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Rush Limbaugh has, at various times, claimed credit for the elections of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush - and given how narrow electoral margins have been recently, he may be right. But now, in a free-market fashion that even conservatives have to salute, the tide is turning.
The rollout of Air America Radio has raised the visibility of liberal talk radio in America, regardless of how that company's future plays out. The buzz in the industry now is that momentum and consumer curiosity have built to where the coming years will see a whole raft of new liberal talk shows appearing on the radio waves across America, and the existing successful liberal shows (Bernie Ward, Alan Colmes, Ed Schultz, Tony Trupiano, Peter Werbe, Randi Rhodes, Peter B. Collins, Guy James, Lynn Samuels, my show, etc.) are all continuing to grow.
The swing of the programming pendulum was inevitable and reasonable, particularly given that more than half the nation votes Democratic/Green and those "latte-drinking, Volvo-driving" folks represent a very desirable demographic for advertisers. Local stations all across the country are moving local liberal DJs and radio-savvy local talent into local talk formats. (For example, WDEV here in Vermont [recently featured in Harpers] put Progressive talk host Anthony Pollina and Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders on the air filling the 1-2 PM ET slot Monday through Friday with great listener response and a huge boost in Arbitron ratings.)
So here are a few tips to the up-and-coming crop of liberal talkers (I've been contacted by dozens this past year) from somebody who's been doing it for a while.
1. Forget that you're a liberal: it's about the show, not the content. Yes, I know that today's so-called conservatives are bent on destroying the American way of life, installing single-party rule, wiping out our civil liberties, and leading us into wars around the world just to enrich Bechtel, Halliburton, the Bush family, and the Carlyle Group. But while a thoughtful and in-depth analysis of today's political situation may go over well on Public Radio or re-runs of Buckley's "Firing Line," it's death on AM radio if not presented right.
Your program must be relentlessly entertaining. It must conform to the rules of radio, from voice modulation to clean transitions to quarter-hour resets of topic. If somebody turns it on randomly while going shopping, it must be so compelling that they sit in the parking lot waiting for the next break...and then still don't want to get out of the car.
Use all the same tools you learned when you were a DJ, and keep things popping. And if you don't have a background in commercial radio, either go through a very rapid learning curve about the medium and the industry (like G. Gordon Liddy did) or hire a consultant like Val Geller to get you up to speed.
2. Give them a forehead-slap every hour: have brilliant content. While content won't trump presentation, it does keep bringing them back, day after day, assuming good presentation. Radio listeners want to be entertained, but talk radio listeners also want to be educated. They need help winning the water cooler wars. They want to know the history, details, and practical application of their ideology.
My rule of thumb is that every hour I must give my listeners at least one or two good solid "forehead slaps" - a bit of information where the listener slaps their forehead and says, "Jeez, I never knew that!" or, "I knew that, but I never thought of it that way!"
3. Bring a chainsaw to the knife fight. I learned this advice from one of my talk radio mentors, Northeast Broadcasting's Bob Rowe. Always carry something to the show that's bigger than the obvious issue being discussed, and be mercilessly interesting. See things in some incredible new way, continuously drop mind-boggling information, and entertain people in ways they hadn't expected. Figure out what's your "unfair competitive advantage" - what you know, what you do, how you present - and use it ferociously. As WTKG's Phil Tower says, "Be unpredictable!"
4. Beware of guests who agree with you. When I was first on the air back in the late 1960s, I figured out that a guest I agree with will either take over the show or create boring, "ahhh, yeah," talk radio. But it wasn't until two years ago when Michael Medved had me on his show to argue with him - and told me he only seeks out guests to disagree with - that I got my own forehead-slap about how critical it is to be selective about guests, if you're going to have them at all (I rarely do).
Sure, Larry King and Terry Gross do guests brilliantly. But Terry Gross isn't doing AM daytime talk, and Larry King's AM talk show is off the air. (And Terry's most memorable and publicized show last year was when she and Bill O'Reilly got into a fight.) If you must have guests on your show, try first to limit them to people with whom you strongly disagree. (In this regard, the Heritage Foundation is a great resource, if you're willing to really do your homework or know your stuff.)
If you must have on sympathetic people with whom you agree, follow Art Bell's formula and get only people who have such startling, brilliant information and first-class presentation that they'll hold your listeners with you. But remember the risk: Unless you're as good as Chris Matthews at controlling a conversation, it'll be their show and not yours during the time they're on.
