Posted on 11/04/2003 7:31:56 AM PST by AlwaysLurking
Drobny: Liberal net will launch, and big, in January
Chicago millionaire Sheldon Drobny has maintained a low media profile as he prepares to launch a liberal talk network, so we were surprised to hear him pop up on the air yesterday as a guest on a local talk show in Florida.
Although most of the conversation with host Bud Beck on WWPR-AM Bradenton, FL focused on politics, where the two liberals agreed on just about everything, Drobny spoke a bit about the new network that AnShell Media, the company that he and his wife Anita own, is preparing to debut next year.
"It'll be more clarified when I'm able to talk more, but this thing is going to be a major launch after the first of the year. It's not a question of if, it's now a question of when - - and the when is early January. It's going to be a lot bigger than we all thought. It's been a lot of heavy lifting for a year, Bud, and I think we've put together a short-term solution to the problem, which is the right-wing radio networks, which I think we'll be able to make a major impact upon with the network we have, the number of cities we'll be in and the message we'll have to an immediate radio audience that's just starving for that kind of dialogue. It will be a very good short-term approach to getting the message out and getting rid of the people who are in office who are just causing us so many problems," Drobny said of the new liberal radio network.
Drobny said his new network will attempt to counter what he claims are two types of media bias. First, he said, are the obvious right-wing media, naming Fox News Channel and Rush Limbaugh as examples. "Those are so obviously in violation of fair and balanced, and are just appealing to an audience of haters, but they get onto the agenda of the mainstream media. The mainstream media is a different problem altogether. I'm not accusing the mainstream media of aiding and abetting the Bush administration. ["I do," Beck chimed in.] Well, they are, but they're not doing it necessarily by design," Drobny said. "The media themselves are not independent enough because they represent very large corporations, which are getting much larger, and they appeal to corporate America, with the power, the resources and the status quo. Their sole interest, primarily, is to cozy up with the powerful so that they continue making money."
In his view, there's no opportunity today for people who share his views to rise to the top in news at the major TV networks. "There's no opportunity for any independence in journalism, because to get to the level - - this is kind of a psychological thing - - to get to the level of the highest echelons of the major conglomerates, you have to go along and get along. Otherwise you'll never get there. If you're a very independent guy, like you or me, you'll never get to the level of being prime newscaster because you're just too difficult," he said. To Beck, who is currently urging listeners to make donations to support US troops, despite opposing the Iraq war, Drobny said, "If there were more like you out there, telling the truth and getting a dialogue in this country, instead of what the major media does with the dumbing down of the public, you would have had a discourse and a debate, as opposed to what obviously took place, which is tragic not only for our country and the world, but for the poor, terribly suffering soldiers that we have out there."
Since the program was aimed at Beck's liberal listeners, Drobny didn't talk about advertising, financing and the other business issues associated with the network launch. But he did talk about his political motives. "The short term goal I had in developing AnShell Media was to combat the clearly right-wing bias, the freaks and extremists like Rush Limbaugh. The next step now is to change the paradigm in this country from thinking everything for the military and nothing for anything else to, you know, the military has enough. We are the most powerful country in the world and there's no way that anybody can catch up with us. The only way they can is to keep building delivery systems and weaponry like the H-bomb and the atomic bomb that ultimately will level the playing field for these extremist countries. And if we don't recognize that we need complete, total nuclear disarmament before they really get it, we're fools."
RBR observation:
Drobny became wealthy as a venture capitalist, so we assume he knows how to put together a business plan. We'll be waiting to see how it works when the new network launches next year. It'll be particularly tough to succeed financially if, as apparently is the case, AnShell is going to be buying airtime to get its programs cleared (8/26 RBR Daily Epaper #169). We would note, though, that his view of how mega-corporations built up Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk hosts is far from accurate. Ed McLaughlin didn't have a corporate warchest to draw from when he launched Limbaugh's show 15 years ago, nor did he even share Limbaugh's political views. It's all about talent, so we'll be waiting to see whether AnShell has somehow found a half-dozen liberal talk hosts with national level talent, while far more experienced syndicators have been searching for years to find even one who can click with audiences coast-to-coast and play in radio's major leagues.
Oh, sure you will...We ALL will...ONCE!
How else will we be able to satisfy our belief that we're correct until we see the bastards prove it...Thing is, all it will take most of us is less than an hour, then they're no longer worthy of a second more of our time!
You are precisely correct. If any thought AT ALL has been given to operating this venture as a business with the goal of profitability, it has been swept away by a tsunami of partisan desperation. I really would like to see the Business Plan, if one exists, and see just what it is that they are really attempting to do. Frankly, I'd be surprised if there IS a Business Plan, and I'd be doubly shocked if they have actually gotten any business entity to loan them startup capital for a very shaky and shady enterprise. Chances are 100% that they're using their own funds, and we should all be delighted to watch the total squandering of the money they're putting into this.
I'd also be surprised if they have even TALKED with anyone who knows their way around successful network syndication, even talked with ONE radio programmer who knows what makes people listen (which produces ratings, which, in turn, produce SALES and INCOME, which produces PROFIT). I'll bet that the only people they've talked to are "transport" people, i.e., technical guys on the engineering logistics of producing material and distributing it to affiliates. I'll also bet not one "affiliate" is carrying what will eventually be this "network" under normal syndie contract conditions. I'm guess that what this really amounts to is a chain of stations accepting non-stop PAID POLITICAL ADS, infomercials, if you will. And that the network will operate only until the money runs out (or the 2004 elections occur, whichever happens first).
This is most certainly NOT a real radio network startup. It has none of the trappings of an actual business venture.
Michael
I've heard too many people call in unprepared imagining they have some profound observation. Maybe they think they 'won' in their own minds, but usually they just came across as foolish.
-PJ
Liberal Talk Radio ask for government assistance in February!
I don't know about you guys, but I want more of Al and Joe. Bugeyes and Big Glasses are a sure formula for "success".
Don't laugh, when Lib Radio fails they're going to ask for the reinstatement of the 'fairness doctrine'.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.