BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
e-mail delivery, click
here. To send
an e-mail to Dan Kennedy, click
here.
For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Monday, December 15, 2003
There's so much echo I'm getting
feedback. Al Giordano, whom I quote in my current Boston
Phoenix piece on plans to start a liberal
radio network, has
responded
on his weblog, Big,
Left, Outside. How could I
resist completing the circle?
Al disagrees with my analysis,
which is that the network is going to have to get at least some of
National Public Radio's 22 million weekly listeners to tune in. He
writes:
Do the young folks who
hang out at the Daily
Kos, or the
Democratic
Underground, or the
hundred-plus local Indymedia
sites turn to NPR on the dial? I doubt that they do in great
numbers: It's almost never cited as a credible news source at
those places. What about the 400,000 members of Howard Dean's
"MeetUp" groups, and all the others in the ones for Kucinich,
Clark, Kerry and the others? And the people they talk to who don't
attend meetings but who are radio listeners. Most of my readers
don't consider NPR a credible, or interesting, source. All the
progressive juice from the youth that is making this current
presidential election more interesting every day comes from a
demographic very distinct from the NPR crowd.
Does the all-important base of
the progressive majority to come - young blacks and Latinos
&endash; listen to NPR? Are you kidding? Most of them feel as I
do: NPR is a bad, white, joke.
To which I say: fine, but if
Central
Air, as the new network is
called, is going to succeed, it's going to have to put up some big
numbers. Central Air claims to be on the verge of acquiring radio
stations in five major markets, including Boston. That could cost
somewhere between $100 million and $150 million. They're not going to
pay off the note just by bringing in folks who hang out at Indymedia
websites.
For the record, I'm an NPR listener
who'd gladly give Central Air 20 minutes a day, as long as it doesn't
suck.
But if Al and I disagree, it really
doesn't matter, because Central Air seems to be on the right track.
Rather than bringing in a liberal blowhard to counter Rush Limbaugh,
the network is aiming for fast and funny (without necessarily giving
up substance), bringing in people like the great ex-Boston humorist
Barry
Crimmins and, though the
final details haven't been worked out, Al Franken and Janeane
Garofalo.
They ought to consider putting
Giordano on the air, too.
posted at 4:55 PM |
comment or permalink
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
