Seems to be working now, even with Real Alternative (which obviously wasn’t the issue). I guess they were having technical issues which were solved.
Well, perhaps conservatives are more interested in doing something about things than blathering about them on a message board? Perhaps membership or post counts on this board are not representitive of the population?
Liberals are disporportionally represented in political folk singing as well. Have you ever heard Tom Lehrer’s introduction to his song “Smut” from the sixties?
I’m not sure how this argument explains this post… 
Like listening to talk radio?
Wonder what your brother was listening to. I don’t listen to it all the time (usually just during my commute), but Monday morning included twenty minutes devoted to the different merits of various sports, and Thursday night included two guys reviewing The Punisher and Hellboy.
Granted, politics is the bulk of their stuff, but it’s not the only thing they do. And the “no humor and no substantive discussion” claim sounds like something a disgruntled Dittohead would say – when John Stossel was a guest in the studio, they had a fairly detailed discussion of Libertarianism vs. Liberalism, without any “shrieking.” And unlike conservative talk radio, at least AAR doesn’t pre-screen their callers to weed out folks who disagree with the hosts…
And this just in…(courtesy of Orcinus, by way of CalPundit)
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041504/content/john_f_ing_kerry_stack_5.guest.html
(Talking about how Der Hilary is really, really plotting and planning to Take Over…)
“…They know that they’re pretty confident Kerry is going to lose and if Kerry wins there’s always Fort Marcy Park. So they’re rolling the dice on this…”
Fort Marcy Park is where Vince Foster’s body was found.
You were saying?
Really? Rush has made an entire career out of shrieking about Clinton and the Democrats. Clinton isn’t even president any more, and Rush is still on the air.
Well maybe that woman they had on in the afternoons. I don’t like her. She’s whiny, too opinionated, too bitchy, and too loose with the facts. But Franken’s show (for the very short time I was able to hear it) was much better, and more entertaining. One of the days I was listening, he had Jon Stewart of The Daily Show on, and there was some really funny stuff happening.
So get back on the air, fire that annoying afternoon chick, stop cutting to commercials right in the middle of people’s sentences, and they might have something.
As I said earlier, it is just the opinion of one guy, which could be wrong.
But I disagree about Rush. I rarely listen to Rush or any other political talk show host, but he does not have a harsh demeanor. He obviously does not hold liberals in the highest regard, but he is always in a good mood, upbeat and friendly. It wouldn’t surprise me if his calls are screened to increase the dittoheads - it’s one of the things that make the show as boring as it is to someone like me - but some do get through, and he is unfailingly polite. The same goes for Sean Hannity. (This is in contrast to truly obnoxious people like Bob Grant or Laura Schlesinger).
I would tune in myself, if I got a chance. I was actually a regular listener to WLIB (the NY station) back when it carried black activist hosts and callers haranguing about the Jews and Whites, but unfortunately the range doesn’t carry to Central Jersey.
The man is a walking billboard for Oxycontin.
Here’s a link to AM620 KPOJ online. You can listen to Air America from this page. The reception and play is great even from my dialup.
You might need to adjust for showtimes- It is a Portland, OR station.
Power to the people!
But your brother’s criticism was that Air America was “only shrieking about Bush and the Republicans being evil beyond belief,” That’s exactly what Rush does, except he does it about the democrats. I’m not seeing where “good mood”, “upbeat”, or “friendly” figure into that. (I’m assuming he didn’t mean “shriek” literally; I can assure you that Franken doesn’t make high-pitched crying noises; in fact, he has a lower voice than Rush.)
Besides which, we can’t be talking about the same Rush. 
Perhaps he’s friendly to his dittoheads, but he’s certainly not friendly towards democrats.
Not to get too Cafe Society here, but I felt the same way the first time I heard her – she (Randi Rhodes) was in the middle of a full-tilt rant against a Nader supporter, and I was going “What in the name of G. Gordon Liddy is she doing?!” :eek: But after listening to her for a while, she’s definitely grown on me. Randi just goes all over the place, and wild-crazy-rant is just one facet of her on-air personna. In some ways, I think her show is the strongest in the lineup, since it’s the only one that really has a personality.
They should put her opposite Limbaugh, since her show’s closer to his style than Franken is. 
I don’t recall if my brother used the exact word “shrieking”. You can replace it with “railing”, “haranguing” or the like.
There’s a major difference between a guy selling a bunch of political jive in a semi-humorous and upbeat way and a guy who gets all worked up about it. In terms of the listening audience, that is.
I don’t know if you live in the NY area, but there’s a guy on in the mornings on ABC (770 AM) named Ron Kuby, who is also a radical left wing activist (possibly a communist). But he is also, like Rush, an interesting and likeable personality, and as such does a lot better than he would as a no-nonsense haranguer. He is the type of guy that the liberal network should be hiring, IMHO.
Again, I rarely listen to him, but unless he has undergone a dramatic personality change in the last few years, I am pretty confident in my impression. Perhaps regular listeners will chime in here.
:chuckle:
It’s nice to see you have a fun sense of humor!
Back to the OP, I still say that what the “popularity” of conservative radio tells you is not that such a thing is representative of the public’s political views at large, but rather that this is the sort of thing which certain kinds of conservatives support. There’s really nothing more to drawn from it than that. I know plenty of conservatives who can’t stand Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage, or Fox News.
I personally doubt that “Liberal Radio” will succeed if it does little more than follow the Limbaugh model, albeit with a leftish slant. That’s not what most liberals are interested in. It’s certainly not what I am interested in, though whether I’m truly a liberal or not is debateable. However, I am interested in the voicing of a truly liberal presence in boradcast media, since, whatever the wags say, there presently isn’t one.
