One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

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Note: this is a two-part series. Part I is the “tough” part, part II, is the “fun” one.

One of these things doesn’t belong. See if you can guess which one?

KOPT-AM 1600 Eugene, Oregon

Saturday:12mid – 3am		Best-of “The Thom Hartmann Program”

3am – 5:30am	 	Best-of “The Young Turks”

5:30am - 6am		"American Radio Journal"

6am – 7am		"Money Message"

7am – 8am		“State of Belief” w/ the Rev. Welton Gaddy

8am – 9am		“Travel w/ Rick Steves”

9am – 10am		America the Wild

10am – 11am		Best-of “The Randi Rhodes Show”

11am - 12noon		"Go Vegan" w/ Bob Linden

12noon – 3pm		“Ring of Fire” w/ Mike Papantonio & Robert Kennedy Jr.and Sunday:

12mid – 1am		Best-of “The Randi Rhodes Show”

1am – 4am		Best-of “Lionel”

4am – 5:30am		Best-of “The Young Turks”

5:30am - 6am		"American Radio Journal"

6am – 7am		“Whatcha Got?” w/ Harry Rinker

7am – 9am		“Chill w/ Mindi Abair”

9am – 11am		“Legends of Jazz w/ Ramsey Lewis”

KOPT bills itself as “OREGON’S PROGRESSIVE TALK” and, while it’s gone to an ‘all-satellite’ format — relying exclusively on “free” radio shows — you’ll note that it’s a pretty straight-line “progressive” lineup, except for weekends, when they throw in some jazz and travel, some music and variety.

But one of the shows listed above doesn’t fit at all.

«©»

There is something about progressive talk radio that you ought to know. A week ago Friday was the last day of AirAmerica in San Diego, California, the sixth largest market in the United States.

Now, a major American city will be blanketed with multiple streams of Rightie non-answered phony arguments, hate-mongering and proud slanting of facts — all justified by a claim of “liberal media.” A liberal media that will no longer be heard in San Diego.

This isn’t the first such “flip” — nor to a sports format– the station is going to a “sports” format. Ed Schultz lost his home base, the Clear-Channel-owned station in Fargo, North Dakota to a “sports” format. Ironically, the station in San Diego, KLSD (LSD = Liberal San Diego), was the oldest radio station IN San Diego, and a sort of little bauble for Clear Channel — a low-wattage AM station that doesn’t represent any significant part of Clear Channel’s REVENUE stream in that market. Mostly due, perhaps, to cheating. (Blogger Eric Olsen rescued this story from newspaper story hell. The Los Angeles Times link no longer works. From 2002:

Clear Channel Flaunting Rules in San Diego (sic: he means “flouting“)
Written by Eric Olsen
Published October 05, 2002

Clear Channel evil, or merely monopolistic and rapacious?

[Los Angeles Times] Federal regulations prohibit any broadcaster from owning more than eight radio stations in a single market. But here along California’s southern border, industry giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. has figured out a way around the rules–and that has left its smaller competitors fuming. By cutting deals to take over programming of five Mexican stations, including two in May, Clear Channel has grabbed nearly 50% of the San Diego market’s radio advertising dollars, according to estimates from research firm BIA Financial. The Federal Communications Commission exempts foreign-owned stations from being counted toward the maximum of eight.

Altogether, the exemption and other loopholes have allowed Clear Channel to take control of 13 stations beaming signals into San Diego. The San Antonio-based company–the nation’s biggest radio broadcaster–has more market share here than in any other top-20 market, according to BIA. [...]

But KLSD no longer amused Clear Channel of San Antonio, Texas. And it was canned. (Let’s leave aside the irony that KLSD won “best of show” at the San Diego Press Club on November 7, just as KOPT’s news staff in Eugene won two consecutive “Best” AP awards before the staff was fired, en masse) Several AirAmerica outlets across the nation are Clear Channel stations.

Here, in Oregon, Clear Channel stealthily slipped into Eugene along with Cumulus Broadcasting, quietly snapping up eleven radio stations in the early ’00s.

