run on 
stations that are funded by advertising money.  And they are generally 
not listened to.