First off, for the sake of full disclosure, I’m the producer of the Ed Schultz Show. 3 weeks ago all Democrats were riding high as the election results rolled in their favor. Since November 7th, Clear Channel has pulled the plug on the highest rated talk station in Madison Wisconsin, 92.1 FM the Mic. The Mic is home to Air America, Stephanie Miller and the Ed Schultz Show. After the 1st of the year the station is being flipped to Fox Sports Radio. Madison is just the start, New Orleans, Boston and the Quad Cities are gassing Progressive. We’ve also heard that up to 2 Ohio stations will leave the format soon.
Radio stations change formats all of the time, but 6 or 7 Liberal radio stations going away after the best election for Democrats in 15 years? Progressive Talk and Progressive Blogs have grown side by side for the last few years, and both had at least some impact on the last election. Radio is still an industry owned, operated and programmed by Conservatives. In the past 3 years Clear Channel has put Progressive talk on 24 stations, (soon to be 20 or less), Infinity has 2 stations and ABC radio has ZERO stations. There are successful Progressive talk stations, but the majority are low frequency signals that have not been given any promotional money.
We have been fighting this battle for 3 years and this is the darkest time I can remember. I will guarantee you that the Ed Schultz Show will be fine in 07 & beyond, and I hope that Air America can find solid footing soon to stay in the battle, but there is a major push back going on right now. Conservative talk has lost ratings and listenership since lefty radio came on the scene, nobody dumps their stations, nobody writes the "Can Michael Savage Survive" editorials, they just keep sailing along. There’s an upcoming study that will reveal the since 2004 there is even MORE of a disparity between hours of Conservative talk and Liberal talk. Rush and Hannity have lost listeners, and program directors are still adding more Conservative talkers, make sense?
Please don’t believe the negative hype surrounding the format and pay attention before someone yanks the switch in your market.