Posted on 02/17/2003 6:53:01 AM PST by nypokerface
A group of wealthy Democratic donors is planning to start a liberal radio network to counterbalance the conservative tenor of radio programs like "The Rush Limbaugh Show."
The group, led by Sheldon and Anita Drobny, venture capitalists from Chicago who have been major campaign donors for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, is in talks with Al Franken, the comedian and author of "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot." It hopes to enlist other well-known entertainers with a liberal point of view for a 14-hour, daily slate of commercial programs that would heavily rely on comedy and political satire.
The plan faces several business and content challenges, from finding a network of radio stations to buy the program to overcoming the poor track record of liberal radio shows. But it is the most ambitious undertaking yet to come from liberal Democrats who believe they are overshadowed in the political propaganda wars by conservative radio and television personalities.
The concern has been around for years: Hillary Rodham Clinton first mentioned a "vast, right-wing conspiracy" in 1998. But the sentiment has taken on new urgency with the rise to the top of the cable news ratings of the Fox News Channel, considered by many to have a conservative slant, and the Republicans' gaining control of the Senate in November. Such events have spurred many wealthy Democrats to explore investments in possible, liberal-skewing media ventures. New campaign finance rules that restrict giving opportunities also gave them further incentive.
The new liberal radio network is initially being financed by the Paradigm Group, of which the Drobnys are the principal partners. Ms. Drobny is the chairwoman of the venture, which is being called AnShell Media L.L.C. Jon Sinton, a longtime, Atlanta-based radio executive, will be its chief executive. He helped start the nationally syndicated radio program of Jim Hightower, the former Texas agriculture commissioner. Liberals had hoped that would be their answer to Mr. Limbaugh, but it was canceled shortly after its start in the mid-1990's.
The failure of Mr. Hightower's show supported the notion of many in radio that liberal hosts do not have what it takes to become successful and entertaining hosts: the fire-and-brimstone manner and a ready-made audience alienated by the mainstream news media it perceives to be full of liberal bias.
Mr. Sinton said the new venture would seek to disprove not only those who doubt liberal hosts can make it in radio, but also those who believe that success in radio depends on an alliance with one of the handful of major distributors or station groups.
The group said it was prepared to go it alone, selling its programming to the individual radio stations rather than go through a middleman. It has an initial investment of $10 million, which radio analysts said was enough to start up. Ms. Drobny said the cash would be placed in a fund that she hopes to grow to at least $200 million within the next year, which she hopes to use to finance other media ventures like the acquisition of radio stations and television production.
"The object of the programming is to be progressive and make a statement that counters this din from the right," Mr. Sinton said. "But we have a solid business plan that shows a hole in the market."
Many conservatives who assert the news media in general is infused with liberal bias say the premise of a liberal radio network is silly to begin with. But liberal Democrats say even if a liberal bias does exist, the mainstream news media strives for balance and fair play. They say their concern is that there are far fewer successful, outright partisan voices on the left than there are on the right.
"I feel like there's a monologue out there," Ms. Drobny said. "I just had this tremendous feeling with great passion that we had to make sure we're heard and make sure having a dialogue in this country of ours."
The list of successful conservative radio hosts is, in fact, fairly long Rush Limbaugh; Sean Hannity; Michael Savage; Michael Reagan. And there is no equivalent list of liberals. Past attempts, such as the programs of Mr. Hightower and Mario Cuomo, have failed.
Some radio executives said they simply did not believe liberal radio could become good business. Among them was Kraig T. Kitchen, chief executive of Premiere Radio Networks, one of the nation's largest radio syndication arms with the programs of Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Reagan and Dr. Laura Schlessinger, among others. Though Mr. Kitchin said he was a conservative, he also said he would have pursued liberal programs had he thought there was money in them. He ascribes to the popular view in the industry that liberal hosts present issues in too much complexity to be very entertaining — while addressing a diffuse audience that has varying views.
"Individuals who are liberal in their viewpoints can be all-encompassing," he said. "It's very hard to define liberalism, unlike how easy it is to define conservatism. So, as a result, it doesn't evoke the same kind of passion as conservative ideologies do."
Mr. Sinton said he thought past attempts failed because they were not properly executed. He said he believed a big problem for Mr. Hightower was that his program was sandwiched into a schedule crammed with conservatives. "It is very hard to succeed when you throw liberal programming between bookends of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity," he said. "That violates expectations of the listener."
This is why he said he was proposing a full slate of liberally skewing programming with morning, afternoon and early evening shows featuring hosts with as many big names in entertainment as possible.
