For those of you who haven't been tuned in, Clear Channel is threatening to add San Diego's KLSD (K + Liberal San Diego) to the long list of radio stations to lose progressive talk. The company's modus operandi seems to be:
(1) Buy up as many stations as the FCC will allow one company to own (which is a lot).
(2) Stick progressive talk on the weakest signal in town and...
(3) Hope no one notices.
(4) If, despite a dearth of promotion or local staff, ratings soar and a loyal audience gathers, then flip the station to another format and...
(5) Hope no one notices.
A concerted effort thwarted this plan in Madison, however, and will hopefully throw sand in the gears in San Diego as well. A big crowd turned out for an August 27 rally, and the hope is to get even more people to show up at a rally this Friday morning (link to more details near end of diary).
Before the August rally, I interviewed Jon Elliott, one of KLSD's hosts, who has joined the struggle to save progressive talk. In honor of Friday's rally, I've interviewed another Jon involved in the battle, fellow Kos community member Jon Monday.
Jon first caught my attention when I saw that he had written a diary on KLSD just before the first rally. I was intrigued by his profile:
In 65 I was a paratrooper with the 82nd, and was gung ho. As the Vietnam War escalated, I questioned what we were doing. I went AWOL for 2 years, and spent a year in jail. Spirituality is the only path to peace, one person at a time.
So today, as I was wondering what I could do to help put a face on the people who are rallying in San Diego, I thought that this would be the perfect time to give him a call. We had a very interesting conversation.
Jon told me how he joined the army as a teenager, motivated by the same idealism that had pulled him to work with the Freedom Riders in the American South. He started out as a gung-ho soldier, and did very well in the military. But over the course of his first year, he began to wonder why we were in Vietnam, and none of the answers he was receiving could satisfy him. While his commanders and colleagues were sympathetic, he had no way to declare himself a conscientious objector once he had enlisted. Finally, he informed his commander he planned to go AWOL, and did. The military eventually caught up with him. Jon testified that as a consequence of Nuremberg, it was his moral obligation to refuse to participate in this specific war that violated his principles. The military didn't like this, and threw him into jail for a year.
After Jon got out, he stayed out of politics for a while. He worked for a small "art" music label, Takoma. Eventually, the label merged with the much larger Chrysalis label, and he became the marketing director. He worked with 80s icons such as Blondie, Pat Benatar, Huey Lewis, and Billy Idol. During this time, he shared the opinion of Noam Chomsky that the two major parties were part of the same system, which wasn't so hot. He thought that the Democrats were probably better for the country than the Republicans, but not as liberal or progressive as he would have liked.
However, in 2000, he became concerned. He saw what a Bush presidency would mean for the country. He thought they'd steal or win the election and turn the country upside down. (As it turned out...) He did phone banks and precint work for Gore. The most interesting part of that experience was serving as a driver in Bill Clinton's motorcade when Clinton came to San Jose. Wondered if he'd pass the FBI check, but they were fine with it. This gave him a chance to meet Clinton.
In 2004, he got much more involved. He and his wife moved to the San Diego area and he joined the local Democratic club, where he's the vice-president. He knocked on doors in Tucson. About that time, KLSD came on the air. It was a refreshing change, but its signal was so weak (5000 watts during the day, 1000 at night) that they had to hold the radio in a certain position to hear it during the day, and give up completely at night. Still, they loved it. Jon thought it felt like we were starting to push the tide back. Despite San Diego's reputation as a conservative area in the same vein as Orange County, it has been changing. As new and better-educated people are coming in, it's becoming more liberal. There are still army bases, but biotech and engineering companies are bringing in younger, more progressive people. KLSD was an important voice for them. When Jon heard that Clear Channel was thinking of flipping, that "got the fur up on the back of his neck".
Jon was blown away by Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent with its demonstration of the extent to which the American public is swayed by its media. If you control the media, you control public opinion. Media consolidation is cutting off alternative points of view, and Americans' access to the facts. We can debate what to do about the facts, but we shouldn't have to debate about what the facts are.
Jon heard about the proposed format change only a week or less before the rally, or less. Fortunately, he and others were connected with many groups, and the information spread geometrically.
I urge you to check out Jon's diary on the new rally. It has all the details as to when, where, and how the crowd will gather on Friday morning. I urge you to join in if you can, and to tell as many people as possible about the event.
For more information about KLSD, please consult these resources:
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SaveKLSD.com
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KLSD petition (sign it even if you don't live in San Diego -- many out-of-towners stream it)
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diaries on KLSD
Also, please visit the crossposted version of this post at Calitics to increase the visibility of the rally to Californians.
And for more information about progressive talk around the nation, please see the dKosopedia Progressive radio stations page. Feel free to e-mail me offline (alanfordean AT-SIGN yahoo) if you're interested in hearing about the Boston group's progress in buying a station or if you'd like to join the effort to start a national organization of progressive talk supporters.
Go, San Diego!