What’s At Stake
by Brian Maloney, February 13th, 2007 at 01:45pm
Writing for Human Events, D R Tucker has done an outstanding job of explaining just what’s been lost with WRKO’s recent moves to water down its programming:
Ever since the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, liberals have been trying to figure out a way to eliminate conservative talk radio. It appears that in Boston, Mass., they’ve actually managed to do it.
Since the early-1980s, Boston talk station WRKO-AM has been an oasis for blue-staters with red-state sensibilities. Their hosts have been among the few media figures in the Bay State to openly support Presidents Reagan and Bush and to criticize the likes of Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and President Clinton. ‘RKO hosts such as Howie Carr and the late Jerry Williams ruled the ratings for years, along with syndicated hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.
WRKO has long been the target of liberal Massachusetts media and political types who’ve accused the station’s hosts of being prejudiced against minorities, illegal immigrants and homosexuals. For years, the station’s management resisted the urge to knuckle under to political correctness. Beginning late last year, however, things began to change.
Last fall, WRKO’s local hosts drew fire for their support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey in her fight against Democrat contender Deval Patrick. The local hosts—Carr, Scott Allen Miller and John DePetro—were repeatedly accused of racism by liberal callers incensed by the hosts’ refusal to back Patrick, who happens to be African-American. In the face of unrelenting attacks, WRKO’s management began to show weakness.
A few days before the 2006 election, WRKO abruptly fired DePetro, allegedly for making derogatory remarks about a third-party gubernatorial candidate. After the election (which Healey lost), there was a notable lack of strong criticism of the new governor, a highly unusual state of affairs considering the criticism Patrick had received in September and October. A feminist former state legislator who was once the station’s token liberal suddenly became the station’s go-to substitute host. And in January, WRKO announced that it would dismiss Miller in favor of former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran, an anti-tax-cut, anti-death-penalty Democrat who had just pleaded guilty to perjury charges in federal court.
WRKO’s conservative fanbase, as one might expect, is highly disillusioned by these changes; there is tremendous concern that as part of the station’s apparent effort to appeal to the state’s Democrat majority, Limbaugh and Savage will soon be dropped, along with Carr and DePetro replacement Todd Feinburg. While there is hope that a conservative talk station owned by Salem Communications Inc. will move to a stronger signal in order to reach the listeners WRKO has evidently decided to abandon, it seems that, for now, Bay State non-liberals will be bereft of representation in the media (while there is another major talk station in the region, WTKK-FM, only one host, Michael Graham, can be classified as a solid conservative.)
Massachusetts Democrats are obviously rejoicing. For years, WRKO’s hosts pointed out the fallacy of their arguments and the gaps in their logic. Now, those hosts are being replaced by talkers who feel that the Democrats can do no wrong. While a valiant effort is being made to challenge the station’s decisions, it appears that WRKO’s management is too stubborn to listen. They have decided to turn left—and that just isn’t right.
It boils down to this: in terms of ratings and revenue, conservative talk has long been highly successful in Boston, even more so than in many other cities.
As a result, there is no business reason for watering down right- leaning programming, it’s all about satisfying the personal political agendas of station (and Red Sox?) insiders.
Entry Filed under: General
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