Eugene Weekly, 4/24/03
by Aria Seligmann

… Clear Channel’s meteoric rise to ownership of more than 1,240 radio stations within just a few years has garnered the company 10 percent of the country’s total stations, 20 percent of the country’s radio advertising revenue and 25 percent of total listeners. Add to these impressive numbers nearly 40 TV stations, more than 770,000 billboards and a giant clamp on the music industry:

Clear Channel Entertainment owns more than 35 live entertainment venues in the U.S. In 2001, Clear Channel produced the tours of U2, Madonna, Janet Jackson and has since added other big names to the list. The company claims to have generated nearly 70 percent of concert ticket revenue that year.

Clear Channel also owns SFX Sports Group, which sponsors many events and manages a courtful of sports figures, like Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi.

Locally, Clear Channel owns KMTR TV, as well as radio stations KDUK, KPNW, KOOL (formerly KOLDZ) and KFLY. Clear Channel Entertainment and SFX bring road shows to the Hult, such as Swing, Fosse and the upcoming Lord of the Dance.

Second largest Cumulus owns KUJZ, KZEL, KUGN, KNRQ, and KSCR and KEHK.

Clear Channel made its leap into airwave domination after Congress deregulated the radio industry in 1996. Until then, there’d been a limit on how many radio stations a single company could own: one AM and one FM per area, and no more than seven nationwide.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 said a single company can own up to 35 percent of media outlets in any given area….

I remember the Telecommunications Act of 1996 — an act which was voted on without congressional members or staffers being afforded any time to read the final bill : a bill that was the result of decades of hearings and compromise — because I watched that debacle on CSPAN and thought: “Uh-oh.” Newt’s boys shoved it down congress’ throat, and Bill Clinton signed it electronically in the Library of Congress a few days later. Uh oh, indeed.

Even though “liberal” or “progressive” talk radio represents less than one tenth of the sheer hourage of “conservative” or “hate” talk radio, station after station has been quietly taken down. Removed from the playlist. We had the local “live” plug pulled here at KOPT-AM here in Eugene, and, reportedly, the station itself is teetering on the edge.

The AirAmerica affiliate up the road in Albany is evidently in deep doo, too. The main problem seems to be “selling” the ad space. After decades of selling rightie radio ad space*, radio advertising people have no idea how to open up the “new” market of supposedly “liberal” advertisers, most of whom are scared to death of offending someone, and drop their accounts in a moment’s hissy fit.

[* listen to Rush Limbaugh in your market some time, and see WHO the most prominent local advertisers are. You'll be surprised at how mainstream the financiers of all that hate speak directed at you, your family and/or your friends are. Some of the most "upstanding" members of the business community are paying for Rush to call you unAmerican if you oppose this senseless war, etc.]

While, at the same time, conservative talk radio has never been so robust. Michael Savage literally screams a toxic brew of unrelenting hatred that sounds more like the shrieking of an abusive couple after thirty years of drunken rage than anything coherent. But he’s the Number Three Talk Show host in America, courtesy of Roy Masters of Grants Pass, Oregon, who lauched Savage into syndication, and Joseph Farah of World Net Daily, disciple of Masters, who published Savage’s first book.

Heard on over 300 radio stations for three hours every weekday, Michael Savage was so offensive that we kicked him off the airwaves here in Eugene. But there were twenty more Reich Vingk talkers to talk his place. If KOPT were to go off the air, as in San Diego, there would be no commercial progressive talk radio.

Think about it: approximately 60% of Americans don’t support this war and want us out of it, and there are virtually NO radio voices for their point of view. That’s called “conservative bias” in the media. But for some reason, nobody makes much of a big deal about it. Oh. That’s right. The conservative media isn’t going to cover a story about an entire POINT OF VIEW shared by, currently, a majority of Americans, against the War, in favor of universal health care, etc. having their voices SHUT OUT of the “public” American airwaves in the AM and FM frequencies.

I don’t care how you stack it, there is something WRONG, per se, with this kind of blatant repression. With an endless stack of phony debaters repeating a choreographed party line … literally a PARTY line, and that party is called the Greedy Oil Party.