5. Have a take. I learned this from Clear Channel's Gabe Hobbs, and it's brilliant. Ever since hearing his speech at the last Talker's Magazine annual conference, whenever my producer/wife and I listen to a talk show on the radio, our question is, "What's this guy's take on the topic?"
What's truly amazing - and distressing - is the number of hosts who just ramble on, seem to agree with every one of their callers, or just read the news and complain about it, and never firmly stake out their own unique, original, and thought-provoking take on a topic.
6. Throw away the rulebook. Harpers magazine ran an article in their November, 2003 issue about how a liberal talk show could be successful by following a particular formula in a particular way. While the article did a decent job of creating a formula for a program, it entirely missed the power of personality. Nobody is ever going to listen to talk radio because they like the format: it's the talent that makes the show.
7. Learn the rules. That said, it is still important to know the rules and formulas followed in the talk industry. Just as Picasso learned how to draw with classic technique and accuracy before he broke the rules and invented his own style, it's critical to understand the systems pioneered by talk radio legends like Val Geller, Rush Limbaugh, and the late Jean Shepherd (who you can still hear on the web in archive). Deconstruct other hosts' shows to find their internal roadmap. Read Val Geller's books. Study the trade publications. Learn the rules so when you break them it's done intentionally.
8. Talk to your listener, not your co-host or engineer. Radio is the most intimate of mediums. While a TV screen is "over there," radio creates an "in here" imaginative process inside the listener's head. Done well, it stimulates your mind and touches your heart. Subtleties of inflection, timing, and the use of silence can paint a picture or fill a hall in the listener's imagination. Television only poorly recreates images on a distant box: Good radio is experienced as a caress, a whispered murmur, or an electrifying and inspiring call to arms. It's up-close and personal.
For example, television doesn't use compressors/limiters to homogenize its audio anywhere near as completely as do radio transmitters: Uniquely in radio is the normal volume-based emphasis stripped from our voices. To replace that lost emphasis, radio personalities must use tonal modulation, which the listener's brain seamlessly converts back into a perception of volume modulation. This is why "radio voice" tonal modulation sounds overdone in person, on the phone, or on television (remember Ted Knight?), where the volume modulation is left intact. It's only on radio that it sounds normal.
And, like politics, radio isn't something one can learn to do well overnight. Anybody who knows how much hard work and practice goes into producing effortless-sounding talk stands in awe of our industry's truly genius-level talents like Doug Stephan, Bruce Williams, Jim Bohannon, Joy Brown, Don Imus, and Howard Stern.
9. Keep it current. Sign up today for the Center for American Progress's daily Progress Report and Media Matters. And the news reports from the right-wing think-tanks as well. Get on the RNC, DNC, and Center for American Progress email lists. Check out https://www.Buzzflash.com, https://www.CommonDreams.org, https://www.Alternet.org, and https://www.opednews.com, as well as https://www.NewsMax.com and https://www.DrudgeReport.com. And don't forget The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Watch CNN's Crossfire and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. Remember that talk radio grew out of local news and community affairs programming, and still must be grounded in the topics of the day.
10. Don't worry about being sandwiched in between conservatives. I once believed that formatic purity was the key to success in talk radio programming - and even wrote a Common Dreams op-ed about it 2 years ago that was used as part of their business plan by Anshell Media (now Air America).
But my own experience being highly successful while also being sandwiched between cons - and even being carried on a top market Clear Channel station with con content, where my "liberal" show just showed in the new Arbitron survey a 280% increase in listenership (men 35-64) over the show I replaced last fall - has forced me to reconsider. It's the show, not the network or the station, that matters. The latter are just delivery vehicles. (For example, many stations follow semi-liberal Joy Brown with Rush and then Hannity. Three different formats, three different networks, all on one station and all have success.)
If you're good, people will tune in for you, the same as they did for Rush back when he was all there was. Just produce a killer show and you'll succeed.
America is waiting, so get started. More than half of America voted in the 2000 election for Al Gore, and millions more voted for Ralph Nader. The cons are a minority! There's a huge audience out there for liberal talk radio, and they're waiting for their forehead-slaps, their ammunition for the water cooler wars, and their validation of a liberal world-view. Give it to them well, and the market will trump ideology.
