Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Right Wing Programming Stifles Shreveport Airwaves

A new study is out from the Center for American Progress called “The Structural Imbalance Of Political Talk Radio.” It’s a quantitative analysis of conservative and progressive viewpoints on political talk radio programming in the United States.

report cover

And it’s bleak if you are a progressive.

First, though, here’s some background form the report:

“Despite the dramatic expansion of viewing and listening options for consumers today, traditional radio remains one of the most widely used media formats in America. Arbitron, the national radio ratings company, reports that more than 90 percent of Americans ages 12 or older listen to radio each week, ‘a higher penetration than television, magazines, newspapers, or the Internet....’ Among radio formats, the combined news/talk format (which includes news/talk/information and talk/personality) leads all others in terms of the total number of stations per format and trails only country music in terms of national audience share. Through more than 1,700 stations across the nation, the combined news/talk format is estimated to reach more than 50 million listeners each week.”

That’s the raw size of the issue, and then there’s these frightening conclusions:

  • Our analysis in the spring of 2007 of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners reveals that 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive.
  • Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk -- 10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.
  • A separate analysis of all of the news/talk stations in the top 10 radio markets reveals that 76 percent of the programming in these markets is conservative and 24 percent is progressive, although programming is more balanced in markets such as New York and Chicago.

As with everything else, Shreveport is worse. The study references KEEL and KRMD. It found that KEEL airs 11 hours of conservative talk radio every day with 0 hours of “progressive” programming. KRMD airs 7 hours of conservative programming balanced by 0 progressive hours. So, all told, Shreveport talk radio listeners get 18 hours of conservative opinions per day balanced by nothing.

It seems to me that this is a chance for public radio to bridge the gap locally. Both Red River Radio and KSCL could easily provide such progressive programming as Democracy Now!, Counterspin, or selections from Air America hosts. As well, the Public Radio Exchange is a treasure trove of progressive content.

Balancing the ubiquitous and often violent, hate-filled conservative diatribe served daily here with progressive viewpoints would be a great public service. And isn’t that what all radio, but especially public radio, should be about?

Friday, June 22, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! KSCL 91.3 FM Friday, June 22, 2007, 6 to 8

ROCK FIGHT!

Hello again, joke and/or trivia Pringles pals!

Friday is here at last, so it’s time for another ROCK FIGHT! on KSCL 91.3 fm. Thanks in advance for tuning in.

This week is a polygamous mix of old and new punk and electronica. Just look at the lineup! So tune in from 6:00 to 8:00 and get your sicko kicks along with the news and weather.

Here’s what makes Mr. Bojangles boogie:

Song                                    Artist
-------------------------------------------------------------
Blank Eyed, Nose Bleed                  Adult
Preparedness                            The Bird And The Bee
Helicopter Whitey Version               Bloc Party
Baby's On Fire                          Brian Eno
Tornadoes                               Butthole Surfers
What Do I Get                           The Buzzcocks
Crackin' Up                             Caesars
Monument                                Calla
Take The Skinheads Bowling              Camper Van Beethoven
Life Is Sweet                           The Chemical Brothers
The Pills Won't Help You Now            The Chemical Brothers
Wordy Rappinghood                       Chicks On Speed
Career Opportunities                    The Clash
Silent Seven                            Controller.Controller
Rebel Rebel                             David Bowie
Radio Waves                             OMD
Dead And Alive                          Dead Boys
3000 Flowers                            Destroyer
Ha Ha Ha                                Flipper
Dare                                    Gorillaz
PDA                                     Interpol
All My Friends                          LCD Soundsystem
Plateau                                 Meat Puppets
Shield Your Eyes....                    Melt-Banana
Lexicon Devil                           The Melvins
Ghost                                   Neutral Milk Hotel
Exit Music (For A Film)                 Radiohead
Suspicious Eyes                         The Rakes
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker                 The Ramones
Do You Believe Her                      The Raveonettes
Satellite                               TV On The Radio
We've Been Had                          The Walkmen

Friday, June 15, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! KSCL 91.3 FM Friday, June 15, 2007, 6 to 8

ROCK FIGHT!

Hello again, loud louts!

Friday, time for another ROCK FIGHT! on KSCL 91.3 fm from 6 to 8.

