Guest Blogged by Miriam Raftery
San Diego — KLSD (AM 1360), the only progressive talk radio station in America’s sixth largest city, may soon convert to a sports format, multiple sources have confirmed.
A banner notice at the top of KLSD’s website this morning confirms that “Yes, there are rumours flying about KLSD changing format. And while various options are under consideration, we also want the progressive voice to remain heard in San Diego. Stay tuned and we will keep you informed. Thanks for listening and supporting KLSD.â€
The website has also posted a request for supporters to pledge listening time for KLSD, as local activists have announced an email campaign as well as scheduled demonstrations at the station for next Monday in an attempt to keep the city’s only non-“conservative” commercial talk station on the air…
Judy Hess, leader of Progressive Democrats of America’s San Diego chapter, said she received an e-mail from the Vice President of programing for Air America nationally on Thursday, August 23rd. “What a shock…He said he wanted to work with me to coordinate efforts to save the station,†she revealed. “I later spoke by phone with him and the Chief Operating Officer,” she confirmed. Hess later arranged a phone conference yesterday with Air America’s Vice President of programming and leaders of various organizations to create a strategy for mounting a massive campaign to save Air America’s San Diego affiliate.
Planned actions include a large rally on Monday, August 27, at 7:30 a.m. outside the Clear Channel building at 9660 Granite Ridge Drive in San Diego. High-profile celebrities including prominent media personalities and elected officials have been invited to speak, including several members of Congress who are expected to be in the area during the Congressional recess.
In addition, on Saturday August 26th at 9 am a planning session of community organizers followed by a brief 10 am rally with announcements will be held at the same location…
“KLSD is best described as Radio Free San Diego,” international award-winning BBC journalist Greg Palast, author of ARMED MADHOUSE: From Baghdad to New Orleans — Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild, told The BRAD BLOG. “Despite what the rest of America thinks, it’s not just a town of navy guys looking for a way to get to Tijuana. A huge new progressive community has made KLSD one of Air America’s strongest outlets – which makes a format change suspect. Local voices like Stacey Taylor and John Elliott are crucial to remaking the California political landscape. I guess that’s why they want to silence their microphones.”
Unlike Los Angeles or San Francisco, San Diego has no Pacifica/Democracy Now outlet, Palast noted. KPBS, a local public broadcasting station, has drawn criticism locally in recent weeks for canceling key programming and adopting what critics complain is a more corporate agenda.
Some have voiced fears that the move is motivated by desires to squelch progressive voices in San Diego, America’s sixth largest city. California has moved its presidential primary up from June to February 2008, placing California at the forefront of the Republican Party’s strategy for retaining control of the White House and gaining back power lost in Congress. Clear Channel, which owns both conservative and progressive talk radio stations as well as music formats across the country, has been a major donor to the Republican Party.
But local KLSD talk show host Stacy Taylor told listeners on his morning program today that he does not believe Clear Channel is considering a format change because the company wants to shut off the progressive voice. “They could have shut us off before the 2006 election,†he observed. Instead, he cited loss of advertising revenues as the most likely reason behind a format change. Taylor mentioned one advertiser who pulled ads over fears that advertising on a progressive station could hurt his business, but pointed out that KLSD listeners in fact earn more money than listeners of other Clear Channel stations locally.
“What’s needed is a ‘buy-cott’ to support Stacey’s sponsors – and a promise to boycott those who would sponsor Air America’s replacement,” Palast told The BRAD BLOG.
After a caller suggested that KLSD supporters enlist help from advertisers to save the station’s progressive format, Taylor responded, “That’s a good idea,†then proceeded to read off names and phone number of KLSD advertisers on the air. He also pledged to post a list of advertisers on his webpage at the 1360KLSD.com website.
An August 1st article in the North County Times newspaper lends credence to Taylor’s theory. The article cited spring Arbitron ratings indicating that hard-right talk show station KCBQ-AM has “risen from the bottom of the ratings charts and now appears to have more listeners than KLSD.†Describing KLSD as “struggling,†the article stated that the station “somehow lost half its listeners from the winter ratings period.â€
Some fall-off in ratings given the station’s political nature, and the fact that 2007 is an off-election year, should not be surprising. Loss of a national Air America host, comedian Al Franken, who resigned to run for Congress, may also have had an impact. Some local activists have also suggested that a more original format may be needed to give the station a ratings boost. “The promos for KLSD pushed it as a hangout for old hippies instead of talk radio for the other half of the population,†Michael Thaller of Bonita observed.
