Philadelphia Charter Change Question - School Reform Commission

[BumRushDaShow]

2. I have been one of the biggest pushers

for the left to buy bundles of stations to put on syndicated programming. Yet I think many are still smarting after the fall of Air America and inability to sustain the format.

But I would disagree that the folks being impacted "don't give a shit" because they don't listen to AM radio.

My mother was a huge huge radio listener and would have been 86 this year and still listening if she were around. Her generation came through childhood into young adulthood without television (there was no such thing for the average consumers), so "radio" was the medium of choice that allowed for multitasking, where you could work and listen at the same time. I grew up with radio and am myself a big listener (whether AM/FM/satellite/shortwave/streaming), and was a television-watcher (but not so much anymore), and am in my mid-50s. But the next generation (my nieces and nephews who are in their 20s and 30s) are internet-fixated... where much of that programming from the radio can be streamed on the internet, and is often more "visual".

So if that is where they are, then that is where you need to be to reach them. The big transmitters of low-power radio stations are being supplanted by a server farm (or cloud) and a fast internet pipe. As a side note, I used to work at my college's radio station (for the 4 years I was there), doing news, public affairs (including occasional talk with callers), voice promos, and music, and have a 3rd class radiotelephone operator's permit (required to broadcast back in the late '70s early '80s, where I had to take a test that included shutting down the transmitter, etc, which I had to do multiple times when I worked over the summer and no one had the graveyard show after my show).

The modus operandi of RW talk radio is to promote negativity to exercise control, which attracts those who are prone to that state of mind and are willing to feed their anger and angst with an avalanche of CT, blaming everyone else that doesn't look like them or thinks like them, and denial of their own faults.

But the interesting distaff side that the left seems successful at in terms of programming, is the use of political satirists and comedians (e.g., Stewart, Colbert, Letterman, Noah, even back as far as the Smothers Brothers or George Carlin, etc.). You saw decades of listeners of Garrison Keillor with the PHC. In fact, comedy/satire was Al Franken's origins with his SNL stint, the creation of Air America, and eventual desire to have more direct impact for change by running for and winning election to the Senate.

So perhaps THAT is the "formula" for programming for the left to counter the hate/anger/"insults of 'other'" of the right.

However, as I noted before, the younger generations aren't listening to AM radio (which is mostly what those bundles of stations were), and as the generation who does listen to the ilk die off, the left could be ready for the internet streaming shows and syndicate those over those AM (and even FM) stations. Plus SiriusXM (which I have), has 2 Progressive channels with folks like Bill Press, Mark Thompson, Stephanie Miller, etc., that could feed into those stations (SiriusXM also sells streaming-only subscriptions). And additionally, the big programmers like Cumulus and Westwood, etc., have been operating more and more at a loss while the local cities and towns that host these stations have been complaining more and more about bringing back the non-political type talk (e.g., real estate, cars, medical, legal, home fix-its, sports, gardening, etc), so it's only a matter of time before they move on away from hate radio and more into a mix of programming. In an attempt to diversify, Cumulus has tried to capture that internet audience by use of Iheartradio's streaming (and the app for their stations).

I actually heard Rush Limbaugh's very first show on his flagship station WABC back in 1988 (which I pick up here pretty clearly in Philly). That 12 - 3 slot had originally belonged to Lynn Samuels (who is no longer with us) and she had been whining about him taking over her studio and whatnot, while she was moved down the hall. IMHO, his time is coming to an end, despite the quiet renewal of his contract for 4 years back in August -

The writer, Ethan Epstein, said on CNN's "Reliable Sources" that Limbaugh is "still the marquee name in talk radio," but that looming contract negotiations would lead to a pay cut. "The fact is, they simply will not be able to afford the same salary that they gave him" last time, Epstein said.

That's because Premiere has suffered from an advertiser boycott of Limbaugh's show that started back in 2012. Liberal activists and other Limbaugh critics persuaded scores of advertisers to shun the show after Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke, a law student and supporter of Obama administration contraception policy. The sponsors "never came back, for the most part, and that has had a seriously deleterious effect on his business."

More broadly, radio profits are not what they used to be. Digital forms of distribution have overtaken the analog radio world, forcing talk shows like "The Rush Limbaugh Show" to adapt or fade away.

Radio industry expert Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers magazine, said Tuesday that Limbaugh surely did take a pay cut, but said it's irrelevant: "Everybody in the broadcasting business has taken a hit since their last deal, except maybe some of the CEOs on their way out."

http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/02/media/rush-limbaugh-renews-talk-radio-contract/

The lesson here is that RW sponsors and owners are willing to take a loss over an extended period of time (see the Washington Times as an example in addition to what was quoted above about Premiere and Limbaugh) to get their hateful messages out. The left need to consider doing the same if they want to "compete" in that space. However one should note that although Trump has made it this far, it was because of this medium, and the result has essentially been the almost total destruction of the Republican party, and it may take awhile for them to recover (at least at the national level).