Request for assistance from New Orleans DUers

[BOSSHOG]

1350 AM has been absorbed/consumed by WWL and as of this morning is no longer running Air America. Instead they are playing reruns of previous shows which were on WWL. I guess those with the drool cups can't get enough.

Is there another source of AAR in the New Orleans area. I can't seem to find any.

Thanks for any info.

[LouisianaLiberal]

1. Hi Bosshog

I was incensed about this. I was driving into NO this morning and after hearing Repub-light drivel (although WWL was great immediately after Katrina)I called WSMB and a confused secretary tried to transfer me to programing. No answer in programing, and no answer all day. I did tell the secretary that I would file an FCC complaint saying that this particular corporate entity owns way too many stations in the area.

Turns out, the company that owns WWL also owns six or so other stations in the city, and its infuriating that they remove the only progressive programing and replace it with repeats - and their "new" 105.3 was playing Limbaugh during the afternoon.

I listened a bit during the day, and its pretty awful programing "on demand" - whatever that means.

We still have AAR here in BR, and we didn't even have a Dem running against Baker in the house.

Do you think this might be worthy of getting DU activists to call the corporate office and demand that AAR return? If enough call - who knows?

The tragic thing about all this is that WSMB could be heard clearly in Gonzales, and the only progressive outlet for the entire area is gone - for Bobby Hebert repeats!

[KamaAina]

2. Not a New Orleans DUer, obviously, but this takes me back

to the time when I and another progressive activist there were looking into taking over WSMB (then in bankruptcy). I even had a book from the N.O. library (this was pre-Internets) about how to run a radio station, and a slogan: "Where Smart Minds Belong"! (I am not a complete radio n00bie; I had done air shifts in New Haven as well as at 'TUL) As it turns out, we were ahead of our time: it would have been among the first, if not the first, progressive talk stations in the country.

So, if you can't get any love from Entercom, see if there's a station available for the picking. You'd think that some small station owners might be, ah, reconsidering their presence in the N.O. market at this time. (Alas, a first cut suggests that none of the few non-chain-owned AMs would reach over to the North Shore. :( )

[KamaAina]

3. Could I have spoken too soon?

A second cut turns up one local AM station that has been dark at least since Katrina, and its out-of-state owner has been dumping stations for a while in the face of mounting legal and financial trouble.

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