On the flip side of that argument, local host Stacy Taylor has gained national attention recently after serving as guest host on several occasions for the Randi Rhodes show on Air America nationwide. Taylor formerly hosted a program on a conservative station before become disillusioned with the Bush administration and emerging as a leading local voice for progressive political views.
KLSD program director Cliff Albert also serves as program director for KOGO, a competing right-wing talk radio station that Clear Channel owns in San Diego. Albert was on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.
Linda Armacost, vice president of political action for the La Mesa Democratic Club, sent an e-mail to club members advising that she spoke with a highly placed KLSD insider. According to Armacost, at least two highly placed executives at KLSD are “trying very hard to `pull a rabbit out of a hat’ to save the progressive format.â€
Taylor confirmed, “There is a tremendous support from within this building to keep this station format exactly the way that it is.†Supporters inside Clear Channel include some from “surprising sources,†the talk show host added.
A coalition to save KLSD’s progressive talk radio format urges supporters to send letters and e-mails to KLSD program director Cliff Albert, calbert@clearchannel.com, as well as to Operations Manager Mary Ayala, mayala@clearchannel.com. In addition, the group advises that KLSD listeners contact advertisers to emphasize support and call in to local and national Air America programs to create a national dialogue.
“The information I received is that when a change comes, it will be fast,†Armacost advised. “There’s no time to wait—we must act now.â€
For updates, visit www.saveklsd.com, www.nonstopradio.com/sandiego.html, and the Media Watch section at www.ourbackfence.org.
My email to the radio station and to clear channel:
I am a military parent of two and I am sick and tired of channel flipping only to hear these nitwits at KLSD, San Diego, calling my Son’s Commander in Chief names.
Get rid of them. Put something respectable on our radio again.
No, Mary, far better we put something respectable in the White House again. If you haven’t figured that out yet, you so aren’t paying attention.
Mary must not notice that the right-wing stations engage in name-calling all the time. I guess freedom of speech is not one of the things Mary’s kids are fighting for.
We let regressives speak, and then we refute them. But the right either doesn’t let us on the air, or calls us names and hangs up on us before we can say anything.
I’m a senior citizen. When the last liberal talk show host was forced off the air in San Diego, I did what any freedom-loving citizen living behind an iron curtain would do: I bought a shortwave radio. For years I listened to the BBC and to Radio Canada, Australia, and other shortwave stations until KLSD made it possible for me to listen to local radio again.
I’m surprised that Mary prefers a Soviet-style system, where only the government’s views can be expressed and the government can’t be criticized. Are other rightwingers also unaware that what they are proposing is a hard-core totalitarian Communist system?
My wife is exactly correct. The name calling wacko’s are falling off the air in San Diego because nobody wants their advertising to be associated with such antics of the left. The two percenters of America just don’t get it. Your trash radio does not work and when it doesn’t you scream “CONSPIRACY”. The reason it does not work is your two percenter message is lost on 98% of America……
[This totally explains Mary, but now we gotta wonder about you. Brought over during the fall of Berlin for your weapons development expertise were you, Mr. Mary?]
This is for you, Mr. and Mrs. Mary: click here.
Mary, your son’s CiC is a mass murderer–and he started by blowing up frogs as a child. Conservatives have one thing in common: they are greedy and don’t want other voices heard. Turn the damn dial if you don’t like it.
Great info, Miriam. A format change such as what they’re suggesting for KLSD in San Diego would be a terrible loss. Especially the local programming. A lot of progressive radio stations have flipped over the last several months, but a few have been stopped by public outcry, so this is definitely do-able.
I’m hoping there’s a huge crowd at Monday’s 7:30 am rally at the station.
This is an example of a SAVAGE republiKKKan tactic to say that you’re a “military parent” : . . .