First, a brief interlude:

Come out to the best show around tonight. The Noids and Astronautilus perform at Big D's BBQ, 101 Common Street in Shreveport. Show starts at 8:00, right after ROCK FIGHT! In the event of rain, it moves to 941 Captain Shreve in Shreveport. It’s gonna be great!

Back to the show:

This week, there’s lots of old-school punk and new wave along with modern hipster stank. The emphasis is on humor, with songs like “Computer Camp Love” from the new Datarock album, a Dickies cover of a moldy Moody Blues tune and Blur’s ode to transgendered confusion.

Alas, the podcast is dead and gone. No one listened.

So you’ll just have to use your radio.

Here’s the dirty lowdown:

Song                                    Artist
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm Alive                               999
Sexy Boy                                Air
Girls And Boys                          Blur
Spit It Out                             Brendan Benson
Warm Leatherette                        Chicks On Speed
Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood     Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Long Time Jerk                          The Clash
Bruised Broken Beaten                   Controller.Controller
Computer Camp Love                      Datarock
Sonic Reducer                           Dead Boys
Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever      Destroyer
Nights In White Satin                   The Dickies
Outside The Trains Don't Run On Time    Gang Of Four
Me! I Disconnect From You               Gary Numan & Tubeway Army
Last Living Souls                       Gorillaz
Trot Out The Dead                       Hammers Of Misfortune
I'll Never Forget You                   Husker Du
Love Will Tear Us Apart                 Joy Division
High Rise                               Ladytron
After Dark                              Le Tigre
Lucky Number                            Lene Lovich
Split Myself In Two                     Meat Puppets
Spider Snipe                            Melt-Banana
Quiet Please                            Negativland
Pulse                                   The Psychedelic Furs
Annalisa                                Public Image Limited
Down With Moonlight                     The Rakes
I'm Affected                            The Ramones
Sister Savior                           The Rapture
Where's Captain Kirk                    Spizzenergi
Another Song                            Swell Maps
Don't Worry About The Government        Talking Heads
Dreams                                  TV On The Radio
Sex Beat                                Gun Club
Institutionalized                       Suicidal Tendencies
Just Drums                              Tapes 'n Tapes
Soul Kitchen                            X

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Gerritsen's Trial Date Moved Again

Roy Gerritsen

The wheels of justice move slowly.

Roy Gerritsen’s sex crimes trials have been moved to July 17, 2007, at 9:00 in Bossier Parish District Court.

Roy, the former GM of Red River Radio, was arrested last October in a sting operation accusing him of soliciting sex from a juvenile over the Internet. He faces charges of computer-aided solicitation of a minor and attempted carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Bossier City police said Gerritsen arranged to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl for sex but who was actually a police officer posing as the girl. He was arrested when he arrived at a pre-determined location in Bossier City.

Gerritsen’s docket numbers are C149466, attempted carnal knowledge of a juvenile, and C149467, computer aided solicitation of a minor. If convicted, he faces a maximum 15-year sentence and $12,500 fine, according to reports.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! June 8 podcast

Here’s the ROCK FIGHT! podcast for the show that aired June 8, 2007:

Friday, June 8, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! KSCL 91.3 FM Friday, June 8, 2007, 6 to 8

ROCK FIGHT!

Hello again, sweet savers of condiment packets!

Friday! Time for another ROCK FIGHT! on KSCL 91.3 fm from 6 to 8.

Interpol has a much-anticipated new album out called “Our Love To Admire,” so there’s an Interpol retrospective on this week’s show. We’ll hear the new single, “The Heinrich Manoeuver,” along with a remix from an older album, a song from an earlier pre-release this year and a Peel session of my favorite Interpol song, “NYC.”

There’s also a pair of old Cure tunes, a classic from Bowie, and two re-made classics by by Luna and The Moog Cookbook. And I’ll play tunes from the college Top 30 and new underground artists. All the old school punk and new wave you can eat, too.

So tune in!

