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Your Personal Packet of Tools for Bringing Air America Back!
Progressive Action has taken on the project of working to bring Air America radio programming back to our region, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Even if you weren't an Air America listener or didn't care for some of AA's hosts, please do read on... because when it comes to progressive talk radio, until Red Rock axed Air America programming on July 31 they were the only show in town. And Air America was a big reason, in many people's estimations, why the fall 2006 election went as well as it did.
Air America was the only place to hear regularly the voices of the likes of WI Senator Russ Feingold, Representative Maxine Waters, Captain Bob of the Operation Helmet program for U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Representative John Conyers, Author and former Boston Globe writer Tom Oliphant, Senator Claire McCaskill, Indep. Senator Bernie Sanders, Writers for Newsweek and The Nation and The American Prospect, Senator Harry Reid, Christie Harvey from the Center for American Progress, Joe Conason of Salon, Senator Barbara Boxer, David Brock of Media Matters, and on and on.
(If you didn't listen to Air America, see what you've missed?! And, yes, as some have noted, AA is a more combative style of radio programming than MPR, etc., but you grow used to it after awhile plus learn to pick your programs... and is this not, after all, a time for righteous indignation?!)
Here's what we've got so far:
- an online petition (please sign! at www.nonstopradio.com) and are coordinating our efforts with the successful group in Madison, WI
- a separate yahoogroups discussion group just for this effort (again, go to www.nonstopradio.com to sign up)
- petitions at locations around Duluth-Superior
- a window sign indicating people can sign the petition HERE (idea: put one in your car window and carry a petition with you!)
- advertising pledge forms for local businesses and organizations to sign indicating they would advertise on Air America in the future (please sign one if you're a business or organization that would advertise!)
- What YOU Can Do info sheet for distribution to the public
You'll find these last four items (all in one document) here:
Microsoft Word Format
Adobe Acrobat PDF Format
Please print them and take them around the Duluth-Superior area to businesses and public locations willing to have them as well as distribute them to your friends and family. (Info on what to do with the signed forms afterward is noted on the forms themselves.)
We've also so far had articles in the "Reader" newspaper and downtown Duluth's "Hillsider" paper.
The plan is to get 1,000 petition signatures plus 30 - 40 business advertising/ organization pledges and then take our proposal to another local station. SO IF YOU CAN GET SIGNATURES ON THE ADVERTISING PLEDGE FORMS, THAT WOULD BE GRAND!
A BIG THANKS GOES OUT TO KATE HART AT SUNHILLOW BOOKS in Duluth! She has collected more petition signatures than anyone. Please show your appreciation by shopping at Sunhillow, located at 510 E 4th Street in Duluth.
In closing, Progressive Action puts the answer to the question of how we're doing in this effort in the words of one of Air America's best, Thom Hartmann:
"Tag, you're it!"
Thanks for your help in bringing back progressive talk radio
Help Progressive Action Bring Air America Radio Back to the Twin Ports!
Our progressive friend Al Franken is off the air now, his Air America Radio show a thing of the past. The network is left without his infectious cackle and splendid guests after Franken’s multi-year stint on the progressive talk network and his move on to a U.S. Senate campaign against the dreaded Bush sycophant, Senator Norm Coleman.
Yet in those final days of Franken glory, there was no Air America to listen to Franken on here in the Twin Ports.
Why?
Because at midnight on the night of January 31st, KQDS-AM 1490 Red Rock Radio in Duluth stealthily flipped its programming from the fresh air of Air America’s Progressive Talk—and such bastions of integrity as Al Franken, Thom Hartmann, and Sam Seder—to the dank atmosphere of overused oldies music.
If you’re a radio aficionado such as myself, life has not been the same since. We’ve missed sorely the stellar guests on the Air America shows—progressive senators, governors, and leaders in the peace movement. Interviews with the likes of Virginia’s newly elected Senator Jim Webb, Wisconsin’s Senator Russ Feingold, and political writers from The Nation or Newsweek or the New York Times. People you don’t hear from anywhere else in the corporate-dominated U.S. media.
