[lbo-talk] Broadcast News

[Joseph Wanzala]

Interestingly enough, some of the best talk shows here in the bay area - are not on KPFA at all - (indeed KPFA really does not really have any talk shows anymore (the modality, pioneered by Pacifica, has been taken over by commercial radio), listeners, if they are invited on at all, are allowed only hurried comments towards the top of the hour) meanwhile programming on our commercial rival Air America is talk-show driven, with the more daring stuff relegated to the wee hours. Ray Taliaferro at ABC affiliate KGO has a talk run show running from 1.00 am to 5.00 am, Mon to Fri that is an interesting blend of irreverent left-radical/liberal/left-libertarian discourse that would probably be considered too impolite for KPFA, which opts to play music during probably the best time for the discussion of subversive ideas. It is worth pointing out that Roy "of Hollywood" Tuckman at KPFK has produced an excellent and long-running overnight public affairs series of programs that features 'too out there for effete radicals' material. In other words there is an interesting pattern of 'the small hours of the night' being a refuge of sorts for radical ideas. It is also worth noting that while many liberal/progressives take care to remain within the parameters of what is deemed permissible by the mainstream, AM talk radio, particularly radical-libertarian radio frequently provides broader discussions and more corrosive critiques of the corporate state.

 
Joe W.


> Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 10:08:22 -0500> From: chuck at mutualaid.org> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Broadcast News> > Dennis Redmond wrote:> > > While driving last week on a long-distance journey through the US> > heartland, I kept flipping the radio in a vain attempt to stave off> > boredom. Occasionally I'd get a scratchy CBS affiliate here and there. I'd> > hear the usual entertainment-masquerading as news, and then a sudden,> > jarring sound bite: "The Pentagon reports that a major leader responsible> > for recent terror attacks in Baghdad was captured today..." Click. Some> > preacher, ranting about end times. Click. Some tinhorn military life-form> > yelping about Islamofascism on Fox. Click. Schmaltzy big band music from> > the 1950s. Click.> > > > It was like the sonic equivalent of the hotel in "The Shining". All those> > endless corridors and identical rooms, opening into madness... only this> > wasn't the madness of the Empire's beginning. It was the madness of its> > end.> > LOL. When you live out here in Kansas City, you have to spend lots of > time in the car listening to the radio. Kansas City, as I like to say, > is the Los Angeles of the prairie.> > I hate to admit this, but I was kind of pissed when a local AM station > dropped Alan Colmes from their programming a few weeks ago. He may be a > tepid liberal, but his show was the most tolerable political talk show > on KC radio in the late evening. With the removal of Colmes, two of the > AM stations are constant right wing talk all day long.> > We have an excellent FM independent leftie station. KKFI has lots of > good programming, but they don't have any political talk in the > afternoon or the evening. They have some hour talk shows around dinner > time. Their best talk shows come on after midnight on several nights. > These are live call-in shows and the content is a very politically > incorrect mixture of liberal and libertarian talk. I'm sure the core > audience of Amy Goodman-listening, granola-munching peaceniks would have > heart attacks if they were awake to hear these shows. KKFI does many > things right, but I'm really turned off by the Pacifica flavor in the > morning, especially the hippy music shows that come on after Democracy > Now (which I always miss because I'm asleep), CounterSpin, and Laura > Flanders.> > I listen to lots of NPR, but at this point I want to get XM or Sirius > when I have some money, so I can have a choice when I'm driving. I've > been listening often to a local "alternative" station, but I start > beating my head against the steering wheel when they repeat Modest Mouse > songs every fucking hour.> > The airwaves in the Midwest mostly suck...> > Chuck> ___________________________________> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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