Left of the Dial

When progressive talk radio started, no one really gave it a shot. A lot of predictions were given, a lot of false reporting and a lot of mistakes were made. But compared to the career of the standard bearer of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh's, most of the shows have done quite well.

Having virtually 0% of the market share within a couple of years they now have about 10% of it. On their TV and radio conservatives have demeaned and predicted the demise of it continuously, media monopolies have less owners and much easier manipulation of the marketplace, and the odds of a new format working at all.

The first hurdle surely hurt investment and didn't help public opinion. The second can be illustrated in the several examples of buy outs of smaller radio stations that dared broadcast liberal talk. In Utah, in Chicago, in New York, and in smaller markets stations were purchased and the format dropped. Few people know this but when Sean Hannity is aired in a market, those stations have to air immediately after Rush Limbaugh, to get his listeners, and other shows offered by FoxNews radio networks must also be aired. That's hardly a fair market place.

Despite the odds, many shows have them beat. Randi Rhodes, on live at 1PM on AM760 has been a liberal radio pioneer, broadcasting locally in West Palm Beach for years before going national. On the same station that has Rush Limbaugh, who also broadcasts out of West Palm. Randi carried AirAmerica on her back, being the only real radio host with any meaningful experience on the network when it first began a few years back. You might remember, she made some rather lewd comments about Hillary Clinton a few months back and was effectively forced to resign. She made radio history. Within the next week and a half she was back on the air in most of the same affiliates she was on when she was working for AirAmerica with a new broadcast partner, NovaM. She moved back to West Palm Beach, and stills goes on right after Rush on the station she broadcasts from. And she kicks his a$$. One might be put off by her style and her mood swings, but she has her facts straight. She does a tremendous amount of research and despite providing a lot of that ifno on her web site she always encourages her listeners to check things out for themselves and to not trust her or any other talk radio host.

Another host out of Fargo, the meat eating, gun toting lefty from the heartland, Ed Schultz took a different path. A former broadcaster in sports and a little conservative talk, he was made an offer he couldn't refuse. A group of Democrats agreed to fund his show and got him on a couple of stations. In short order he was successful enough on his own to pay his backers back. His show was picked up by the jones Radio Network and the former initial investors of none other than Rush himself. Ed is the coolest, and if markets really did provide the best product he's be bigger than Rush. He has conservative callers and guests on all the time. Richard Vigory, a conservative legend comes on every couple of months to politely disagree for example. But that's not all. He isn't afraid to rankle the "liberal establishment" either. He will address criticism if he is deemed too soft on a guest or caller not liberal enough for some with his refrain "this is where America comes to talk." He means it. If you honestly enjoy a show with a dialogue between the left and the right with a fair amount of respect, this is your show. Make no mistake, he will go after conservative's and some he treats with more respect than others, but if you call his show, he'll give you a shot to make your case.

Locally, Jay Marvin in the morning on AM760 from 6-10 is on just before Ed. If you aren't familiar with the name, he's bounced around from town to town, packing and unpacking, up and down the dial for decades. Admittedly, usually the lefty the punching bag for a right wing host with a right wing audience. The Colmes to another's Hannity, if you will. Over the few years I've listened to him, I've heard an angry guy turn into a more empathetic and fair host. Instead of calling certain callers "brain stems" when he strongly disagrees, he tries to hear them and to be heard by them too. He used to be part of the old World Wrestling Federation as a ring announcer, and spun country music records back in the day. Another host, who will try to treat you fairly, even if you disagree. And another host, not afraid to beat back criticism from the lefties who want someone to tear people a new you know what.

Thom Hartmann is broadcast at 7PM on 760 on a delay. Probably one of the smartest men on the planet today. He's written books on ADD to economics, our founding fathers and a tome on the JFK assassination that concludes the mob probably did it that was made into a special on the History channel. He has a conservative guest on pretty much every day to debate. From the Cato Institute to the Ayn Rand Institute. He'll interview authors like Jonah Goldberg who wrote a book on "Liberal Fascism." Of course they disagree. But it is always respectful and he leads his callers after words to not attack the guest but stick to facts. This guy raises the level of discourse to the nth degree. Though he does have a kind of out there theory about pigeons really being alien robots sent to spy on us. When you hear him tell it, it makes so much sense. Of course, he is kidding. Or is he?

I'm asking anyone out there that hasn't checked out progressive radio to give it a shot. Even if you don't dig talk radio in general. It's not the same as the right side of the dial and it ain't NPR either.