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.
You are right -- however if they can fund it then it will exist. There are companies like Viacom and Target that want to see a liberal network succeed and so they may keep it alive as a statement. Liberals are single agenda and disagree with their comrades as much as they disagree with us. An old black woman from the south that goes to church every week and wails about Jesus votes Democratic because she hates "shrub". When she turns this thing on expecting to hear about how "shrub" hates black people she's going to hear that she doesn't pay enough taxes and the elderly are a burden on society and should be executed. Its listeners won't last long; in fact for the first year there will be more conservatives listening than liberals.
With previews of saying things like "we must disarm our nuclear capability so that terrorists won't get nukes", I don't think they'll get too far.
Used to listen to WLAC at night when I was in high school in the '60's. (Quarter to Three by Gary U.S. Bonds was a biggie)
At 3AM their main sponsors used to be Ernie's Record Shop and Royal Crown Hair Dressing with Bo Diddly singing how it made his hair look "gloomified."
The only successful liberal radio talk-host I know of is Tom Leykis - who is really a shock-jock and will say whatever outrageous thing to garner ratings among those who are too stupid to understand Howard Stern in his lucid, non-breast obsessed moments. Leykis is a contemptible human being as well. What is he, on his 7th wife by now? I think it was his 5th wife that he slammed into his fireplace in Boston a few years back after getting tanked at a WRKO Christmas party (after which he was subsequently run out of town).
Anyway, it has been proven time and time again that liberalism doesn't sell. That's why PBS and NPR radio need gub'mint and Hollywood weirdo support in order to survive. It's not as if real companies would pay good, hard-earned money to sponsor that swill.
I little investigation into his financial background might be interesting.
BTW - Being a VC doesn't mean he knows squat about a business plan, just that he invested in someone else's.
Too true -- even congressional dems had a modicum of intelligence once upon a time. Now look at them.
Phantom Lord in post #37 talks of their stupidity. The numbers indicate a total lack of poularity:
503 members.... pathetic
I went to DTR via your link and looked at the opening page, which lists the latest posts. I counted about 50 listings on page one. The names of the 'last post by' listed about 10-12 different people.
The number of responses to posts was usually from 0 to 3 and was rarely in double digits. higest number I saw was 43.
Compare to Free Republic where often times we have over 100 responses, with 250-300 being seen fairly often.
BTW, They have deleted all of my old postings, it is as if I never existd there. LOL. I hope they spent a lot of time to do that.
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