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Rush Limbaugh has, at various times, claimed credit for the elections of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush - and given how narrow electoral margins have been recently, he may be right. But now, in a free-market fashion that even conservatives have to salute, the tide is turning.
The rollout of Air America Radio has raised the visibility of liberal talk radio in America, regardless of how that company's future plays out. The buzz in the industry now is that momentum and consumer curiosity have built to where the coming years will see a whole raft of new liberal talk shows appearing on the radio waves across America, and the existing successful liberal shows (Bernie Ward, Alan Colmes, Ed Schultz, Tony Trupiano, Peter Werbe, Randi Rhodes, Peter B. Collins, Guy James, Lynn Samuels, my show, etc.) are all continuing to grow.
The swing of the programming pendulum was inevitable and reasonable, particularly given that more than half the nation votes Democratic/Green and those "latte-drinking, Volvo-driving" folks represent a very desirable demographic for advertisers. Local stations all across the country are moving local liberal DJs and radio-savvy local talent into local talk formats. (For example, WDEV here in Vermont [recently featured in Harpers] put Progressive talk host Anthony Pollina and Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders on the air filling the 1-2 PM ET slot Monday through Friday with great listener response and a huge boost in Arbitron ratings.)
So here are a few tips to the up-and-coming crop of liberal talkers (I've been contacted by dozens this past year) from somebody who's been doing it for a while.
1. Forget that you're a liberal: it's about the show, not the content. Yes, I know that today's so-called conservatives are bent on destroying the American way of life, installing single-party rule, wiping out our civil liberties, and leading us into wars around the world just to enrich Bechtel, Halliburton, the Bush family, and the Carlyle Group. But while a thoughtful and in-depth analysis of today's political situation may go over well on Public Radio or re-runs of Buckley's "Firing Line," it's death on AM radio if not presented right.
Your program must be relentlessly entertaining. It must conform to the rules of radio, from voice modulation to clean transitions to quarter-hour resets of topic. If somebody turns it on randomly while going shopping, it must be so compelling that they sit in the parking lot waiting for the next break...and then still don't want to get out of the car.
Use all the same tools you learned when you were a DJ, and keep things popping. And if you don't have a background in commercial radio, either go through a very rapid learning curve about the medium and the industry (like G. Gordon Liddy did) or hire a consultant like Val Geller to get you up to speed.
2. Give them a forehead-slap every hour: have brilliant content. While content won't trump presentation, it does keep bringing them back, day after day, assuming good presentation. Radio listeners want to be entertained, but talk radio listeners also want to be educated. They need help winning the water cooler wars. They want to know the history, details, and practical application of their ideology.
My rule of thumb is that every hour I must give my listeners at least one or two good solid "forehead slaps" - a bit of information where the listener slaps their forehead and says, "Jeez, I never knew that!" or, "I knew that, but I never thought of it that way!"
3. Bring a chainsaw to the knife fight. I learned this advice from one of my talk radio mentors, Northeast Broadcasting's Bob Rowe. Always carry something to the show that's bigger than the obvious issue being discussed, and be mercilessly interesting. See things in some incredible new way, continuously drop mind-boggling information, and entertain people in ways they hadn't expected. Figure out what's your "unfair competitive advantage" - what you know, what you do, how you present - and use it ferociously. As WTKG's Phil Tower says, "Be unpredictable!"
4. Beware of guests who agree with you. When I was first on the air back in the late 1960s, I figured out that a guest I agree with will either take over the show or create boring, "ahhh, yeah," talk radio. But it wasn't until two years ago when Michael Medved had me on his show to argue with him - and told me he only seeks out guests to disagree with - that I got my own forehead-slap about how critical it is to be selective about guests, if you're going to have them at all (I rarely do).
Sure, Larry King and Terry Gross do guests brilliantly. But Terry Gross isn't doing AM daytime talk, and Larry King's AM talk show is off the air. (And Terry's most memorable and publicized show last year was when she and Bill O'Reilly got into a fight.) If you must have guests on your show, try first to limit them to people with whom you strongly disagree. (In this regard, the Heritage Foundation is a great resource, if you're willing to really do your homework or know your stuff.)
If you must have on sympathetic people with whom you agree, follow Art Bell's formula and get only people who have such startling, brilliant information and first-class presentation that they'll hold your listeners with you. But remember the risk: Unless you're as good as Chris Matthews at controlling a conversation, it'll be their show and not yours during the time they're on.
