There is a little known ritual that occurs in the election years when Democrats prevail: Big “Conservative” Media starts to pull progressive talk radio off the air.
I documented this in my 2009 documentary film, Broadcast Blues: after Democratic candidates made big gains in 2006, Clear Channel and other public airwaves radio licensees pulled several well performing progressive talk radio stations off the air, and replaced them with sports and other programming. It would be easier to understand if the new programs got big ratings bumps, but that didn’t happen. The new shows’ ratings are typically only half those of Progressive Talkers.
True to form, Clear Channel Communications, which owns about 850 radio stations nationwide, took the Progressive voices off of the public airwaves in Portland, Oregon just days after Democrats won big nationwide. When devoted listeners tuned in to Portland’s 620 AM, they expected to hear Thom Hartmann, Mike Malloy and other Progressives waxing exuberant in the wake of this year’s election results and looking forward to new possibilities in the new session of Congress under a wildly popular re-elected President. Instead, they heard fans exuberant over some football game or other. FoxSports620 now broadcasts over that 25,000 watt frequency on our public airwaves.
Bye bye lefty talk, hello left-handed quarterbacks.
It isn’t like Portland needs another sports radio station; there are already two in that very same market. But the community does need to hear an alternative to the “conservative” talk which is broadcast on eight, count them, eight separate frequencies on Portland’s radio dials.
But as of November 9th, as reported here on The BRAD BLOG, Portland joined the ranks of the other 95% of the country which can hear many stations spewing Right Wing propaganda [PDF], but not a single one broadcasting progressive points of view. A few days later, we learned that the CBS-owned Progressive station in Seattle — also in one of the most progressive cities in the nation — is scheduled to disappear, most likely on the first of the year. It’s KPTK caller letters have already been changed to KFNQ (Fan Q) in preparation for the all sports station it is scheduled to soon become, unless something changes.
Take a look at these maps from Broadcast Blues, graphically representing the number of Rightwing vs. Progressive radio stations as of 2009….
We show all large stations and smaller stations at a ratio of seven to one (otherwise the red antennas would have been one big red glob.) See the Big Blue tower in Oregon? It’s now been erased. The large towers in New York and Florida have disappeared also, along with many smaller stations. The one in Seattle? That’ll be gone shortly as well, if plans move forward as have been indicated.
People in Portland are now organizing against Clear Channel to bring the progressive point of view back to the airwaves they own. This tactic sometimes works, as it did in Madison, WI and Columbus, OH, and sometimes doesn’t, as documented in Jon Monday and Jennifer Douglas’ 2012 documentary Save KLSD, about the unsuccesful effort to keep San Diego’s progressive Clear Channel station from flipping to all-sports as well. A Save KPOJ petition site has been set up, urging Clear Channel to flip the station back to progressive talk, and a Save KPOJ Facebook page has cropped up as well. It already has more than 4,500 “likes”. Its stated goal is to interest another licensee in the area in airing progressive talk.
So if it isn’t about ratings, what other motive could the Bain-owned Clear Channel have for denying access to progressive voices over the public airwaves which we ALL own?
The answer is found in Milwaukee, WI, where five local, repeat – five local – right wing talkers on two stations directly support Republican candidates from Scott Walker to Paul Ryan over our publicly owned airwaves fifteen hours a day, five days a week.
Republicans there boast that they win elections primarily due to the extraordinary promotion of these Rightwing Talk Radio hosts, and pro-GOP business leaders are combing the state in search of yet more frequencies they can find to air Righty talk, because they know that is what is winning elections. (NOTE: While Wisconsin went for Barack Obama and Tammy Baldwin nationally, the Wisconsin statehouse again went back into Republican control. Locally, the GOP rules, and so does their Talk Radio.)
But these are the Public Airwaves, not the Republican airwaves, so on November 1st, the Media Action Center (MAC) filed a legal challenge with the Federal Communications Commission to deny WISN and WTMJ their licenses.
During the Scott Walker recall, MAC proved that each station provided about 80 minutes of free airtime to supporters of Walker and the GOP, but abjectly refused to allow any supporters of opponent Walker’s Democratic recall opponent Tom Barrett any access to the microphones whatsoever. Add it up, and the stations subsidized the Wisconsin GOP to the tune of one million dollars.
We broke it all down here at The BRAD BLOG shortly after the state’s historic recall elections, including an explanation of how this violates federal law and long-standing FCC doctrine.
What the two WI stations did not only breaks long standing FCC rules, it violates the First Amendment Rights of the entire community. What WISN and WTMJ are doing amounts to “private censorship,” a behavior which the United States Supreme Court has expressly ruled broadcasters may not engage.
