Boston's Progressive Talk Returns To Medford 1/17/07

BOSTON'S PROGRESSIVE TALK RETURNS TO MEDFORD...at
least for one night

By Joe Viglione  with input from the Steering
Committee of Save Boston Progressive radio



On Wednesday, January 17, 2007, the group
working to reinstate progressive talk radio in
Boston held it’s third public meeting at the Medford
Public Library. Previous meetings were held
at Panera Café in Watertown. “Boston’s
Progressive Talk” on  WXKS AM and WKOX AM, the only
full-time progressive talk radio in the Boston area,
was taken off the air without advance notice
at noon on December 21, 2006.

Early that morning, Arlington resident and
Concord-based businesswoman, Robin Bergman, started
the Yahoogroup
save_progressive_radio_boston@yahoogroups.com.

Bergman was upset when she learned about the format
change by reading about rumors of the change on the
stations’ messageboard the day before.  She had heard
about a group protesting a similar situation in
Madison, WI and was inspired to do the same in Boston.
“I came to depend on listening to Progressive Talk
while working every day. I learned so much about what
was going on in Washington and I enjoyed hearing other
progressives call in from all over the country who
were just as passionate and motivated as I am.”
Bergman stated.

Clear Channel communications cancelled the progressive
talk format shortly after that corporation was
acquired by Mitt
Romney's former company, Bain Capital. It was rumored
that the decision was made the day after election day
in November. Instead of liberal hosts from Air America
and Jones Network such as Ed Schultz, Stephanie
Miller, Randi Rhodes and Al Franken, the station has
flipped to a latin music format.


A month later, 342 people have joined the Yahoogroup
and more than 1800 signatures are already on a
petition which can be found at
http://www.bostonprogressivetalk.net.
The immediate response and quick interest from so many
is worth noting.  As Deval Patrick ran a grass roots
effort this  band of progressive radio fans has mapped
out a similar plan. 

Members of the group have already met with Medford
State Senator Pat Jehlin, who signed the petition and
has expressed support, Medford Representative Edward
Markey’s aides, and local political comedian Jimmy
Tingle who broadcast regular commentaries on the
progressive stations and pledged to work with us.  The
group has been written about in both the Boston Herald
and The Boston Globe.

About fifty people attended the meeting at the Medford
Library, with some from as far away as Attleboro, all
there to work  together to restore the format to the
Boston airwaves. The group included journalist
Stephanie Schorrow, and well-known radio
insiders Donna Halper, Dan Strassberg, Laurence Glavin
and Jeff Santos, the only local live host on  Boston’s
Progressive Talk.

Each person introduced themselves, gave their
background and expressed their hope that we could  get
the format back on the air. Some members of the
steering committee, including founder Robin Bergman
along with Donna Halper, Dan Strassberg, Cindy
Sulaiman, Nick Woebke, Alan Frankel and George Barrett
discussed the group’s accomplishments and plans over
the course of two hours. The group has formed several
groups including the Media and Political Teams for
further outreach, and the Radio Team to research other
options as well as ask Clear Channel to reinstate the
Progressive format on at least one of the currently
simulcasting stations.  Medford resident and Steering
Committee member Dr. Lorna Wilkerson will head the
Advertising Team which will seek out local businesses
who pledge to support progressive programming.


Dr. Wilkerson feels that "A radio station is first and
foremost a business that is financed by advertisers.
One of the most glaring examples of how little Clear
channel was interested in seeing this station succeed
was the fact that there was no appeal to obtain
advertisers to support the format.

We have testimony from progressive advertisers who
wanted to be on air that literally had to call the
station regularly to keep their ads on, while
the station played  Public Service Announcements all
day.

Our goal is to identify , connect to, and pledge a
group of businesses that want to support a progressive
radio station in Boston. In this very" blue" city and
with dedicated listeners we feel confident that we can
show potential stations that a progressive format has
a market here. Advertiser support played a large part
in preventing a switch from a progressive  format
when a station in Madison, Wisconsin was threatened
last year."

Donna Halper is a well-known radio consultant and
author of "Invisible Stars : A Social History of Women
in American Broadcasting."  Since one of the stars in
her book, Eunice Randall, was broadcasting from
Medford in the 1920s, as Boston's first woman
announcer, it was certainly a great Medford
story, so Donna was a guest on MCC TV 3 back in 2002
along with WZLX Common Ground host Kimberley Jaeger. 

Ms. Halper has affection for our city when she noted
to the Transcript:  "Medford has been an important
location for radio history, since it was the home of
1XE/WGI (greater Boston's first radio station ever)
and now, it's fitting in a way for the meetings to
come to Medford to try to bring progressive talk back
to the radio dial."

In her book, Halper discusses the careers of the
pioneering early broadcasters from Medford, but
especially Eunice Randall, who was unique for her era.
She was not only an announcer but an engineer.  She
also read the police reports of stolen cars, and when
guests failed to show up (all radio was live in those
early days), she sometimes would sing, along with
another engineer.  The company that owned WGI was
AMRAD, which kept offices in Medford throughout the
1920s, manufacturing radio receivers and other
equipment.  For Halper, attending the meeting at the
Medford Public Library was a sort of home-coming.  "I
did a lot of the research for my book at that
library," she recalls.    

At the Medford meeting, Halper mentioned that WHMP in
Northhampton, owned by Saga Communications rather than
Clear Channel, had a ratings surge after taking on
Progressive Talk Radio - a huge jump of over three
points, illustrating that putting more effort toward
making the format work paid off.  Halper and
Strassberg explained the  Arbitron ratings and that
the method of rating radio stations does not yet take
into account internet streaming, satellite radio or
poor signal reception, which accounts for a very large
proportion of listeners.


Halper also reported on the recent Media Reform
Conference held in Memphis, TN the weekend before,
which she had attended. Many noted speakers were
there, including Bill Moyers, FCC commissioners
Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, Senator Bernie
Sanders and Representative Markey, soon to be new
Chairman of the powerful Subcommittee on
Telecommunications which oversees the FCC. Audio of
much of the conference can be found at
http://www.freepress.net. Our battle to reinstate
progressive talk in Boston is part of a much larger
national story concerning  media consolidation, lack
of diversity, and loss of local programming.
Discussed, was the need to contact the FCC, Markey and
other officials who will be looking at the issues from
Washington.

It would make sense that Congressman Markey get
involved as his Medford Square office is just a
stone's throw down Route 16 from the KISS 108 studios.

    With Congressman Ed Markey's office atop of
Medford Community Cablevision in Medford Square, and
with "River's Edge" now taking the place of the ten
year old concept, Telecom City, a united effort from
Everett, Malden and Medford with a focus on new
technologies, there must be some kind of synergy the
group can work with.   Perhaps putting a radio station
directly inside River's Edge will keep the telecom
vision alive?   Halper notes "In a world that seems to
be dominated by a handful of giant corporations, fans
of Boston's Progressive Talk hope that their
voices will still be heard and that diversity of
thought won't be lost from the public airwaves.  They
plan to have further meetings,  and to continue the
fight for more local programming and a wider
range of views.