5. Have a take. I learned this from Clear Channel's Gabe Hobbs, and it's brilliant. Ever since hearing his speech at the last Talker's Magazine annual conference, whenever my producer/wife and I listen to a talk show on the radio, our question is, "What's this guy's take on the topic?"
What's truly amazing - and distressing - is the number of hosts who just ramble on, seem to agree with every one of their callers, or just read the news and complain about it, and never firmly stake out their own unique, original, and thought-provoking take on a topic.
6. Throw away the rulebook. Harpers magazine ran an article in their November, 2003 issue about how a liberal talk show could be successful by following a particular formula in a particular way. While the article did a decent job of creating a formula for a program, it entirely missed the power of personality. Nobody is ever going to listen to talk radio because they like the format: it's the talent that makes the show.
7. Learn the rules. That said, it is still important to know the rules and formulas followed in the talk industry. Just as Picasso learned how to draw with classic technique and accuracy before he broke the rules and invented his own style, it's critical to understand the systems pioneered by talk radio legends like Val Geller, Rush Limbaugh, and the late Jean Shepherd (who you can still hear on the web in archive). Deconstruct other hosts' shows to find their internal roadmap. Read Val Geller's books. Study the trade publications. Learn the rules so when you break them it's done intentionally.
8. Talk to your listener, not your co-host or engineer. Radio is the most intimate of mediums. While a TV screen is "over there," radio creates an "in here" imaginative process inside the listener's head. Done well, it stimulates your mind and touches your heart. Subtleties of inflection, timing, and the use of silence can paint a picture or fill a hall in the listener's imagination. Television only poorly recreates images on a distant box: Good radio is experienced as a caress, a whispered murmur, or an electrifying and inspiring call to arms. It's up-close and personal.
For example, television doesn't use compressors/limiters to homogenize its audio anywhere near as completely as do radio transmitters: Uniquely in radio is the normal volume-based emphasis stripped from our voices. To replace that lost emphasis, radio personalities must use tonal modulation, which the listener's brain seamlessly converts back into a perception of volume modulation. This is why "radio voice" tonal modulation sounds overdone in person, on the phone, or on television (remember Ted Knight?), where the volume modulation is left intact. It's only on radio that it sounds normal.
And, like politics, radio isn't something one can learn to do well overnight. Anybody who knows how much hard work and practice goes into producing effortless-sounding talk stands in awe of our industry's truly genius-level talents like Doug Stephan, Bruce Williams, Jim Bohannon, Joy Brown, Don Imus, and Howard Stern.
9. Keep it current. Sign up today for the Center for American Progress's daily Progress Report and Media Matters. And the news reports from the right-wing think-tanks as well. Get on the RNC, DNC, and Center for American Progress email lists. Check out https://www.Buzzflash.com, https://www.CommonDreams.org, https://www.Alternet.org, and https://www.opednews.com, as well as https://www.NewsMax.com and https://www.DrudgeReport.com. And don't forget The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Watch CNN's Crossfire and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. Remember that talk radio grew out of local news and community affairs programming, and still must be grounded in the topics of the day.
10. Don't worry about being sandwiched in between conservatives. I once believed that formatic purity was the key to success in talk radio programming - and even wrote a Common Dreams op-ed about it 2 years ago that was used as part of their business plan by Anshell Media (now Air America).
But my own experience being highly successful while also being sandwiched between cons - and even being carried on a top market Clear Channel station with con content, where my "liberal" show just showed in the new Arbitron survey a 280% increase in listenership (men 35-64) over the show I replaced last fall - has forced me to reconsider. It's the show, not the network or the station, that matters. The latter are just delivery vehicles. (For example, many stations follow semi-liberal Joy Brown with Rush and then Hannity. Three different formats, three different networks, all on one station and all have success.)
If you're good, people will tune in for you, the same as they did for Rush back when he was all there was. Just produce a killer show and you'll succeed.
America is waiting, so get started. More than half of America voted in the 2000 election for Al Gore, and millions more voted for Ralph Nader. The cons are a minority! There's a huge audience out there for liberal talk radio, and they're waiting for their forehead-slaps, their ammunition for the water cooler wars, and their validation of a liberal world-view. Give it to them well, and the market will trump ideology.
Rush Limbaugh has, at various times, claimed credit for the elections of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush - and given how narrow electoral margins have been recently, he may be right. But now, in a free-market fashion that even conservatives have to salute, the tide is turning.
