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
5 Comments
1. Andrea | February 13th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Day 2; Didn’t listen at all to Tom Felonius. Did pick up the phone and dialed in. Got right through and hung up.
2. theAguy | February 14th, 2007 at 3:19 am
It is obvious that DR Tucker has no idea what he is writing about.
There is no chance that Rush Limbo or Howie Carr will be dropped from the station. Salem will not find a better signal for Conservative talk. They already have one in 950 WROL but, they make more money selling time to Religious hucksters and Irish music programs than they do with their line up of 2nd tier of conservative talkers on AM 1150.
WRKO management is not interested in pushing any specific political philosophy. Their only interest is making as much money for their shareholders as possible.
3. Murphy | February 14th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Not that there has been any question of the sharp left turn that WRKO has taken in recent months, Finneran’s Felonious Fiasco Show this morning will play host to Liveshot Kerry.
I think I’ll tune back in for the interview, it should fuel a few good “Chump Line” calls.
4. raccoonradio | February 14th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
theAguy had a good point about Salem’s Boston cluster being more interested in making money from Irish music or relgious shows, but still:
http://www.talk1150.com
(Conservative is their middle name…):
Perhaps as part of a trend (I think Salem’s conservatalker in Cleveland is doing the same thing), WTTT 1150’s website now uses the slogan “Boston’s Conservative Talk” (similar to what WXKS/WKOX had except for the middle word). Thus they are definitely tying the hosts’ idealogy into their slogan…
(The site has a few pictures, including Mike Gallagher talking to soon-to-be-former AAR host Al Franken, and one of Jimi Carter, a WTTT staffer whom I believe used to work for Gene Burns and/or Jay Severin.)
Some of the conservatalk shows are being aired also on WROL 950, their sister station (especially
at night) and you wonder if Salem’s committment to political talk is getting stronger. Might they do
better with the conservatalk on the 950 signal,
or even WEZE 590? (Though their committment to
Christian teaching/preaching is probably their biggest concern). If they marketed themselves better
and got a local host on (didn’t Don Feder briefly do a show for them?), and wound up on a signal
like 590 or 950 instead of 1150, they could make inroads against the likes of WRKO and WTKK…
5. theAguy | February 14th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Salem already tried doing local talk on AM 950.
They had Ray Flynn, Dod Feder and Jerry Williams and sold time to Chuck Morse who did a show for about a year. It was a hugh flop.
Ray Flynn was a hugh bore and they didn’t spend a nickel on promotion.
They will continue to run conservative talk and sell national spots across all of their Salem stations. Boston is a major market so it makes sense for them to have an affiliate here.
There is word that John Batchelor may be back on the air this spring.
This may reduce Michael Savage’s time on RKO.
RKO was going to replace Savage with Batchelor
but Batchelor ended up taking a hiatius.
Between Carr, Limbaugh, Savage, Graham, Sevrin and all the TTT shows I don’t know how you people can complaine that there isn’t enough conservative talk on in Boston.