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Air America
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;s=air%20america

EcoTalk's Betsy Rosenberg

Some things just don't compute. For example, why can't those of us in the nation's most progressive media market listen to Al Franken and his friends on Air America Radio?

We're missing out ... and not just on the liberal chitchat and nonstop Bush bashing. Air America is also home to the only environmental program broadcast on commercial radio in the country. It's called EcoTalk, and it's hosted by none other than SF's Betsy Rosenberg.

Many of you may be familiar with Rosenberg through the one-minute EcoTalk (formerly TrashTalk) segments she has broadcast on KCBS radio since 1997. Rosenberg had worked as a reporter and anchor for CBS for over ten years when a light bulb (compact fluorescent, I'm sure) went off in her head.

"As a consumer of mainstream media," she told me, "I was not hearing or reading anything on a regular basis about environmental solutions." There was no shortage of "gloom and doom" stories, recalls Rosenberg, "but nothing about what individuals can do to conserve resources and live lighter on the planet."

Rosenberg approached CBS and proposed an environmental segment. Her then-news director predicted she'd run dry of material in three weeks. "Some 1,500 broadcasts later, I know I will never run out of great green stories," Rosenberg says. "I turned a personal distaste of waste into a professional passion."

While Rosenberg continues to broadcast her 60-second spots locally, she knew she could take the program further. "For years I'd felt confined by the one-minute time slot on KCBS," she confessed. "I wanted to have a longer program with a national audience." Then she heard a new "progressive" radio network was starting up. "I called Air America's program director and asked what kind of environmental programming they were planning. When I heard silence -- which I expected -- I offered my services."

The hour-long EcoTalk is now broadcast at 7 a.m. every Sunday morning. EcoTalk offers a mixture of news, commentary, green product spotlights and interviews with environmental folks such as Ted Danson and Robert Redford (and non-celebs as well). Recent stories have ranged from the Center for a New American Dream's "Turn the Tide" project to a profile of the Environmental Defense Fund.