The Day The Radio Died

A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

– Don McLean, “American Pie,” 1971

This is how progressive talk radio dies in Eugene, Oregon: not with a bang, but with a whimper.

With the omnipresent public service ads (shielding the inability of the station to sell ad space): lecturing parents on lecturing kids about the dangers of teenage drinking. I won’t miss that. With the sound of a shovel hitting dirt, leading into a horrific commercial about digging one’s own grave by ignoring their mortgage issues (a foreclosuire PSA from the Umpqua Bank and the AD Council) .

I won’t miss that.

A shrill woman caller shrilly chiding Ed Schultz for having had the temerity to suggest that he thinks Obama has pretty much won it, and Hillary needs to consider stepping down.

I won’t miss that.

And the kind of New Agey Heavy Metal instrumental theme that KOPT substituted as of February 1, and after FCC complaints were received, for the NEWS at the top of the hour and at the half hour mark.

Knowing that the sale would be final by the end of the month, management decided to cut loose the last “overhead” ABC News, which must be the cheapest network news available. Formerly, and from slightly after the station’s first broadcast, following the 2004 Presidential Election, CNN News and weirdly right wing tool Dick Ueliani had been the news, oddly and jarringly contrapuntal to the progressive talk shows that KOPT specialized in.

I won’t miss the New Agey Heavy Metal. And I won’t miss CNN News.

ABC News is at least pretty openly right wingey. They don’t try to be ‘cute’ the way that CNN would bias the political news. Of course, since nearly all AM radio is dominated by so-called “conservatives” it only makes sense to tailor your news breaks to your market.

But I will miss KOPT, “Oregon’s Progressive Talk.” The last station ID, with that tag, took place at about 2:55 PM this afternoon, Pacific Standard Time. The last local commercial was for “Wonder Wash” the ecologically with it car wash. Oregon Public Radio kicked in with National Public Radio News at about 30 seconds past 3:00 PM, PST. For an industry so anally tied to the clock, it was a particularly sloppy transition.

And, on the KOPT web page, the automatic program, oblivious to its own extinction, has a grinning Randi Rhodes who’s now “ON THE AIR” in another dimension. The AirAmerica format has left the Eugene airwaves, to be replaced by Oregon Public Broadcasting, neither “progressive” nor local, unless you consider Portland’s idea of Oregon news to be “local.” At its peak, KOPT won the state awards for radio excellence the last two years running, with multiple awards and honorable mentions in virtually every local news category.

But fate ofttimes has a wicked sense of humor.

The first National Public Radio story heard was that Barack Obama had won the endorsement of the national Teamsters Union, which only underscores Ed Schultz’ point from the end of the 2 PM Third hour. And the first Oregon Public Broadcasting news story was that the Oregon Republican Party is so deeply in the red that they fear for their ability to field winning candidates for the fall elections. Scores of “liberal” candidates have filed, however, on the Democratic side.

Embattled Republican Senator Gordon Smith’s spokeserpent gave an official response that it wouldn’t affect Smith’s campaign.*

(* Which, they didn’t explain, is entirely separate from the state party, since, increasingly, no federal candidate has anything to do with the state parties on either side, which are seen as quaint debating societies, holding the patina of “legitimacy” prior to the arrival of the amoral political professionals and the PAC money each electoral season, like the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano.)

I come not to praise KOPT, but to bury it. As you can tell from the web page, and from the death of news, and, as I have noted earlier, the death of local broadcasting, then the death of the local news (the staff was cashiered a few months ago), has been going on for some time, as the conservative owners of the station were not content to kill the station, but, instead, seemingly, have slowly starved it to death, even including a Saturday and Sunday morning radio show featuring Club for Grown President, Pat Toomey making fun of Democrats, progressives and anyone else who doesn’t buy into CFG’s “free to greed, you and me” philosophy.

Finally, you can even tell when they lost interest in their webpage from this odd, quaint “poll” that time has moved past, still on the KOPT main page:

1600-AM KOPT Poll:

Rumor has it if Gore runs he might tap Obama for VP. Is that the ticket?

