I don't think radio is the future though. Younger people watch YouTube and listen to podcasts.

Regarding MSNBC, have you looked at any subscription "over the top" streaming services like YouTube TV, Sling TV etc.? They are paid services but they carry MSNBC. They don't have contracts so you can cancel any time.

I got rid of cable this summer and replaced it with YouTube TV. I don't watch much TV.

i think people driving in cars will always listen to radio. and that's a lot of people.

and there is something different about a live stream like a radio station compared to podcasts. people tune in because they want to know what's happening NOW.

your point is well taken but radio will always be different because you can drive, work, cook, while you're listening and you don't have to pick a podcast, or click on anything, or look at a screen.

don't get me wrong, podcasts are great. in my fantasy of AAR coming back, there would be podcast archives of every show!

think about this.... the right wing would not be doing all that talk radio if it wasn't effective.


as far as sling goes, I do have Sling but the basic package doesn't include MSNBC.

pick up our station online to listen in. Yeah I am not a big NPR fan and when I work out of town miss my local liberal stn
http://www.wcpt820.com

Not just the website, but I frequently listen to WCPT I my phone or tablet using the TuneIn app.

Air America was smart but funny, as I recall. Right wing radio was and still is angry.

I don’t know why anger is more appealing than humor for so many listeners, but maybe that was the problem.

I listened to AAR every time I was in the car, and might not have if it had been angry, but maybe that would be a way to appeal to a certain subset of listeners looking for an alternative to the right wing channels.

Randi, Malloy, Ed Schultz, Janeane Garafolo...

Consequently the shows I liked the most were Franken, Lizz Winstead's show, Rachel, Sam Seder, and Marc Maron (although he was on so early I rarely got to listen).

We got a dose of Libertarian on Phoenix's as well (along with soon to be Senator Kyrsten Sinema).

I listen to the comedy station now, or occasionally sports talk ...

Progressive radio disappeared here in the past, but always came back ... been a couple years now ... and still nothing.

Pisses me off daily ...

is that "we" (liberals/progressives) MISS getting our message out to the rural areas and cede it to the RW. These areas basically have NO internet outside of dial-up, may have some spotty cell coverage if they are lucky and have a house near a main highway with cell towers, and usually only get some TV reception via satellite (many cable companies refuse to run cables to them because it's not cost effective).

THIS is where the RW targets their venom - all through AM radio. AM radio has a coverage area of literally hundreds and hundreds of miles. Not even FM can do that (which only has an effective radius of about 50 - 60 miles max). And to boot, a number of these RW stations also offer some local programming to keep some of the lesser politically active listeners tuning in (car and home repair shows, managing money shows, sports talk, etc). The kicker here is that it is "free" (so they don't even have to pay for sat radio for example).

"We" whine about the people in the "rural" areas yet we dismiss the very means to reach them.

which is just Sam Seder now. Mike and Bobby no longer contribute commentary.

You can still hear these people. It has never been as easy as hearing right wing.

Nicole Sandler is another good one, but I haven’t yet given her cash. Maybe I will now because I got rid of some dead weight contributing. She has Howie Klein every Thursday who tells you who the real Democrats are.

It might have been easier for a short time with AAR, but I’ve been doing this almost 20 years. Nobody is going to pay for us to listen. There is no profit. We come from the PSA crowd when it actually existed. The truth is not an enterprise.

that's my point.

i don't think people have to pay for us to listen. i think there needs to be an investor but it could make money.

but thanks for the tips. i do have an Echo so I probably could probably tune in there.

but really my point is not just about me. i can find whatever I want to listen to. it just bothers me that the radio is filled with rightwing lies all day long and there really isn't anything counteracting it.

I need I check the website or remember from on air ads from sponsors

Here on DU I’d be told, in the times of AAR that it was a dead form of media. So I just listen and stay informed.

i think you have the cart before the horse

a lot of people are right wingers because they listen to right wing radio. not the other way around

The single best way to influence hearts and minds is to take back the media.

Other than Democracy Now and Thom Hartmann there are hardly any progressive radio news or news talk shows, and those aren't heard in many cities.

There is a "Tune In" app you can get on your phone that lets you listen live to any radio station you put in.

I host and produce a radio show on a local progressive station, low power FM, but with the app a lot more people can listen live even if they're in an area where reception is static. you can use your cell phone like a radio to hear stations all over the country.

We also post podcasts/audio of our show on our local news site ( a separate olnine news site run by a nonprofit media organization) which means many of our shows get thousands of listens, even the though station's actual signal is small.

There's nothing like on the Radio now. I used to drive a lot and always listened to it.

Since the majority are leftwing, the fascist takeover of media says criminal schemers have been at work....which is necessary to fascist takeover! The criminals have taken over the judiciary now...
What next? The government ? Wall Street? Academia!

