Portland's Progressive Talk Station, Clear Channel-owned KPOJ, Flipped to Fox Sports as of TONIGHT

[BradBlog]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9721



BREAKING: Portland's Progressive Talk Station, Clear Channel-owned KPOJ, Flipped to Fox Sports as of Tonight
More progressive talk pushed off OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES and, again, in one of the nation's most progressive cities...

(UPDATE: As of 6:00pm PT, the KPOJ website is now "Fox Sports AM 620 Portland".)

This is horrible. Clear Channel-owned 620 AM KPOJ in Portland, one of the most progressive cities in one of the most progressive states, has flipped its önly commercial progressive talk radio station from news/talk to Fox Sports as of tonight at 5:30pm local time.

Portland will still have several other Rightwing talk radio stations, and they already have two sports stations, but the Bain Capital-owned media conglomerate is now killing yet another progressive voice from our publicly-owned airwaves.

An earlier piece today in The Oregonian had reported that the station would be flipping as of Monday. An UPDATE in the Williamette Weekly, however, reports that the station, which had long featured Ed Schultz, Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Thom Hartmann (who had broadcast for years out of KPOJ until moving his show to Washington D.C.) and other progressive talkers, will change to its Fox Sports format as of this evening.

The BRAD BLOG can now confirm that KPOJ has flipped its programming format and website to Fox Sports as of 6:00pm PT tonight.

This is hardly the first time that Clear Channel has done the same thing, in very progressive cities, underscoring once again that there is no real, "free market" competition in talk radio over our publicly-owned airwaves...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9721


Read more: BRAD BLOG

[cprise]

1. Media reform

...is it on the menu?

[Arugula Latte]

2. NO NO NO!!!!! That's my station!!!

That is going to leave a HUGE hole. That station helped get me through the Bush administration.

[neverforget]

13. no more Karl in the morning!

[DiehardLiberal]

31. NOOOOOOOOOO! My station, too!!

It's been going downhill but it's been a lifeline through some horrid political times. I recently got Sirius so I know i'll be able to get some decent talk in my car but it's really a loss to all progressives in Portland...

How can we stop this total takeover of the airwaves?

[YOHABLO]

3. This is Outrageous ... Something has got to give with the FCC

No doubt they waited for the election to get over with. The people of Portland should protest. I listen (listened) to Randi at 6:00 pm everyday online. Now I am going to have to find her somewhere else. If that's possible. I live outside of Atlanta and there is NO Progressive station. NADA Nothing. So I use my sirius/xm to get most of my progressive shows. They are just trying to drown the progressive voice out. Like they need another Sports Talk Station... bullshit.

[regnaD kciN]

11. AM1090 in Seattle streams Randi's show...

...but three hours later than the Portland (ex-)station.

[alp227]

29. Randi is actually live noon to 3pm (PT).

Randi's official stream: http://www.randirhodes.com/pages/audio.html

Stations that stream her show live:
http://960knew.com/
http://ktlkam1150.com/
http://1230kjfk.com/

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. Big deal, so stream! I drove from San Jose Ca. To Mississippi, to NO and back and was never out of

Reach of progressive media. I've been in Tucson for two years and have not had to spend one day without Steph, Ed, Thom, Randi etc. it' a new paradigm. The internet tubes free you from the Clear Channel supression. Use it!

[YOHABLO]

6. Hold on a minute dude ..

believe it or not .. not everyone has internet access. I know that seems impossible but it's true. I think you are missing the bigger issue .. which is there is no balance when it comes to Progressive vs Right Wing talk radio. About 91% of talk radio in the U.S is right wing. Where Progressive is about 10%. Now go figure.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

9. No, I'm not missing it. This has been going on since Raygun! We have to fight back

And figuring out how to do it when you are poor is part of that fight. I have to assume that if you are on DU, you have internet access. Hell, even if you are dirt poor, the public library will provide you with free access to the internet at reasonably fast speeds. I'm sorry, being poor is no longer an excuse for not being informed. Access is available if you really want it. You just have to want it.

[BradBlog]

14. No, I do NOT have Internet access in my car, and even if I did...

...I should not be required to PAY money for what wingnuts get for free thanks to government largesse of OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES.

Those hundreds of millions of folks sitting in traffic to and from work every day? They ain't listening to Progressive talk, they're listening to how Obama is from Kenya, watched the Ambassador die in Benghazi, and how ACORN is stealing elections.

RESTORE the PUBLIC AIRWAVES to the PUBLIC!

[JoeyT]

17. Internet access doesn't always mean the ability to stream.

Poor and rural areas are especially bad about it. Poor areas generally have such crappy internet that streaming means letting something buffer for three hours to listen to fifteen minutes of show. Rural areas are either crappy internet or heavily "fair accessed" satellite internet. Generally poor people can't afford either one anyway, since neither comes cheap. (Mine is over a thousand dollars a year. )

Poor people also have enough trouble getting to the store to buy groceries, getting to the public library to listen to a radio show is next to impossible. And that's assuming you have a public library, which a lot of poor areas and a lot of rural areas don't.

I personally don't have any problem accessing any information I want. I just recognize that I'm fortunate to have that access, because not everyone does. The airwaves are public, they should work for all the public, not just the public that can afford to control them.