The rollout of Air America Radio has raised the visibility of liberal talk radio in America, regardless of how that company's future plays out. The buzz in the industry now is that momentum and consumer curiosity have built to where the coming years will see a whole raft of new liberal talk shows appearing on the radio waves across America, and the existing successful liberal shows (Bernie Ward, Alan Colmes, Ed Schultz, Tony Trupiano, Peter Werbe, Randi Rhodes, Peter B. Collins, Guy James, Lynn Samuels, my show, etc.) are all continuing to grow.
The swing of the programming pendulum was inevitable and reasonable, particularly given that more than half the nation votes Democratic/Green and those "latte-drinking, Volvo-driving" folks represent a very desirable demographic for advertisers. Local stations all across the country are moving local liberal DJs and radio-savvy local talent into local talk formats. (For example, WDEV here in Vermont [recently featured in Harpers] put Progressive talk host Anthony Pollina and Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders on the air filling the 1-2 PM ET slot Monday through Friday with great listener response and a huge boost in Arbitron ratings.)
So here are a few tips to the up-and-coming crop of liberal talkers (I've been contacted by dozens this past year) from somebody who's been doing it for a while.
1. Forget that you're a liberal: it's about the show, not the content. Yes, I know that today's so-called conservatives are bent on destroying the American way of life, installing single-party rule, wiping out our civil liberties, and leading us into wars around the world just to enrich Bechtel, Halliburton, the Bush family, and the Carlyle Group. But while a thoughtful and in-depth analysis of today's political situation may go over well on Public Radio or re-runs of Buckley's "Firing Line," it's death on AM radio if not presented right.
Your program must be relentlessly entertaining. It must conform to the rules of radio, from voice modulation to clean transitions to quarter-hour resets of topic. If somebody turns it on randomly while going shopping, it must be so compelling that they sit in the parking lot waiting for the next break...and then still don't want to get out of the car.
Use all the same tools you learned when you were a DJ, and keep things popping. And if you don't have a background in commercial radio, either go through a very rapid learning curve about the medium and the industry (like G. Gordon Liddy did) or hire a consultant like Val Geller to get you up to speed.
2. Give them a forehead-slap every hour: have brilliant content. While content won't trump presentation, it does keep bringing them back, day after day, assuming good presentation. Radio listeners want to be entertained, but talk radio listeners also want to be educated. They need help winning the water cooler wars. They want to know the history, details, and practical application of their ideology.
My rule of thumb is that every hour I must give my listeners at least one or two good solid "forehead slaps" - a bit of information where the listener slaps their forehead and says, "Jeez, I never knew that!" or, "I knew that, but I never thought of it that way!"
3. Bring a chainsaw to the knife fight. I learned this advice from one of my talk radio mentors, Northeast Broadcasting's Bob Rowe. Always carry something to the show that's bigger than the obvious issue being discussed, and be mercilessly interesting. See things in some incredible new way, continuously drop mind-boggling information, and entertain people in ways they hadn't expected. Figure out what's your "unfair competitive advantage" - what you know, what you do, how you present - and use it ferociously. As WTKG's Phil Tower says, "Be unpredictable!"
4. Beware of guests who agree with you. When I was first on the air back in the late 1960s, I figured out that a guest I agree with will either take over the show or create boring, "ahhh, yeah," talk radio. But it wasn't until two years ago when Michael Medved had me on his show to argue with him - and told me he only seeks out guests to disagree with - that I got my own forehead-slap about how critical it is to be selective about guests, if you're going to have them at all (I rarely do).
Sure, Larry King and Terry Gross do guests brilliantly. But Terry Gross isn't doing AM daytime talk, and Larry King's AM talk show is off the air. (And Terry's most memorable and publicized show last year was when she and Bill O'Reilly got into a fight.) If you must have guests on your show, try first to limit them to people with whom you strongly disagree. (In this regard, the Heritage Foundation is a great resource, if you're willing to really do your homework or know your stuff.)
If you must have on sympathetic people with whom you agree, follow Art Bell's formula and get only people who have such startling, brilliant information and first-class presentation that they'll hold your listeners with you. But remember the risk: Unless you're as good as Chris Matthews at controlling a conversation, it'll be their show and not yours during the time they're on.
5. Have a take. I learned this from Clear Channel's Gabe Hobbs, and it's brilliant. Ever since hearing his speech at the last Talker's Magazine annual conference, whenever my producer/wife and I listen to a talk show on the radio, our question is, "What's this guy's take on the topic?"
