Radio Free Florida

June 21 2007

I am listening to 1240 AM here in southwest Florida, and am hearing for the first time one of Rush's parody spots. It's in the style of old-radio comedy—quick, punchy, and relevant. Pretty witty, too. It's a skit about the anti-tobacco nazi's finding you and your last, safe, refuge in which to light up your cigarette—your own home. It beautifully illustrates the intrusion that the Left's cabal of shadow agencies, known as political correctness, are positioned to inflict on the good American people.

This skit was preceded by a quick local news roundup minute. In it, we heard that a local jewelry store was the latest in a multitude of robberies in Ft Myers of late. According to the news anchor, the owner of the store believed that he was the victim of a copycat robbery. A quarter of a million dollars was taken from the store.

A copycat crime? Involving these high-dollar jewelry stores with better-than-average security systems? Incredible. This metro includes Naples, and the stores there aren't run like many other businesses--that is, on the cheap.

Times must be getting rough. Crime does escalate in times of economic depression. Is it a repression or a depression? I don't think we're in a depression, as defined by most economists (that is, x amount of consecutive quarters with little to no growth), but then again, it doesn't matter what I think. Some people think that our condition here in America is so dire, that they would risk their lives to rob jewelry stores. And that's all it takes.

Shall we empathize with them? That's what our current elite in academia are constantly emphasizing to the hordes of young minds to bask in—Empathy. They don't give them any way out, either. It's always delivered as a mental straight-jacket: "How would you have liked to have been the slave to someone who beat you?"; "How would you like to be so poor and ignored that all you could do is strap bombs on yourselves to get your point across?"; "How would you like to be told to stay home and raise the children?"

I don't think we should empathize with these jewelry thieves. But then again, it doesn't matter what I think. I am a white male, Southern, and Christian. I know my place in this culture. It is because of me and my people that America is what it is: a racist, oppressive, reactionary empire. I've gotten the full load—I achieved a Liberal Arts degree in the early-mid 90's. Specifically, Political Science. Ask me if I understand that all we are is a product of society, and I'll ask what postmodernist book have you been reading lately.

But I digress.

This spot that I heard of Rush's highlighted one thing to me: that radio sales can't even fill the top-of-the-hour avails during the Rush Limbaugh Show. Incredible. This city metro of Fort Myers/Naples is nothing if not a high-end retail oasis. Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, and many, many other boutique-style stores litter Tamiami Trail. Sure, we don't expect them to be bread-and-butter clients of radio advertising, but my point is that with that many high-end stores, there has got to be a considerable amount of mid-size and little businesses surrounding these premiere businesses. Don't the rich need transmission work on their luxury cars? Don't their landscapers need to buy their groceries at Wal-Mart, Publix, and Winn-Dixie? Sure they do.
And the abundance of retail stores here is staggering. Recent estimates are that 1,000 people a month move into Cape Coral. This place is known as such an expensive place to live that most of the housebuilders live in surrounding counties. Tons of realtors, title offices, and specialty clinics dot the entire county. If a business is trying to spread their message to an audience that has disposable income, this county is full of them.

But no, this local affiliate couldn't even fill this 60-second avail, positioned at such a high-profile placement, too. Top of the hour, between Rush's second and third hour. He plays these wonderful gems of radio production from his flagship, while MOST other affiliates drop it for broadcast of their local elements: either commercials or local news. If you are hearing one of these Johnny Donovan-produced spots about some subject you've never heard addressed before, you're hearing the sound of some jewelry store shutting the cash drawer in the face of a radio salesman.

What Happened To Ya', Phil?

Minority Broadcasters: "We Matter More Than You"

"Minority Broadcasters Ask For Bailout"

Who suggested any such rescue for white broadcasters like me? After nearly twenty years as a successful drive-time announcer in several middle to large markets, I was faced with either reading the writing on the wall or crying “unfair” and going on welfare.

