Liberal Radio Group Says It Is Close to Acquiring 5 Stations

The New York Times ^ | 12/1/03 | Jim Rutenberg

[raccoonradio]

Liberal Radio Group Says It Is Close to Acquiring 5 Stations By JIM RUTENBERG

Published: December 1, 2003

Democratic investment group planning to start a liberal radio network to counterbalance conservative radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh says it is close to buying radio stations in five major cities.

The acquisitions would represent a major move toward making the network real. After its conception was announced in February, many radio analysts and even some Democratic activists predicted that the network would face too many challenges to get off the ground, including finding stations to run its programming and bucking a historical record replete with failed liberal radio attempts.

But executives with the newly formed company, Progress Media, said late last week that if all went as planned they would have the network running by early spring, in time to be part of the public dialogue during the presidential campaign season.

The executives said the stations they were acquiring reached all radios in 5 of the 10 largest media markets: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Boston. They said they would buy stations in other markets in the near future.

"We're steady as she goes to have a broadcast debut in early 2004, which gives us time to be part of the election year," said Mark Walsh, the company's chief executive and an Internet entrepreneur formerly with VerticalNet and America Online.

The group is planning to present a daily schedule filled with liberal personalities as hosts of a range of programs, including news analysis segments, talk shows and entertainment programs in the spirit of "The Daily Show," the spoof news program on cable television's Comedy Central that skewers Washington.

Jon Sinton, Progress Media's president, said the company had hired Lizz Winstead, one of the creators of "The Daily Show," to oversee entertainment programming. Shelley Lewis, a longtime network news producer who was most recently in charge of "American Morning" on CNN, will oversee news programming, Mr. Sinton said.

He said Progress Media was pursuing a deal to give the comedian Al Franken a daily talk show. The company, whose programming division is to be called Central Air, is also talking with representatives of the comedian Janeane Garofalo.

The network has hired Martin Kaplan to be the host of an early evening talk show about the news media. Mr. Kaplan is associate dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and was once a speechwriter for Walter F. Mondale as well as a Disney studio executive.

Mr. Kaplan said in an interview that part of his charge would be to address some of the more extreme voices on the right. "It will be a chance to make fun of the pomposity and the bullying which the right has engaged in, and which a good chunk of the mainstream media has bought into," he said. "The self-righteousness of the right is now their greatest weakness, and I think we need to put those people on a whoopee cushion."

But in terms of ratings, history is against the likes of Mr. Kaplan, Mr. Franken and Ms. Garofalo. Radio analysts say there is a reason there are so many more popular conservative radio hosts than there are liberal ones, and a reason so many highly publicized attempts to start left-leaning radio programming have failed. (Mario M. Cuomo's talk show was canceled. Jim Hightower, who once had a nationally syndicated three-hour show, is still in the radio business, but as the host of a two-minute commentary segment heard mostly on noncommercial radio.)

Some political analysts have attributed past failures to liberal audiences' lack of interest in hearing their own views repeated. Some radio executives, including Kraig T. Kitchin, the president of Rush Limbaugh's radio distributor, Premiere Radio Networks, have said the cultural composite of the left is too diffuse to be easily targeted.

For his part, Mr. Limbaugh has dismissed reports about planned liberal alternatives to his program as silly, contending that he is merely a counterweight to overwhelmingly liberal mainstream news and entertainment media.

"Please! On TV you own C-Span, PBS, C-Span 2, CNN, ABC, CNNfn, CBS, MSNBC, CNN Headline News, NBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Lifetime, Oxygen, etc.," he wrote on his Web site this year, addressing liberals. "Simply for giving the conservative point of view equal time, you call Fox `conservative.' You have radio guys on NPR 24/7!"

In response, Mr. Sinton said: "While individuals on those networks may occasionally express views that are left of center, on balance we find those organizations to be pretty centrist. Our task is more than to be left leaning — with the exception of Al, who wants to call his show `The Liberal Show.' Our task is to be funny and entertaining, a no-sacred-cows sort of thing."

Progress Media would not say which stations it was planning to buy. Officials said they had begun to build a central studio space in midtown Manhattan.

