The importance of talk radio
Talk radio has played a major part in this American disaster since 1987, when Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine. If you don’t believe that consider the recent (9/19) book by Brian Rosenwald, “Talk Radio’s America. How An Industry Took Over A Political Party That Took Over the United States.” He documents the use of talk radio by Republican politicians and think tanks and its part in weakening democracy, defeating Democrats, and, my take, creating this American disaster over the last 30 years.
Talk radio has been very important for Trump, making excuses for him and attacking critics. It is essential for intimidating Republican senators. That is why he paraded Limbaugh the day after the Mueller Report release, why he released a photo of them having lunch the Saturday before the Christmas break, and why he had Limbaugh interview him on Monday about his great Iran ‘success’.
Forcing the advertising industry to apply market forces to political talk radio will democratize it and destroy the only media advantage the GOP has
In recent years artificial intelligence makes it much easier, faster, and cheaper to digitize, transcribe, and monitor talk radio.
Advertisers can be listed and associated directly with content with little time and listening required. The small boycott effort that shook the radio advertising industry after Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke in 2012 (StopRush, FlushRush, etc) can be amplified significantly on local as well as national scale.
When the radio advertising industry catches up to this reality it will have to act preemptively to protect its clients from being associated with the hate and lies and global warming denial that dominates political content on those radio stations. It wants those tens of millions of listeners that those stations reach and will finally have to apply actual ‘market forces’ to political talk radio. As more of that content is digitized and studied the ad industry will have to give clients more control of where their ads are placed, rather than lose them to less toxic advertising mediums.
Protests at 87 universities will get Republicans’ attention, media attention, and the advertising industry’s attention
One way to force the advertising industry to immediately begin dismantling the Republican talk radio monopoly is for Americans to recognize 87 universities as good places to protest issues like war with Iran, global warming inaction, and anything Trump and Republican.
Those radio stations been lying about the Iran nuclear deal's effectiveness for years. Before that they played an instrumental part in selling the Bush administration lies that led us into Iraq. Protests at those universities then may have been more effective that the dozens I remember.
The universities listed below rent their community standing, brands, logos, mascots etc. to at least 260 stations that headline Rush Limbaugh. They allow their athletes to be used to excuse racism. Those include many of the loudest AM radio stations in their states.
Even large protests at traditional locations do not get Republican attention because those radio stations can yell over them for as long as necessary.
Protests at some of those universities, specifically to get them to stop supporting Republican radio (war with Iran, global warming denial, etc), will get media and Republican attention. Local Republicans and their radio stations will see it as a threat and scream “FREE SPEECH!” Media will notice.
Other schools and professional sports teams that broadcast on those stations will notice.
It doesn’t matter what the university actually does — regardless of what some trolls here say. If Republicans want to go to court to prevent changes it will merely get more attention to the issue.
Concerned advertisers will contact their agencies looking for alternatives.
The advertising industry will have to break up the monopoly.
Maybe it just happened: Did activism around the University of Colorado already force Limbaugh off a major CO station?
The recent demotion of Rush Limbaugh from the loudest radio station in Colorado (AM 850 KOA) may have been precipitated by years of low level activism to force the University of Colorado to stop broadcasting football games on a radio station that routinely denies global warming and is perpetually at odds with local political opinion and objectives.
That would be an example of applying market forces to break up the talk radio monopoly.
The licensing company and the radio station may have acted to prevent increased activism and protests that could have drawn the attention of the Broncos and Rockies professional teams, which also broadcast on KOA.
The only unique advantage Republicans have
While other major forms of media usually offer free easy alternatives, political talk radio is a 20-1 Republican monopoly in most parts of the US. That unchallenged monopoly is the only unique advantage they have and its destruction will force Republican politicians to turn on Trump. Trump stages photo ops with Limbaugh to remind the GOP who controls messaging on most of those stations.
Sending message to GOP senators the weekend before Chrismas 2019 . Was the Iran assassination planned for later that week mentioned?
Republicans need those radio stations to attack their election opponents and rally the base but if that talk radio advantage is threatened and they see it won’t be there to help them recover from kissing Trump’s ass in a cover-up or illegitimate war, their chances of reelection drop. Most of them would probably prefer being in a minority and be rid of dittoheads like Trump, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz and go back to pandering to moderate Republicans and conservaDems than continue to play to the radical alternative reality and rabid base that those radio stations cultivate.