[Tumbulu]

27. Excellent post (nt)

[alp227]

5. CONTACT CLEAR CHANNEL PORTLAND NOW!

Postal mail:

Clear Channel Radio (Portland)
13333 SW 68th Parkway
Tigard, Oregon 97223

Clear Channel Media and Entertainment (National)
200 East Basse Road
San Antonio, TX 78209

Business Line: 503-323-6400 (The general mgr name is Robert Dove.)

Or fill in this email form.

[SparkyOR]

22. thanks for the link!

although I doubt that the %$^%#$ comment from me will move them to return back to progressive talk radio. I live in Eugene, and have been missing progressive radio since we lost our local station a couple years ago, and have been barely able to eek out their signal, through the adjacent local station bellowing of Hannity and Huckabee, during my breaks and lunch. So then I purchased a Chase wi-fi streaming radio so I could listen at work.
The Eugene station was where I first heard from the likes of Thom Hartman, Randi Rhodes and Ed Schulz. It sure is getting tough out there. How can we get up the buck$ to run our own radio stations when all the big money subsidization comes from BIG money who doesn't want our side heard, and will black ball advertisers who might support progressive radio? Thank god for Democracy Now.

[jeffrey_pdx]

30. thanx

I just contacted them to complain and will continue to do so until they change it back. KPOJ used to make my daily commutes enjoyable and informative.

[dawn frenzy adams]

7. Media monopoliies must go!

This is a pattern with Clear Channel. When the Democrats win, they retaliate against Progressive Stations. They did it in 2006 when the Democrats took over congress. They did it in 2008 when President Obama was elected. Let's also not forget that Clear Channel is a subsidiary of Bain Capital.

[Left Coast2020]

20. If that's how you feel then sign my petition in Brads comment section

Go to Brads link on this story in his comment section below story on BradBlog. I have petition linked there that gives us an opportunity to fight back. Actually, I'll make easy on you:

Restore the Airwaves to the "Public"
http://signon.org/sign/restore-the-airwaves

Either way, you can sign this so we can hopefully bring some sanity to what we hear on the air and end this media monopoly now!!! We have momentum. Lets do this now!!

[dawn frenzy adams]

26. I signed it!

Thanks for posting that link.

[Tumbulu]

28. me too, thanks for the link! nt

[trueblue2007]

32. I SIGNED IT. I SAY BOM CLEAR CHANNEL

MAKE IT DIRTY..... MUDDY BROWN CHANNEL.




CRAP

[PFunk]

8. And this is why I (and others) converted over to internet "radio".

Over-the-air-radio is dying because of this crap.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

10. Yup! See my posts above! You should not be beholden to local radio.

Not anymore!

[regnaD kciN]

12. Maybe you should write a "how-to" guide for the rest of us...?

[BradBlog]

15. No...

Over-the-air-radio isn't dying because of this crap. Progressive radio (and ideas) are. The Wingnut Republican bullshit is just doing fine over-the-air and brainwashing and misinforming MILLIONS of Americans sitting in their cars every single day.

I'm always just amazed how progressives don't seem to get this.

[Bozita]

16. When progressive voices were rare during the early days of internet streaming, KPOJ was there.

Shame on Clear Channel. IIRC, Bain Capital owns them.

[oregonjen]

18. KPOJ debuted it's Air America format with Al Franken's first show

It's been there for us since the beginning.

[Botany]

19. I expect that Columbus OH's progressive station will go away shortly

the big boys do not like anybody else playing on their lawn.

Every time we win they shut down progressive talk.

[Left Coast2020]

21. Its not the time to sit around and pout.

If you're pissed off, start fighting back. We have better support on this now and now is a good time to bite em back. By the way, I developed this petition a couple of months ago thinking Obama was going to win. I have no doubt he would be an advocate for us on this --but only if we push hard. And I think we have some advocates in the Senate now (Senator Warren) who will back us up.

[Permanut]

23. I've been listening to them in Portland..

since the days of Al Franken, and Carl Wolfson had a sidekick named Heidi Tauber, who also worked with Thom Hartmann when he was here in Portland. She was missed when she left KPOJ, but then even worse, she was killed in a car accident in March of 2011.

This is a dark day for progressives in PDX, but we still have the innertubes. I'm sure Bain and ClearChannel, among others, are working diligently to control that as well.

[SparkyOR]

24. KBOO-fm is still there and needs your support!

But it doesn't have Stephanie, Randi, Thom and Ed. But there is lively talk and interviews and they take callers. They are also repeater broadcast out of Corvallis, and have live streaming. At least it's "local" and not afraid of controversy!

[Left Coast2020]

25. Well don't feel too bad

We've been without progressive radio since 2005-2006 here in Nor-Cal. As a matter of fact, we had 2 progressive stations: 1 was an indy, the other was owned by Entercom. The indy station had Christine Craft in the PM and big Al Franken in morning. I'm guessing Christine is at KGO now. But I ask please to sign my petition in this thread if you haven't already. Thank you.

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. Locking - duplicate thread

of http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014298237 . Please continue discussion there. Thank you.