#1 & #4
Clear Channel shut down all 3 Ohio affiliates just days after Howard Dean credited them with winning the 06 election there. They are career sponsors of Bush and the very company itself was funded at start-up with the gains investors made when Bush conned Arlington, Texas taxpayers into building him a new stadium. I’ve always thought their participation could be a dirty trick.
The solution to this is the same as with the right wing trickster’s takeover of the AM radio dial, creating a dirty disinformation operation which the 10-year Annenberg School study found duped 50 million listeners and swung 5 of 6 national elections:
The Democratic Congress FOR ITS OWN SURVIVAL must hold high profile hearings exposing how right wing dirty tricksters, many from the original Nixon squad, pirated the AM dial into a disinformation operation that would make Goebbels blush, have taken over and wrecked the Federal government. There is no way to beat them otherwise as they hold the balance of power.
Exactly, let the corporate owners only out to reap their million dollar tax cuts and ownership-limits waivers feel some heat. They respond to Dem Congress takeover by rolling out Dennis Miller on 150 stations, while ratings winner Ed Schultz can’t get heard in 7/10 of the country. Let them feel the heat, and be reminded that we are poised to strike hard when we take the White House if they don’t provide the balance NOW on our airwaves.
Can’t wait to hear what CC’s excuse is when they try to shut down KTLK in L.A., which has Bank of America and United Airlines as advertisers, who also won’t advertise on hate radio.
Stacy Taylor and Randi Rhodes are FRAUDS. Taylor used to be a hard rightwing nut. Randi Rhodes wants to be famous. She’s in this business to make alot of money, so she can continue her freaky obbesesion with plastic surgery. She has had over 8 surgeries.Just spent over $25,000.000 for capped teeth. She’s having more surgery in a few months. Everybody who has worked with her has left, because they soon realized what a phony she is.
Tim – I’ve never met Randi Rhodes and can’t speak to whether she’s had plastic surgery or not, though I fail to see what relevance that would have to her political views or her effectiveness as a talk show host.
Stacy, however, is a true convert. He used to have a show on a conservative station, but his philosophy was more libertarian than Republican, favoring gun ownership but on many other issues, he dissented from the station’s viewpoint.
But like many people, when Bush took office, Stacy had enough of the right-wing mindset. He also supported the grocery workers strike here, over objections of the conservative-owned station he was with at the time. Stacy gradually came to support more and more liberal and moderate viewpoints and has emerged as a powerful voice for progressive politics both locally and nationally since finding a home at KLSD. I have interviewed Stacy in depth on his views and it’s clear he is sincere in his change of outlook.
Stacy is hardly the only prominent personality who has changed parties or views; examples of this abound. Earl Warren, arguably the most influential liberal Supreme Court Justice in history, was appointed ironically by a Republican President who thought he would be a reliable conservative.
No better example of what drooling right wing radio has done to this country than Tim. We prepare for an election to discuss critical issues like health care and war, then Tim’s cohorts on every major AM station in the country derail all discussion into John Edward’s haircuts. This led Walter Cronkite, the only man ever dubbed “most trusted man in America,” to pronounce our Democracy dead after the 2004 election, saying we no longer had the “critical reasoning” to choose wisely. But who needs them big words when we gits to talk bout Randi Rhodes capped teeth.
The irony of “Mary’s Husband’s” turn of phrase, “name calling wacko’s”, is no doubt lost on him, I’m afraid.
Nonetheless, no matter the Mary’s of the world, and their inability to understand what their own child is actually fighting for (in theory), we’ll keep on standing up for freedom of speech, democracy, and against Soviet/Saddam-style broadcasts where every station has the same point of view.
Mary and her husband would do well to talk to their son when he — hopefully — comes home in one piece. They may learn something from him about American Values.
Terrific job on the story, Miriam!
A petition has also been started to save KLSD AM 1360:
http://www.gopetition.com/petit...d-am-1360.html
Same thing happened here in Fresno…our progressive talk station was replaced by sports programming. I couldn’t swear that it was also a Clear Channel move, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit.
