Recommended Reading

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 09:54:58 -0500, "Daniel Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net> said:

> My point was I am  not aware of talk stations that promote themselves as 
> only have hosts from a right or conservative or Republican point of
> view.

I am -- there are lots out there in the rest of the country, where
they are still making hay with the "liberal media" canard.  Even here,
Salem's WTTT markets itself as "Pro-Family Talk Radio": "pro-family"
being a code word for "conservative".  (I note their site also links
to the right-wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation, as well as
right-wing conspiracy rag WorldNetDaily, "conservative news and
information" site townhall.com, and Drudge in addition to "liberal
media" outpost boston.com.)

The very first paragraph on 560wind.com says, "Welcome to Chicago's
brand new News-Talk 560 WIND where you will always find a consistent
view on daily events.  You can find us on the left side of your radio
dial, but right on the issues."

Salem is probably the largest group to consistently brand itself this
way (it's part of their "brand image" after all); other major groups
tend to let their hosts do the politicking for them.  (You see this
with, for example, a number of California stations promoting a
nativist rally to be held next month on the Web pages of their local
personalities.)

As in the case of Salem, most of the stations I've seen explicitly
promoting themselves as "conservative talk" have been second and third
stations in the format in their market; their intent is to imply that
the big-name hosts on the major stations are insufficiently
conservative.  The leading talk station generally tends to be a
heritage station in the market that may well have more diverse
programming (for the same reason as you rarely see "conservative"
local TV stations even when the news is slanted that way).

-GAWollman