I think many pollsters and MSM type will be very surprised by the African American(AA) turnout this year. Due to the historic nature and interest in the election by AA, I really believe that AA turnout will be phenomenal.
Let me tell ya why...
I'm guessing that as in the rest of America, African Americans are in the minority when it comes to blogging. But, that does not mean that African Americans are not paying attention to this election in other ways. So how else are African American voters getting information about politics? Well it's a combination of news, print, internet, etc, but I would say that many AA get our political fix from Urban radio shows. Now, I bet not many of the MSM or white people in general listen to Urban radio. People like Tom Joyner, Michael Baisden, Steve Harvey, to name a few, who are nationally syndicated urban radio personalities.
I'm telling you, ya'll should check these shows out one day. All they talk about daily seems to be this election, and Barack Obama. They are on point when it comes to registration, voter suppression, and GOTV.
Not only that, there are AA church groups, fellowships, greek organizations, NAACP who are all doing all that they can to GOTV, and help elect Barack Obama. Trust me when I tell you that this election cycle, you won't have to worry about the turnout of AA voters. It's the voter suppression tactics that will be attempted that will need to be watched out for. And even on that subject, Urban Radio host daily talk to their listeners about voter registration and voter purges.
There are a lot of Urban Radio stations, they may not individually have the numbers that Rush or Hannity have, but as a whole, they reach a lot of young people, AA, other "urban voters".
Don't underestimate AA voters this year, you will be in for a surprise. This won't be another "why didn't AA turnout" type of election. This is our time, this is our moment."
These are what I would call the top 3 nationally syndicated AA radio personalites.
- The "Fly Jock": Tom Joyner TJMS: The Tom Joyner Morning Show Estimated listeners: 10 million. For more on Tom Joyner check out his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
- The "King of Comedy": Steve Harvey The Steve Harvey Morning Show
- The "Bad Boy of Radio": Michael Basiden The Michael Baisden Show
For the best all-around, I highly recommend TJMS: The Tom Joyner Morning Show It's the oldest and the best.
UPDATE Another personality courtesy of KCMoe
The Russ Parr Morning Show: 3.2 million listeners in 4 cities http://www.therussparrmorningshow.co...