They would not say how much the stations would cost altogether. But a major-market station can cost on the order of $30 million.

Much of the money for the company initially came from Sheldon and Anita Drobny, wealthy Chicago Democrats who originated the project but sold much of their stake to Evan Cohen, a New York investor.

[carlson]

Short 1000 on the bell for the month, then short 10,000 out 6 mos. because by then this stuck pig will have blead to death and we will all be happy ! :)

[suzyq5558]

have fun lefties;0 this is going to be like that parody Rush did of tommy daschele doing his own radio show somewhere in the dakotas. what a hoot this will be! the callers will be all of us right wingers LOL

[SAJ]

Not bad, not bad at all. I'm more inclined (and I've had better results, historically) though, to let the IPO pop for 24, hit the 2nd day at the bell, then scale in 500-600 short (not as well-heeled as you (g!)) after upticks every 2-3% down from there. Have to have our ducks in a row to know from which firm to borrow the shares, too -- not always strightforward, that.

No way in h*ll that shorting this puppy won't make some profit, but the problem is (as always) we aren't the only ones with this figured out. Ah, well, such is the mkt, eh?

Good trading to you, and FReegards!

[Let's Roll]

The only way they can get on the air is to own the stations. Rush doesn't own his stations. Someone else owns the stations and wants to air his show because the public listens to his show which makes money for the stations.

No one listens to lib radio so stations that - gasp - are in the business to make money won't carry the lib shows, thus the only way for lib shows to get on the air is to buy their own stations. The overhead will be tremendous. They probably don't care as they are going for broke for the 2004 election. Why they don't simply make the NPR programming more blatantly lib than it is I don't know. They've already got the tax payer paying for that.

[Travis McGee]

Their liberal audience is smoking dope and watching Jerry Springer and MTV, and listening to hip-hop CDs.

This plan is doomed, but it will be fun to watch millionaire liberal 'rats shovel money down this 'rathole.

[kingu]

I kept looking to see where the link to The Onion was in the article, but eghads, it appears they're actually thinking this will fly...

I wonder if they've noticed that virtually every liberal talk radio host has either become more conservative or been blown off the air. Here in Los Angeles, even the local editions of NPR have become much more conservative than they used to be. Heck, even our local NAACP supporter has dumped the NAACP and called them a bunch of loons.

I can't wait for their first broadcast, and even more entertaining, the first publishing of ratings. It'll be horribly embarrassing when they won't be able to capture their time slots against conservative hosts in a liberal city.

[nickcarraway]

What about all those people who don't have 5 radio stations? Who will get stations for them?

[Let's Roll]

I don't think it will be boring - they are throwing words around like entertaining, energetic. I'm betting it will be more like shock jock stuff. Outrageous, like the lies they write about Dubya now. This will be to reach their many constituents who can't read.

[Arkinsaw]

Oh, this one is going to be a real laugh. Imagine listening to this lineup:

The Janeane Garofolo Moaning Sarcasm Hour
Al Franken hosts "Raving Blubberlips Loony HAHA"
The George Clooney Emotionless Pronouncement Show LIVE!
Porn Commercial by Larry Flynt
Anti-Porn Commercial by Feminists
Sean Penn on Geopolitics
Susan Sarandon hosts "Screeching for Dollars"

Oh yeah, this is gonna be good. They think that the USA is starved for this programming.

[McGavin999]

This is just an untraceable campaign contribution. When it fails it will be a tax writeoff as well where political contributions usually are not.

[Calvin Locke]

What's odd is that they claim 1,2,4,5,6 market cities, yet "Sheldon and Anita Drobny, wealthy Chicago Democrats who
originated the project", are shut out of #3, Chicago.

No need? Then there is no need in San Francisco either. Probably Philly too.

Are they then stacking the deck attack with liberal markets? Why compete against NPR? Wouldn't the "red" areas require
more propaganda than the "blue"? Or do they need to rally the uneducated riffraff that blindly votes democrat to keep voting democrat?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Some political analysts have attributed past failures to liberal audiences' lack of interest in hearing their own views repeated.

Ha!