Austin went off the air, too. And Madison, Wisconsin required a massive local effort to stop ITS AirAmerica station from being flipped to a sports format.

Lionel, whose national AirAmerica show was syndicated OUT of KLSD’s studios in San Diego says that Clear Channel has been a darling about the move, setting him up in a new studio, that’s almost as nice as a Rightie talk show studio. (I listened to him last week, having been following the funereal KLSD death procession throughouth the AirAmerica day on my earpods.)

But, there is a disturbing trend to quietly smother progressive talk in America. And last week another light was snuffed out along the Western border with Mexico.

«©»

Meet Lowman S. Henry (not to be confused with Willy Lohman). He’s the Chairman and CEO of “The Lincoln Institute,” from which this “official biography” is taken:

Lowman S. Henry

Chairman & CEO, Lincoln Institute

Lowman began his career as a broadcast and print journalist, served as Political Director of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania, President of the Pennsylvania Leadership Council, Chief of Staff to State Senator Earl Baker, and as Executive Assistant to the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. He has served in elective office as a Dauphin County Commissioner and a Lower Paxton Township Supervisor. He was the Republican Party’s nominee for Pennsylvania State Treasurer in 1992.

That’s funny. But what does this have to do with a radio program on KOPT-AM “Oregon’s Progressive Talk”? This is some Pennsylvania GOP operative without the gift of being photogenic, right? Not exactly.

It turns out that the Lincoln Institute’s real name is: The Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc, and the story of how Lowman S. Henry came to be its Chairman and CEO has quite a bit of bearing on which of those radio shows doesn’t belong.

Isn’t that a great name? “The Lincoln Institute” (which is how it’s abbreviated on the radio show and website). One of those names that’s supposed to make you feel all warm and squishy, like, say, FREEDOM Works. Or, Americans for Limited Government, Club for Growth State Action, the Fund for Democracy or Citizens in Charge. Of course if you use the FULL name, it sounds kind of poli-scientific and wonky. But The Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc. (or, LIPORI) is neither of those.

In fact, it’s something else.

«©»

In Eugene, where the market was quietly gulped up by two conservative satellite radio combines (e.g. most programming emanates from some central location, and is beamed to each station, formerly via satellite, but these days, more likely by high speed internet) the Show That Doesn’t Fit is downloaded each week by the radio station.

The radio show that doesn’t belong is downloaded at CD quality, or about 30 megs for 30 minutes in .mp3 format.*

[Note: for those aged relics of which I am proudly a part, and who ofttimes read my scribblings, I offer this quick explanation of what .mp3 IS. The "mp" comes from "Motion Picture Experts Group" -- which was an industry group charged with coming up with standards for video compression. Mpeg [1] video can still be found on the web. If you’re receiving satellite transmission on Dish Network or Comcast Cable, you’re receiving an Mpeg 2 transmission. Mpeg 3 is what .mp3 is short for, and mpeg 4 is what the new high definition digital TV is broadcast in. “MPEG” is an acronym for the group that set the standards, as “POTUS” is the acronym for the new Emperors.]

So, generally, if you want to advertise here in town, you go to one of two offices, the Cumulus office, or the Clear Channel office, and drop off your CD, sign the papers and then listen to your ads on the radio. (I know, because I did it at the beginning of this blog, which originally began as a campaign blog in the 2004 100th Anniversary of the primary election in the U.S. in Oregon, the first state to hold one.) There are a COUPLE of independent stations still in operation, and a nationally-recognized PBS affiliate, KLCC at the community college.

There is Mckenzie River Broadcasting, and in the same office complex, Churchill Media, who operate KOPT, an AM jazz station and a Spanish language station. Churchill’s real cash cow, however, is its Spanish language operation, which is growing rapidly. The overall GM was hired from Texas, where he’d overseen a growing Spanish language radio station chain.

