Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Radio in the High Latitudes

As I drove to the client site yesterday, I performed my normal scan of the AM dial to sample the local talk stations and save the more interesting candidates. (Invariably, the rental car, this time it is a sifty Buick Rendezvous fear-wheel-drive model, is tuned to the local Latino/hip-hop station. Perhaps a dope-smokin' FM rock-n-roller. I ALWAYS have to re-set the AM dial buttons.) My first impression, there are a LOT of Christian stations in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. As I drove around after the initial afternoon session I had found several political freqs. and settled into a Michael Medved broadcast. (It was a good thing too, as I kept getting flumexed attempting to find a non-construction constricted route back to the hotel. My second impression, is there ANY river-bridge in the area NOT being re-built this Summer?) I enjoy Medved while on the road, his broadcast time and my afternoon driving usually run concurrently. He is not on the air back in KC. So many choices, so little spectrum... ;-)

During this morning's drive I discovered one of the 'stations of interest' I had saved was Air-America! (Apparently they have kept up the payments up here...)

I found it was a real hoot! Unlike their reaction to the right-wing-conspiracy talk-show monopoly shows (or so they claim) I was mostly laughing at both what they were trying to pass-off as good radio as well as the 'de-bunking' of right-wing rhetoric. The whole thing was so predictable it was hilarious!

BTW, does anybody else find the name itself funny? It sounds more like a cargo-plane owning company located in Central or South America with NO, repeat NO CONNECTION to the CIA... ;-)

I suppose I should not be surpprised that they are on-the-air up here. After all, I could have just as easily flown into the Humphrey Terminal as the smaller Lindberg. And then there is the dome and various other erections. Also, this IS Wellstone country.

Still, I was REALLY surpprised to discover on the afternoon drive that there are TWO stations carrying the left-wing talk. The one I listened to in the morning was 1530 on the dial. The other is 780.

Clue: Since you seem to be renting the time to get this she-bang started rather than taking a more organic natural growth based on merit, i.e. RATINGS, you might want to spend the moo-la on a new market, rather than duplicating in the MNie/Paul area. You are, after all, preaching to the choir up here...

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