A Gore/Obama ticket would be unbeatable His time is past and Hillary is poised to take the primary

note the coding on the radio button, input “muggle.” A geek’s Harry Potter joke:

<td id=”cset2″ bgcolor=”#d2791a” width=”200″><center><font color=”#ffffff” face=”Verdana, Tahoma, Arial” size=”2″>Rumor has it if Gore runs he might tap Obama for VP. Is that the ticket?</font></center>
<td id=”cset3″ bgcolor=”#f8ec84″ width=”200″><font color=”#000000″ face=”Verdana, Tahoma, Arial” size=”2″> <dl><input name=”muggle” value=”0″ type=”radio” /> A Gore/Obama ticket would be unbeatable

<input name=”muggle” value=”1″ type=”radio” /> His time is past and Hillary is poised to take the primary </dl></font>

And in that weird, parallel universe wherein KOPT still exists (the call letters are now KOPB) Al Gore wins:

1600-AM KOPT Poll:

Rumor has it if Gore runs he might tap Obama for VP. Is that the ticket?		print
A Gore/Obama ticket would be unbeatable		320
His time is past and Hillary is poised to take the primary		53
Total Votes Cast: 373

But Al Gore’s and Hillary Clinton’s candidacies seem to be receding into the mists of time, like KOPT. Like talk radio. One of the reasons cited for no takers for the “progressive talk radio” format of Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes, of Jones Broadcasting and AirAmerica not catching on has been that AM talk radio growth has been essentially flat over the past ten years. With the ascension of the idiot bastard son, Bush the Younger, the AM Hate Radio format pioneered by Rush Limbaugh out of Sacramento, California* — the Right Wing Talk format of one-sided, unanswered debate — reached its apogee.

[* Where he met Joseph Farah, who would later ghost write a column for fat Rush in the doomed Sacramento Union, and again, after more Scaife money founded the Western Journalism Center -- and the "reporter" they paid for Vince Foster conspiracy fantasies founded NEWSMAX --- Farah ghosted Rush's second book, See, I Told You So! Today, Farrah runs World Net Daily, ghosts Chuck Norris' crypto "I'm-Getting-To-Run-For-Congress" column and spreads sleazy Right Wing lies, like THIS one, and this vile trash:

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Sleaze charge: 'I took drugs, had homo sex with Obama'
Minnesota man takes his case to court, YouTube, $100,000 polygraph challenge]

You see, the Democrats never figured out that words matter. Right now, the reeling Clinton campaign and its surrogates are attempting to stop Barack Obama by complaining that it’s “only words.” And that exceptional rhetoric is somehow suspect.

Gee, that’s funny. The Republicans took control, first of Congress with Newt and the Contract on America, and then the White House by anesthetizing a nation to an ex-alcoholic, ex-cokehead, ne’er-do-well fraternity C student whose great claim to fame — prior to acting as front man for a group of wealthy investors in the Texas Rangers — was in successfully dodging not only the Vietnam draft, by having Texas politicians pull strings to get him into the Texas Air National Guard, but then in dodging his duty requirements in the Air Guard by transferring to Alabama and then to Massachusetts.

Words don’t matter? Then why did Speaker-Of-The House elect Newt Gingrich and the “freshman” class of the 1994 Republican congress have Rush Limbaugh come to speak to them at their “retreat” and credit him with their Republican Congress?

Hillary’s generation never “got” that words DO matter — even though they spent decades on language police duty. Words are THE ONLY weapons in politics. Politics is PURELY rhetorical, beyond the huge amounts of cash that grease everybody’s wheels.

Words not only matter, they are the ONLY things that matter.

And, with the advent of progressive talk radio in 2004, too soon to be the difference in the Kerry/Bush race (or, perhaps it was, if one believes that Ohio was flipped to Bush, since exit polling indicated that Kerry had won by about five points, and final “results” pretended that Bush had won by five points. The same exit polling data that Bushies screamed at the Ukraine for, as having PROVEN that they flipped THEIR election a couple of months later in early 2005.)

Certainly, progressive talk radio played an important role in the stunning upset victory of 2006, when both houses of congress switched from Republican to Democratic control.

