Last evening on my drive home from work, Randi Rhodes said that a AM station in Brattleboro, Vermont was dumping it's entire right-wing line-up and replacing it with programming from Air America Radio. More after the break.
I have been searching Google as well as dKos for some information on this and have found nothing. The only reference was actually on the
Randi Rhodes Show referencing
the following article. I don't know about you, but as I think this is big news. And I am quite surprised that I have not heard any thing about it on AAR this morning, not even as a commercial.
Right-wing talk shows dumped by WKVT for liberal radio network
By JUSTIN MASON
Reformer Staff
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - BRATTLEBORO -- After years of airing conservative radio talk shows, program directors at a local AM station have decided to spin the dial towards the left.
Starting next week, listeners tuning into WKVT-AM 1490 will hear an all-new lineup of daytime programming taken from Air America Radio, a progressive talk network.
"This is basically going exactly from the right to the left," said Peter Case, the station's program director.
Ushered out the door will be the Rush Limbaugh Show, Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor, the Howie Carr Show, the Clark Howard Show and the Lars Larson Show.
"We're in a liberal area and here you've got all these right wingers on the air," Case said about the shakeup. "It was just something we felt needed to be done."
In their places will be the Al Franken Show, the Ed Schultz Show, Unfiltered News with Rachel Maddow, the Majority Report with Janeane Garafalo and Sam Seider and the Randi Rhodes Show. Alan Colmes will round out the new lineup with a news-based program, Case said.
With the exception of Colmes, all of the new shows come from Air America, which was launched in March 2003 as an alternative to conservative dominated AM talk radio.
In two years, Air America has incorporated 41 affiliates across the nation and two satellite radio stations. In the Northeast, the network broadcasts on nine stations, including WTWK-AM in St. Albans.
Case said the idea to bring on a lineup of shows from the network was being considered by the station late last year.
Ironically, on the morning that station officials were mulling the switch, he received an e-mail from Christian Arvard, a graduate student at the School for International Training, who put in a request for the Air America programs.
"I just thought given the environment here in Brattleboro, that this is something that people would want to listen too," Arvard said.
Arvard then contacted several local activist groups about the programming, urging them to write similar requests to the station to balance out the conservative viewpoints.
"In the e-mail, I said we had abandoned the airwaves to the right and now let's take it back."
A short time later, Case said he received a veritable barrage of e-mails and phone calls requesting Air America, prompting the change in programming sooner than originally anticipated.
"Since we made the announcement, we've received probably 120 e-mails thanking us for making the switch," he said.
WKVT is owned by Michigan-based Saga Communications, Inc., according to their Web site. In total, the company holds broadcast properties in 24 states, including 53 FM and 26 AM radio stations, three state radio networks, two farm radio networks, five television stations and three low power television stations.
Case said the 1,000-watt WKVT has about a 15-mile broadcast radius in the daytime, covering from Bernardston, Mass. to the south, and Chesterfield, N.H., to east, over to Wilmington in the west and Putney to the north.
Case is optimistic about the change, which he feels will better suit the station's audience, but knows some people will be disappointed by the change.
"We'll lose a few listeners, but in the end, we hope to gain a few," he said.