Here’s why they call it dope:

Song                                    Artist
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Devils Haircut                          Beck
Pink Love                               Blonde Redhead
Rapture Riders (Full Version)           Blondie Vs The Doors
Under                                   Brian Eno
Astral                                  Calla
I Want More                             Can
All Cats Are Grey                       The Cure
A Forest                                The Cure
Neat Neat Neat                          The Damned
Heroes                                  David Bowie
Not Even Jail (Daniel Kessler Remix)    Interpol
The Heimlich Manoeuvre                  Interpol
Anticipation                            Interpol
NYC                                     Interpol
Liquid Coffee                           Jennifer Gentle
Waiting On A Friend                     Luna
Inertia Creeps                          Massive Attack
Rockin' In The Free World               The Moog Cookbook
Maybe Sparrow                           Neko Case
Know                                    Nick Drake
Myxomatosis                             Radiohead
Carbona Not Glue                        Ramones
Catapult                                REM
Blank Generation                        Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Infinity Girl                           Stereolab
No Compassion                           Talking Heads
The North Pole                          The Walkmen

Friday, June 1, 2007

ROCK FIGHT! KSCL 91.3 FM Friday, June 1, 2007, 6 to 8

ROCK FIGHT!

Hello again, headbanging harbingers of heat!

Friday is here with another ROCK FIGHT! on KSCL 91.3 FM. Because I missed last week, it’s a special four-hour edition this week from 6 to 10. A double dose of gnosis!

Plenty of new stuff this week -- UNKLE, Groove Armada, Dungen, The Chemical Brothers. Datarock, Feist and others. And plenty of old stuff, too. It’s all mixed in a gumbo for your hipster delight.

Also, a worker from Smithfield Foods’ Tar Heel, NC, plant will join me to talk about her experiences there and what she plans for the Paula Deen show in Bossier City tomorrow. For more info, check out my blog entry or visit the Justice at Smithfield website.

So tune in! It’ll be swank.

An abbreviated podcast comes later, but for now here’s the tunes:

Song                                Artist
-------------------------------------------------------------
Gimme Sopor                         Angry Samoans
Dark Entries                        Bauhaus
The Passion Of Lovers               Bauhaus
Electric Shake                      Be Your Own Pet
Simplesmente (Tom Middleton Remix)  Bebel Gilberto
Dark Star                           Beck
The First Vietnamese War            The Black Angels
23                                  Blonde Redhead
Spring And By Summer Fall           Blonde Redhead
Everybody's Happy Nowadays          Buzzcocks
Luckey Dime                         Calexico
The Pills Won't Help You Now        The Chemical Brothers
Some Loud Thunder                   Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Boys Better                         The Dandy Warhols
Fa-Fa-Fa                            Datarock
Hang On To Yourself                 David Bowie
Do It!                              Death From Above 1979
You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)  The Dickies
Gör Det Nu                          Dungen
Bad Dream Mama                      Eagles Of Death Metal
Seven Seas                          Echo & The Bunnymen
My Moon My Man                      Feist
Inductive Resonance                 The League Of Gentlemen
T'aint What You Do                  The Fun Boy Three
Lightsonic                          Groove Armada
Fortune Of Fame                     The Jacobites
Cut Dead                            The Jesus And Mary Chain
Antenna                             Kraftwerk
Sugar                               Ladytron
Bird Song                           Lene Lovich
Laminated Cats                      Loose Fur
Carnival Knowledge                  Loose Fur
Sugar                               Made Out Of Babies
We're Here                          Meat Puppets
Cat Brain Land                      Melt-Banana
Flashback                           Ministry
The Setup                           Mission Of Burma
Car Bomb                            Negativland
Hanging On The Telephone            The Nerves
My Way                              Nina Hagen
Dictatorsaurus                      Probot
Lucky                               Radiohead
Skttrbrain (Four Tet Remix)         Radiohead
Paranoid Android                    Radiohead
Suspicious Eyes                     The Rakes
Spellbound                          Siouxsie & The Banshees
Face The Blood                      Sondre Lerche
Born Under Punches                  Talking Heads
Genius Of Love                      Tom Tom Club
Satellite                           TV On The Radio
Wolf Like Me                        TV On The Radio
Distant Smile                       Ultravox
Nursery Rhyme Breather              Unkle
The Knock (Drums Of Death Part 2)   Unkle
Universal Corner                    X
We're Desperate                     X
Life Begins At The Hop              XTC