RW radio is worth $5BIL/year FREE
Money in politics?
Some folks, like Michael Moore recently, predict a Trump reelection if we don’t ramp up GOTV and donations yet again. Michael’s done fantastic things but here’s some simple math.
If Trump/Putin/GOP interests would pay $1000/hr, 1200 radio stations x 15hrs/day are worth about $5BIL/year, or $90,000,000 per week, essentially free. Whatever the math, that messaging power is never included in polling used to investigate political motivation, such as Trump support, even though a 2016 Pew poll showed that ¼ of Americans say they often get news from radio. At a minimum, what is the dominant Republican component of that radio ‘news’ worth in close elections?
Michael needs to look at the list below and how the University of Michigan and Michigan State have been helping Michigan Republicans.
Dr Fiona Hill is not a fool, and Putin is using talk radio
Unless Dr Hill is a fool, close correlation between Trump, talk radio, and Russian troll messaging makes it clear that Putin has been at least piggybacking and probably feeding US talk radio. Numerous examples going back to at least 2008, and Sam Nunberg’s claim that in 2014 he “listened to 1000’s of hours of talk radio” on Trump’s payroll, suggest investigators and media looking into collusion are missing a major part of the story. Examples include Manafort/Limbaugh forcing Palin on McCain in 2008, ‘Climategate’ in 2009, pushing debt default in 2011 and forcing military spending to be tied to non military spending, Benghazi/emails, ‘Trump’s ‘deep state’ defense, etc.
87 universities that need to reread their mission statements
Numbers after the state and university is the number of Limbaugh stations.
If the GOP would pay $1000 for a 1 hour infomercial:
x 15 hours/day = $15,000/station/day
x 5 days = $75,000/station/week
Look at the hidden value those university endorsements represent for Republicans in those states compared with the visible amounts Democratic and Republican candidates are raising and will be spending.
ALABAMA 8 $600,000 Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARIZONA 1 $75,000 Arizona St. 1
ARKANSAS 3 $225,000 Arkansas 3
CALIFORNIA 5 $375,000 San Jose State 2, USC 2, Fresno St. 1
COLORADO 3 $225,000 Air Force 2, Colorado State 1
CONNECTICUT 1 $75,000 Connecticut 1
FLORIDA 20 $1,500,000 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2
GEORGIA 14 $1,050,000 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
IDAHO 7 $525,000 Boise St. 4, Idaho 3
ILLINOIS 7 $525,000 Illinois 7
INDIANA 11 $825,000 Notre Dame 6, Purdue 4, Indiana 1
IOWA 5 $375,000 Iowa 4, Iowa St. 1
KANSAS 4 $300,000 Kansas St. 2, Kansas 1, Wichita St. 1
KENTUCKY 3 $225,000 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
LOUSIANA 3 $225,000 LSU 2, La.-Monroe 1
MARYLAND 2 $150,000 Maryland 2
MASSACHUSETTS 1 $75,000 Boston College 1
MICHIGAN 19 $1,425,000 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
MINNESOTA 4 $300,000 Minnesota 4
MISSISSIPPI 6 $450,000 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 $450,000 Missouri 6
NEBRASKA 6 $450,000 Nebraska 6
NEVADA 1 $75,000 Nevada 1
NEW JERSEY 2 $150,000 Rutgers 1, Seton Hall 1
NEW MEXICO 3 $225,000 New Mexico 2, New Mexico St. 1
NEW YORK 7 $525,000 Syracuse 6, Army 1
NORTH CAROLINA 16 $1,200,000 North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
OHIO 10 $750,000 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
OKLAHOMA 5 $375,000 Oklahoma St. 3, Oklahoma 1, Oral Roberts 1
OREGON 12 $900,000 Oregon St. 7, Oregon 5
PENNSYLVANIA 14 $1,050,000 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 4 $300,000 South Carolina 2, Clemson 2
TENNESSEE 7 $525,000 Tennessee 4, Memphis 3
TEXAS 16 $1,200,000 Texas A&M 9, Texas Tech 4, Texas 1, Texas Christian 1, Baylor 1
UTAH 1 $75,000 Utah St. 1
VIRGINIA 6 $450,000 Virginia Tech 5, Virginia 1
WASHINGTON 6 $450,000 Washington 5, Washington St. 1
WEST VIRGINIA 2 $150,000 West Virginia 1, Marshall 1
WISCONSIN 3 $225,000 Wisconsin 3