[IRCA] Fox News

["Art Blair" <artngwen@xxxxxxxxxx>]

DAVE ZWEIFEL: ANOTHER RADIO STATION FALLS TO FOX NEWS

By Dave Zweifel
August 4, 2005

Earlier this year public radio's Garrison Keillor wrote a great piece for 
the Nation in which he lamented the passing of radio programming as we once 
knew it.
He talked about the heyday of great stations like WCCO in Minneapolis, WOR 
in New York, KMOX in St. Louis and WGN in Chicago and how they were filled 
with down-home programming on everything from fishing and home repair to 
baseball games and live coverage of the local news.
But, more importantly, the stations were about their hometowns. In smaller 
communities, Keillor recalled, you would hear the local livestock reports, 
the announcements of service club meetings and a listener calling to thank 
everybody for helping her find her lost dog Pookie. Every station had its 
own personality or two who could speak to the listeners like they were 
longtime close friends.
Thus it was right here in Madison not all that long ago.
There were strong local personalities on the air throughout the day and into 
the night, not just during the morning drive time, and they were not foaming 
at the mouth with hate-filled political diatribe. Jim Mader, Clark Kellogg, 
George "Papa Hambone" Vukelich, "P.K." Powers and dozens of others were such 
familiar voices, with whom listeners identified and actually considered 
friends.
But, as Keillor pointed out, the deregulation of radio was terribly tough on 
what he called "good neighbor" radio.
Texas-based Clear Channel and others began gobbling up all those little 
money-making stations and homogenized their contents to make even more 
money. So Rush is on everywhere. On many of the FM stations, the same music 
fills the air. An iconoclast like Hambone no longer exists.
This all came to mind earlier this week when WIBA/AM, one of those Clear 
Channel properties, announced it was switching its longtime affiliation with 
CBS radio news to Fox News. The station manager, Jeff Tyler, chalked it all 
up to "some issues with CBS' credibility," as if Dan Rather had something to 
do with CBS radio. The real reason, of course, is that Fox News - Tyler 
should check its credibility - is cheaper. And that's all that matters.
So now all Clear Cannel's stations in Madison, except WXXM, which will 
continue with CNN News, will be broadcasting Fox News. Keillor, 
incidentally, had an answer in that Nation article for why huge numbers of 
right-wingers appear on those chain-owned radio stations while liberals are 
hard to find.
"It's simple," he said. "Republicans are in need of affirmation, they don't 
feel comfortable in America and they crave listening to people who think 
like them. Liberals actually enjoy living in a free society; tuning in to 
hear an echo is not our idea of a good time."

Art
Folsom, CA 


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