So I put myself through nightschool at a local trade college for two years in Microsoft Network Engineering while working full time at a Clear Channel station by day. I started the AS degree in ‘06, after I saw how miserable the future of electronic broadcasting was. RADIO IS DYING, and you can talk to the thousands of announcers who have been replaced by voicetracking software if you don’t believe me.

Ad revenue has been drying up steadily since the internet came on the scene. The two largest radio companies in America, Clear Channel [almost dead] and Cumulus, have been a nightmarish revolving door of sales people for about ten years, now. The sales rep is tasked with trying to milk ad dollars from local businesses in a time when the competition for radio’s main attraction-music-is delivered with better quality and infinite variety thanks to the digital world we call the internet. The same is true for your favorite AM talk shows, of course. I have long said that the future of terrestrial radio is that of an Amber Alert/weather/Emergency Alert system here in America. Ugly but true.

We are the proverbial ice man in the face of the new invention, the refridgerator.

This current recession is only the final blow to the thousands of AM and FM stations across America that have been firing your favorite dj’s, overplaying stupid public service announcements because they don’t have a 30 second spot to replace them with, and trying to sell their entire stations for a decade or more, now.

Typical minorities looking for a handout will try to spin this as only a recent catastrophe being bore out on their “communities” worse than others, but the truth is that their time has come, and they are no more special than the poor white communities in Appalachia who love and depend on their local country radio stations. But you don’t see them trying to throw a pity party to rob our beleagured US treasury.

Minority Broadcasters Try Direct Appeal to Geithner, Ask for Industry Help Key legislators also ask treasury secretary to consider financial backing

By John Eggerton — Broadcasting & Cable, July 13, 2009

Fourteen minority broadcasters have sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking for help for their industry, which they argue is in danger of extinction.

That direct appeal for help followed a letter to the secretary from some key legislators including Majority Whip (and father of FCC commission nominee Mignon Clyburn) Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), and Democratic Reps. Barney Frank (MA) and Charlie Rangel (NY) asking Geithner to "pay attention" to the plight of minority broadcasters. That includes considering help to free up credit and financing government-backed bridge loans, similar to steps taken to help the ailing auto industry.

Helping the auto industry would help broadcasters by extension since, for many, the biggest category of local ad dollars is from car dealerships. But the broadcasters are looking for some direct assistance as well.

In the letter adding their voices to that of the legislators, representatives of Entravision, Inner City Broadcasting, and a dozen others, including National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters James Winston, outlined a stark scenario.

"Unlike the auto business, broadcasting has been healthy for many years and, upon a recovery, could shortly be restored to a path of growth with some temporary assistance," they wrote. "Given the global credit crisis, plummeting ad revenues, no-minority dictates by advertisers, and changes in Arbitron audience measurement, which have further deflated ad pricing, the short-term financial outlook for our broadcasting companies is not good. Many of us are now, or will soon be, weathering significant defaults of our credit facilities. Ironically, the loss of automobile advertising revenues, a substantial source of revenue for broadcast stations, is also weighing heavily on our businesses."

Without that help, they warned, minority ownership, already only in the low single digits as a percentage of all owners could sink even lower. "What will happen to the communities we serve," they asked, "if this once in a lifetime financial crisis completely severs our access to capital and we lose our stations?"

While they said they were not "diminish[ing] the worthiness" of other bailout beneficiaries, they also said it would be "unconscionable to have financial institutions that have accepted billions of federal government assistance foreclose on these vital American voices," voices they pointed out were the "the primary source of news and entertainment for millions of minority communities."

The FCC is currently collecting data on the number of minority owners. The broadcasters’ letter suggests that unless the government steps in that collecting process should be relatively easy since there won’t be very many to count. (source)

MSM Diary: When They Finally Get It Right (the John Ziegler radio interview with Sarah Palin)

Of course I don't mean to besmirch the excellent work of John Ziegler with the moniker of MSM (mainstream media), but this report of mine is part of a series on this blog, and thus is labled under my "MSM Diary" series.

I respect the immensely important work that Mr Ziegler has accomplished for the past couple of years, and advise anyone reading this blog to check out his website, howobamagotelected.