"This side has failed by going at Rush, and trying to be Rush — you're not going to beat him at his game," Mr. Sinton said. "What really makes this work is tapping into Hollywood and New York and having a huge entertainment component, where political sarcasm is every bit as effective as Rush Limbaugh is at bashing you over the head."
Mr. Sinton acknowledged that his biggest challenge was in getting national distribution for the network. He said he would seek to strike deals with underperforming radio stations in major markets.
Analysts said that while the plan might seem difficult to achieve, it is not impossible. "It is going to be trickier in the top-10 markets, easier in the middle markets, but it will be possible," said Jonathan Jacoby, a radio industry analyst for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. "There is a case that if they have the right product, they will be able to find distribution."
Talent, of course, will be key, Mr. Sinton acknowledged. A deal with Mr. Franken, the comedian, would help greatly in luring other big names, as well as in gaining distribution. He said he envisioned a daily program featuring Mr. Franken perhaps in the early afternoons (around the same time as "The Rush Limbaugh Show").
A representative for Mr. Franken, Henry Reisch of the William Morris Agency, said Mr. Franken was seriously considering the offer, and was mostly focusing on whether he could handle the commitment of a daily radio program. Judging from his comments as a guest last month on Phil Donahue's program on MSNBC, Mr. Franken would probably take a far different approach from that of Mr. Limbaugh. "I think the audience isn't there for a liberal Rush," he said. "Because I think liberals don't want to hear that kind of demagoguery."
Yes, the more they spend, the more they keep the economy going strong!
I don't think it even gets so far as that. Liberals cannot debate. All they can do is yell slogans and hang up on a caller that disagrees with them because their whole system of "belief" is incompatible with logic and noncongruent with facts. Conservatives calling these shows insist on logic and facts. Even a dedicated liberal can listen only so long to a talk show host who does not take calls or who only takes laudatory or "yeah!-what-you-said" calls. If the host tries to argue with a caller the lib listeners just get embarrassed .
The liberal listener already knows all the slogans and the VRWC stuff gets old fast. The lib host offers nothing new- no new slant that isn't available on the TV networks.
The liberal host soon has almost only conservative listeners who are lined up to straighten him out and who won't admit to a ratings service that they listen to the guy. If the liberal host lasts it is because he doesn't discuss politics much any more and confines himself to describing weird sex or telling fat jokes.
They don't feel they need to put any actual work in their broadcasts because they believe their positions are so totally self evident that they don't have to back them up logically or with anything like facts. Actually they must believe in the obvious self-evidence of liberalism because it just is not amenable to rational analysis.
They CAN'T really believe that.......can they? Rush must be laughing himself silly.
I think they do believe that.
The left has yet to understand, nor will they ever, that the success of Rush (21 hours a week) dominates the news.
They think that FOX leans (hell, not "leans," but is conservative in their little minds) is due to the fact that FOX presents both sides of the story, not just their side.
They can't see the forest for the trees. :)
Someone please explain to me how Geraldo, Gretta, Colmes and others on FOX are "conservative."
That's easy. It is the stationa managers with their greedy focus on Profits and the Rich Capitalist Owners with their focus also on that almighty dollar. They refuse to keep the Liberals on the air and finance the right wing extremists because rich corporate owners are necessarily rightwing oppressors.
Actually the left faces an impossible task in getting their word out through the media because most of Big Media is owned by those big conservative corporate capitalists. At least that is their current occasion for breastbeating.
Oh yes it can! It will be loudly "declared" as due to insufficient funding, at least for a while. You see, those right wing extremists are funded by Big Corporate sponsors to keep them on the air. Liberals will say they just can't compete with that. They don't seem to have any notion at all of profitibility and of choice among listeners. They think all they have to do is keep a show on the air and everybody will hear it and be edified. After all, that's how Rush does it. Rich conservatives just keep him on the air and everyone hears him. It's not fair.
That's his television training. It does not translate well.
In the above sentence do you mean Conservative to be synonymous with Republican? IE - "Republicans [in the year 2003] do not want to maintain a status quo..." ??
Thanks for replying.
This confuses me. Isn't the sentence above a contradiction (barring some new convention where Liberal = Democrat and Conservative = Republican)?
It seems to ma that someone who is willing to try something new is NOT conservative, yet you say a libral was not willing to try something new.
This makes sense in light of your first paragraph ("Conservatives are the ones..."). Now my question would be, why not address the issues and stances on those issues?
Every talk radio personality I hear rants about "liberals." Yet rarley do I hear an issue and the depths behind it from either camp.
I am concerned because it is easy to apply a label and dismiss someone outright: "Oh, she's just a libral [therefore every thing she says is tainted]."
That seems pretty closed-minded to me and not the road a "free thinker" should take.
He who laughs last, laughs GOOD.
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