What's truly amazing - and distressing - is the number of hosts who just ramble on, seem to agree with every one of their callers, or just read the news and complain about it, and never firmly stake out their own unique, original, and thought-provoking take on a topic.
6. Throw away the rulebook. Harpers magazine ran an article in their November, 2003 issue about how a liberal talk show could be successful by following a particular formula in a particular way. While the article did a decent job of creating a formula for a program, it entirely missed the power of personality. Nobody is ever going to listen to talk radio because they like the format: it's the talent that makes the show.
7. Learn the rules. That said, it is still important to know the rules and formulas followed in the talk industry. Just as Picasso learned how to draw with classic technique and accuracy before he broke the rules and invented his own style, it's critical to understand the systems pioneered by talk radio legends like Val Geller, Rush Limbaugh, and the late Jean Shepherd (who you can still hear on the web in archive). Deconstruct other hosts' shows to find their internal roadmap. Read Val Geller's books. Study the trade publications. Learn the rules so when you break them it's done intentionally.
8. Talk to your listener, not your co-host or engineer. Radio is the most intimate of mediums. While a TV screen is "over there," radio creates an "in here" imaginative process inside the listener's head. Done well, it stimulates your mind and touches your heart. Subtleties of inflection, timing, and the use of silence can paint a picture or fill a hall in the listener's imagination. Television only poorly recreates images on a distant box: Good radio is experienced as a caress, a whispered murmur, or an electrifying and inspiring call to arms. It's up-close and personal.
For example, television doesn't use compressors/limiters to homogenize its audio anywhere near as completely as do radio transmitters: Uniquely in radio is the normal volume-based emphasis stripped from our voices. To replace that lost emphasis, radio personalities must use tonal modulation, which the listener's brain seamlessly converts back into a perception of volume modulation. This is why "radio voice" tonal modulation sounds overdone in person, on the phone, or on television (remember Ted Knight?), where the volume modulation is left intact. It's only on radio that it sounds normal.
And, like politics, radio isn't something one can learn to do well overnight. Anybody who knows how much hard work and practice goes into producing effortless-sounding talk stands in awe of our industry's truly genius-level talents like Doug Stephan, Bruce Williams, Jim Bohannon, Joy Brown, Don Imus, and Howard Stern.
9. Keep it current. Sign up today for the Center for American Progress's daily Progress Report and Media Matters. And the news reports from the right-wing think-tanks as well. Get on the RNC, DNC, and Center for American Progress email lists. Check out https://www.Buzzflash.com, https://www.CommonDreams.org, https://www.Alternet.org, and https://www.opednews.com, as well as https://www.NewsMax.com and https://www.DrudgeReport.com. And don't forget The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Watch CNN's Crossfire and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. Remember that talk radio grew out of local news and community affairs programming, and still must be grounded in the topics of the day.
10. Don't worry about being sandwiched in between conservatives. I once believed that formatic purity was the key to success in talk radio programming - and even wrote a Common Dreams op-ed about it 2 years ago that was used as part of their business plan by Anshell Media (now Air America).
But my own experience being highly successful while also being sandwiched between cons - and even being carried on a top market Clear Channel station with con content, where my "liberal" show just showed in the new Arbitron survey a 280% increase in listenership (men 35-64) over the show I replaced last fall - has forced me to reconsider. It's the show, not the network or the station, that matters. The latter are just delivery vehicles. (For example, many stations follow semi-liberal Joy Brown with Rush and then Hannity. Three different formats, three different networks, all on one station and all have success.)
If you're good, people will tune in for you, the same as they did for Rush back when he was all there was. Just produce a killer show and you'll succeed.
America is waiting, so get started. More than half of America voted in the 2000 election for Al Gore, and millions more voted for Ralph Nader. The cons are a minority! There's a huge audience out there for liberal talk radio, and they're waiting for their forehead-slaps, their ammunition for the water cooler wars, and their validation of a liberal world-view. Give it to them well, and the market will trump ideology.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans said they disapprove of the Trump administration slashing the Social Security Administration workforce.
As the US marked the 90th anniversary of one of its most broadly popular public programs, Social Security, on Thursday, President Donald Trump marked the occasion by claiming at an Oval Office event that his administration has saved the retirees' safety net from "fraud" perpetrated by undocumented immigrants—but new polling showed that Trump's approach to the Social Security Administration is among his most unpopular agenda items.
