AAR to add Buffalo and Orlando affiliates, negotiating to enter Tampa Bay

Linked from my own blog:

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2005/12/aar-to-add-buffalo-and-orlando.html

Air America recently added Thom Hartmann's affiliates to their station roster, and now their top-of-page banner states that two stations will become affiliates in the new year.

They are:

Buffalo, NY - WHLD 1270AM
Orlando, FL - WEUS 810AM

WHLD (licensed to Niagra Falls) will pick up AAR programming in January, with WEUS (which is currently off the air with a pending sign-on date) following in February. WHLD is owned by Citadel, which is a fairly large radio group that owns no other progressive talkers. WEUS is independently owned, as far as can be determined.

In related news, Air America is currently negotiating with an [link:clnlb.us.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?NoCache=1&Dato=20051130&Kategori=TPACOVER&Lopenr=511300394&Ref=AR|unnamed station in the Tampa Bay area. No word on what station it is at this time (though some speculation points to 1010AM). Tampa is currently the #19 market in the country.

:popcorn: WE needed a meaningful talk show in this area.

nada on the left.

If you were to travel to Buffalo and turn on the radio, you'd think you were smack dab in the middle of Kansas or Idaho. Nothing but non-stop right wing bamboozlers, blatherers, and blowhards on talk radio. WBEN AM is the main culprit: Limpballs, Dr. LaHorra, and local loud mouth nut jobs like Sandy Beach and Tom Baurle all day long. This is ironic because Erie County is one of the bluest bastions in the state, with Buffalo proper being a city with a long time tradition of old time Democratic sympathies (just elected Democrat Byron Brown as mayor, and the county legislature is majority Dem). We've been starved here for ANY progressive/liberal alternative to the 24/7 right wing perspective and propaganda for years. The only progressive options for progressive programming has been on the weak signaled WHLD AM, from Niagara Falls. Almost 2 years ago WHLD started daily broadcasts of Democracy Now, and a limited number of locally produced progressive shows and a few others in syndication like Totally Useful Consciousness and Counterspin. I'm hoping that WHLD doesn't drop Democracy Now, because that show is able to be broadcast only through public donations to an organization called Buffalo Progressive Radio, who worked long and hard to get that show on the air 2 years ago.
Regardless, it will be nice to not have to turn on the computer to get AAR, and I'll be able to listen in my car. I'm just hoping Amy Goodman isn't being sacrificed for Morning Sedition, which has its place too, don't get me wrong. Perhaps WHLD will continue to carry Democracy Now, and pick and choose what AAR programs they carry. I hope it's Randi over Ed Shultz.