Eugene to Lose Air America Radio?
Eugene may soon find itself without progressive talk radio station Air America if a deal to sell local affiliate KOPT to Oregon Public Broadcasting goes through.
From the Register Guard:
Progressive talk radio may be slipping away from Eugene, despite interest from a national radio talk show host to keep it alive.Oregon Public Broadcasting announced on Tuesday that it will buy KOPT from Churchill Media. The AM station offers Air America’s lineup of liberal talk shows.
The details of the sale are still being finalized, but OPB expects to pay close to $500,000 for the station, president and CEO Steve Bass said.
The sale must still be approved by the Federal Communications Commission.
Talk radio host Ed Schultz, whose nationally syndicated show airs on many stations that also carry Air America, had been trying to put together a group of Oregon investors to buy the station, but that deal fell through, said James Holm, Schultz’s producer.
“We wanted to keep progressive talk on in the market, but were never able to follow through with the deal,” Holm said.
The station has been struggling to generate enough advertising revenue:
Churchill Media believed it had a winner with the progressive radio format in liberal Eugene, broadcasting Air America’s slate of talk shows that included comedian Al Franken, Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes, beginning in 2004. A few months later, the station added local news and talk programs allowing people to debate a range of issues from the war in Iraq to the West Eugene Parkway.While it did lure a devoted audience, said Churchill General Manager Paul Danitz, the advertising required to support the expenses never quite materialized.
Last summer, KOPT cut all the local programming, laying off experienced broadcasters such as news director Rick Little and talk show host Brian Shaw.
“It hurt me to let people like this go,” Danitz said. “But we couldn’t maintain it. There’s such a small commercial base. It’s a good city but it’s not a huge city, not as large as Portland, and we had a better product. We were something special.”
Danitz holds out hope that Schultz — the national talk show host — will still be able to put together a deal that could save Air America in Eugene. Churchill Media also owns two Spanish language stations, one which broadcasts ESPN sports programs. That station could be sold and the Air America programming switched to it, he said.
Read the rest. Discuss.
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Dec. 06, 2007
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Dec 6, '07
As well I was very disappointed when the radio station KTHH 990 in Albany changed it's format from Air America to 'classic country.' I like KPOJ but it's reception is sometimes not that good some places in the Mid Valley.
And if anybody connected with that Albany station reads this: I listened to Air America every day. The day you changed the format I wiped your 'classic country' station off my truck radio presets forever.
Dec 6, '07
My Advice: Get better on-air personalities if any Air America affiliates are to survive in markets other than hardcore liberal bastions like New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. Let's face it, radio is all about ratings & advertising revenue. Throwing raw meat to rapid progressives might earn a small listening audience in the United States, but it sure as hell aint gonna make for a profitable, successful business. Aside from Ed Schultz, liberal talk radio has contributed zero viable competition to conservative talk radio giants like Limbaugh, Hannity & Savage.
Dec 6, '07
"advertising required to support the expenses never quite materialized."
Ha Ha Liberal/socialists trying to be Capitolists?!
You should stick to your take everybodies paycheck and hand it out with idiot Gov't programs policies. At least you are good at playing Robin Hood with my money I was forced to pay.
Capitolism requires Voluntary payment not forced, and who would pay to advertise on Air America? not many obviously.
More proof that you guys do not have a clue of reality.
Dec 6, '07
Moderate, I wonder if that is a truly descriptive screen name.
Ed Schultz talks about talk radio being a business quite often.
Dec 6, '07
What a shame for Eugene, a university town, to lose a good liberal talk program. NPR has become so namby-pamby lately that the new format will only please the conservatives. There should be market enough for both in Eugene. And that "moderate democrat" above must realize that there is no free air time. NPR has some heavy weight sponsors, and they are not afraid to name them. Next time they ask me for my money I will pass. I don't need to help them buy another station!
Dec 6, '07
Hmmm.... Maybe I'll buy it. Seriously!
Yet, this just goes to show how much power organized control of advertising revenue can have in a post Bill Clinton, Telecom Act of 1996 world can have.
Maybe progressive talk needs to be leveraged with classic rock to make such markets work...
11:56 p.m.