The progressive think tank Data for Progress asked 1,176 likely voters about eight key Trump administration agenda items, including pushing for staffing cuts at the Social Security Administration; signing the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to raise the cost of living for millions as people will be shut out of food assistance and Medicaid; and firing tens of thousands of federal workers—and found that some of Americans' biggest concerns are about the fate of the agency that SSA chief Frank Bisignano has pledged to make "digital-first."
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they oppose the proposed layoffs of about 7,000 SSA staffers, or about 12% of its workforce—which, as progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have warned, have led to longer wait times for beneficiaries who rely on their monthly earned Social Security checks to pay for groceries, housing, medications, and other essentials.
Forty-five percent of people surveyed said they were "very concerned" about the cuts.
Only the Trump administration's decision not to release files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case was more opposed by respondents, with 65% saying they disapproved of the failure to disclose the documents, which involve the financier and convicted sex offender who was a known friend of the president. But fewer voters—about 39%—said they were "very concerned" about the files.
Among "persuadable voters"—those who said they were as likely to vote for candidates from either major political party in upcoming elections—70% said they opposed the cuts to Social Security.
The staffing cuts have forced Social Security field offices across the country to close, and as Sanders said Wednesday as he introduced the Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act, the 1-800 number beneficiaries have to call to receive their benefits "is a mess," with staffers overwhelmed due to the loss of more than 4,000 employees so far.
As Common Dreams reported in July, another policy change this month is expected to leave senior citizens and beneficiaries with disabilities unable to perform routine tasks related to their benefits over the phone, as they have for decades—forcing them to rely on a complicated online verification process.
Late last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted that despite repeated claims from Trump that he won't attempt to privatize Social Security, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act offers a "backdoor way" for Republicans to do just that.
The law's inclusion of tax-deferred investment accounts called "Trump accounts" that will be available to US citizen children starting next July could allow the GOP to privatize the program as it has hoped to for decades.
"Right now, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are quietly creating problems for Social Security so they can later hand it off to their private equity buddies," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Thursday.
Marking the program's 90th anniversary, Sanders touted his Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act.
"This legislation would reverse all of the cuts that the Trump administration has made to the Social Security Administration," said Sanders. "It would make it easier, not harder, for seniors and people with disabilities to receive the benefits they have earned over the phone."
"Each and every year, some 30,000 people die—they die while waiting for their Social Security benefits to be approved," said Sanders. "And Trump's cuts will make this terrible situation even worse. We cannot and must not allow that to happen."
"Voters have made their feelings clear," said the leader of Justice Democrats. "The majority do not see themselves in this party and do not believe in its leaders or many of its representatives."
A top progressive leader has given her prescription for how the Democratic Party can begin to retake power from US President Donald Trump: Ousting "corporate-funded" candidates.
Justice Democrats executive director Alexandra Rojas wrote Thursday in The Guardian that, "If the Democratic Party wants to win back power in 2028," its members need to begin to redefine themselves in the 2026 midterms.
"Voters have made their feelings clear, a majority do not see themselves in this party and do not believe in its leaders or many of its representatives," Rojas said. "They need a new generation of leaders with fresh faces and bold ideas, unbought by corporate super [political action committees] and billionaire donors, to give them a new path and vision to believe in."
Despite Trump's increasing unpopularity, a Gallup poll from July 31 found that the Democratic Party still has record-low approval across the country.
Rojas called for "working-class, progressive primary challenges to the overwhelming number of corporate Democratic incumbents who have rightfully been dubbed as do-nothing electeds."
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in June, nearly two-thirds of self-identified Democrats said they desired new leadership, with many believing that the party did not share top priorities, like universal healthcare, affordable childcare, and higher taxes on the rich.
Young voters were especially dissatisfied with the current state of the party and were much less likely to believe the party shared their priorities.
Democrats have made some moves to address their "gerontocracy" problem—switching out the moribund then-President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race and swapping out longtime House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) for the younger Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.).
But Rojas says a face-lift for the party is not enough. They also need fresh ideas.
"Voters are also not simply seeking to replace their aging corporate shill representatives with younger corporate shills," she said. "More of the same from a younger generation is still more of the same."
Outside of a "small handful of outspoken progressives," she said the party has often been too eager to kowtow to Trump and tow the line of billionaire donors.