[giotto]

Given enough money and "talent," anything can succeed. There's always the outside possibility that this will take off. But I don't think so, and here's why: Radio is a medium for the mind, not the eye. Radio was universally popular when there was no television or movies. Radio dramas, quiz shows, variety shows then migrated to TV, never to return to radio.

Conservative talk radio has succeeded because there are core ideas central to conservatism/libertarianism which can be grasped by anyone willing to listen and learn. No talking points, updated daily by a central committee, are necessary for each radio host to be able to discuss the news and issues of the day.

For liberal radio to attract and keep listeners, it will have to at least be amusing. So for a while, someone like Al Franken will read from his books, do some kind of schtick, etc. But he won't be able to sustain it, day after day, because there are no ideas inherent in liberalism. There is only an ever-shifting hierarchy of victims, also updated daily along with the talking points. The "ideas" of liberalism cannot be discussed; they can only be reiterated, which is not something one would want to listen to for hours at a time.

[Madstrider]

The network has hired Martin Kaplan to be the host of an early evening talk show about the news media. Mr. Kaplan is associate dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and was once a speechwriter for Walter F. Mondale as well as a Disney studio executive.

Z ZZZ Z Z ZZ Z Z Z ZZZ ZZ Z Z ZZ ZZ

What fiendishly clever people these liberals are!

Kaplan is obviously the man to reach out to a key uncommitted "swing" constituency:
Left-wing Jewish academic Mondale supporters in Hollywood.

Oh, may conservatism always be blessed with such incompetent adversaries!

[Lion Den Dan]

What kind of flea-powered stations will run this?

===============

Some Dem bought a pair of used Motorola hand held units from me this weekend. I wonder???

[norwaypinesavage]

The left seems to be treating radio like it treats government programs: Pour in lots of money based on good intentions, and wish that the programs work. It won't take them long to find out that in a market driven business it takes more than wishing to achieve success. By the way, that's not true with government programs. If government programs fail, it's because, in liberal minds, there wasn't enough money spent. The fix is to spend more. Maybe they'll do the same here. (OK, I can wish, too.)

They are also treating market share like taxes, it's a zero sum game. Therefore, if you buy a radio station with a million listeners, you will have a million people listening to you. Wear your ear protectors when they start broadcasting. There will be the sound of a million radios clicking off, all at once.

Isn't it great that they're spending their money on this?

[raccoonradio]

>>Some political analysts have attributed past failures to liberal audiences' lack of interest in hearing _their own views repeated_.

"This is NPR. National PUBLIC Radio..." :)

Some NPR stations might have some interesting music programming-- jazz, blues, folk, classical-- but I wouldn't
waste my time hearing their talk. Of course sometimes their views get into the music programming too; I heard
a (locally produced) folk music show on an NPR affiliate in Ohio on the day Clinton got impeached and the host
referred to "...on this tragic day in our nation's
history..."

[raccoonradio]

>>What's odd is that they claim 1,2,4,5,6 market cities

Well, supposedly they're targeting 5 of the top 10 markets. Boston is one of them--and it happens to be the
#_10_ radio market (#6 for TV). And I'm not sure what station in Boston is going to be "sold" to the network;
it's probably a weak-signal one. There ARE rumors that the Sporting News Radio network (in Boston: WWZN 1510) may
sell its stations to this network, but even if All Lib
Radio winds up on 1510, it would never match stations
like WRKO 680 (Rush, Howie Carr, Savage) or WTKK
(Jay Severin, Ingraham, Hannity).

[raccoonradio]

>>this is going to be like that parody Rush did of tommy daschele doing his own radio show somewhere in the dakotas

Even liberal Harry Shearer ("Mr Burns", "Smithers", and
"Principal Skinner" on "The Simpsons") did a half-decent
spoof of what liberal talk radio would sound like. On Shearer's "Le Show" (airing on several NPR stations),
he did "The Al Gore Show", with Al Franken as Gore's
sidekick...and it sounded pathetic. When the REAL
Al Franken show debuts on Lib Radio, it'll be even
worse.

[gitmo]

WBOR 666 AM
WZZZ 000 AM
WRAT 666 AM