Dec 6, '07
Old Liberal, I think there is some back history that I don't quite understand about public broadcasting in the mid-valley, but the FM public broadcasting presence there is not part of OPB, unlike other parts of the state. There is some kind of independent public broadcasting entity with a small number of stations.
If anyone knows the story about this, I'd love to know. Did the stations in question break away when OPB moved to its private non-profit model? Did they never join when the state network was formed?
Whatever the story, OPB has only one AM station that is supposed to reach both Corvallis and Eugene, & I am guessing that maybe it doesn't reach Eugene so well which is why OPB would want another station there, even if also AM.
Dec 7, '07
I guess leftists have difficulty understanding free-market principles. Here is a lesson: Commercial radio stations must turn a profit to stay on the air. Businesses are not willing to spend their dollars to advertise to the 12 socialists who listened to Air America on this station. End of Lesson.
Dec 7, '07
Personally i have never found Air America to be all that great.
I would much rather listen to OPB, and the reception for OPB in the eugene area I have always found to be not so great.
I so enjoy KLCC, but find OPB to have a better program schedule for my tastes.
Dec 7, '07
The Insurgency will not stand for this! www.tshirtinsurgency.com
Dec 7, '07
One wonders what the long-term effect will be to our society when political discourse becomes an entertainment commodity and only those ideas that make a profit will be deemed worthy of dissemination by the corporate owners of the media.
But, of course, con radio, with its insular and easily amused audience and flaccid opinions, will flourish in such an environment. It’s the intellectual and political equivalent of Fritos.
Our society and country and government depend upon an educated and thinking electorate with the ability to discern idiocy from real debate. But that sort of an audience is the bane of Con Radio.
And since these con hucksters use the public airways – our airways – to spew their bile, we have every right to impose upon them restrictions as to their content. After all, religious cons are always attempting to impose restrictions as to sexual content on media. Why not the same for political porn?
We permit profits alone to be the sole guiding force behind what political speech is allowed at our peril. Sooner or later we will pay the price.
Dec 7, '07
Holly Martins:
And since these con hucksters use the public airways – our airways...
Bob T:
We can talk about this forever, but the only reason you think the airwaves are "public", "yours and mine", is because you were told this at an early age. THis was the result of the State grabbing them in the 1920s--not for any altruistic reason but because the government feared a new property right it wouldn't be able to control as easily as actual public places. And to think Herbert Hoover's best argument for doing this was because he feared radio stations with crappy music (jazz I guess) would wipe out those playing good music (classical, I think, was what Hoover had in mind).
By the way, wrote any western novels lately?
Bob Tiernan
Dec 7, '07
Bob says "the only reason you think the airwaves are "public", "yours and mine", is because you were told this at an early age."
I'm anxiously waiting for the ample evidence you must be privy to in order to make such an assertion.
By the way, wrote any logically fallacious comments lately?
Dec 7, '07
Bob T.
Assuming your historical account to be true (the jazz reference is wonderful -- I’ve always called Benny Goodman the heavy metal of 1920), I still don’t see how the point about the corrosive effect of private ownership of the airways is refuted by it. Surely you’d not go as far as advocating that broadcast corporations ought to actually own the frequencies they broadcast over. What limitations would you impose?
I’m an advocate for strict media ownership limitations upon corporations because I fear the distilling of political view down to only what is economically viable, along his a gradual but inevitable uniformity of message. Political ideas, and ideals, ought to be judged by more than their economic viability, and we as citizens should to say so. If a car company makes bad cars, it will go out of business, as it should, but a political idea’s fate ought not be tied to its ability to turn a profit, particularly when more and more of this profit is based on its entertainment value rather then its intellectual merit.
This is a bit off the topic, but my sense is that much of the right-wing’s recent attack upon higher education – particularly in the humanities -- is based upon the idea that in economic terms, it’s a loser (it also tends to produce citizens who are less likely to buy into an extreme ideology of the right or the left).
No novels brewing right now, but I will be giving a lecture at the Cultural Reeducation Society tonight.
HM
11:45 a.m.
Dec 7, '07
Uh-oh, here come the Kool Aid Kidz again.
If you alleged Free Market guys had an honest or curious bone in your bodies you'd be embarrassed to try to sell this crap here or anywhere else.
