Liberal Talk Radio Off Air in South Florida

WINZ 940 AM, South Florida's radio link to Air America and liberal talk, was replaced by sports talk last Friday. Believe it or not, this news doesn't exactly thrill me. In fact, in a market already super-saturated with sports talk, an alternative talk station, even a liberal one, is/was welcome. This is of course my personal view. Others may be throwing wild parties at the news that Air America can no longer be heard in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market.

Via SFDB comes this blog saddened by the demise of liberal talk 940 AM. The blog, Radio or Not, is authored by Nicole Sandler, a radio veteran who had a morning show on 940 AM before being dropped last summer. Sandler makes some points which I would like to comment on:

(The loss of liberal talk) hurts because, even though the Democrats control both houses of Congress and the White House, the giant corporation and conglomerates that own and operate the majority of the radio stations in the country continue to push the fallacy that liberal talk radio can't work.

The fact is that it can. In cities where the signals of the "liberal" and the "conservative" stations are on par with each other, and where the stations are also on an equal footing when it comes to resources, they are quite competitive.

Let me refute the competitive angle by stating that in the case of WIOD (conservative talk) and 940 AM in South Florida, both stations are owned by the same entity, Clear Channel. Both transmitters have plenty of juice, with 940 able to heard as far away as Fort Myers on the west coast. For a little background, please click here for a post back in February which covered talk radio in South Florida, and click here for the ratings for the past year. The ratings show that WIOD beat 940 by more than double, despite being owned by the same company and having the same geographical reach. This is even more noteworthy considering that English-speaking South Florida isn't exactly a bastion of conservatism. Comparing apples to apples, liberal talk in South Florida was roundly defeated.

Sandler continues by railing on "big business" which is "best served" by Republicans:

But let's look at it another way... Most radio stations are operated by BIG business. As much as the right likes to label the media as liberal, the fact is that most media outlets are owned by BIG corporations, whose interests are best served by the Republican agenda. Deregulation, tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, tax loopholes for those same BIG businesses... you get the idea.

It's no wonder that 90% of the stations that air political talk opt to promote their conservative/Republican ideology.

Do they have an audience? Yes. Is there an audience for an opposing viewpoint? YES!

BIG business is interested in one thing, making BIG money, not spreading their ideology, whichever that might be. How they arrive at making said BIG money depends solely on one thing, the consumer. If liberal talk was such a big success (which naturally it's not), Clear Channel and other media conglomerates would be making sure that Air America remains a healthy entity. However, those pesky ratings prove otherwise, which goes back to the consumer thing.

South Florida's ratings for conservative vs. liberal talk is the sole argument one needs to present to show why Clear Channel dumped the liberal talk format. In TV and print media, where liberals DO dominate (sorry Ms. Sandler), "BIG business" is equally concerned with one thing: ratings. TV gets a large part of their ratings via their prime time lineup, fueled by liberal Hollywood. TV news coverage leans left, especially on the networks and all cable channels except FOX. On the print side: New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune.....the country's biggest newspapers all lean left, as do the vast majority of papers nationwide.

The liberal viewpoint is heard every single hour of every single day via various formats. If talk radio, the only media outlet where conservatives have established a foothold, hasn't embraced liberal talk, it's not because of "Republican BIG Business". It's because of a lack of quality talent as well as an over-saturation of left-leaning news and viewpoints in our media which don't necessarily represent a large part of America.

Sorry, Ms. Sandler. Your argument that media conglomerates are purposely holding down liberal talk radio is flawed on many levels. I think the points presented here easily dispatch this assertion.

I believe Clear Channel wants to test the South Florida sports talk waters, where until now they weren't an active participant in. They probably think they can knock off competitor WQAM and get better ratings than they did with the liberal talk format (it's interesting to note that liberal talk 940 edged out WQAM's ratings). Again, it's all about ratings.

As well-intentioned and passionate as Nicole Sandler appears to be about her business, as well as my understanding of her disappointment at the loss of her preferred radio format in South Florida, her concluding paragraph raised my eyebrows:

I do appreciate the extra effort it takes to listen to the Radio or Not Podcast. I know that the day will come, in the not-too-distant future, when listening to a podcast in your car will be as easy as pushing a button. Unfortunately, timing is not on our side in South Florida today, where at 6:00 this evening, the option of pushing a button and hearing someone who is politically in line with the people who run our country will be lost. Somehow, that seems very un-American!

I think it's safe to say Ms. Sandler would embrace the Fairness Doctrine like a long, long lost friend. That, my friends, is what's truly un-American.

The Fairness Doctrine and South Florida Radio

As any typical conservative, I am vehemently against the Fairness Doctrine. I can spend the next several sentences describing why, but essentially it's a slap in the face to freedom of expression and free-market principles.

