They tried this four years ago with varying results. The far better use of the money is by buying existing local TV stations and newspapers and staffing them properly
if there is one thing I want to come out of this election, regardless of result, it is Dems - and the left more generally - finally understanding that they need to make their own media ecosystem and stop relying on folks who want them to lose to get their message out
yeah the obliteration of local news - and the fact that what remains has been hoovered up by Sinclair and private equity - has done more damage than even the national level shitshow
idk, local news feels like local radio circa 2001
I don't see any up room and it's pretty obvi to me
if it's going to come back as a thing it will look more like Napster than KROQ
It's still where a third of people get their local news and they're the ones most affected by the fuckery (which is not limited to just Sinclair and nexstar)
certainly you could agree maybe it would've been a bad idea if, in fear of Clear Channel's reach the Dems had bought them up, and found themselves investing in a 20th century communication platform?
I get the attraction. I'm a news journo myself. But blight won't be beaten back, better to innovate
(also the younger generations are so much larger than remaining baby boomers & X, feels perfect time to find them where they live rather than try to breed a local TV news habit at such a late date imo; write off the 50+ set and focus your party on the future)
If someone with the money had acquired premiere radio networks and taken all major audience conservative radio off the air forever that would have been a very good use of money
if you could've found somebody to burn that money it would've been a good thing for the country
but it would've truly been charity
I'm not sure anyone has found anything else that actually makes money in that space outside the low cost talk radio format, but I'm all ears
It’s because the advertisers on local TV tend to be the American gentry (owners of car dealerships, gyms, restaurants, furniture stores,etc) They watch the local news to see their ads and are able to complain to management when they don’t like what they see.
yeah, and weirdly enough you could sell a lot more ads for buying gold, overpriced home security systems, and sketchy vitamin supplements to the uninformed Rush Limbaugh listeners than to the Air America crowd
and since there is no other revenue model for talk radio, 🤷🏻♀️
Sorry: I thought you meant a new station. Yes, I remember listening to AA all the time. I don’t remember the ads, but I do remember it feeling oddly lonely.
This is purely anecdotal, but I feel like with stuff like papers shutting down all over the place and KEXP buying a regular-ass commercial radio station in the Bay Area market traditional media is getting cheaper to buy every day
I've long pushed for the Dems to have just a handful of country and classic rock AM stations with no commercials and no news. Just something kick ass to listen to on the work truck. Like a 5% swing right there
Unless you pay the Times, you’re nearly 100% locked out of thier local reporting.
And local news is saturated with reports from the national level.
The only local outlet you can read here for free seems to be CL.
I live in a small community in Kentucky. We have our own paper and local radio stations, and that's where i get my local news. A number of other small towns around me also have their own papers and radio.
It’s not as though there isn’t a robust network of high quality left leaning blogs, podcasts, and online video. None of that stuff makes an impact on the voters who give credence to official-seeming media sources like linear TV and The Printed Word.
"Reality has a left-wing bias" indeed - you don't need to bother with propaganda and messaging, just hire and promote people who actually do journalism and protect them from click-focused conglomerates and egocentric billionaires