The question now is, will the FCC do its job as the law enforcement agency in this matter? MAC filed a formal complaint way back on May 24th about this same issue; Talker’s Magazine wrote that the decision could impact what Talk Radio could do during the 2012 election. But, in typical FCC form, the agency tasked with protecting the public interest obligations of broadcasters (it’s the only thing they must offer in exchange for their licenses granted for use of our public airwaves) has done nothing.
This time, however, the FCC must make a decision. Broadcast licenses come up for renewal only once every eight years, and the final date for the FCC to decide whether WISN and WTMJ should be able to continue broadcasting in clear violation of federal law is December 3rd.
So, FCC, We the People are depending on you to protect our interests. We are watching closely, and we will not go away quietly.
If you’d like to encourage the FCC to do its job in protecting the public interest obligations of broadcasters over our public airwaves, here’s how: Politely, but firmly, email Peter Doyle, the Chief of the FCC’s Media Bureau’s Audio Division, and tell him you believe the FCC should pull the licenses from WTMJ and WISN and Wisconsin for using our publicly owned airwaves for one-sided political gain. Also, you can email Bobby Baker, who oversees political programming in the FCC’s Media Bureau’s Policy Division; tell him the FCC needs to stand up for the First Amendment Rights of all of those in the community who are being privately censored by upholding the Zapple Doctrine (We wrote more on the Zapple Doctrine here.) The FCC’s primary job is protect the public’s interest. They should start right now. Please join us in letting them know!
Sue Wilson is a media activist, director of Public Interest Pictures’ Broadcast Blues, and a 22 year veteran of broadcast journalism. Her numerous awards include Emmy, AP, RTNDA, and PRNDI for work at CBS, PBS, FOX, and NPR. She is the editor of the media criticism blog, Sue Wilson Reports and founder of the Media Action Center.
November 18, 2012
Dear Sirs:
Results of the resent election: Public airwaves vs. antitrust
I was under the understanding that the Public airwaves are part of the commons and that we all have a stake in this. If one corporation owns the majority of the radio stations in a given market if not all of them and they dictate what is available to listen to, isn’t this a monopoly? Where is the US Justice Dept. and the FCC? It is hard to believe that this is not in violation of some anti-trust laws.
I live in the Portland OR area and Clear Channel just took our Progressive Talk Radio on KPOJ 620 AM, away form us a week ago on Friday. In time AM talk radio may go by the way side, but at present some of us still listen to it. The idea that there is no progressive talk radio on in Portland OR, period, is totally unacceptable.
Yes we can get some of our favorite shows on the computer but when we are listen there we cannot access other info on the web, AM radio still has a place in our lives please don’t take it away. But some require us to pay to get the pod-cast we cannot afford to pay for.
This is what I thought the commons was supposed to be about, so that the public would have complete and unlimited access to the public airwaves. I thought that when you paid for a license to run radio on the public airwaves you have some obligation to broadcast items in your community of public interest. Well in Portland OR at 5:30 pm on November 9th Clear Channel has just started violating that Public Interest as there is nothing that is serving the public’s interest when it comes to Progressive Talk Radio any more.
Thank You
Richard Fletcher
Thank you Richard. I was inspired by this article and your post, and have written Bobby Baker as well.
Very interesting show tonight, earlier this evening. Kudos to Sue and Brad.
The only liberal voice in Wisconsin, to combat the RightWing WGOP, was ‘Sly in the Morning’, and now after 15 yrs (?), he and entire news staff at WTDY Madison, were “let go” on Wed. 11/21/12. A sad day for free speech, an average day for the RNC PR BS.
Accorgint to this article, the change at KPOJ is due to low ratings:
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29441-kpoj_cancelling_poli.html
Steve J., you only have some of the story. KPOJ was a low signal station that was not promoted by Clear Channel at all, and given a low budget with staff removed. They weren’t willing to put any dollars into enhancing the progressive format.
For more insight on this, an interesting essay by Adam Klugman, who was a host for Clear Channel on KPOJ and appeared on the morning show as a frequent guest: http://www.blueoregon.com/2012/11/real-reason-clear-channel-dumped-kpoj/
Mary59, KPOJ is not a low-signal station…it’s one of the strongest during the day and is heard all the way down to Eugene and up to Olympia. It’s one of the stronger stations (maybe not in your area).
Everything else you said is true. I’m glad you referenced the Klugman article…was wracking my memory trying to recall where I read that “ratings” was an easily manipulated thing, and the Klugman article was one of the places.
I wonder just how “ratings” factor into the number of sports channels I heard on the radio last weekend on the Portland dial. There were easily 10 stations playing some kind of sports at the same time. It was f*****g unbelievable.
