I AM PAUL WILSON

They keep denying that is in the works, so why do we keep hearing liberals talking about it.

Found this at the Toledo Blade. The first paragraph denies that it is in the works, that it is just conservatives yapping about it to raise ratings. Then in the second and third paragraphs are these gems.

Still, there’s nothing wrong with restoring the notion that a wide range of ideas ought to have a place on the nation’s radio airwaves, which are, after all, publicly owned – not the private property of a handful of corporate broadcasters.

One way to call attention to this principle would be for Congress to hold hearings, calling the AM radio potentates on the carpet to explain to the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet why their medium has become so one-sided in most communities. 

I can tell them why, and I’m not even a Rocket Scientist or a congress critter. People don’t listen to liberal radio, thousands of stations have tried it and most of them go back to music or turn Spanish.

They go on and on about how the poor residents of Toledo can’t find a liberal AM radio station to listen to. What? Toledo doesn’t carry Air America or NPR? How about TV? Don’t they get ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC or PBS or CSPAN?

According to a report from the Pew Research Center, in 2006 Clear Channel owned 1,190 radio stations, nearly four times as many as the next largest company, Cumulus Broadcasting, which owned 303. Along with Citadel Broadcasting, the number-three broadcast company at 225 stations, the trio owned more stations than the next 17 companies combined.

It is this concentration of ownership that is really at the center of the problem. He who controls the broadcast licenses controls the content of what goes out over the air, and any notion of a “public trust” be damned.

What could be more characteristic of a totalitarian state than limiting information to a narrow range of options? Democracy’s very survival depends on a public that is well-informed, sometimes whether they wish to be or not. 

What about KGO 81 here in the San Francisco bay area? 50 Thousand volts and 50 listeners. Son of a gun, it’s owned by that evil “Clear Channel” You can find fifty liberal AM radio stations in the bay area. Few listen to them. Most liberals I know, and there a lot of them, would rather listen to Rush, Sean Hannity or Mark Levin and call in to harass them. It is pretty funny to listen to some of those calls.

It’s time for Congress to ask why the AM airwaves continue to be dominated by a narrow viewpoint and what effect that has on issues of public concern. And if broadcasters do not willingly provide listeners the range of opinions they need to figure out where they stand on these issues, perhaps it is time for the FCC to require that they fulfill the public trust.

Better be careful what you wish for Bucko, it is a two way street. Is KGO 81 and PBS ready for Rush for three hours a day? Law mandated, this will be funny to watch. I love it when some group fights to take away the freedom of others, and it bites them in the ASS.