Thus, KOPT-AM radio’s listening audience had the weird (bizarre) experience, last year, of a “contest” where the winner received two tickets to the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day game in Irving, Texas, and hotel accomidations somewhere in the Metroplex. Here in Seattle Seahawks/San Francisco 49ers/Oakland Raiders country — Eugene is halfway between San Francisco and Seattle — it was a bizarre experience to local progressive groups (many of whom aren’t big on football ANYway) to understand what the contest had to do with “Oregon’s Progressive Talk” — as the announcer announces whenever there’s a station ID called for.

Kind of like raffling off space heaters to Bedoins.

KOPT is one of the last independently owned radio stations IN Eugene.

«©»

As Clear Channel mashes down from the top, so too, stealth programming slithers up from the bottom. I’ve reported on Rick Berman’s “Center for Union Facts” tricking their anti-union message onto KOPT in 2006. (”Working The Airwaves“)

Meet Pat Toomey. Pat was a member of Congress from Pennsylvania. He ran against Sen. Arlen Specter in the Republican primary in 2004 and lost. He “term limited” himself out of congress in 2004, as well, and was given the job as head of “The Club For Growth.”

Pat Toomey
(from the show’s website)

Pat Toomey was the congressman who led the conservative insurgency against Pennsylvania’s incumbent GOP Senator Arlen Specter in 2004. Perhaps the quickest way to characterize Mr. Toomey is via his friends. From “The Republican Wing of the Republican Party” the “Pennsylvania Republican Assembly” (PARA) just chartered by the National Republican Assembly (called, naturally, NARA):

Presidents Message (sic)

The following is an email sent from President Andy Dlinn on April 25, 2006; to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Editorial page editor Colin McNickle, concerning his seeming lack of interest in PARA and true conservative Republican Politics!

… “I was heartened to see a local group of committed conservatives band together to combat the waywardness of the Republican Party. Finally, some in that party have said enough is enough and are willing to do something about it. I looked at their website (www.pagopwing.com) and were excited to see they have a true conservative set of beliefs and principles. They are having a kickoff Monday night with PA conservative icon Pat Toomey at the Holiday Inn Greentree. Should be interesting to see what they can do against the entrenched power climbers and opportunists.”

Andy “Hirsh” Dlinn
President
PA Republican Assembly
www.pagopwing.com

Toomey is part of a GOP insurgency in Pennsylvania, and up to his eyeballs in schemes a la Howie Rich’s various shadow foundations of last year. In fact, he’s good buddies with Rich, who sits on the Club for Growth board of directors, and Rich is Chairman of Club for Growth, State Action, according to IRS records. Here’s what Pat said about the “ALG Action Conference” in Chicago, where Rick Berman (who was behind the “Public Service Announcements” scam I reported on last year, “Working The Airwaves“) explained how running initiatives pins down progressive groups by forcing them to play defense, even if they don’t win.

“With out-of-control spending and big government on the march, it is increasingly clear that we need strong outside forces to keep political parties and politicians in line. Americans for Limited Government is doing a tremendous job of doing just that with their initiatives for greater freedom in states across the nation.”

-Pat Toomey, President, Club for Growth

Toomey was one of the original “term limits” insurgents, having been elected to congress in 1998 (in the middle of the Term Limits ‘fad’) and retired in 2005, as he’d pledged the Term Limits groups in 1998. Since then, he’s been taken care of by his term limits buddies, including a $50,000 contribution from Howie Rich’s “LEAD” in the 2004 GOP Primary. (Boy, that’s a big primary contribution for a national organization by any standards.) He was then hired as head of the Club for Growth in 2005.

The Club for Growth?

If was founded by CATO fellow Stephen Moore in 1999. He was President through 2004, when he was succeeded by Pat Toomey. “He is currently a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board and frequently opines on the pages of their Op-Ed section. He is also a contributing editor for National Review,” according to Wikipedia, which also notes that, under Dick Armey (currently head of FreedomWorks) Moore was “an architect of the Armey flat tax proposal in 1995.”