Either you know that Right Wing Millionaires have subsidized your entire "movement" at least since 1970 or you don't know and you can only be classified as Voluntarily Ignorant.
I suspect the latter.
Try this. Type in "Scaife subsidize" on The Google. The Truth is out there and here and especially here
Scaife, Olin, Bradley, Murdoch, and many many more have spent tens of millions of dollars creating the institutions and messaging from the NY Post, the Weekly Standard, the American Prospect, NewsMax, Fox News, The Cato Institute, Hoover Institute, and on and on. With the exception of Fox, none of these orgs would have lasted five minutes without decades of subsidies from people who do not share your "Free Market" interests.
These people are funding these organizations that make the Kool Aid that you drink without thought. Yet I have no doubt that the first you ever heard about subsidies in messaging was when the Left finally got a little help from Soros.
Bottom line? Do some damned research before you start spewing out your absurd dogma. If you haven't noticed, Blue Oregon holds itself to a bit higher standard than is customary for Freepers.
Dec 7, '07
desaparecidokb:
By the way, wrote any logically fallacious comments lately?
Bob T:
That doesn't make any sense. I don't know if I have to explain it or not, but asking Holly Martins if has written any western novels lately was no cheap shot.
Bob Tiernan
Dec 7, '07
Holly Martins:
Assuming your historical account to be true (the jazz reference is wonderful -- I’ve always called Benny Goodman the heavy metal of 1920)
Bob T:
1920 was a bit early for Benny, but my reference to him was in regard to the fact that in te 1920s most 50+ year olds (particularly a well-eductaed man like Herbert Hoover) were probably not into jazz all that much. I listen to Goodman's stuff often, but only after listening to Artie Shaw first. And saying that Benny Goodman was the heavy metal of his era, well, that's an insult to Goodman.
Will get back to the rest of your message later.
Bob Tiernan
Dec 7, '07
as far as eugene goes, there probably is a market for PRI programming, though i can't see why it would need 2 NPR stations.
Dec 7, '07
Progressives need the kind of folks Pat Ryan cites on the Dark Side to step up and provide support--underwriting, if you will--for media like Air America and KOPT. In it's first few years as an acknowledged programming form, progressive talk radio has tried to follow the commercial media model ("Let's sell ads!") instead of the public media model ("Let's sell memberships, grants, and ads "by another name"--along with magazines, magazine ads, production services, teleconferencing... you name it!"). Commercial operators like Churchill look at progressive talk as "just another format." They have no strong, personal belief in the liberal ideology; if they can sell spots in it, great! If they can't, well... too bad. How 'bout Polka?
In a market the size & nature of Eugene-Springfield, there are likely to be liberal philanthropists willing to support a non-profit organization formed to operate a radio station dedicated to progressive talk.
But if you're waiting for someone else to do it, it won't happen. Today is a great day to start.
Dec 7, '07
yeah, but klcc constitutes big competition for those non-profit type donation dollars.
Dec 7, '07
Pat I don't think a person has to be a rightwing whatever to believe that the marketplace should be open, which it is not. And under the present circumstance the government has given away access to the airwaves. Just maybe things would be better if it auctioned them off.
MHW
5:20 p.m.
Dec 7, '07
Pat I don't think a person has to be a rightwing whatever to believe that the marketplace should be open, which it is not.
Michael,
Not trying to be sarcastic here, but it does depend on definitions, for instance of the term "open".
My point was that Multi Millionaires use their money to rig the game in such a way that it is extremely difficult for the average citizen to learn anything about the nation that they (the citizens) purportedly rule under a small "r" republican system.
And under the present circumstance the government has given away access to the airwaves. Just maybe things would be better if it auctioned them off.
This part of your comment is puzzling. Of course they do auction off sections of bandwidth as noted by the redoubtable Mr. T above.
The impediment currently faced by small bidders in that arena is that the huge global conglomerates have bid the price of such bandwidth out of reach of an individual or even a group of small entrepreneurs.
Adam Smith would have had to be the second coming of Nostradamus to see, from his perch in an agrarian society that corporations would be deemed "persons", money would be defined as a subcategory of speech, or that Milton Friedman and his Chicago School Boys, in conjunction with a couple of million college kids who read Atlas Shrugged, would build an entire bullshit economic theory on a single paragraph from The Wealth of Nations.
