Posted on 06/17/2004 11:01:19 AM PDT by arual
KVI bleeps no-no in Bush talk
By David Postman Seattle Times chief political reporter
Seattle talk-radio station KVI-AM (570) makes a habit of clearing the air to broadcast President Bush's speeches and press conferences. It's what you do when you are the purveyors of conservative hot talk and see yourself as a bastion against liberal media bias.
But a part of Bush's speech yesterday about Iraq was too hot for even KVI. An alert engineer used the station's seven-second delay to mute the offending words.
Had Bush gone wobbly on Iraq, or worse, John Kerry? More nice things to say about Bill — or even Hillary — Clinton? A wardrobe malfunction, maybe?
No, what Bush did was mention talk-show giant Rush Limbaugh, the best-known conservative talk host in the country.
Rush, as Bush called him in a speech at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base, isn't ever heard on KVI.
Not anymore, at least. He once was the station's syndicated star. But since October, he has resided down the dial a bit at KTTH-AM (770).
"We just don't generally expose or promote talk-show hosts on other stations," said KVI program director Paul Duckworth.
The Limbaugh mention came in a speech where Bush was touting what he sees as progress in Iraq:
"Today in Iraq, more than 170 newspapers are being published, and I saw the other day that they've even got talk radio. I don't know if they've contacted Rush yet," Bush said. According to the official White House transcript, the audience laughed.
Duckworth said he heard from only a few unhappy listeners.
One was Nigel Featherston, who e-mailed the station after hearing the speech on KVI and later the same excerpt on KTTH, on the Limbaugh show.
Duckworth e-mailed him back to explain the competition issue, which did not satisfy Featherston.
"You censored the President of the United States because he mentioned your competition?" Featherston wrote. "If I were you, I would rethink that petty policy, and focus on providing a stronger host in that time slot to compete with the Rush Limbaugh show."
Duckworth points out KVI was the only station to air the entire — or almost the entire — Bush speech yesterday morning. He said he could understand the negative response if the station had censored something Bush said about Iraq.
"I'd certainly agree with that. But for crying out loud, it was a brief mention of our competition," Duckworth said.
At KTTH they were playing excerpts, including the Limbaugh plug, and laughing at KVI's editing.
"Just because someone isn't playing on your team, you can't deny they exist," said station manager Ken Berry. "This is just taking it to the height of nuttiness."
KVI censorship bump
1 - " An alert engineer used the station's seven-second delay to mute the offending words. "
I think this is far more common than most conservatives realize.
Locally here, some liberal engineer is constantly censoring broadcasting of conservative talk radio, with weather alerts blocking out things liberals would hate. There is static, drop outs, and the 'tests' for radio in case of nuclear attack - all a peculiar times, right in the middle of particularly anti-liberal points.
It is amazing, and I have called our stations, many times, complaining, but little happens to correct it.
LOL, they are probably afraid that the uninformed viewers they have will take this information and switch to Brit :-)
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Just so.
FMCDH(BITS)
Yes, I guessed that and it was confirmed later when Rush replayed the clip... Losing Rush sits heavily on KVI's heart still, and mine too. I suppose they didn't want a lot of people turning the dial back over, can't blame them for that. At any rate, KVI is the one that carried the President's speech - NOT KTTH. Thanks for broadcasting the speech, Kirby!
Mention Bubba Booie and see if you get beeped.
John Carlson is talking about it today, June 21. KVI web site issues apology.
KVI Radio Issues Apology
Decision to edit President’s comments about Rush Limbaugh was mistake
"It’s not easy admitting that you’re wrong," says KVI Talk Radio 570 Program Director Paul Duckworth, "but we blew it!"
Duckworth’s comments come following a decision to delete a reference to Rush Limbaugh during a recent speech by President Bush at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
Duckworth explains that the engineer on duty at the time of the speech had just a few seconds to make a decision about whether to air or eliminate the comment. In the heat of the moment, he decided to dump it. "It’s certainly not part of any orchestrated strategy or policy," says Duckworth. "The individual who made the decision is a terrific employee. He simply made an error in judgment. We all agree that it won’t happen again"
The KVI program director admits that his recent comments to the Seattle media did little to help the situation. "I think that I tried to justify the unjustifiable," says Duckworth, "we’ve all learned an important lesson."
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with RUSH, da, do, da, do...
(Old Jim Croce song from 70s)
"KTTH mentions Kirby Wilbur, the morning guy on KVI, all the time.
I'd switch from KVI to KTTH completely if it wasn't for Kirby, John Carlson in the afternoons and Tony Snow at nights. they also use FOX News while KTTH uses ABC (icky)."
That's exactly what I do! Gotta have Rush every morning on KTTH, then Medved (no Hannitty), got tired of windbag O'Reilly on KTTH, tuned back in to John on KVI, found out that Tony was on after him, and now no longer listen to Savage. Can't stand ABC news, either!
Mama
I mentioned it before, but the ABC feed of the Reagan funeral was sans commercial breaks. Limbaugh's CC station went to the hard half-hour breaks.
Some radio stations are starting to pay the price for their crummy practices:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1157068/posts
Hey that' just what I do!
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