AAR continues to grow

[tomfodw]

Randi Rhodes just announced they will be on stations in Madison (WI) and Columbus (OH) soon.

We need Pennsylvania (full-time). Anywhere else they're not on where they need to be? (Besides LA & Chicago, of course.)

[RobertSeattle]

1. Seattle

Though W is almost certainly going to go for Kerry 11/2.

[rwheeler31]

2. Kansas City

nt

[oscar111]

4. AA's impossible to get addy: and, add stations in RW areas

[email protected]

write it down NOW, since it is not at their site.

might tell them to ditch reruns, and get fresh shows using fill ins such as book authors eager to promote their books. Limbaugh always has fresh fillins.

they need to add stations in RW areas. Most of their areas already have a bit of LW radio, from solo shows, like bernie ward.
Mostly they are along the e coast, northern lib tier, and down the w coast.

Needed most in midwest and South.
eg. Little Rock, Birmingham, Mississippi, St.Louis.

If they dont have paypal or other donation method on their site, they ought to add it. Make donations real easy.

[Ivan Sputnik]

7. AA is a for-profit

business, so they can't accept donations. Buy some of their T-shirts and coffee mugs if you want to support them directly.

[DeadHead67]

3. St.Louis needs AAR BAD !!!

I have Charter high-speed for streaming audio, and it sometimes REALLY SUCKS!!!

[zulchzulu]

12. St. Louis certainly deserves AAR

Get one of those big stations to cover it. It's nice having AAR on FM here in Madison.

[RazzleCat]

21. another vote for st. Louis

we need something besides NPR. oh and yeah charter sucks, try DSL OK, had both, DSL is way better in my area, better speed, better support, and less down time. (like never goes out, vs the charter maybe, maybe not service)

[jayctravis]

23. Agreed on STL...

I get them just fine on Charter, but we do need something besides 97.1 Republican Radio

[nookiemonster]

24. St. Louis, agreed.

STL is becoming a cesspool of right wing propaganda. There is nothing here to counter the ridiculous crap that most of the sheep in this town believes.

Of course not all are sheep. But when we try to tell our side of the story, the kool-aid drinkers think that we're friggin nuts.

[XanaDUer]

5. North FL

Badly needed here. Like water in a desert.

[Ganja Ninja]

8. Tampa and Orlando too.

Nothing but a right wing echo chamber on central Florida radio.

[zulchzulu]

6. I was tired of streaming off the web

92.1 FM in Mad City....kewl...

[dennis4868]

9. How about.....

WASHINGTON, DC? The political capitol of the world!

[zulchzulu]

10. AAR coming through in STEREO in Madison

92.1 FM

Sweet!

[oddtext]

11. NEW station in Asheville NC

CITIZEN-TIMES.com
AM radio station turns to the left


By Tony Kiss, Entertainment Editor
Sept. 8, 2004 10:36 p.m.
ASHEVILLE - A new style of liberal talk radio is coming to Asheville next week, as daytime-only station WPEK/880-AM drops its "adult standards" music format and joins the edgy Air America network.

The station, formerly known as "The Peak," will morph into "The Revolution."

Instead of nostalgic singing by Tony Bennett and the Four Tops, the station will air left-leaning talk shows by Al Franken, Randi Rhodes and others, said Brian Hall, director of news talk programming for Clear Channel Asheville, which owns WPEK. The station is licensed to Fairview but has studios on Patton Avenue in West Asheville.

Clear Channel also owns Asheville's WWNC/570-AM, which airs conservative talk shows by Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and others. Hall is also WWNC's program director.

The change is because of lack of listeners at WPEK, Hall said. "The ratings just weren't there" for nostalgic pop, he said. "This will be satisfying a demand that a lot of people have. It's a natural fit for Asheville.

"People listening to the current format will be shocked. Those who will listen to the (new format) are not currently listening to the station. This will be a lot of fun."

The change was praised by Wally Bowen, a local media critic and director of the Mountain Area Information Network, which has its own "progressive" low-powered FM Asheville station, WPVM/103.5-FM.

"Air America will broaden the range of political speech available to Asheville-area listeners," he said.

It's the fourth format since March 2002 for WPEK, which is on the air only from sunup to sundown. The station originally carried conservative talk shows, but Clear Channel moved those programs to the more powerful WWNC, and WPEK took a classic country format. That format was later switched to nostalgic pop.

The new liberal talk format will include both Air America shows and programs from the Jones Radio Network.

The weekend schedule at WPEK is still being planned, but one current music show will survive - John Roten's Saturday morning "Mountain Music Time," Hall said.

Air America has just 28 stations, including an affiliate in Chapel Hill, and the signal is also carried nationally on the Sirius and XM satellite radio services.

Because WPEK must leave the air at sundown, some Air America shows will not be heard here, including the weeknight "Majority Report," hosted by actress Janeane Garafalo but a "best of" program may air on weekends, Hall said.

Format change at WPEK

Starting Monday, Asheville's WPEK/AM-880 will drop nostalgic pop music and begin running liberal talk radio programs including many programs from the Air America network.

The new format:

"Morning Sedition," 6 a.m.

"Stephanie Miller," 9 a.m.