Does anyone recall that it was Slick WIlly who drove the final nail into fairness in broadcasting? What it all comes down to is that so many of the Democrats in Congress and at the Presidential level are as paid off willingly as any Republican! I would not hold my breath waiting for congress to do something. What needs to happen is to round up some liberals with some$$$ and get some people who know the radio biz and start working on a network that has some local content that reaches every nook and cranny in the country. It is going to take lots of work and more money but in a few years it should be self supporting if you get people willing to go out and PROMOTE and SELL the IDEA Everywhere.
I do miss KPOJ here in Portland, we do have a decent public station but it’s not the same and they have changed lots of their programming in the past few years and not alwys for the best.
Steve, when I say low signal, it’s a comparison. KPOJ’s day time signal strength is 25,000 Watts, half of the AM stations you mentioned as having “higher ratings”
In the evening the signal strength drops (around 5:30pm) to the point where I know longer pick it up clearly (I live about 30 miles east of Portland)
A lot of interesting comments about this ratings rationale being used elsewhere (such as San Diego) and when the format was changed, the ratings went even lower.
It may seem to Clear Channel executives that they’re making a strictly business decision based upon their own short term assets, but it leaves the public interest out entirely.
Just as an FYI, The Mic 92.1 FM is Madison WI’s progressive radio. Apparently they’re starting to play more sports but its still heavily progressive talk. You can listen to it through iheart radio.
Funny, I heard this story the other way. That progressive stations (which lose money for a variety of reasons) are put up before the elections as free advertising for the progressive point of view, and then taken down to a more supportable size directly afterwards.
(Despite listenership, advertising is bought by business and corporations and progressive talk radio is often anti-business and anti-corporation. So advertisers find decreased response from progressive talk stations despite their listenership ratings. Some progressive talkers break through this stigma.)
Luagha said @ 11:
I am familiar with no radio station where the above scenario has occurred. (Not that it hasn’t, I’ve just never heard of any such station, feel free to point me to one.) Moreover, I’d love to see the evidence that progressive stations “lose money”. They cost almost nothing to run, since virtually all of them pull nationally syndicated shows for free. They may not make as much money as Rightwing stations (which is to be expected, since those stations are generally given much more powerful transmitters and even promoted and stuff), but whoever told you they “lose money” probably had a not entirely honest reason for saying as much.
Again, that sounds like propaganda, but feel free to share any actual evidence to support your claim. And, for the record, while some progressive talkers are anti-corporatism and anti-corporatocracy (specifically, the notion that corporations are “people” and should enjoy the same rights as actual human beings, without any of the downsides of being human, like going to jail, dying, etc.), I’m familiar with NONE who are “anti-business” or even “anti-corporation” in a general sense.
Funny how much disinformation is put out there about progressive radio, eh? I wonder where folks get it. (Not really.)
I’ve always had a pet theory that rightwing listeners are more gullible on average, making advertising more effective on them.
Mr Doyle,
I live in Portland Oregon, and recently the local progressive station was flipped over night to a sports station. As you probably know, it was one of two progressive stations in our state. Soon, the only station with a progressive perspective in the state of Washington is switching, as well. These stations are not being flipped because there is not an audience.
I extremely resent the fact that the taxes of myself and millions like me are used to support the FCC, and yet their is NOTHING on the radio that discusses politics from my perspective.
There is right wing hatred and misinformation on every AM talk show station in my state now. Where are the voices expressing a different point of view? Why are they being shut out of the PUBLIC airwaves?
I know that a movement to change the status quo will be fiercely opposed by the controlling power of the right wing, but if this issue is not addressed, we face decades of misinformed voters, unexposed to different ideas, and therefore with no critical thinking skills.
These are all vital necessities for a democracy, and your responsibility is to protect and preserve the access of ALL Americans to the public airwaves for information .
I urge you to confront this serious grassroots problem.
Thank you,
So here’s the latest, boys and girls: The FCC has lost our petitions to deny the licenses of WTMJ and WISN. Luckily, I have proof they were delivered to each station and the FCC.
But your emails are having an effect; the FCC’s Peter Doyle is working really hard to let me re-file. Without public pressure, none of it happens.
Problem with all of this is the FCC is a regulatory agency at no point do they claim ownership of the airwaves. Progressive Radio failed because of poor arbitron ratings, period. Air America is a classic example. It went bankrupt.
From my blog.
“Of course she ignores the part of the first amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press and their right to editorialize and the fact that Zapple applies to the purchase of advertising not the content of a talk show host. In the latest post by MAC they all but said the above.”