If you're like me, a long-time student of American politics, you have no doubt about the overwhelming tilt of American television and print news agencies to the left. Part of the reason I started this blog was to chronicle the daily events in American politics, highlighting the way that our media serves us their take on the news.

Luckily, John Ziegler's painstaking work is available in video form, for those of us who find it exhausting to keep up with the massive amount of lies, distortions, and propaganda that our electronic and print media try to force us to believe. His documentary is called Media Malpractice, and you can order it here.

Rush Interview On Hannity 06/03/09

Why FM Radio Is For Not Only The Brainwashed, But The Brain-Dead

Simply put, FM radio is only as intelligent as the lowest common denominator in the USA. Take it from someone who worked in it, off and on, for over 20 years, in market sizes from 214 to 60: the program directors are usually the most jealous, have biggest egos, yet the lowest IQs in the business.

They control what comes out of the mouths of the other jocks in the rest of the station's dayparts to which you are listening. They control EVERY song that gets played in the 24-hour rotation, while so many think that (fill in the blank) dj is playing something that he/she was in the mood to hear.

They are famous for underestimating the audience, anticipating that the average listener is as clueless about culture, history, or anything meaningful on this planet as is he.

It is what has destroyed fm radio, in my opinion, besides a lot of bad business decisions made by bean counters who weren't satisfied with the way mom and pop-owned stations were doing things.

Take for example WMMR. The "wild and crazy" midday jock there is some Wavy Gravy wannabe. He is one of the few jocks that tries to address something of substance--the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

WHAT???? you may shriek. I know, I know. Some aging boomer is left standing in an active-rock format outside of Philly, and he's surrounded by brilliant things like tits and asses from the girls gone wild in the radio audience, (average lowest common denominator-types, of course), offers to attend a BBQ with Papa Roach, concerts, baseball games, and Facebook and Twitter links...and he tries to introduce the Middle East Problem to the same Neanderthals who can't even find their own country on a world map!

Just what is the nature of the discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian issue that "Pierre Robert", who keeps you rockin' through the lunch hour every day on WMMR, wants to expand upon? Well, he points the hungry-for-learning WMMR listener to a blogger account with two supposedly "unbiased" residents in Gaza and Israel for further learning.

Frankly, it's the biggest bunch of NOTHING that I've ever run across. The Gaza resident never even brings up Hamas, or how they are placing their gun systems in civilian apartments in Gaza, hiding behind adolescent boys when firing at the Jews, or the history of the conflict at all. The Israeli writer says nothing of importance, either, except that war is bad.

Can the average WMMR listener even recite the wars that have been waged against Israel for the past 60 years? Can they name the amounts of nations that ganged up against the one, lone, country? How about the origin and definition of the disputed territories?

The answer is "no" to all of the above questions, I'm sure, despite the fact that you don't have to be a poli sci major to know the answers, much less a college grad. I knew the answers to them well before I entered college. I picked up newspapers and read them from a young age because my conscience told me that it was important to learn these things that change history and challenge my country.

(And it also wasn't because I had a teacher in public school who opened my eyes to these things, or even parents who instructed me to search out these answers. My teachers were mostly liberal or had shallow understandings of these issues, no doubt because their college teaching programs taught them to ignore the reasons why America is great. I remember in 1978 hearing one of my teachers explain why we weren't studying Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone: today's teachers, she explained, weren't to accent the more romantic elements of our country's origins for fear of making the participants into heroes, you see.
As far as my parents go, both never went to college. My mother is very intelligent, but missed out on a lot of formal education. She is an avid reader, however, to this day. My father was a monosyllabic country bumpkin who resented me for my vocabulary and depth from an early age, and constantly made fun of me for it. I left my house at 17, and never looked back.)

After reading them both for painful blog after blog, I began to suspect that this is all a ruse, designed to make the average idiot listener of WMMR believe that both sides are to blame in this conflict.

Which, by implication, makes the reader think that there isn't a clear side for which to support.

