Go on the offensive.
In the last year, thanks to artificial intelligence, the speed, accuracy, and cost of transcribing spoken word has improved by an order of magnitude. Republican talk radio is now easy to turn into text that can be searched for content and advertisers. Little or no listening required.
With its unchallenged repetition Republican talk radio is a major manufacturer of 'fake news'. At $1000/hr, 1200 radio stations broadcasting a typical 15 hrs/day are worth $18MIL/day or $5BIL FREE every year for Trump, Putin, and the GOP.
Below I'll describe a quick easy way to list the web sites of the advertisers that pay for global warming-denying, Trump-supporting hate radio.
As an example (details in later diary) I recorded a 3 hour Limbaugh show and 1 hour of a local talker following him at KKOB, AM770, an Albuquerque NM station I have sampled in the past. The transcription took minutes and I quickly found 3 advertisements from the University of New Mexico (2 on the Limbaugh show), 1 for the University of California, and more than 40 local and national business advertisers responsible for more than 60 ads. The same can be done from anywhere, with any streaming radio station, recording, podcast, or Youtube broadcast.
It is also much easier to associate those advertisers directly with the content of the shows they are sponsoring. There is no need to listen to the show or read the whole transcript. Searches for names and topics will provide quotes that can be emailed directly to the advertisers and media. Lies, distortions, hate, bigotry, attacks on Democratic candidates, and global warming denial are very common on most Republican talk radio stations depending on trending local and national events and issues. Aside from the recording, that process can take minutes.
Advertisers and the advertising industry will drive the demonopolization and democratization of talk radio as soon as they and the universities and professional sports teams that help attract that advertising realize they can be directly associated with the ignorance, hate, racism, and lies.
It won't take long for advertisers and advertising agencies to get the message (maybe someone can write a press release...). It won't be necessary for all advertisers to be contacted. Americans can make this happen in time to effect the November elections.
4 easy steps
1) Record
Quicktime, on every Mac, can record audio streams. While playing the stream turn on Quicktime, go to 'File' and 'New Audio Recording'. Just turn on the recorder and when you're done save it. With Quicktime I believe it's necessary to have volume on.... Not sure the best way to do that with a PC but there are numerous recording apps that will allow do the same. Some allow recording multiple streams at the same time and pre scheduling.
2) Transcribe
Sonix.ai maybe the cheapest, quickest, and easiest transcription service. Just drop the audio file straight into their 'box'. Sonix transcribes for $5 per hour and they send an email when it's done, with a link to the transcription in their editing program. It took minutes and was generally very accurate. The transcription can be downloaded as is or be tweaked and corrected on their site as you listen. It can also be stored there. The monthly subscription is $15 but they offer a 30 minutes free trial.
3) Search for "DOT" to identify advertisers
Live recording of radio streams will include advertisements. Most advertisements announce web sites which are usually transcribed as "so-and-so-company dot com". There were a few ads that escaped but I found most advertisers by searching for the word "dot". Sometimes the ads provided phone numbers. That's fast. The Sonix text editor allows you to highlight and add notes. Each company or quote can get a note that is listed and numbered. The notes can then be copied and pasted.
4) Contact
Websites provide phone numbers and email addresses specifically for contact by potential customers. Complaint emails may get further up the chain of command than a phone call, and there's a lasting written record for employees to pass around. It may also be easier for sympathetic staff to pass on a comment to a boss in email form than personally.
Many talk radio hosts and politicians are leaving a trail of podcasts and even Youtube video that can be found with searches. Some radio stations archive podcasts. For example GOP Rep Devin Nunes has about 50 interviews with talk radio hosts dating back over 5 years on his .gov website. Interviews of other Republican politicians can be found. They say stuff in those friendly interviews they wouldn't elsewhere. Some podcasts can be downloaded without listening.
I'm writing an email to send, something like this:
Your advertisement was found in a transcription of the Blowhard X show on station KKxx along with more than x other companies.
