I am not a big radio-listener .... a lot of people listen while driving, and I don't drive. Some people listen while working, and I don't work (KIDDING! I do work, but I find myself unable to work and listen at the same time).
People who DO listen to radio should have choices. In music, they do. In talk radio, not so much.
So, when my friend Jill (aka Orange Clouds) sent out a request for a blogathon, I said sure. Even though I don't know what I'm doing.
More below the fold
Some people are trying to start a new radio station, a la Air America (AAR):
The first step is two-fold. One is getting Jon Elliott on the air, and the other is fundraising. No money = no radio station. We project that we can get some of the cash from advertisers, but ad sales are down right now. Once upon a time, we thought we could get all of our money from our advertisers, but then the Bush Great Depression started and now that looks like a distant dream.
So we're going to do a hybrid model. Money from advertisers, and money from listeners (you). We're asking $10/mo from people who are willing to become members. To join, go to jontalk and sign up there using PayPal. Without members, we can't get off the ground. Members will get the podcasts and will get other benefits - member-only events for San Diego residents and something else (books? T-shirts?) for people who aren't local. But the real benefit is having this radio station on the air.
The station goes on the air on Monday. THIS Monday. It's going to be 1700AM and we're only going to have Jon Elliott on the air from 3pm-6pm. As we are able to fundraise, we'll add other talkers, and we hope to have the full liberal lineup by January. We plan to then expand out to 30 stations around the U.S. by the year 2014. In other words - this is a national effort, not just a San Diego one.
The new radio station has an advisory board of: Robert Greenwald (Brave New Films), Jim Dean (Democracy for America), and Gov. Michael Dukakis (my very first vote for president in my 2nd grade's election). Additionally, we will have an experienced broadcast management team including THE BEST talk show trainer in the country to help us develop new talent.
The lineup in San Diego (and this is subject to change) will be: Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Jon Elliott, Ed Schultz, and TBD for evenings. On weekends we are going to develop local talent as our "bench" so that we'll have people to cover us if the weekday hosts go on vacation, or if at some point they leave. For San Diego, Jon Elliott is local and he'll be covering afternoon drive. In other markets (once we expand) we will always make sure that either morning or afternoon drive has someone local on the air (as Jon put it, you need someone who knows who plays 3rd base on the local baseball team). Other markets will be free to tinker with the line-up so it makes sense for their local audiences - the tentative line-up you see here is just what makes the most sense for San Diego since we've already tried it before and it was wildly successful.
How will expanding work: It will be a franchising model. We provide the format and much of the overhead, they invest and do whatever needs to happen locally. We find the station, negotiate for it, train their staff, and provide them the website, graphics, slogans, etc.
Who lost their AAR stations: San Diego, Sacramento, Eugene, OR, Columbus, OH (twice), Ft. Lauderdale, DC, Memphis, Little Rock, Phoenix (twice), Austin, Atlanta, and more. Dallas had AAR, lost it for a long time, and got it back, and Madison was threatened with losing it and listener protests saved the day. Chicago had it, lost it, and when it got it back it had a weak signal that totally shuts down at night.
Who was on AAR and isn't anymore: Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Thom Hartmann, Lizz Winstead, Jon Elliott, The Young Turks, Rachel Maddow (they rebroadcast her TV show on the radio, but she doesn't do a radio show). Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz never were on AAR to begin with. Marc Maron and Sam Seder appear to be on now, doing Break Room Live, but I think it's an internet-only TV show that doesn't actually air on the radio.
What can you do?
- Go to jontalk and sign up.
- LISTEN! 3PM to 6PM Pacific Time, San Diego, 1700 AM
- Forward this diary to people you know in San Diego
- Come to dkos tomorrow,when Jon Elliott (formerly of Air America, now of this new station) will be joining us to blog on dKos on Thursday, at 11am, Pacific (2 PM Eastern), and answering questions. He will sign in under the Jill Richardson account.