In July, 2006 I reported (”The Locusts“):

[* (Stephen) Moore continued to draw a CATO salary even as he drew a $30k salary as Club for Growth President, according to financial disclosure statements filed before Moore moved on (in 2004) to found yet ANOTHER astroturf group, of which he serves, naturally, as President.]

(Howard Rich, coincidentally, has been on the CATO board of directors almost from the start.)

«©»

Nobody’s suggesting that this is Howard Rich’s sneaky retribution* for the role that KOPT’s Nancy Stapp — “Breakfast With Nancy” show — had in publicizing the Howard Rich stealth initiatives in the 2006 Oregon election. (Our tin foil hats are all at the cleaners.)

[* See "Judge loses due to outside money" when Howie "funneled $175,000 into this committee to run against Judge Brown" in a Missouri judicial campaign.]

But, as with extermination of cockroaches throughout the world through the use of boric acid — which the cockroaches munch like candy, and then track back to the nest, where the powder eventually wipes the entire nest out — following Rich’s “powder” is a good way to outline an interconnected nest of stealth politics.

[Note to Sean Hannity: I am NOT saying that they are cockroaches. I am saying that, like cockroach nests, they remain hidden, venturing out generally in darkness and generally hiding from the "daylight" of public exposure. Please be precise in your analysis of similes. Witness the fact that there was, in 2006, only one known public photograph of Howard Rich -- which was used by every venue from the Wall Street Journal hedcut to the Center for Public Integrity's illustration, to the Seattle Times and the Associated Press. It is akin, if you like, to the strategem used by PBS and PFAW to "track the pig."]

Still, this isn’t the first attempt to infiltrate KOPT with a nose-rubbing message. Here are some quotes from this week’s episode of the Show That Doesn’t Fit (the rerun that will air in just a few hours) , from the copy I downloaded as a “registered radio station” (I’ll explain in part II, the FUN part):

The segment opens with the swelling victory music from the 1993 film “Gettysburg” (a little Pennsylvania in-joke, perhaps — Listen HERE, click on track #3. I make no comment about the BMI licensing issues involved.)

• 00:51 Lowman S. Henry: “Although it has accomplished little of substance, so far, the Democratic-controlled congress is working hard to enact NEW regulations aimed at silencing conservative talk radio.”

• 01:44 (next 12+ minutes are dry “free trade/fair trade” interview with Thomas J. Usher, former Chairman and CEO of U.S. Steel.)

• 14:02 Lowman S. Henry: Pat [Toomey] talks with Ryan Shafik …

«©»

Meet Ryan Shafik. He’s the other host of the Radio Program That Doesn’t Belong. Here’s his official bio from the show’s website:

Ryan M. Shafik
Director of Communications, Lincoln Institute

A graduate of Villanova University, Ryan has worked extensively in politics since his days as a college student. He first became involved in George H.W. Bush’s 1992 Presidential campaign. In 2000, Ryan served as an intern for U.S. Senator Rick Santorum while also working as a campaign staffer on a Congressional race. In 2002, Ryan went on to manage the campaign of Pennsylvania State Senator Stewart Greenleaf.

Ryan helped pioneer the online grassroots effort for Congressman Pat Toomey’s 2004 U.S. Senate Campaign. Following the Toomey campaign, he teamed up with Chris Lilik and started the Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania (YCOP) [...]

So, a Pat Toomey campaign staffer from the 2004 senate bid is now the “co-host” interviewing Pat Toomey weekly? Toomey’s official picture and bio is ON the radio show’s website, right under … Ryan Shafik’s.

So, how cozy is that? And, consider what our “charitable” Lincoln Foundationis spreading. — note that on Shafik’s bio, the complete name isn’t used. This is intentional. There IS another Lincoln Institute. This lets them “borrow” the name. (Evidently, Abraham Lincoln was heavily against unions, as Lowman S. Henry is.)

Oh, and just in case you were still unsure about Lowman S. Henry’s “conservative” bona fides, here’s a little snapshot of what he was doing last month, from “Pennsylvania Town Hall” which The “Lincoln Institute”/LIPORI owns:

PA Leadership Conference
Michelle Malkin to Keynote 2008 PA Leadership Conference

…Michelle Malkin is one of America’s most important young journalists. She publishes two of the most widely-read conservative blogs: michellemalkin.com (her personal site) and hotair.com (a group blog that emphasizes video). She is author of three books including Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild; Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores; and In Defense of Internment.