I want to thank you.
Thanks a lot for Trump and his incompetence, corruption, and treason. Thanks for the global warming denial, racism, defunding of public schools, tax breaks for billionaires and their mega-corporations, increasing health care worries for me and my family, school shootings, and all the other ignorant un-American crap.
Here are some quotes from the shows you help sponsor:
xxxxxx
Sincerely....…
A few of the benefits of converting hate radio into text
(From: How Democrats can use artificial intelligence to destroy the Trump/Putin GOP)
If Republican radio can be searched for content, patterns, and repetition……
- A regular sampling of major national talkers like Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Levin, Ingraham, and Beck will go a long way to understanding and discrediting Trump’s alternate reality.
- It will be easier to understand what happened to the Republican Party and how people like G W Bush, Sarah Palin, and Donald Trump could even get close to the White house.
- Democrats can start winning ‘messaging’ battles. It will be possible to see how Republican think tanks coordinate their radio stations to yell over Democratic messaging on the national and local level.
- It will be easier to show the Kremlin coordinating with talk radio. Knowing what the talk radio buzz is will help identify and point out Russian trolling. Who told Trump to study talk radio in 2014 to prepare for the elections?
- It will be easier to develop boycott lists of advertisers supporting hate radio. Advertisers and advertising companies will become more selective even if they are not subjected to boycotts. Many advertisers will quit hate radio when they realize the global warming denial, racism, sexism, and lies they are associating their brands with can be read and quantified. Dedicated radio advertisers may demand talk stations provide political balance. That will help democratize the well-protected talk radio monopoly, which enjoys an artificially inflated ‘market demand’.
- Politicians and media will be less able to repeat Republican lies and talking points as if they represent popular opinion. When they lie they can be answered with “Well, that’s what Limbaugh says but….”
- Political campaigns can monitor disinformation and attacks at the national and local level and respond in real time instead of playing catch up. The Democratic Party can monitor radio stations and provide Democratic candidates and their allies with analysis and alerts. Progressive groups or activists can monitor hate radio as it generates opposition or support to counter their interests.
- Republican politicians, candidates, and think tank propagandists are regular guests on GOP-friendly radio stations and say things they wouldn’t in more public forums. What they say can now be provided to media and used as ammunition for debates and campaign ads.
- Americans will be able to determine if the outrage, wherever or whoever it is aimed at, is legitimate popular reaction, or illegitimate — generated by a few think tank-coordinated blowhards with big megaphones hiding behind call screeners and getting talking points from Republican think tanks.
- Republicans will be less able to attack, mischaracterize, and minimize protests. Media and politicians will be less able to ignore protestors just because a few carnival barkers with giant megaphones can yell over them.
- Trump and Putin will be less able to spin national emergencies their way and will feel less confident they can get away with creating their own.
- Republicans will be less able to generate support for illegal wars or anti-democratic legislation. Knowing how often a few hundred talkers on1500 stations were repeating “weapons of mass destruction”, “deregulation will lower cable prices”, “unions donate as much as corporations”, “millions of illegal aliens are voting for Democrats”, “death panels”, “net neutrality raises internet costs”, and “electronic voting machines will save money”, would have been helpful.
- And maybe these 77 universities will finally start honoring their mission statements and start looking for alternatives to broadcast sports on.
- Discrediting the talk radio gods will help moderate Republicans resist extremism and perhaps help with rational fact-based problem solving. It is not a coincidence that record setting partisanship exploded in the early 90’s after Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine (‘87) and Republicans built and subsidized their talk radio monopoly. That’s also when ALEC finally began seeing significant success.
- As the RW radio monopoly begins to break down more stations will open up for liberal talkers.
FYI — Limbaugh provides transcripts of his show but they are sanitized and do not include advertisements.
If anyone can tell me how to record with Quicktime with the volume muted I would appreciate it…..