Here’s how the national organization Nonstop Radio describes the situation, at their website, www.NonStopRadio.com:
“When 1490 KQDS-AM was pulled from the air, it was like a thief came in the night to steal away the only Progressive Talk station in a city that votes overwhelmingly Democratic, election after election. Left with a future of only
conservative talk programming, we rose up to do something about it! Join us!”
Nonstop Radio is based in Madison, Wisconsin, begun by the folks who saved that city’s Air America station and who want to help communities across the U.S. save theirs as well, amidst an ocean of neo-conservative talkers such as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly. They have offered to help, with an online petition and a Yahoogroups email list dedicated to discussing this Air America effort.
And in case you’ve heard the Rush Limbaugh-ish untruths about Air America’s poor performance, take a gander at this: The new Aribtron ratings are out, and the ratings for hosts on Air America shows keep skyrocketing. Take Thom Hartmann’s show for example. At WPTT-AM in Pittsburgh, his market share increased by 100%. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, on WTKG it increased by 114%. And on KTNF in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Hartmann’s ratings increased by 120%.
Here’s How You Can Take Action Now
1. If you’re not a computer maven, sign the petition to bring back Progressive Talk at Green Mercantile, Essence of Health, or Sunhillow Books in Duluth. Many other locations in Duluth and Superior are being added in the coming days.
2. Otherwise, go to Nonstop Radio’s website, www.NonstopRadio.com, and at the top of the screen, choose Duluth. Click "Sign the Duluth/Superior Petition to Bring Progressive Talk Back to the Airwaves."
4. Return to the Nonstop Radio page, and click "Join the Duluth/Superior Progressive Talk Yahoo Group" (you’ll send emails to this group by addressing them to dsptalk@yahoogroups.com).
5. Pass this information on to all of your email lists and friends, and ask them to
sign the petition either at a petition location in Duluth-Superior or at NonStopRadio.com.
6. Call in to the Air America talk shows, and fill the country in on our plight! Tell the talk show host and the listeners that Duluth, Minnesota has lost its Air America programming. Ask them to go to NonStopRadio.com to sign our online petition. Here’s how to call the shows:
Thom Hartmann Show call 866-440-THOM (8466)
Sam Seder Show and The Majority Report call 866-303-2270
Ed Schultz Show 877-934-6833
Randi Rhodes Show call 866.303.2270
To find more show phone listings, go to www.airamerica.com
Looking Into New Radio Territory for Air America in Duluth-Superior
It won’t be KQDS 1490 AM that we’ll be working on to bring back Progressive Talk. Here’s Nonstop Radio’s opinion of KQDS’s handling of the Air America programming:
”1490 KQDS-AM was Duluth and Superior’s Progressive Talk station, carrying Ed
Schultz, Al Franken, Sam Seder, and many more on a paltry 1000-Watt signal that
made the ratings it managed to earn truly impressive. The owner of the only
Progressive Talk outlet (in a city that votes heavily Democratic each and every
election) terribly neglected it, not even deigning to put up the most
rudimentary website—its fans put together a MySpace page so they had an
online gathering point. When it was shut down, midnight January 31, 2007, there
was no warning, having had advertisers in to renew sponsorships and ad buys just
the week before without a peep given to the upcoming format flip.
The proud Progressive and Liberal folk of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior,
Wisconsin aren't going to let that be the end of their sole oasis in a market
that boasts several conservative talk stations. They are gathering support to
flip another station in their market to carry the radio they demand. Time to
roll up your sleeves and get in there with them.”
Stephanie Miller’s show, broadcast on Air America stations across the country, including the Twin Cities, is the top-rated talk show in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market. Where encouraged to continue, across the United States Air America is thriving. The progressive network has restructured its debt and has found a buyer, so its temporary financial woes are in control.
It’s time not only to see the return of Air America to our area but also an expansion of its talk show hosts. My first vote goes to adding the Stephanie Miller Show, which was not aired in Duluth during Red Rock’s Air America days but is aired in many, many other markets across the country. Sure, Miller might be renowned on her show for drinking cheap box wine and keeping an unseemly list of Future Husbands (including Senators Feingold and Webb). However, she brings not only truthful and detailed information about the day’s issues but also an insightful sense of humor. And in today’s world, humor counts for a lot.
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