Some people call Michael Moore “a liberal Rush Limbaugh with footnotes.” But, see, to a liberal those footnotes are important. Also, Moore is genuinely funny, and wants to be. Humor is not one of Rush’s strong suits; neither are footnotes.
What I can’t stand is this attitude (presently coming mainly from conservatives) that groups of people whose political views are in opposition are to be permanently defeated, or even destroyed. Democracy cannot work unless dissent is not merely tolerated, but actually encouraged. “Liberal Media” will succeed to the extent that it can provide a credible alternative to the right-wing stuff that has until now dominated the airwaves. Imitating Rush with a leftist point of view isn’t going to cut it.
“I think it could work, if it is entertaining. Which is the ultimate determinant of any media presentation, not ideology. If these liberal hosts are entertaining and amusing they will succeed. If not, they will not.” (IzzyR)
I never thought this would work either, and here’s why. (I admit I’m borrowing this idea, I think from the New Yorker).
(Please note the 7th word before yelling “not me!”)
Liberals, like Liberal Arts studies, are inclined to want to hear many different viewpoints and sides of the issue and learn about many different things. Even though many far right conservatives claim NPR is way left, they do a great job of bringing up many different types of issues AND looking at those issues from many different angles. That’s why there’s always interesting stories on NPR and that’s why we listen to it.
(Pls note the 7th word before yelling “not me!”)
Conservatives, on the other hand, are inclined to not be interested in listening to many different issues or viewpoints. Their ideas (be definition) are already set in stone, you might say, and they don’t want to hear “liberal viewpoints” that disagree with theirs. (That is how they claim NPR is far left - anything close to centrist, which NPR is, is considered “liberal” or “radical” because it is not in step with preconceived conservative viewpoints - the stereotypical “you’re with us or you’re against us” approach that has scared many moderate republicans away.)
And therein lies the problem with Liberal Radio. Conservatives listen to conservative radio because they already agree with it, don’t want to hear different, and ENTHUSIASTICALLY ENJOY listening to their own views spouted to them, reconfirming their own feelings and sheltering them from other viewpoints. Liberals ENTHUSIASTICALLY ENJOY different viewpoints, and politics in general, not just the “this is the only view that is right - take it or leave it” approach. Liberals in great numbers will never tune in to 4 hours of political appeasement talk - they want to know the issues from different perspectives. Conservatives unfortunately do not 
Yes, I realize many on the far left have the same approach that I just labeled as “conservative”. Believe me, at my lib college, I was considered “conservative” because I believe we could make good changes w/in the current government system, instead of overthrowing it. I was “conservative” because I thought there was no difference between dem’s and repub’s. I, on the other hand, bitched to no end that their protests weren’t gonna do shit when they only invited like minded far-lefters and held them where like minded far-lefters only went. Those far-left folks wouldn’t be bothered with this radio station either - ain’t no radio in their Tee Pee’s, kayaks, and VW bus’s…
Well, yeah - that’s what I thought; you didn’t mean it literally. So that leaves us with your description that they’re just talking about how “evil” the republicans are. And so my point stands - that Rush just talks about how “evil” the democrats are. I realize you don’t listen to Rush a lot, but you only need to turn the show on about 30 seconds to hear him bashing the democrats. That’s not really a secret. If bashing the opposing party causes a show to fail, then Rush would have failed a long time ago. So I just don’t think your assessment is correct.
And which description applies to whom? I would say Franken is the the humorous, upbeat guy, and Rush is the guy who gets all worked up. Is that what you meant?
I wish they’d put him on instead of that afternoon woman, then. But Franken should stay; he’s enjoyable to listen to.
Nope, Rush has always been a pompous blowhard.
I think you are seeing more of a difference between us and the conservatives than is there. People are people, after all. Humans being social animals tend to look for group approval yet we live in a society that isolates us. We replace some of the lost face to face contact with friends and family with technology. I’d say liberals are no less insecure than conservatives and we can do with some backslapping and me-tooing for motivation as well. We certainly could use more leaders. I wish we could listen here in Pittsburgh.
Actually, the publisher of Talkers magazine (a magazine devoted to covering talk radio) claims that a large chunk of Rush Limbaugh’s audience consists of liberals who listen because they want to disagree with him and yell at the radio. This was from a Dateline: NBC article about the launch of AAR.
Dunno if it’s true or not, but I’ll note that Al Franken has repeatedly encouraged conservatives to call his show and debate with him (“We’ll put you at the head of the line!”), and Randi Rhodes (who’s claimed that her South Florida talk radio show has consistently beaten Rush in local ratings) has made the same claim on the air.
If this notion is true, then that means (a) there are a lot of liberals who are sado-masochists, and (b) conventional wisdom might end up getting stood on its head…
Well, The Young Turks is a pretty entertaining liberal radio show. It’s played on Sirius and on a few local stations around the country, which is nearly as much coverage as Air America has. There’s no live online stream, but the web site has recently recorded shows that you can download and listen to.
Indiscriminate breeding.
I think pervert was meaning to invoke the intro to Tom Lehrer’s “We Are The Folk Song Army”. I could be wrong. Maybe he just likes the song “Smut”, for reasons one cannot imagine.
Everybody loves hearing their views confirmed; it’s not just some right-wing disease. And theretsof leaves out one big reason people tune in shows expressing viewpoints they detest - so they can get the adrenaline rush of outrage and have something to cite to fellow believers, i.e. "Did you hear what ___ said! See, they’re all scum!
For that reason, a substantial minority of whatever listenership liberal radio acquires will be conservatives.
Well, only in comparison to listening to other media sources.