In a letter sent to station management, as The BRAD BLOG reported in August, former Democratic Senator from Alaska, Mike Gravel, correctly wrote: “The increasing monopolization of the mainstream media today demands that we stand up for independent-minded, progressive voices out there like KLSD AM 1360 in San Diego.”
He was the only Presidential Candidate, to our knowledge, to utter a word about it.
As reports emerge that progressive radio talker Ed Schultz’ audience now matches Bill O’Reilly’s, one has to wonder what the hell the Democrats — specifically the rest of the Democratic Presidential candidates — are thinking, as Clear Channel prepares to flip the only progressive talk station in the nation’s sixth largest city over to an all-sports format any day now.
The busy Internet rumors suggest it could happen as early as this week. Station insiders have told The BRAD BLOG it’s more likely to happen on November 1st “at the earliest”, as the corporate bosses at Clear Channel get ducks in a row for what is currently seen as an “inevitable” flip.
It’ll be one less major market for Big Ed, one of the Democratic party’s biggest and most effective supporters. Though O’Reilly will, no doubt, remain on the air in San Diego, despite the damage and shame his irresponsible “reporting” brings to our Republic.
In late August, we detailed the first indications that corporate media behemoth, Clear Channel, was preparing to dump the progressive talk format at AM 1360 KLSD in San Diego. Citizens were outraged, signed petitions, wrote letters to station management, created websites and showed up at rallies to protest the imminent shut down of the station.
At the time, we suggested to both organizers of the protests and station personnel that they join with Air America (who has several shows airing on the station) to invite the Democratic Presidential candidates out to San Diego for an Emergency Debate focusing on one of the very reasons our country is in the mess that it is: Corporate Consolidation of the Public Airwaves.
It seems quite clear that such consolidation has not been in the best interest of the people who own the airwaves. And further, it seems clear that the corporate interests who lease access to that spectrum, from the people, don’t give a damn about such interests.
And yet, to our knowledge, in the nearly two months since Clear Channel indicated they were preparing to flip the station format, only one Democratic Presidential candidate, Gravel, has understood the importance about speaking out against this outrage.
Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild told us in August of her concerns about what this move may signal. “I suspect they’ll be starting in San Diego and moving around the U.S. to shut down the progressives,” she predicted.
There are already four other stations devoted to sports in San Diego. There are no other stations devoted to progressive politics.
Moreover, as Aldous Tyler spokesperson for NonStopRadio.com, an Internet site fighting to support the progressive talk format around the country, pointed out in a letter to KLSD management, of the 25 stations, in major markets around the country, to flip from progressive talk in the past 18 months, “not a single one has performed as well in their market as progressive talk did on that same signal.”
If Democratic politicians wish to complain that they do not get a fair shake in the media (and they don’t), they’d be well-advised to ban together and fight for the continued existence of those very few stations which do not tow the conservative corporate talk radio line twenty-four hours a day — particularly in a Presidential Election Year. (Hello, people?)
A new rally is planned for this Friday in San Diego. (NonStopRadio has more details on additional efforts.) If the people of San Diego show up Friday — at the ungodly hour of 6:30am — in the same numbers they did last time, it’ll be yet another important testament to the importance of such a station in such a large city, thought to be Republican-leaning. In a Presidential Election year. (Did we mention that?)
So where are those who wish to sell themselves as leaders to the American people? And when will any of those Presidential Candidates join Gravel by speaking out, standing up, and fighting to preserve balance on even the tiniest band of the people’s airwaves on behalf of the people — not the corporations — who actually own them?
You want our vote, Hillary, Barrack, John, Joe, Bill, Chris or Dennis? Please start acting like it, and lead for a change, instead of posturing. San Diego — and America — need you now more than ever. Step up and fight for San Diego. We’re quite certain the people will thank you for it.
I hope some free country will come to our aid with “Radio Free America” for amerikkka . . .
Gravel & Kucinich are the only 2 candidates worth a damn. Of course this means they have zero chance especially since we the people have nothing to do with choosing.
The problem is that our entire system is rigged, and has been so since 1913 — when the American coup d’ etat began with totally unconstitutional “The Federal Reserve Act”.
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The Federal Reserve Act of 1913:
According to the U.S. Constitution, only the (peoples) Congress has the power to create our own money and distribute it. We used to have debt-free creation of money in this Country. It was also originally tied to the gold standard or silver (such that bills could be exchanged for gold or silver). But what happened in 1913 was that a bunch of totally private bankers (powerful family dynasties like the Rothchilds, Rockefellers, Morgans, Warburgs, etc.) usurped from the Congress the right to control our own Nation’s money, or, rather, Congress just gave away that right (in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8).
When you look at a dollar bill, it no longer says “United States Note” (as it was originally) but it says “Federal Reserve Note”. The Federal Reserve just prints paper money (that is inherently worthless) backed up by nothing (no cost to them) and then charges the people “interest” (debt). The Federal Reserve prints money and then profiteers off of every bill that they print by back-charging the government interest. It’s a ponzi-scheme. They also control the interest rate that they charge us. They have the power to trigger ressessions and trigger inflation of the money. Here’s the kicker: Their very existence ensures that there will be high public debt, which enables them to print more money and drive the buying power of the dollar downward. The people end up working harder and harder while their purchasing power and standard-of-living either goes down or stays flat.
We gave a private group of bankers the power to print, create, and control U.S. currency (in violation of the Constitution). We let them create high public debt by allowing them to back charge the government interest for every dollar that they print. In essence, anytime a dollar bill is printed, you owe the government money.
We let them dilute the money supply and with it dilute our own purchasing power and standard of living. We gave away control as a country over our own economy and our own sovereignty as a Nation.
Whoever controls the money is the master, and the government itself then becomes the slave to that master.
It truely sucks bIg tIme when you loose your
localregional progressive talk station…cause as soon as ya get in the car . . . . . The Pig Man Limbowel is waiting for YOU . . .
Ehhh… So where is Big Mama, Eyeballs – A – Bulging pelosi ?
On Monday night I was walking my dog, and listening to KLSD. At about 7:05, the signal went dead (during the Mike Malloy show, that night featuring Sam Seder). The station had dead air for the balance of my walk (I didn’t have my phone with me). When I got home, I tried to call someone at KLSD or Clear Channel, but went into voice mail Hell. Finally, I called Air America, and told the screener to tell Jon Elliott, who was doing his show at the time (we actually get the show on delay, even though he broadcasts here). That worked, because a few seconds later the signal came back AFTER 20 MINUTES OF DEAD AIR!
It’s just shameful that this would happen. Clear Channel clearly does not care about KLSD, and will allow anything to happen to it (including a long period of dead air – which is an FCC violation), because it will certainly support the company’s decision to get rid of it.
greggp
20 minutes, I remember several occasions of over an hour of dead air
on a clear channel station that hosted the progressive format as well as other errors.
Sorry Brad, but I wouldn’t put too much faith in the Democrats doing ANYTHING for the progressive community; they’re all fakes, phony opposition, playing for the same team as the Republicans. Ever wonder why Nancy Pelosi’s first policy statement after assuming the speakership was to announce that “Impeachment is off the table”? She’s fake. So are the rest of the watered-down fascists that are the “Democratic” Party. The Democratic Party needs to either 1.move way WAAAY to the left or 2.get the fuck out of the way for a REAL opposition party to emerge.