And Harry Reid in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi in the House never “got” that words mattered, either, forcing a political showdown over health care for children, and not understanding that no one would flock to a banner called “S-CHIP.”

The Gawdawful Oil Party had passed destruction of the environment as the “Clear Skies Initiative,” chopping down the Old Growth trees as the “Healthy Forests Initiative,” and the Destruction of the Bill of Rights as “The Patriot Act.”

Later, when the Democrats were able to rouse public opinion against “Patriot Act II” the GOP merely split the language into parts, attached it to war appropriations bills and passed it, while the clueless Democrats congratulated themselves on defeating a bumper-sticker.

The GOP understood the power of language. Barack Obama understands the power, not only of language, but of HONEST language. He’s not lying, whatever you may think of his candidacy. The GOP looks you straight in the eye and lies with affecting sincerity. And their affectations have had the effect of wrecking this country.

Words DO matter, and losing progressive talk radio matters.

Oh, we’re on the cutting edge of podcasting. And I can get all of my favorite shows streamed to my computer. Yes, that’s true. BUT, it isn’t that “radio for the people” that is necessary to counteract Right Wing Talk radio. National Public Radio has to walk gingerly, lest the GOP pull their plug. They cannot be partisan. And do not, as a result, act as a language bulwark against the endless hate-speak of the GOP.

Whatever the rationalizations and excuses for mismanagement, KOPT and AirAmerica was a sure-fire winner in Eugene, EXCEPT for the way that they did it.

Transplanted California real estate speculator and developer John Musumeci, acting through the front of his trophy wife, thought that he could buy respectability, after bankrolling an anonymous political cartoon series by “The Gang of 9″ in the spring, summer and fall of 2001. The anonymous nature of the cartoons, and the revelation that the Gang was led by a developer cemented Musumeci as an ANTI-progressive in the minds of a great deal of Eugene’s progressive community.

Thus, when KOPT appeared, it was rapidly noted that Musumeci was behind it, even though his Development Company was chaired by his wife — on paper — and they even pushed the meme that the female morning team had a woman boss.

Eugene’s progressives weren’t buying, and advertising dollars never appeared. But, because of my wife’s business connections, we had/have the first advertising packet that KOPT handed out, back when their logo was the Statue of Liberty. The dumb quasi Aztec graffiti logo came later, and always offended me. What was wrong with Lady Liberty?

I ought to know: I was the first advertiser on KOPT. Since no one was buying, we had a monopoly on Eugene’s progressive ears, and got our ads at a substantial discount, according to the PriceLine DOT Com model: better SOMETHING than an empty hotel.

On my blog, I defended the soon-to-be imported from Napa Valley radio host, Nancy Stapp from a sexist, vicious and slanderous commenter — who I told that I would not judge anyone without first having experienced them (met, heard, read, etc.) and that his statements were beyond the pale in any event.

Nancy Googled her name, and found my post. This was sufficient that she contacted me, and for two years, I was a regular on Fridays, first on afternoons, and then in the mornings.

And I got to know the KOPT people pretty well, if only by osmosis. There’s more, but not for here.

Musumeci lost interest (and money) in KOPT and has been killing it for a big chunk of 2007.

And today it died.

And a new phase of the Obama candidacy began last night, when Hawaii and Wisconsin confirmed that the Hillary Clinton campaign is on the ropes, and with exquisite and unselfconscious irony Terry McAuliffe and Dick Gephardt (the former DNC Chair under Bill Clinton and the retired Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, who never became speaker, respectively) came on in the last hour of KOPT’s existence to say that Obama’s oratory was great, sure, but what value did mere words have?

And now, as the full moon rises, a total eclipse of the moon.

In 2004, the total eclipse of the moon occurred as the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1904, and laid to rest the “Curse of the Bambino.”

A significant day, all in all.

And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.

And they were singing, “bye-bye, Miss American pie.”
Drove my Chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die;
“This’ll be the day that I die.”

Courage.

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

• My radio page (KOPT bits and interviews) is HERE.
  
• And today, I officially unveil Magic Unity Pony DOT Com!

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