"The Al Franken Show," noon

"Ed Schultz," 3 p.m.

"Randi Rhodes," 6 p.m. until sundown when the station must leave the air.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2004 Asheville Citizen-Times • 14 O. Henry Ave., Asheville, NC 28801 • Phone: [phone].
Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service. View our Ethics Policy.
The Asheville Citizen-Times is a Gannett newspaper along with USA Today.

[Drewskie]

14. .

Stephanie Miller is a looker.

http://www.stephaniemiller.com/

[michigandem2]

13. Grand Rapids Michigan...rightwingnuts HERE big time...

all we got is Rush and hannity..and laura ingrham...ICK!

[Spiffarino]

15. Asheville, NC!!

Just started up today on WPEK 880 AM! Yee-haw!!

[jaymarvin]

16. LA and Chicago

I bet it will happen in LA soon. If KABC were smart they would flip to a Liberal talk format. But their not. How about KLAC in LA? They don't do much in the numbers there. here in Chicago there are no stations available which is too bad.

[laura888]

17. Washington DC

HUGE market for it here - it would be an instant hit!

[Eric J in MN]

25. If AAR were on in Washington, DC, they would be a bigger

part of the political debate, because it would be easier for Washington journalists to tune in.

[LTR]

26. You may get your wish

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=148&topic_id=224&mesg_id=224

I posted about this in my AAR rumors thread on the 'Media' board. I'll repost it here. And with any rumor, take it with a grain of salt:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=109&topic_id=13702#13728

Al Franken hinted at AAR coming to DC:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/22/22485/3728

This site thinks it may be WWRC (1260 AM), a Clear Channel station:

http://dcrtv.com /

Lefty Talk For 1260? - 9/23 - Apparently, Al Franken said on his Air America show yesterday that he expects the lefty political network to be on in DC "soon." Clear Channel has already flipped at least 10 of its stations to "progressive talk." Will its WWRC (1260 AM) be next? In the latest ratings, sports talk-formatted WWRC pulled an anemic 0.1 share. Hmmm.....

Clear Channel also owns:

WTNT-AM (570) - RW talk. Crummy ratings.
WTEM-AM (980) - Dominant sports station in town.
WFRE (99.9) - Poorly rated country station. They also have another country station in the market.

CC is always the best bet to put AAR in a market, since they are so gung-ho over the format. But there are a lot of faltering AM stations here, so I'm shocked none of them picked up the format yet. WWRC seems like an obvious choice. The station barely gets any ratings, and the only use it has to CC is that it picks up CC's syndicated sports programming (they handle FOX Sports radio and Jim Rome). Other than that, it's a tree falling in the forest with nobody there to hear it. It cracked a 0.1 share in the ratings for the first time in almost a year. That's pretty bad, especially for a 24 hour AM that seems to cover most of the DC area (signal gets weak around Baltimore during the day, non-existant at night). Keep your eye on 1260.

As for 570, this is a powerful signal (for AM's, the lower a station is, the more powerful it is, and even 5000 can cover hundreds of miles). But it gets better ratings than 1260 (not great, though) and 1260 seems too much like a big gaping hole that needs to be filled. Stay tuned!

[Eric J in MN]

27. Thanks (nt)

nt

[Cookie wookie]

18. Just got it in Atlanta

and I felt like I could get down on my knees and praise the lord for it!!!!!!!!

First I heard a rumor it was coming this week somewhere on AM. Then i was driving home from work about 5 p.m. and going through all the am stations which I haven't listened to since time began and I heard Randi Rhodes voice.

Well I'm glad I was alone in the car, otherwise anyone would have though I lost my mind I was so overjoyed.

So I set the dial to 1690 - way at the far reaches of the northern end of the dial, can anyone say "Siberia"? The next morning on mu commute, I listened the whole time to static, straining to hear even just a word or two. Maybe this is Siberia. The next day same thing static, static. Thought, I've got to get a way to pick up the signal for this channel. Couldn't do it at home on my stereo or other radio either.

Then today, praise the lord, I got the signal loud and clear. Listened to Friday programming but that was Okay!! They did have CNN news, which bothered me, because I have been boycotting CNN since the Clinton impeachment. That made me feel a bit dirty, but I figure maybe they just don't have the programming yet or the money for it to do their own news.

Never could get a reliable signal using the modem on home computer. Drove me nuts. And with NPR having become another right-wing lie producing media traitor, I was starving for something to listen to while commuting.

I'm hoping against all hope that in the morning, when I get in that car to drive to work, that AA will be there.

[LTR]

19. It's on in Rochester

Roch just started on Friday.

And 97.3 blew out Lite FM on Friday and has been teasing AAR all weekend. And it was nothing but a tease. This morning, they rolled out their new 80's hair metal format.

Seriously. :puke:

[LTR]

20. To clarify

97.3 is in Milwaukee.

They teased Air America all weekend, and decided there was a big mullet rock void in Milwaukee.

This site expresses my senitments:

http://www.killclearchannel.com

[Ivan Sputnik]

22. Portland, Maine, station will drop AAR

Sad news for Portland, Maine:

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/1006886.shtml

It's interesting that listener mail and phone calls convinced the station owners to keep AAR through the election. Maybe if it keeps up, they will change their minds.