I stream them on my computer, and also on their free Roku channel to my TV

https://freespeech.org/watch-live/

the Bill Press Show is coming up at 7am, and the Stephanie Miller Show comes on 9-noon

Especially since it reaches precisely the type of person that needs to hear more progressive/liberal viewpoints.

Not everyone has cell phone, computer, podcast etc - the rural areas, south, workers listening to radio, etc - all GREAT ways to get the message across.

the big donors were driven from the party which is a shame in many ways...not all moneyed folks are bad.

Big Democratic/liberal/lefty donors saying "we don't fund media" has been a problem for several decades now.

on the internet for free. Had I realized that there were those sites I would have ditched cable years earlier.

I do miss listening to Ron Reagan and Paul Bagala though.

How would something like Air America stay in business if people look for a way to get around paying for it?

The big donors should consider this "an investment" (long term) and should be prepared for extended "losses" although the term "losses" should actually be viewed as something along the line of "donations to pay for a 1-time TV ad during a campaign" (i.e., when you buy a TV ad, you are not doing that to "make money" ).

I posted this in an earlier thread about the Washington Times -

But when you consider the roll mainstream media played in putting Trump in the WH, I don't might finding free streaming sites.

that is how this rightwing crap took off in the first place. Rush Limbaugh.

that's part of my point. it needs to be on the radio.

radio has business model that works. there's no reason it can't work for liberal content. over half the people in this country disagree with the direction the country is going. if there was a station to listen to that supported their ideas they would listen to it. businesses would advertise on it. that's how itworks.

almost literally nobody listens to regular radio anymore. It’s a dying medium. People don’t accidentally stumble onto radio shows anymore because the radio in their car is bluetoothed to their phone playing music THEY choose or a podcast THEY choose, not what some faceless content programmer has decided they need to hear.

If a terrestrial audience existed for liberal talk it would be out there, but even here in deep blue SoCal all the talkers are rightwingers shouting at old people about the same shit they’ve been on for thirty years. There is a niche audience on satellite, but that’s a subscription model that is inherently self-selecting for people who want to listen to the radio.

Most people don’t give a damn about the radio beyond its ability to interface with their other devices. The times, as a wise man once pointed out, they are a-changin’.

I mean if everyone else should do it for free, why not?

That'll encourage program production.

and I would pay for it if is was affordable. The MSM played a part in landing the country in the dire straits that it is in so I don't have any problem watching free live streaming.

Last edited Tue Oct 9, 2018, 09:26 AM - Edit history (1)

Maybe liberals are different from conservatives and don't spend endless hours listening to radio shows that reinforce what they already believe.

I, for one, haven't listed to radio (terrestrial or satellite) in more than a year.

Reaching a geographically distributed audience (that spend a lot of time driving) using a small number of low power radio stations covering a large area.

In effect rural and exurban people. Probably men.

It’s going to skew conservative by its nature as a medium.

and then by people who didn't know what they were doing, and not because of a lack of an audience. And, if "liberals didn't listen to it", Rachel Maddow wouldn't have the most-watched cable news show, and Al Franken wouldn't have become a senator. Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartmann would not still be on the air. Randi Rhodes, Mark Maron, Sam Seder, Mike Malloy and others would not have enough of an audience to continue their podcasts. People are listening, and have been all along. Just not necessarily on the radio. And, many are like me. We don't have a liberal radio network in our area, so we stream it on our computers. I don't listen for endless hours, but I do listen to it.

And, if that channel wasn't doing well, Sirus XM would have axed it by now. You said that people aren't listening to liberal talk radio. The ARE. Just not on terrestrial radio. They're getting it from other sources, including podcasts, which allow them to listen on their own terms.

The local Air America station, KLSD station, had good listenership despite a weaker signal than right wing stations. It was booted off air by Clearchannel and replaced with a sports talk show that got far FEWER listeners than Air America's content drew.

It was not about listenership. It was about political censorship.

And I'm driving all the time. My reason is that when I do, it is 50% commercials. Also being around politics 24/7 makes me want to tune out while driving (music only). My aux cord makes the radio unnecessary.

Sam Seder - 12 noon - 2:30 pm weekdays....fantastic http://majorityreportradio.com
and Randi has her own podcast....she is much better now that she is free of Clear Channel and corporate overlords
randirhodes.com live weekdays from 4-6 pm She's brilliant... once again keeps me sane like she used to do on AAR Both programs are available as podcasts too...I think Sam's show is $10. per month for the whole show, and Randi's is $7 or $10. a month, forget which. Both will work with folks who can't afford to pay that much and work something out. Both have tales to tell of just how dysfunctional AAR actually was, and they are both happier working for themselves with listener sponsored programming.

because radio is primarily listened to by an aging demographic. Younger people consume their content digitally, streamed or downloaded to their devices.

