The Los Angeles Times looked through a keyhole this week and surveyed the landscape of conservative talk radio in California.
They made gross generalizations, told lies of omission, and distorted reality to prove a point that’s unsupported by the facts. The story would have been far more accurate had it been headlined, “Local radio on the wane in California.”
“The economy’s downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of conservative broadcasters.”
In order to be more accurate, the Times should have said, “The economy’s downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of all local broadcasters and all formats.”
The Times continued:
“(B)ut for all the anti-tax swagger and the occasional stunts by personalities like KFI’s John and Ken, the reality is that conservative talk radio in California is on the wane. The economy’s downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of conservative broadcasters.”
To be more accurate, it should have read, “The economy’s downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of all local broadcasters.””
“For that and other reasons, stations have dropped the shows of at least half a dozen radio personalities and scaled back others, in some cases replacing them with cheaper nationally syndicated programs.”
“Casualties include Mark Larson in San Diego, Larry Elder and John Ziegler in Los Angeles, Melanie Morgan in San Francisco, and Phil Cowen and Mark Williams in Sacramento.”
Oops. Ziegler did leave conservative powerhouse KFI, but was immediately replaced by Kennedy & Suits, two other local conservative talkers.
Contrary to what the Times would have its readers believe, conservative talk radio is faring better than the struggling radio industry in general and certainly better than floundering libtalk radio.
Take the Los Angeles market, for example.
KFI-AM, Rush Limbaugh’s conservative Southern California affiliate, is the dominant talk station in the region. The January 2009 ratings show KFI with a 4.3 share, higher than even its pre-election ratings. It is now the third highest-rated station in the market. It features 11 hours per day of local talk programming and its local morning and afternoon shows have tremendous ratings.
KTLK-AM, Los Angeles’ libtalk station, has a barely measurable 0.6 share, its lowest in the last four months. Far as we can tell, KTLK’s entire schedule is nationally-syndicated.
Let’s review: Conservative talk is booming. Lib talk is evaporating. Local conservative talk radio is booming. Local lib talk radio is non-existent.
We’re used to seeing the liberal Los Angeles Times putting its wagons in a circle to protect its own, but this story would have been more appropriate in the comic section.
Perhaps, just perhaps, this boils down to a case of jealousy on the part of the Times. After all, its circulation has dropped from a peak of 1,100,000 to a current anemic 739,000. It’s shedding sections, pages, employees, and prestige at a remarkable rate.
Which seems to indicate it’s actually liberal media that’s struggling.
Source: Los Angeles Times
