As most Kossacks are well aware, talk radio is one of the Republican Right's greatest weapons. Recently, authors like David Brock have skillfully chronicled how the Right has been able to master this critical, underestimated medium and use it to their advantage.
We have only barely begun to counter the Right's dominance of the airwaves. Air America, which is not even two years old yet, has had a promising start, but still we have a long ways to go.
The Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) is working to help build an infrastructure that will enable the progressive movement to take the country back from the Right. We believe the Internet is the medium that will allow us to do this.
We also believe that we need to offer more than text and graphics.
That's why, last week, we launched the first in what will become a regular series of podcasts.
Podcasting is basically using RSS to distribute audio content over the Internet, which can be listened to on both computers and mobile devices.
Today, NPI is pleased to announce that our podcasts won't just be distributed over the Internet - they'll also be aired on the radio.
Before I go any further, let me offer a background of what NPI is and what its other projects are.
The Northwest Progressive Institute was founded in 2003 as a forum and a resource for progressive thought. Based out of Redmond, Washington, NPI is a netroots-driven, volunteer think tank. (I am its executive director).
It's a very unconventional concept, I know. When most people envision a "think tank", they think of an organization like the Heritage Foundation. Ultimately, we do hope NPI becomes more like a traditional think tank, with more resources and significant funding, but in the meantime we're overcoming our limitations by being really innovative.
Many Kossacks are already familar with NPI's flagship media gateway Pacific Northwest Portal, which provides instantaneous, easy access to over 200 progressive blogs in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska, not to mention news from traditional media, as well as a business digest and traffic & weather information.
NPI also operates its Official Blog, which provides daily news and analysis of both local and national political issues.
Finally, NPI also has Permanent Defense, an independent division focused on defeating right wing ballot measures, most notably initiatives that seek to wipe out funding for essential public services.
This is our first major project that takes us beyond just text and graphics, and we have high hopes for it.
Audio is a unique medium that is both intimate and unique. As David Brock noted "[it] relies only on sound to establish a private bond with the listener."
As I noted in my earlier introduction, conservatives have been taking advantage of this medium for years:
The GOP was using radio the way the Christian Right began using its media in the late 1970s: to create 'political brush fires,' to energize the base to take politican action, and to dupe the undecided to adopt the party-line spin. This happens 365 days a year on right wing talk radio, which is not only able to invent a 'controversy' where there otherwise might not be one but also ensures that its view of the 'controversy' prevails in the public mind.
- excerpt from The Republican Noise Machine by David Brock
It's good that we now have people like Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, Rachel Maddow, Sam Seder, Ed Schultz, and Janeane Garofalo on the radio, but we need more. Air America only has 84 stations, and most of them are affiliates.
Rush Limbaugh and his imitators are on thousands of stations across the country. According to a Media Matters profile, Limbuagh's nationally syndicated radio show has an estimated audience of nearly 15 million weekly listeners. Rush is carried on over 600 stations (645 at last glance) and his imitators are on hundreds more.
Again, we have a lot of catching up to do. The Democratic Party has underestimated radio and audio and failed to capitalize on it the way Republicans have.
The Annenbger study found that in 1996, 24 percent of the public listened to political talk at least once per week and 18 percent twice per week. In 2002, a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 37 percent of the public said they "regularly" or "sometimes" listened to political talk radio shows, while 17 percent rely on call-in talk radio as part of their "regular news consumption".
[...]
In a January 2003 Gallup poll 31 percent of those surveyed said that they got their news every day or several times per week from talk radio, up from 17 percent in 1995. Twenty-two percent of those who listen to talk radio every day consider themselves political independents, according to Gallup. The American National Election Study found that up to 42 percent of the talk radio audience is comprised of moderates and independents.
[...]
An unscientific study by the Talk Radio Research Project, run by Talkers magazine, described the audience for talk radio as predominantly white and male. Sixty one percent had a high school education or some college, while 33 percent had college degress. Seventy seven percent made $70,000 a year or less. A whopping 70 percent said they voted. Fifty two percent described themselves as independent, 23 percent as Republican, 12 percent as Democrat, and 8 percent as libertarian. Thirty seven percent said they were conservative, 23 percent moderate, and 11 percent liberal. They chose FOX News Channel and the Internet as thei biggest sources of nonradio "news".
- excerpt from The Republican Noise Machine by David Brock
(By the way, if you haven't read Brock's book yet, I strongly suggest you check it out from your local library or buy it from Powell's).
The ultimate conclusion we've drawn is that the progressive movement needs to be creating and offering more audio content to our fellow Americans.
We're going to do our part by podcasting regularly.
Our plan is to release at least two episodes every month, and we may do special episodes occassionally.
Our episodes will be short and sweet, (typically five to six minutes in length) and well worth your time.
Which brings me to today's announcement: our podcasts won't just be offered over the Internet. They're also going to be broadcast over the radio. Our inaugural podcast is going on the air today on 94.5 FM in Seattle (104.5 in the rural cities of Fall City, Snoqualmie, and Carnation).
We are hopeful that other stations will also pick up our podcasts and air them. Future podcasts will likely be broken up into two shorter segments for radio, which means we'll be delivering four "mini episodes", or segments, for airplay each month. Each audio segment will run several times.
While the Internet is the only medium that is experiencing significant growth, radio remains important.
Our audio content will be different and unique. While existing shows and commentaries focus mostly on national politics and national news, we will have a strong focus on local politics and the Pacific Northwest.
Our regular episodes will focus on important issues and campaigns, offering vital information and refreshing perspectives. We will strive to make every episode entertaining and useful to our listeners.
Examples of possible episodes range from defending transportation funding from attacks by right wing anti-tax zealots to focusing attention on key campaigns for elected office, such as the race for Washington's 8th Congressional District.
We're also going to be working off your feedback and input. (Yes, that means we'll take suggestions for possible episodes).
We have a long way to go to take our country back from the Republican Right. Every piece of media infrastructure that we create helps us as a movement (and also as a Party) in the pursuit of our goals.
You can listen to our inaugural podcast here. And if you want to be notified so you can listen to future episodes when they're made available, you can subscribe to our multimedia feed. Our podcasts are also available through iTunes - just do a search for "Northwest Progressive Institute" and our podcasts should come right up.