Whoever was responsible, I guess they thought that everyone would be good little soldiers and start listening to the other talk station in town which, or course, carries the Limbaugh/Hannity axis.
Maybe Mary and her husband work for “FREEDOM’S WATCH”! Ever think of THAT? That can’t be discounted, did you see the Freedom’s Watch propaganda commercials yet? Or hear them on the radio?
“calling my Son’s Commander in Chief names.”
hmmmm…sounds like Freedom’s Watch to me!!!
…and then “Mary’s Husband”, the old “Yeah! I agree with (insert first shill’s name here). The “testimonial”!
They espouse to Bill O’Reilly’s view of freedom of speech: “SHUT UP! IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH ME!” It’s “OK” if OUR side uses McCarthyism against the Democrats (see Limbaugh and Hannity). “The Democrats are aiding the terrorists!”
They want ONE view broadcast over the airwaves: THEIR view! They want only the Limbaugh’s, Hannity’s, O’Reilly’s, and Savage’s…ONLY…broadcast! Only THEIR name-callers!
Actually, I want to thank Mary and her Man. I was asking myself whether it was worth it to put all of my other responsibilities aside and make the one hour plus drive from where I live to San Diego on Monday morning in order to participate in the rally for KLSD. Mary and Man are what convinced me that I should do just that in order to help preserve a station and progressive format that helps promote the kind of dialogue, debate and dissent that is the essence of a true democracy, something that Mary and Man likely think thier son is fighting for but which they don’t even want to promote here at home. They must live in some bubble blown out of Rush Limbaugh’s arse if they really think that only 2% are in support of the message that KLSD and other progressive stations are promoting. I hope everyone who can will take the same challenge and attend that rally and let Mary and Man know that there are more than “6 or 7” of us out here listening to, learning from and promoting the Progressive message.
Somebody didn’t do their “What is Corporate Media” homework.
And somebody didn’t listen to what Their Own Sons say about Iraq.
Obviously another redundant sports channel is needed in their area, I mean hey, how are you going to keep the people in the dark.
And for the rest of you who are not brainwashed, The same basic thing happened here in Sacramento, where an Air America station got yanked for an ESPN sports station. (Like they don’t already have enough of that crap already.)
The bottom line with Corporate Media is the Dollar. You want to educate the people about politics and government, you need to wean their ass off Sports and all this other Useless F*@king Crap they are watching.
It don’t matter about liberal or conservative, it matters about the DOLLAR, corporate media DOES NOT SERVE in the PUBLIC’s INTEREST!
Okay. If they didn’t have Michael Savage, they would have some other stupid program that just wastes your time through the day, and doesn’t teach you a damn thing about the real situation in America.
You wanna argue about liberal vs. conservative hosts, that’s a different argument, but corporate media stations only interest is PROFIT.
If you want to put out something in your OWN interest, or the Public interest, or Educational interest, or be a watchdog on the Government, then go start a public access show (it’s not that hard), and or just support public access.
Don’t confuse PBS (Public Broadcast Service) with public access it’s not the same. Public Access serves in the Public Interest, PBS does not.
There is now a petition you can sign to save San Diego’s Air America station:
http://www.gopetition.com/petit...d-am-1360.html
As for public access stations locally…One “public access” TV channel in the San Diego area (El Cajon) was misused by conservatives on the city council who paid $24,000 of taxpayer money to buy religious right-wing videos that they aired as propaganda before outraged citizens finally forced the City to take them down.
You folks who want to save “prog” talk at KLSD are living in a dream-world. If they were ranked in the top 5, hell even the top 10 in the S.D. market we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
This is not about political ideology; it’s all about ratings and revenue. KLSD has precious little of either. It’s just business…..
Frau Mary und Herr Mary’s Husband:
being a patriot doesn’t mean you love your president (even if you voted for him or not) – it means you love your country and believe in your constitution. Last time I checked, we all live in the United States where it is our RIGHT to political discourse and our RIGHT to “call the commander in chief names”. What you believe in is Anti-American at best, and at least political and social totalitarianism. Do you know what freedom means? Maybe you should build a time machine and live in Nazi Germany where you can be told what to think and what to say. 2 percenters? Please….