This is so sweet. The airheads of AirHead America finally realize they can't compete in the arena of ideas and entertainment, so now they want government help. Do they actually think that somehow people will flock to their rants (if only they were broadcast more powerfully) or somehow be forced to listen?

I have a great idea. Let's come up with the appropriate tests for which people and how many people can publish books...newspapers...websites.

REPORT: The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It
The Center for American Progress and Free Press today released the first-of-its-kind statistical analysis of the political make-up of talk radio in the United States. It confirms that talk radio, one of the most widely used media formats in America, is dominated almost exclusively by conservatives.

ThinkProgess.com . . .
The new report — entitled “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio” — raises serious questions about whether the companies licensed to broadcast over the public radio airwaves are serving the listening needs of all Americans.

While progressive talk is making inroads on commercial stations, right-wing talk reigns supreme on America’s airwaves. Some key findings:

– In the spring of 2007, of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming was conservative, and only 9 percent was progressive.

– Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk — 10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.

– 76 percent of the news/talk programming in the top 10 radio markets is conservative, while 24 percent is progressive.

Two common myths are frequently offered to explain the imbalance of talk radio: 1) the 1987 repeal of the Fairness Doctrine (which required broadcasters to devote airtime to contrasting views), and 2) simple consumer demand. Each of these fails to adequately explain the root cause of the problem. The report explains:

Our conclusion is that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system, particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimination of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules including the requirement of local participation in management. […]

Ultimately, these results suggest that increasing ownership diversity, both in terms of the race/ethnicity and gender of owners, as well as the number of independent local owners, will lead to more diverse programming, more choices for listeners, and more owners who are responsive to their local communities and serve the public interest.

Along with other ideas, the report recommends that national radio ownership not be allowed to exceed 5 percent of the total number of AM and FM broadcast stations, and local ownership should not exceed more than 10 percent of the total commercial radio stations in a given market.

Read the full report here.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/pdf/talk_radio.pdf

-- Modified on 6/20/2007 7:21:32 PM

Why is the National Broadcasting Association so dead against X-M & Sirius satellite radio merging into one company?

The request to Congress for this merger is now the longest stonewalled business merger approval to date. Could it be that possibly the three mega corporations that own and control EVERY Am - Fm station in the United States under the watchful eye of the content sensitive FCC are terrified what will happen if the American public can have ALL of the satellite radio choices (just like they do with cable & dish TV) from one radio and subscription?

 Perhaps this reported slow growth of “progressive” talk radio says as much about the free thinking nature of the demographic it serves as it does the lockstep nature of the audience that conventional conservative radio plays piper too.  


-- Modified on 6/20/2007 9:25:30 PM

and the conservative pundits that occupy it...Satellite radio (Sirius) is so much better, I'll probably never listen to regular radio again; between Howard Stern & the ample music choices, no need to...

i just hope whoever stole my I-pod yesterday, gets raped by 1,000 monkeys.

I love to be able to take you up on that offer, but your Buds aren't thinking the same way as you. As "private" spectrum becomes more and more scarce, the airwave police will want to regulate it more and more as well.

The better mousetrap has been built and between the good o'l boys who own and have ruined Am & FM, and the FCC "content police" protecting us from what the puritans and authoritarians don’t want us to hear it is quite obvious they’re ganging-up on this new fangled “Satellite” subscription radio whooie that enjoys the same content protection precedent as does Cable & Dish TV.

 It will be truly sad if the 20 minute commercial break whores who ruined radio, and the narrow minded busybodies of moral and political mind control ever succeed in totaly marginalizing this new and great information / entertainment media.    

by relying on good'ole market forces. Can't have that.

More evidence they (the libs) are serious about having their way.

"Appearing on John Ziegler's evening show on KFI 640 AM in LA, U.S. Senator James Inhofe says he overheard Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer saying they want a "legislative fix" for talk radio"

I'm waiting for the Hoover Institute to come out with a report whining about how the government needs to start more even handed control of the ownership of newspaper publishing, book publishing and web publishing.

her of bill stickin em where the sun dont shine

lol

You ironically parrot just what heavily censored, commercial laden terrestrial radio fears.

The listener-ship of conventional radio is rapidly dwindling. Howard Stern's moving to satellite was the catalyst that opened the publics eyes to what was just two years ago a quirky but pragmatic alternate for long haul truckers and new tech gizmo addicts.

A "legislative fix" for talk radio"? Whythefucknot!?

I believe there is THREE dedicated conservative talk & news stations and only ONE progressive "Liberal" station on my Sirius radio. The Talk, Comedy, non music entertainment stations are all "commercial" (talk radio hosts need to pee & shit occasionally). The great part is if it is made for "satellite" the particular host can set the level of controversy and candor, NOT THE FUCKING FCC.

