Recall that populist Jim Hightower was sacked shortly after Disney took over ABC in 1995. The network brass claimed they let Hightower go because of poor ratings, and his ouster helped to reinforce the conventional wisdom that a progressive talk show host can't cut it in the big time, but I had happened to make an inquiry about advertising on the Hightower show a few weeks before his abrupt cancellation and the ad salesman seemed to be under the impression at that time that Hightower's ratings were quite acceptable for the time period (Saturday afternoon). So either the network brass were lying or the ad salesman was lying -- possibly both. But I don't buy that a left talk show won't work.
The UAW had a good idea with the IE Radio Network but the problem seems to be that they are basically locked out of big-city radio stations whose programming decisions are made at the corporate level in New York, Los Angeles or, in the case of Clear Channel, San Antonio and the managers are not interested in promoting talkers who question corporate power. When Hightower was with IE he couldn't even get his show on any of the major radio stations in his hometown of Austin. His show was on a low-power station for a few months before the station went Salsa. But his was the top-rated show under the news-talk format until the format change. Then no other station in Austin picked him up. He finally folded the show.
-- Jim Cullen
>Mike Malloy used to be the late
>night talk show host on Chicago's
>Disney-owned, WLS a few years back.
>He was about the only liberal talk show
>host they featured regularly. It was
>fun to hear Malloy deride the "flying
>monkey right" on a nightly basis. Once
>and awhile he would also interview liberal
>or leftish guests on trade policy,
>labor or health care issues. I think
>Disney sacked him once his rhetoric drifted
>too far from the corporate line.
>
>At the National Conference on Media Reform
>held last November, questions to
>John Sweeny and labor leaders
>on the UAW-owned IE Radio Network were met
>with indifferent or ignorant responses. Most
>of the top leadership of the AFL look to corporate
>media to tell their story. Small wonder they're
>getting their asses kicked.
>
>Greg Boozell
>gboozell at juno.com
>
>
>
>
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