political talk radio.
Forcing the advertising industry to apply market forces to political talk radio will democratize it and destroy the Republican talk radio monopoly critical to enabling and excusing this Trump Republican disaster.
In recent years artificial intelligence made it easier, faster, and cheaper to digitize, transcribe, and monitor talk radio by an order of magnitude (eg sonix.ai).
Advertisers can be listed and associated directly with content with little time and listening required. The small boycott effort that shook the radio advertising industry after Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke in 2012 (StopRush, FlushRush, etc) can be amplified significantly on local as well as national scale.
When the radio advertising industry catches up to this reality it will have to act preemptively to protect its clients from being associated with the hate and lies and global warming denial that dominates political content on those radio stations. It wants those tens of millions of listeners that those stations reach and will finally have to apply actual ‘market forces’ to political talk radio. As more of that content is digitized and studied the ad industry will have to give clients more control of where their ads are placed, rather than lose them to less toxic advertising mediums.
Unless they are located in very red areas, radio stations that used to be very predictable, valuable/FREE, and often dominant contributors of locally and nationally controlled Republican political messaging will have few options, depending on owner partisanship vs business interest. Options faced by station management/ownership include:
- Increasing partisan subsidizing. What used to be free for the GOP will begin to cost. That will expose them as propaganda outlets to the important and often large casual and less partisan audience tuning in for traffic, news, weather, etc.
- Attempting to balance/democratize programming by including talkers from the other side of the political spectrum. Repeated lying will no longer go unchallenged. The whole purpose of creating and protecting a near-total monopoly was to maintain and reinforce the certitude that is so critical for selling lies and alternate reality, especially to authoritarians motivated by fear and uncertainty avoidance. Monopoly messaging also served to discourage listeners who might call local hosts to disagree.
- Switching to other programming altogether.
None of those options are good for Trump Republicans, but may appeal to Republicans wanting to reduce corruption and extremism in the GOP, as well as Putin’s influence in US politics.
Protests at 87 universities (list below) will get Republicans’ attention, media attention, and the advertising industry’s attention.
One way to force the advertising industry to immediately begin dismantling the Republican talk radio monopoly is for Americans to recognize 87 universities as good places to protest issues like war with Iran, global warming inaction, and anything Trump and Republican.
Not only have those radio stations been lying about the Iran nuclear deal's effectiveness for years, they played an instrumental part in selling the Bush administration lies that led us into Iraq.
The universities listed below rent their community standing, brands, logos, mascots etc. to at least 260 stations that headline Rush Limbaugh. They allow their athletes to be used to excuse racism. Those include many of the loudest AM radio stations in their states.
Even large protests at traditional locations do not get Republican attention because those radio stations can yell over them for as long as necessary.
Even small protests at some of those universities, specifically to get them to stop supporting Republican radio, will get media and Republican attention. Local Republicans and their radio stations will see it as a threat and scream “FREE SPEECH!” Media will notice. Other schools and professional sports teams that broadcast on those stations will notice.
It doesn’t matter what the university actually does. If Republicans want to go to court to prevent changes it will merely get more attention to the issue.
Concerned advertisers will contact their agencies looking for alternatives.
The advertising industry will have to break up the monopoly.
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Activism around the University of Colorado may have forced Limbaugh off a major CO station and may be an example of how this would work. Republicans may have wanted to avoid publicity and act preemptively.
The recent demotion of Rush Limbaugh from the loudest radio station in Colorado (AM 850 KOA) may have been precipitated by years of low level activism to force the University of Colorado to stop broadcasting football games on a radio station that routinely denies global warming and is perpetually at odds with local political opinion and objectives.
That would be an example of applying market forces to break up the talk radio monopoly.
The licensing company and the radio station may have acted to prevent increased activism and protests that could have drawn the attention of the Broncos and Rockies professional teams, which also broadcast on KOA.
If the GOP would pay $1000 for a 1 hour infomercial:
x 15 hours/day = $15,000/station/day
x 5 days = $75,000/station/week
ALABAMA 8 $600,000 Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARIZONA 1 $75,000 Arizona St. 1
ARKANSAS 3 $225,000 Arkansas 3
CALIFORNIA 5 $375,000 San Jose State 2, USC 2, Fresno St. 1
COLORADO 3 $225,000 Air Force 2, Colorado State 1
CONNECTICUT 1 $75,000 Connecticut 1
FLORIDA 20 $1,500,000 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2
GEORGIA 14 $1,050,000 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
IDAHO 7 $525,000 Boise St. 4, Idaho 3
ILLINOIS 7 $525,000 Illinois 7
INDIANA 11 $825,000 Notre Dame 6, Purdue 4, Indiana 1
IOWA 5 $375,000 Iowa 4, Iowa St. 1
KANSAS 4 $300,000 Kansas St. 2, Kansas 1, Wichita St. 1
KENTUCKY 3 $225,000 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
LOUSIANA 3 $225,000 LSU 2, La.-Monroe 1
MARYLAND 2 $150,000 Maryland 2
MASSACHUSETTS 1 $75,000 Boston College 1
MICHIGAN 19 $1,425,000 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
MINNESOTA 4 $300,000 Minnesota 4
MISSISSIPPI 6 $450,000 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 $450,000 Missouri 6
NEBRASKA 6 $450,000 Nebraska 6
NEVADA 1 $75,000 Nevada 1
NEW JERSEY 2 $150,000 Rutgers 1, Seton Hall 1
NEW MEXICO 3 $225,000 New Mexico 2, New Mexico St. 1
NEW YORK 7 $525,000 Syracuse 6, Army 1
NORTH CAROLINA 16 $1,200,000 North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
OHIO 10 $750,000 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
OKLAHOMA 5 $375,000 Oklahoma St. 3, Oklahoma 1, Oral Roberts 1
OREGON 12 $900,000 Oregon St. 7, Oregon 5
PENNSYLVANIA 14 $1,050,000 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 4 $300,000 South Carolina 2, Clemson 2
TENNESSEE 7 $525,000 Tennessee 4, Memphis 3
TEXAS 16 $1,200,000 Texas A&M 9, Texas Tech 4, Texas 1, Texas Christian 1, Baylor 1
UTAH 1 $75,000 Utah St. 1
VIRGINIA 6 $450,000 Virginia Tech 5, Virginia 1
WASHINGTON 6 $450,000 Washington 5, Washington St. 1
WEST VIRGINIA 2 $150,000 West Virginia 1, Marshall 1
WISCONSIN 3 $225,000 Wisconsin 3
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