I listen to a fair amount of progressive AM talk radio, especially Thom Hartmann. Apparently the standard talk-radio commercials--baldness cures, get-out-of-debt and get-rich-quick schemes, and the like--aren't engendering sufficient response among liberals, and, with a few notable exceptions such as Mother Jones Magazine, progressive businesses aren't stepping in to fill the need for relevant advertising.
We're in danger of losing these good programs.
The fact is, by and large, we are not very good consumers. We tend to "reduce, reuse and recycle." Furthermore, the advertising techniques that seem to work with the rest of the world only drive us crazy. As a result, we're not buying the products, and these programs are not thriving financially.
Responsible commercial radio deserves our support. Why don't we support these vital programs with our own contributions, as we do with public radio such as Pacifica?
One option is to contribute money directly to the talk show host. Unfortunately, as Thom Hartmann pointed out recently, the stations are not set up financially to accommodate that approach.
Another is to start buying the baldness remedies and other products, simply to help the shows survive, as a sort of donation. This is, of course, silly. We're out the full cost of an unneeded product and the talk show host only gets a fraction of what we shell out.
Why not establish a fund to buy our own advertising time? If we truly want to take back the media, we're going to have to put our money where our mouth is.
If we established a fund and used it to buy advertising time, we could keep deserving programs on the air AND use the time we buy to push our agenda and ideas and to encourage others to do the same. It wouldn't be cheap, but with a nationwide effort, maybe we could buy enough time to make the difference between success and failure.
It would be a kind of cross between commercial radio and public radio. Public radio such as Pacifica is supported directly by listener contributions; why not have a listener fund to show our support for progressive commercial radio?
Anyone want to explore this idea and come up with a plan?