Toomey was a scheduled keynoter, and Henry a scheduled panelist, of course.

Speaking of which, here’s a little history of the Conference that the Lincoln Institute was pushing:

… the first conference was held in 1989. … The first President of the Pennsylvania Leadership Council was Lowman S. Henry (currently with the Lincoln Institute). … Over the years, the conference has hosted many prominent national speakers including: Newt Gingrich, M. Stanton Evans, Bill Bennett, Robert Novak, Alan Keyes, Lynn Cheney, Armstrong Williams, Walter Williams, and David Horowitz.

Funny coincidence. A sponsor of the 2007 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference was Club for Growth, State Action. Howard S. Rich, Chairman.

«©»

Here’s the limerick of the week from the free Radio Show That Doesn’t Fit from 27:38:

RYAN SHAFIK: And now, here’s Al Bienstock with the Right Wing Limerick of the Week:

BIENSTOCK: IGNORANCE DEFENSE

About Whitewater, I didn’t know.
Rose Law Firm billing records? Uh, oh…
Found in our residence.
But I have a defense –
They were planted by some right wing foe.

Bill’s a philanderer? Don’t go there –
Thinking I knew is simply unfair.
How did my investment
Earn 500 percent?
Of all these things, I was unaware.

Questions planted? Well, I guaranty
I’m as innocent as one can be.
Each time something’s amiss
I can promise you this –
Someone else is at fault and not me.

From bad news, you can be sure I’ll duck…
And, I assure you, it’s not just luck
That I manage to slip
When some others might trip –
My standard practice is… pass the buck.

So, is there much doubt as to WHY the Show That Doesn’t Fit is an insult to the very concept of “progressive radio”? No? How about this:

21:41 TOOMEY: uh, the other thing we’re gonna do, fairly soon is, gonna put a little paper out summarizing the Democrat candidates (sic) on the issues of economic growth, uh, which maybe would be better put as just how committed the Democratic candidates are to a serious economic recession, uh, because their policies are just, just terrible for the, uh, for the economy and I think people need to understand that.

«©»

And that Foundation puts out a free radio show.

All tax deductable, of course.

[the radio program] is produced and distributed by the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc. The Lincoln Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational foundation based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1993, the mission of the Lincoln Institute is: “To promote the ideals of free market economics, individual liberty, and limited government through the conduct of public opinion research and related educational programs.”

The Lincoln Institute accepts no government money and is completely funded by philanthropic grant making foundations, corporations, and individuals.

How much would that be, one wonders?

According to the 2006 990 Charitable Tax Return (in other words, on your dime, ultimately, since “contributions” are tax deductible, and many come from OTHER “charitable” foundations, like, for instance, the Allegheny Foundation):

Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc.
501(c)3 Charitable Foundation

“Direct public support” $191,800

plus interest $ 5,150

plus $ - 347*

[* gross revenue of $1951 "less direct expenses other than fundraising expenses" of $2,298]

for a total 2006 income $196,603

Lowman A. Henry $72,500 + $3629*

CHAIRMAN/CEO Harrisburg, PA

Carol L. Henry $18,500

EDITOR Harrisburg, PA (same address)

[* “Contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation plans”]

other employees
JANE R GORDON $4,400
SECR/TREAS

ALBERT PASCHALL $2,100
MANAGING DIR

Which comes to a total of:

Total Contr. $196,603

Total Expenses $168,170

HENRY family payroll expense $ 94,629

=======================

Henry % ALL exp 56.27%

% of ALL funds 48.13%

leftover funds: $28,433

In other words, half of all the money that the “Lincoln Foundation” got last year went straight to the Lowman S. Henry household. Interesting “charity,” eh?

