Madison's Liberal Talk Station, Clear Channel, AP

WHAT HAPPENED?

After Station's Change Of Plans, Theories Abound






*** With Updates Below ***

After last night's surprising announcement that Madison libtalker The Mic FM would stick to its format, many are wondering what led to the move. And with the planned January switch to sports programming now on ice, many questions remain.

Did the recent protests have an effect? If the station couldn't make money before, how will it do so now with scaled- down Air America programming?

And was this from the beginning a mere stunt designed to generate publicity?

One thing is for sure: the Frankensanta has arrived early this year!

On this end, your Radio Equalizer enjoyed the emails "daring" us to write about this change of plans, as though we were afraid to report on it. Actually, we were among the first to note it when the news first hit last night.

Since then, it has become a major story, with a Drudge Report link and an AP story carried today in most major newspapers. For his part, Drudge seems surprised that anyone would keep Air America's shows. After all of the recent bad news for liberal talk, perhaps this headline is a bit shocking.

From the AP's Ryan J Foley:

Air America Station to Stay in Madison

By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press Writer


MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- After a backlash from this liberal city, Clear Channel Radio is keeping its Air America affiliate on the air instead of switching the progressive talk format to sports on Jan. 1.

Citing the overwhelming negative reaction to the planned change, the nation's largest radio station operator said it would keep The Mic 92.1 FM on the air as a progressive talk station.

The planned change to Fox Sports Radio, announced three days after the Nov. 7 election, had sparked outrage in Madison, a city long known for its liberal activism. Clear Channel said the station, WXXM-FM, had struggled to attract advertisers despite high ratings and a sports format would be more profitable.

But thousands of people protested the end of their favorite station through e-mails, phone calls and a petition delivered to station officials this week. A rally last week drew 500 people, and politicians such as Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., denounced the decision.

The two-year-old station is among the most popular affiliates of Air America, which launched two years ago as an alternative to conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh. It is now undergoing a reorganization after filing for bankruptcy protection in October.

In addition to Air America personalities like Al Franken, WXXM features local shows that focused on progressive causes from city politics to animal rights.

"We are overwhelmed by the recent outpouring of support for our progressive talk format from the public, some of our community leaders and some dedicated local advertisers," said Jeff Tyler, Clear Channel's market manager in Madison. "We deeply appreciate the local business leaders who are pledging their advertising support. They are playing an enormous role in helping to keep progressive talk on the air in our community."

Tyler planned to announce the decision on the airwaves Friday morning. He said Clear Channel had to end an agreement with Fox Sports Radio to make the deal possible.

The announcement came just as the opponents of the change appeared to give up, staging a mock funeral procession from the Capitol to Clear Channel's local offices Wednesday to mourn the death of the station.

Valerie Walasek, a 28-year-old listener who organized the protests, said she had shifted her focus to other options, such as trying to buy a new station. She was shocked by the company's last-minute change of heart.

"It's evidence that as people stand up and demand what they want and demand they are going to take back the airwaves, somebody will listen," she said. "Maybe Clear Channel just came to their senses because it never made sense for them to get rid of it. They were making money."

But the truth is that The Mic wasn't making money, a point station management had emphasized in the past:

Tyler said the station would aim to increase its share of the local market but it had no deadline to increase earnings, which were 14th out of 14 local stations that report them despite the station being rated second among the market's news-talk stations and 11th out of 25 stations overall. About 30,100 listeners tuned into the station during any given week, according to the latest ratings from Arbitron Inc.

With no indication that revenues will increase anytime soon, however, what could be Clear Channel's real reason for the change of course? From the New York Radio Message Board, here's one theory:

Posted by Harvey Rice on December 22, 2006 at 08:28:27:

In Reply to: Clear Channel Changes Its Mind posted by Allan D on December 22, 2006 at 00:09:29:

>>I'm curious about what they were and why their owners reversed themselves.<<

They're in the midst of selling the company. They are probably avoiding a public controversy.

One last point: our real agenda at the Radio Equalizer from the beginning has been to counter the mainstream media's pro- Air America hype, not to celebrate libtalk's collapse.

If Clear Channel or anybody else wants to run libtalk on their stations, it's not an issue to this site. They should, however, expect us to provide an alternative to the Frankenfluff reporting that even now permeates the mainstream news media.

UPDATE: The Capital Times adds this:

'Mic' fans celebrate decision
Clear Channel kills plan to pull progressive radio
By Judith Davidoff

The timing of Clear Channel's decision to keep its progressive radio format on the air couldn't have been better for Maggie Thomas.

"Yesterday was my birthday, and that was the best present I got," said Thomas, who turned 45.

Thomas, who lives on Madison's east side, was one of thousands of local listeners who urged Clear Channel in recent weeks to reverse its decision to replace "The Mic" at WXXM/FM 92.1 with Fox Sports Radio on Jan. 1.

Activists delivered a petition with 5,466 signatures to Clear Channel on Wednesday, and hundreds of listeners rallied against the move last week, with U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Air America co-founder Terry Kelly also denouncing the move.

Local advertisers also organized to show their support, and Clear Channel, in a move that is being watched nationally, listened.
"Madison is really a microcosm of what could be taking place around the country," popular radio host Ed Schultz said this morning. "There is a mindset with the progressive format that it's shaky territory for advertisers, and it's simply not true."

Schultz, whose show reaches 2.25 million listeners nationwide, said he was excited about Clear Channel's move and "how it all came to work together."

"It's really encouraging to see listeners so passionate for the radio industry and to be so vocal and organized."

Activist Valerie Walasek, who spearheaded the petition drive, said she hoped Madison's experience would inspire activists elsewhere.

"The other communities facing a similar loss of their progressive talk radio stations can do this," Walasek said.

Boston and Cincinnati lost Air America programming recently and Gary Tipler, who also helped organize opposition to Clear Channel's move, said other cities are facing similar threats.

The problem is that Madison simply isn't typical of the rest of the country, instead, it's a hotbed of radicalism. By contrast, there has been almost no outcry at the loss of libtalk stations in Boston and Cincinnati and certainly no protests or petition drives.

And talker Schultz is also wrong here: we have not seen a strong advertiser interest in libtalk at any level. He knows this as well as anyone else. Could it happen down the road? Perhaps, but after three years, one wonders what would make that happen.


Frankensanta: Pete at IHillary, Protest image: Channel 3 Madison, Madison libtalk rally dancers: Michelle Stocker, The Capital Times

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