YEAH!!! Let Sirius & X-M merge into one huge, coast to coast, 300 station, free speech choice for the consumer and lets see what the "market forces" say and dictate.

evil witch, Hillary, has gathered her evil minion demon b*tches and they will definitely take away all of our freedoms when she is president.

I haven't been following the controversy of your "plight", but why would you think that ONE provider in a free market would ultimately give you MORE choice than having TWO providers???

It sounds like you're in favor of creating a monopoly in the satelite radio market.

3 vs 1, conservative to liberal on SR. So are you in favor of forced programming to add 2 more libs? OOPS, no room, gotta take ONE conservative away and add ONE lib. Whoose gonna go? Who decides?

As it stands now we got two satellite radio companies with heavy capital investment concerns trying to out do the other in programming etc to emerge as #1. Each company can only be picked up by their particular hardware and that hardware is respectively expensive as compared to a common Am - Fm radio receiver. If the two merge they can end trying to beat up each other for the finite (but growing)market and the consumer is the clear winner because no particular program offered by one will be unavailable on the other. Dish TV does not force you to choose from HBO & Showtime and neither would satellite radio. Perhaps there would be certain "programming" choices or "bundles" in the future; but at least the hardware could be universalized and thereby reduced in price.

I'm not for ANY sort of defacto government legislated "fix" in the programming on radio or TV. I think the comment you quoted by the ‘evil’ liberal faction was merely a flippant gesture to allow or promote evening the field that has leaned so heavily in favor of rightwing rhetoric for so long.  

fear mongering, hypocrite elitist, beholding to huge corporate campaign contributors and orthodox puritanical Christian voting blocks is a safer steward of our liberties?

How much are you willing to pay for your Sat Radio? I can guarantee you that if both merge, your rates WILL go up. Why not subcribe to both now? I bet it would less than what you get after the merge.

It's competition that will ultimately provide you with the best choices, at the lowest cost.

And also, politicians are rarely in the business of making "flipant gestures". They ALWAYS have an agenda.

"The longest stonewalled business merger to date?" Who is it that's doing the stonewalling? BTW, it's only been four months since the merger was announced. And Congress doesn't have a role in the approvals. Those are th realm of the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department and the FCC, which just opened the six public comment period last week. One other thing to keep in mind, back in the 1990s when Sirius and XM were granted broadcasting licenses and granted use the broadcast spectrum, they agreed that they wouldn't merge as part of the license agreement. So now that they enjoyed the use of that radio spectrum they want to change the terms of the deal.

around the flat assertion of "They always have".

Interesting to see that you avoided the more cogent discussion of economics and went straight to the heart of what you REALLY think.

-- Modified on 6/23/2007 10:40:41 AM

Neither Republicans nor Democrats can be trusted any more than one could trust a 125lb black widow spider.

 We started talking about "market forces" in radio. I brought up the fact that the equally split Congress is shuffling its feet about giving the nod to the Satellite radio merger, and alluded that the NBA is probably (and understandably) padding the pockets of our esteemed legislators because they are fearful of the "market force" potential of the Free Speech, commercial free satellite media.

 If you REALLY want to know why Right wing propaganda is so prevalent on terrestrial radio it is because most of the head honchos are Rightwingers. There are actual accounts where executive decision to drop or refuse “progressive” programming has caused a drop in ratings/listenership; but the station owner is a “Bushie” and so HIS ideologies are the ones that get the airtime.  

 The question is not whether government should mandate programming in either direction; it is whether the licenses given out for the public airwaves are being used in the best interest of the public.  

I agree with you about about the politicians (or at least the vast majority of this bunch).

But about your statement "If you REALLY want to know why Right wing propaganda is so prevalent...", where's your evidence or proof of this? Your starting to sound like an Area 51 guy.

If your "theory" is true then why hasn't Lib radio had success where it has been tried?

As I heard the other day... "radio managers would put on a talking fish if it brought in ratings."

-- Modified on 6/24/2007 10:42:07 AM

IMO; progressive radio has the challenge of not falling all over its own touchy feely oversensitive PC types.

I've heard it said more than once that 'Air America' is extremely content sensitive (an ironic case of liberals wanting to "control" everything).
FCC policed radio is the perfect petri dish for Conservatives where the listeners and participants are possibly more well read in the Wall Street Journal and/or the Bible.
The Liberal demographic has more working class along with the educated free thinkers, as well as a strong percentage of the God Squad and PC pundits.
I don’t think you need 20+ years in radio management to conclude that this is a “tough room”.

I’m neither a Harvard graduate nor a high school dropout; but I listen to some of the “progressive” offerings on satellite. Some of the hosts and callers are as full of shit as a young crow, and some are sapient, eloquent and succinct; but as I alluded too earlier; it plays better when Big Brother FCC isn’t policing the sand box.