I'll admit that I have not personally read every word committed to paper by this 18th century moral philosopher, but what I have read has almost nothing to do with what his supposed followers preach these days.
Hey.......come to think of it........this analogy applies to the Christianist Right as well, regarding their own God on Earth, who would undoubtedly be chasing them around with a whip just like he did the money changers in the Temple, back in the day..
Dec 7, '07
Why don't rich liberals just go and buy a bunch of radio stations and program whatever they want(ie. liberal talk radio). Thats how it's done.
Dec 7, '07
Why don't rich liberals just go and buy a bunch of radio stations and program whatever they want(ie. liberal talk radio). Thats how it's done.
Dec 7, '07
Why don't rich liberals just go and buy a bunch of radio stations and program whatever they want(ie. liberal talk radio). Thats how it's done.
Dec 8, '07
AM 730 is having the same problems down here in Medford. Admittedly it was an also ran station for some time prior to the switch to a progressive mixed format. There are huge gaps of advertising on-air when they must substitute Muzack during commercial breaks.
I think the capitalist model of selling adspace for progressive radio is not working.
Dec 8, '07
The liberal/socialists will never accept their doom. Believe me Kool Aid Kiddos, your doom is coming. We are bigger, smarter, stronger, and live in reality. Better get new glasses people, your vision of what the world will be is ever blurring!
9:32 p.m.
Dec 8, '07
Trishka,
You might be right about there not being room for 2 NPR stations, but if that's so, the question I have is does OPB have an agenda in that area? Why doesn't OPB already have a presence in radio in Eugene & what does it mean for public broadcasting (wide sense) in the area that they are making this move?
If the strictly ad-based model isn't working for "progressive talk radio," I'm not sure the public broadcasting model is where to turn. How about Christian broadcasting?
The other possiblity is that an all-talk format isn't the best way to attract a sufficiently large audience for ad-based to work. Maybe it needs to be lots of talk mixed with some other stuff?
Dec 9, '07
A former employer listened to Rush Limbaugh every single day. It was tortuous and annoying to sit and listen to that blowhard's black and white world view and invective.
Later in life a roommate listen to KPOJ religiously and though not as hellacious as Rush it was annoying listening to shrill voices natter on and preach to the choir.
It just seemed like a useless endeavor. Why would I listen to people tell me what I already know and do it in an obnoxious manner.
I am happy that OPB is going to be down here (Eugene) and replacing Air America. I just moved here to go to UO and despised the KLCC line up. I found myself searching the AM dial for Jefferson Public Radio so I could at least get Talk of the Nation and BBC world service.
Dec 9, '07
Gee, advertisers didn't want to support lefty yakkers who tell kill-Bush jokes on the air? Awwww.
12:40 a.m.
Dec 10, '07
Damail, you exemplify the Freeper affinity for making stuff up. Often this appears to take the form of projecting onto fantasy "leftists" whatever the equivalent of rightwing nastiness would be. This is right in line with other fantasies like Clinton was a liberal, liberals are socialists, socialists are communists, so Clinton was a communist Q.E.D. Never mind that every premise of every step is false.
Apparently if you were a lefty you'd tell kill-Bush jokes. But it is literally true that I have never heard such a joke & I don't believe the KPOJ talkers would do so, though I listen more to OPB & KBOO -- & people on KBOO are mostly a lot lefter than AirAmerica & they/we don't tell kill-Bush jokes either.
Dec 12, '07
Too bad to hear about Air America, that Stephanie Miller is such a hottie!!! no wait, I rarely listened to Air America, but I like the compentition, the more competition there is, the more work they have to do to keep me for audience which means better material for the listeners to enjoy. But let's face it, wherever you go, the market for liberal talk radio is low. I wouldn't invest my money and advertise on low rating stations, I don't think any of you would... it's not about political parties, it's about making money.
But more importantly, that Stephanie Miller is hot!!!!, she's better looking than other DJs on Air America, you guys agree?
Dec 23, '07
I think the capitalist model of selling adspace for progressive radio is not working. Kurt Chapman
<h2>It is very simple. Provide a product people want. Customers will come and advertisers will follow. No listeners are due to bad a product.</h2>