Posted on 12/16/2006 1:20:47 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Efforts to resuscitate the progressive talk radio format of "The Mic" WXXM-FM/ 92.1 have failed so far. Concerned listeners now plan a "funeral procession" as the Jan. 1 end of the format nears.
The march will begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Brittingham Park near the intersection of South Park Street and West Washington Avenue and head down Fish Hatchery Road to the Clear Channel Madison offices.
A 420-page petition of more than 5,500 signatures to keep "The Mic" on the air will be delivered to Jeff Tyler, Clear Channel vice president of marketing, by activists Valerie Walasek, Gary Tipler and businesswoman Barbara Wright.
Despite the petition and a rally at the High Noon Saloon on Dec. 12 to demonstrate advertising support for the station's political talk forum, Clear Channel still plans to change the format to sports talk with an emphasis on prep sports and the University of Wisconsin. It also will feature syndicated sports personalities Jim Rome and Dan Patrick.
In an interview with The Associated Press published in The Capital Times on Wednesday, Tyler said Clear Channel would explore ways to continue progressive talk in Madison.
"Our company sales team embraced the station, the format and enthusiasm we all had for the station and its role in the community," Tyler said. "However, there are many advertisers, local and national, who have been at conflict with the programming or stay away from controversial programming."
The station has canceled its local progressive talk shows, but it still airs programming from Air America, and other nationally broadcast talk hosts, including Al Franken, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller.
Miller and Schultz have addressed their concerns about losing the progressive talk format in Madison. Miller recently read a letter from Walasek to Tyler on her program. Schultz noted in The Capital Times that "The Mic" posted a 3.7 percent of the market share in the summer Arbitron rankings, good for 11th place.
Schultz said that he'd heard Madison sources say that the station's problem was poor management and advertising sales efforts. Schultz's program attracts an estimated 2.25 million listeners, ranking him No. 10 among all talk radio hosts, according to a recent survey in Talkers magazine. Franken attracts 1.5 million listeners, putting him at No. 12 on the survey.
Walasek, a Mic listener and lifelong Madison resident who started the petition and organized the recent rally, said Clear Channel is ignoring community interests for higher profits "in an already saturated sports market," she stated in a press release.
The procession will represent "mourners who feel that free speech will die on January 1, 2007 when 'the Mic' goes off the air," the release said.
"I've had conversations with several people who indicated they'd be interested in making significant investments in a station that would keep the progressive talk format," Walasek said.
"Jeff Tyler's assertion that advertisers don't want to spend money on 'The Mic' has clearly been disproved, and he hasn't offered another reasonable reason for changing the format."
Walasek contends the recent rally of 500 advertisers and listeners demonstrated that Tyler's reasons for taking the Mic off the air are unfounded.
Walasek said that WMTV/Channel 15 recently aired a comments by Tyler that "The Mic" had not attracted new advertisers in the last two years.
"But I have found several who offered to advertise in the last few weeks without any real effort on my part to find advertisers," she said. "I believe that Clear Channel does not care about what the community wants, and this is a violation of their FCC charter and a deliberate blow to free speech."
Activists may file a complaint about the format change with the Federal Communications Commission.
Symbolism over substance right to the end.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Have you ever had the misfortune to listen to Mr. Schultz? The man is Dullsville personified.
It's not that no one is interested in listening because you can't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a Hippie close to retirement age, or a chick with hairy legs, LOL!
It's that local advertisers don't want to support it. And unlike NPR, we conservative taxpayers aren't forced to support it, either. The local Hippies working at the Food Co-op and the free-love chicks working in the 'All Tie-Dyed All the Time' clothing shops don't pay much in the way of taxes. ;)
bump
Randi Rhodes...a face made for radio with a voice made for mime and the brains of a slug.
When the ratings can't justify the advertising expense for "progressive talk" (foaming?) in a loony left town like Madison, what does it say?
If you can't sell any new revenue in TWO FREAKING years, your product SUCKS.
I can hear the cheering in the advertising department...
We're # 11!
We're # 11!
We're # 11!
Mark
(out of how many?)
Tuned in to Al once. Wanted to see how they were covering Reagan's funeral.
Spent maybe a total of five minutes listening to Rhodes. Came across her Florida station, before AAR, due to wrong link.
Come to think of it, whenever I went to check them out other times, they were always doing a PSA for something or another.
Most PSAs are just misspent tax dollars anyway. Supporting wannabe actors, and whomever gets paid for producing the things.
Was that 1530 AM? I used to be able to pick up their signal at night down here (Nashville). Every once in a while it would pop up during the day near the airport.
I can't say I ever went out of my way to find it... some liberal blogger picked up their signal and mentioned it (with the usual glee and one-handed typing).
If the market is already saturated, then the station will not make as much money, and the owners will return to the commie, leftist talk format... Which means it's compeating against NPR...
Mark
Exactly. It does not take a lot of talent to say Bush is Hitler every 30 seconds.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
It was, then got downgraded to 1610 last summer. Now it's all gone!
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