"Too many Democratic groups, and even some that call themselves progressive, are encouraging candidates' silence in the face of lobbies like [the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee] (AIPAC) and crypto's multimillion-dollar threats," she said.
A Public Citizen report found that in 2024, Democratic candidates and aligned PACs received millions of dollars from crypto firms like Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreesen Horowitz.
According to OpenSecrets, 58% of the 212 Democrats elected to the House in 2024—135 of them—received money from AIPAC, with an average contribution of $117,334. In the Senate, 17 Democrats who won their elections received donations—$195,015 on average.
The two top Democrats in Congress—Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—both have long histories of support from AIPAC, and embraced crypto with open arms after the industry flooded the 2024 campaign with cash.
"Too often, we hear from candidates and members who claim they are with us on the policy, but can't speak out on it because AIPAC or crypto will spend against them," Rojas said. "Silence is cowardice, and cowardice inspires no one."
Rojas noted Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who was elected in 2022 despite an onslaught of attacks from AIPAC and who has since gone on to introduce legislation to ban super PACs from federal elections, as an example of this model's success.
"The path to more Democratic victories," Rojas said, "is not around, behind, and under these lobbies, but it's right through them, taking them head-on and ridding them from our politics once and for all."
"History will not forget," said UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
The United Nations human rights expert assigned to the Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel is calling on countries around the world to send military forces to end the genocidal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Since March 2024, "I've warned the UN I serve at great personal cost: the destruction of Gaza's health system is clear proof of genocidal intent," Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said on social media Wednesday. "I'm in disbelief at its paralysis. States must break the blockade, send NAVIES with aid, and stop the genocide. History will not forget."
Albanese also shared her new joint statement with Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, special rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. They said that "in addition to bearing witness to an ongoing genocide we are also bearing witness to a 'medicide,' a sinister component of the intentional creation of conditions calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza which constitutes an act of genocide."
"Deliberate attacks on health and care workers, and health facilities, which are gross violations of international humanitarian law, must stop now," the pair continued. "There is a moral imperative for the international community to end the carnage and allow the people of Gaza to live on their land without fear of attack, killing, and starvation, and free from permanent occupation and apartheid."
Their comments came as a growing number of governments are recognizing the state of Palestine or threatening to do so. In a Wednesday interview with The Guardian, Albanese stressed that the renewed push for Palestinian statehood should not "distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide."
"Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: End the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year, and end apartheid," she said. "This is what's going to guarantee freedom and equal rights for everyone, regardless of the way they want to live—in two states or one state, they will have to decide."
As Common Dreams reported earlier Thursday, Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, claimed that the Israeli and U.S. governments have approved an expansion of settlements in the West Bank, which he said "finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize."
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the 22-month Israeli assault has left the coastal enclave in ruins and killed at least 61,776 Palestinians and wounded 154,906 others—though experts warn the real figures are likely far higher. Those who have survived so far are struggling to access essentials, including food, largely due to Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid and killings of aid-seekers.
On Thursday, over 100 groups—including ActionAid, American Friends Service Committee, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and Save the Children—released a letter stressing that since Israel imposed registration rules in early March, most nongovernmental organizations "have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies."
"This obstruction has left millions of dollars' worth of food, medicine, water, and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt, while Palestinians are being starved," the letter notes. As of Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry put the hunger-related death toll at 239, including 106 children.
Both the registration process and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation "aim to block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trusted humanitarian organizations with mechanisms that serve political and military objectives," the letter argues, noting that Israel is moving to "escalate its military offensive and deepen its occupation in Gaza, making clear these measures are part of a broader strategy to entrench control and erase Palestinian presence."
The coalition called on all governments to "press Israel to end the weaponization of aid," insist that NGOS not be "forced to share sensitive personal information," and "demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all land crossings and conditions for the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid."
During an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on Sunday, Riyad Mansour, the state of Palestine's permanent observer to the UN, formally requested "an immediate international protection force to save the Palestinian people from certain death."
In response, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the US-based advocacy group DAWN, said in a Tuesday statement, "Now that Palestine has formally requested protection forces, the UN General Assembly should move urgently to mandate such a force under a Uniting for Peace resolution."
"Israel has made clear for the past two years that no amount of pleading, pressure, or negotiation will end its atrocities and deliberate starvation in Gaza; only international peacekeeping forces can achieve that," she added.