I've often thought about what impact a Fairness Doctrine would have on South Florida radio. I did a little research on local radio, particularly focusing on AM stations focusing on talk, and the end result is an interesting, if not unpredictable, example.

South Florida may be one of the few markets with separate AM stations dedicated to or focused on conservative and liberal talk. These stations are WIOD and WINZ, respectively. For those of you from outside South Florida and/or unfamiliar with our talk radio landscape, here's a listing of each station's weekday lineup:

WIOD's weekday schedule:

5-9 AM: First News with Jimmy Cefalo
9 AM-Noon: Glenn Beck
Noon-3 PM: Rush Limbaugh
3-6 PM: Schnitt Show
6-9 PM: Sean Hannity
9-11 PM: Mark Levin

WINZ's weekday schedule:

1-6 AM: Air America Radio (Mondays)
Midnight-3 AM: Alan Colmes (Tuesday-Friday)
3-6 AM: Thom Hartmann (Tuesday-Friday)
5-9 AM: Don Imus
9 AM-Noon: Stephanie Miller
Noon-3 PM: Thom Hartmann
3-6 PM: Randi Rhodes
6-9 PM: Lionel
9 PM-Midnight: Mike Malloy

Here are the 2008 Arbitron ratings for each station:

2008 Arbitron Ratings Miami/Fort Lauderdale

As you can see, WIOD (conservative news/talk) easily beat WINZ ("Progressive" Radio). In a diverse area such as South Florida, this is no easy task. Especially when you consider that this market includes Broward County, which is likely the most liberal county in Florida, and Miami-Dade County which isn't exactly a conservative haven once you get outside of the Cuban-American community.

There's one significant wrinkle I haven't yet mentioned, but the knowledgeable or astute reader may have already caught: both stations are owned by the same company, Clear Channel. In essence, Clear Channel is practicing the Fairness Doctrine, although entirely by choice (the way it should be). South Florida liberals have nothing to complain about when it comes to talk radio (there's actually a third station in the market, WFTL -owned by James Crystal Enterprises - which also leans conservative but whose signal doesn't penetrate too far into Miami-Dade County).

The Spanish-language radio market may be a different story, however. Three of the 4 main AM talk stations are dominated by Cuban-American personalities and, with some variance, traditional Cuban-American points of view. These are WAQI (the famous Radio Mambí), WQBA and WWFE (La Poderosa). The fourth station is WSUA Radio Caracol, which caters to a more diverse Latin American audience. Without doubt, most of these stations tilt toward the conservative side. The top 2 stations in the ratings, Mambí and WQBA, are owned by Univision.

It's probably safe to say that a Fairness Doctrine would impact the South Florida Spanish-language radio market to a large degree. Univision would probably have to significantly change or break up one of their 2 stations, giving Caracol and La Poderosa an advantage they currently don't enjoy.

Despite conservative-leaning WIOD's big advantage and Clear Channel's domination of the English market, it wouldn't be all roses for them either under a Fairness Doctrine. Clear Channel, despite its balance between conservative and liberal on their 2 stations, could be forced to air more local programming to provide further "balance". This doesn't necessary have to be a bad thing, but aside from Jimmy Cefalo's morning show, who's going to step up and give a station solid ratings? Remember the Footy Show experiment? Jim DeFede on WINZ? All locals. All losers in the ratings, unfortunately.

I would like to hear your comments on this.

Changes to South Florida Radio

I found out about this kind of late, but Contemporary Christian station WMCU 89.7 FM, otherwise known as Spirit FM, has been sold to American Public Media Group. Spirit FM had been one of the more stable, if not obscure, stations in the market, offering Christian-themed contemporary music for a long time.

To me, that's somewhat bad news. I'm not a big listener of the station, but the few times I did listen I was pleased by the non-sensationalistic, positive message the music and broadcasters conveyed.

However, not all is lost. Not by a long shot.

American Public Media Group will convert 89.7 FM to a classical music format. That's right, the void of classical music on FM reaching a large audience in South Florida is coming to a thankful end. I am most definitely looking forward to once again having a professional, first-class classical music station in South Florida.

We deserve it. Let's support this station and the cultural benefits it will no doubt provide to our community.

Classical Airwaves

For those of you who are still bemoaning the loss of classical music on public radio airwaves in South Florida, I recently discovered that there is a station playing classical music from 4 AM to 10 AM daily.

It comes from an unlikely source - WRGP FM from Florida International University. It broadcasts on two frequencies; 88.1 FM covering South Dade and 95.3 FM covering Central Dade. The range of each transmitter pretty much sucks, but they're planning on adding another frequency at 96.9 FM originating from the North Miami campus which should reach North Dade and South Broward.

It's pretty decent from what I've heard. It's not as good as the old WTMI or what you would hear on Satellite Radio, but at least it's good that a college radio station which normally plays the standard college radio format dedicates a good chunk of the morning to playing classical music.