You might wonder where the “Lincoln Foundation” got all that money? Well, according to Media Transparency, the Richard Mellon Scaife* “Allegheny Foundation” supplied $100,000 in 2006. [* The 'vast right-wing conspiracy,' in the flesh] Or, a little more than the Lowman S. Henry household’s pay for 2006.

The “powder trail” seems to be leading into some interesting “nests,” doesn’t it?

«©»

Now, Clear Channel has been divesting itself of radio stations this year, in the wake of a hostile takeover bid of a hostile company:

it’s important to remember that Clear Channel is notorious for playing hardball - leveraging its size and reach to pound on competitors (or kill them outright) with an eye on maximizing future growth opportunities. With this in mind, one might also view the company’s latest moves as a honey-trap strategy that, in the long term, could water down Air America’s quasi-progressive zeal and/or bring it to heel. Here’s how:

But don’t expect any “loosening” of the radio bonds. Clear Channel decided to sell 448 stations, earlier this year, taking the company “private,” (bought out by two ‘private equity’ firms) as is the trend in the new, money-flushed top one half of one percent — a private company has very few disclosure requirements, and is immune from the stock machinations of takeover, such as the recent hostile takeover of the company behind the Wall Street Journal by Rupert Murdoch.

An agreement was signed to sell 187 stations to a group fronted by former Paxson executive Dean Goodman for $452 million — ironic, since Clear Channel BOUGHT far fewer radio stations (about 50) FROM Paxson in 1997 for more money (nearly $700 million).

The deal has run into trouble. Goodman was dumped (although the backers remained the same):

CCU Sues Frequency, Warshaw for Breach of Contract

Less than a month after terminating a deal to sell 46 outlets to a Chicago buyer, Clear Channel is suing Frequency License LLC, and consultant Jeffrey D. Warshaw, for attempting to renegotiate the deal price, reports the San Antonio Express-News. CC struck the deal in April to sell 187 stations for $452 million. Frequency, funded by the New York private-equity firm American Securities Capital Partners, is refusing to complete the deal unless Clear Channel lowers its price by $102 million to $350 million, say court documents. Also according to the suit, Warshaw told CC his client “would not close at the previously agreed-upon price.” (08-27-07)

But, it seems that the divested properties will be sold in large lots to other large owners, rather than returned to the “local” media markets in question.

Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss.

«©»

At this point, clever reader that you are, you’ve already figured out that the Radio Program That Doesn’t Belong is American Radio Journal.

Why the Righties feel they need to steal the pittance that progressives’ mingy 10% share of talk radio represents is a question best left to the reader.

It seems poignantly ironic — in the context of WHERE it was broadcast — that a major chunk of the program was devoted to a (baseless) scare editorial that the “Democrat” congress is trying to suppress “conservative” radio considering the overwhelming 90% market share that it holds (22:43):

“Sometimes called the ‘Hush Rush’ law*, the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ would effectively silence conservative talk radio — the format which currently dominates America’s airwaves …”

[*Background reading: "The 'Hush Rush' Hoax" from FAIR in 1994, because this isn't the FIRST time that this hoax has been soberly discussed on Rightie Radio. It's fake THIS time, too.]

In the “marketplace of ideas” evidently, monopolies are OK.

The only question that remains is this:

Why did the KOPT management decide to broadcast this “free” program, when their agenda is so clearly stated on their website? It’s the equivalent of a Catholic magazine or newspaper accepting a display ad from Anton Szandor Levay’s Satanic Church.

But, so far, no one has, seemingly, noticed.

Why is this program — antithetical to virtually any definition of “progressive talk” — broadcast on KOPT-AM 1600 — “Oregon’s Progressive Talk” – for an hour every weekend?

And, that’s how they light “the brushfires of freedom” I guess. (Broadcast: 29:29)*.

[* I've compressed this week's show down from 28.7 megs to a more manageable 4.6 megs. (Which I, as Bob A. Fett, from radio station KCUF in Ames, Iowa, am signed up to download, with a password and all!) and it's HERE, in .mp3 format, for those who'd like to listen to it. I'll talk about it more in Part II, the FUN part.]

Courage.

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