Again, this is exactly why I left this industry--weak idiots only interested in keeping the masses stupid and selling cars in the meantime after every three songs.

The Smug Left: WFMU's Terre T Shows Her Ignorance

Have you ever noticed that most people who can't support their claim usually rely on crutch phrases and drawn out effects as a defensive tactic? For instance:

ANNCR: Ok, there is a politician who is the RNC chairman who wants to run with his campaign theme song being, "Barrack The Magic Negro". And I'm just like, you want to be the head of the RNC and you...want to use...that song...as your theme song! And I'm just like...HELLO!

Ok. "Hello", what? What is your point? What is in the song, if we may push back the darkness a bit, here?

That is the equivalent of what happens in this exchange from a Terre T's Cherry Blossom Clinic program from Saturday, Jan 3rd, 2009. It was broadcast on WFMU public radio station, and you can listen to it here.

If you notice, this break is more or less a team break, with someone named Sue or something in the background adding her idiocy. They are both cackling about a parody song that first appeared on Rush Limbaugh's highly successful show. It was performed by the immensely talented Paul Shanklin, and you can listen to it here.

As you listen to the first stanza, you can't help but hear the singer ("Al Sharpton") say that "the LA Times called him that ["Barrack The Magic Negro"] 'cause he's not authentic like me".

Well, if you had even an ounce of objectivity and intelligence, you would realize that Paul Shanklin's song here, which is being shrieked at by the Left as a Republican statement, is no more than a parody of the very words from the African American Wing in the Democrat Party!

Read this original excerpt from a David Ehrenstein of the L.A. Times, in which he demonstrates a cognitive problem distinguishing real life from movies. He starts this article, which ran almost two years ago, by speaking of this new Senator from Illinois, claiming that Barrack is the Magic Negro of postmodern folklore:
"The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro .

He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest." (source)

The joke is on you, Terre T, and your troll-sounding partner, there. In a more perfect world you two might not be so ignorant, and you'd know what is really funny about this entire flap, but you're too smug and prejudiced in this life, caste to make these stupid comments for the world to hear.

"They can dish it out, but they can't take it". Just WHAT exactly can we not take??? We're the party of rock-ribbed discipline and sacrafice, theirs is the party of Dionysian excess, and that co-host says something like that? In fact, it seems like quite the non-sequitor. The claim is that when protested about using a parody as a campaign song, that we come back with the explanation, "Oh come on, take a joke. It's funny!"

Yet the charge from that annecdote is that "they can dish it out but they can't take it." According to the dizzy claim made by Ms Politically Stupid, Terre's reporting of the Republican response makes the GOP retort sound like a mature consideration of the charge, then a simple, understandable explanation: It's a JOKE.

How does 'Lighten up, it's a joke', qualify as "Not being able to take it"? Frankly, Ms Politically Stupid #2, or, "Sue", sounds like she's seen her better days. Isn't it ironic that she can sneer and condescend against Republicans for perceived racism, yet blithely cackle and mock the hip-hop culture as a white girl who, tee-hee, has been given the Wu Tang Clan nickname of "Antagoniza", just to prove how "down with the struggle" she is. In truth, the closest she's ever come to black people is when she has to ride the subway.

She's so stupid that she doesn't see her own racism while decrying the racism in an entire half of America.

But, she's on the public station of fame in New Jersey, WFMU, carrying on as most of the smug, self-assured, know-it-all punks in college do. They hear existentialism, nihilism, and postmodernism all day from the Lords Of Your Future, known as professors, who forget just how artificial and surreal their surroundings, their job, and their work really is. Too many of them take themselves way too seriously, and the propoganda of Leftist collectivism spreads like a cancer, manifesting in class envy, victimism, and general hate of The American Way.

The two women on this break are quintessential Leftists I've run into at college and elsewhere in life: Worshipping secularism as their moral authority, proclaiming cultural relativism as the optimum formula for mankind, while ridiculing anyone who follows the traditions of this country. 'Smugness' best describes it for me, and it seems to me that one day these people will be made to answer for their mockery.