Air America couldn’t be sustained because liberals didn’t tune in. Technological changes have only made it less sustainable in the ensuing decade.

Their first owners were crooks, and they sold it to people who had no idea what they were doing. But, I do agree with what you said about technological changes and demographics. Many of AAR's line-up are still out there talking to pretty decent-size audiences, however. A few of them are still on terrestrial radio, but they're also being streamed on satellite and on Free Speech TV. The rest are all doing podcasts, or they're Rachel Maddow and have a TV show.

that right wing radio also reaches many people who are not already rightwingers, and if you even accidentally tune in, after just a few minutes you will be out in the streets with a pitchfork.

i know, yes, some people are already inclined to be rightwingers. but the truth is that most of the people in the country tend to be centrists. they/we care about the same things. people are swayed by radio. that's why rightwing puts it there. to brainwash people with lies and to get them riled up.

if there was another station on the dial, that people could accidentally tune in to, to get them riled up about things, based on truth instead of lies, it would be helpful. it would change some people's minds.

there's a reason the right wing does it. it's not just to give people what they already want. it's to sway people and pull people in.

that's what we need.

As for radio, only a small portion of the country even listens to it. The top 3 biggest audiences go to NPR programming. They get 14.6-14.9 million listeners per WEEK each. Not per day. This is in a country of over 350 million. Most people are not going to stumble on Rush Limbaugh's show, because they're not even listening to the radio, let alone flipping through the dial. The people who listen to him now are what's left of his audience from years ago. Many of the other right wing talkers have shows on Fox. That's where their audiences come from, not from people who stumble on them.

Younger urban people are not going to listen to talk radio.

Killing that was one of Reagan’s worst actions.

It made hate radio possible.

It's crazy how big he's gotten since the AA days.

one upstairs, one downstairs. They get gobs of radio around the world. The top button on both is KTNF in Minneapolis (St. Louis Park actually) Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Norman Goldman
Plus you can get radio from around the world and a bunch of other stuff.

2) Sirius - you can get a relatively cheap subscription - channel 127 is much like the old Air America.

3) the aforementioned Free Speech TV. Get it on your computer at https://freespeech.org/watch-live/ totally free.

I know quite well that we seem to ignore the power of radio. I spent a couple of years trying to get some interest in liberal radio and no one would join me.

WCPT in Chicago and KTNF in Minneapolis are both online as are several podcasts.

I seldom listen to NPR any more. They seem to be another wing of Koch Industries these days.

right wing radio also reaches many people who are not already rightwingers. if you even accidentally tune in, after just a few minutes you will be out in the streets with a pitchfork.

i know, yes, some people are already inclined to be rightwingers. but the truth is that most of the people in the country tend to be centrists. they/we care about the same things. people are swayed by radio. that's why rightwing puts it there. to brainwash people with lies and to get them riled up.

if there was another station on the dial, that people could accidentally tune in to, to get them riled up about things, based on truth instead of lies, it would be helpful. it would change some people's minds.

there's a reason the right wing does it. it's not just to give people what they already want. it's to sway people and pull people in.

think about it. i bet you know people who are republican, but they're not racist. they're not assholes. they care about stuff. but they have been sucked into a world of lies, where global warming is a hoax and immigrants are taking our jobs and democrats just want to raise taxes. their thoughts and actions are based on lies. they are good people.

many of these people got started by listening to Rush Limbaugh years ago. when they get in the car they still listen to that and when they get home they turn on fox news.

the left is doing very little to counteract this, even though in most cases the truth is on our side.

when you can turn the AM radio dial and hear 4 different assholes demonizing liberals and ranting about something that isn't true, it has an affect. people hear that and nothing else. they think it must be true. why would some guy be on the radio saying it if it weren't true?

if there were some stations that spoke the truth with a similar format, it would suck some good hearted people in the other direction.

that's what we need.

you can normally get some pretty good deals for it - $5 to $6/month for 6 months to a year. They have Stephanie Miller on later in the morning (East Coast time), Thom Harttman, Michelangelo Signorelli, Dean Obedallah (sp?) and others. Limited programming on weekends, unfortunately.

I miss the Al Franken show. That was American art.

And you listen when you want.

And when I say left, I mean the Democratic party. They just gave up the narrative in rural America. My rwnj cousins all listen to hate radio. They spew all the talking points. People will argue, "they wouldn't listen to AAR anyway" & maybe they wouldn't, but some would & some would start to question their worldview. Instead, we just wrote them off without even an effort to talk to them. Now they've had 35 years of brainwashing & you can see it in their kids, too. With less spent on education than before, reversing this is going to be even tougher.

I think of that rich guy spending all that money on that stupid impeachment campaign & I'm like WTF?