Posted by John on November 12, 2012 at 14:56:55:
In Reply to: BREAKING: Portland's Clear Channel-owned KPOJ Progressive Talk Station Flipped to Fox Sports posted by Paul on November 11, 2012 at 14:22:50:
The posts about how Clear Channel killing progressive talk in Portland must be part of some sort of Bain Capital-Karl Rove conspiracy and how there should be 'equal time' are jokes, right?
If there's money to be made in progressive talk, broadcasters will air it. If there's not, they won't. It's not as complicated as some of you make it out to be.
What does it tell you that in a progressive city like Portland, on an AM station with a monster signal, the format struggled to pull a 1 share 12+? Or that the progressive talk format garners similarly poor ratings in other liberal strongholds like LA, San Francisco, Chicago and NYC? Or that Dane County went for Obama nearly 3-to-1 (71-28), but WIBA-AM has 3x the listeners the Mic does.
It tells me that the listeners aren't there.
I consider myself a fairly liberal / progressive fellow and I can't think of too many things I would like to listen to LESS than progressive talk. That came as a bit of a surprise to me, since it seemed like something I should like.
I remember excitedly listening to the countdown to Air America on WNTD in Chicago, but within a couple days I realized it wasn't my cup of tea. Likewise, since moving to Madison, I've tried listening to the Mic from time to time and re-confirmed that progressive talk isn't any less cringeworthy than right-wing talk. If anything, it's worse because as a liberal, I feel embarrassed to be associated with the some of the truly loony folks who call into or host progressive talk radio. It's a mirror image of the shrillness and idiocy you find on Rush and Vicki McKenna's shows.
I just don't think there's an audience for progressive talk. Most progressives I know are interested in keeping up on current events, which is part of why there's such a stereotype of liberals loving NPR. But it's true -- not that NPR is 'liberal' -- but that liberals are more likely to listen to NPR. That, and the fact that, in my opinion, liberals don't need an echo chamber to confirm their beliefs or tell them what to think. Except for perhaps, the folks who think it's the end of the world that progressive talk is a loser of a radio format.