An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution

[KharmaTrain]

20. Very Well Stated...

You hit on many things that I had hit on here in my many diatribes about the medium I once loved and watched it "deregulate" itself to hell. My friend, Peter B., who wrote the article brings a very unique perspective as he has fought for 40 years to keep liberal and progressive talk radio alive despite an industry consumed with greed and rife with mismanagement. The irony is the people who are supposed to "fix" radio's problems are the ones who created them in the first place.

As you state, Progressive talk was always at a big competitive advantage...on poor signals and with little to no promotion. People weren't invited to the party...they just stumbled in. The documentary "Left Of The Dial" is an excellent chronicle of the problems Air America and Progressive talk encountered...and still does.

While the right wing still dominates the dying AM dial...the halcyon days are long past. "Political" talk is becoming economically toxic and hard-pressed and debt ridden corporates are dumping the format...either changing formats to sports or something "safe" or shutting the station off altogether (like they did in Detroit). The major corporates continue to "downsize" their antiquated properties and are hamstrung by their size and debt to get a foothold in the new digital mediums. And that's what's both promising and encouraging.

While the wingnuts have their old AM radios, our side has made very effective use of the internet. I tend to see the turnaround of the Democratic party to the "Dean revolution" in '04 and the growth of the netroots that we're familiar with today. Satellite and Internet radio continue to grow. I always enjoy saying that you're probably closer to an internet radio signal these days than a "terrestrial" one. The tipping point is rapidly approaching when internet systems become standard equipment in cars.

Thanks for your insights...

Cheers...