Twin Cities Radio: Changes in the Wind?
By Brian Lambert
Several disparate developments in radio land caught my interest in recent days.
—Arbitron ratings for the fall quarter of '07 were released. (A few are listed below).
—The FCC, responding to persistent complaints about "a lack of localism" on the part of radio license holders, issued a mild admonition to the key offenders—Clear Channel, you know who you are—to shape up. ("Shape up, or what?" is the question everyone should ask.)
—Next, the FCC signed off on the long-incubating acquisition of Clear Channel by Mitt Romney's old private equity firm, Bain Capital, meaning the 1,300 radio station empire will soon go back to being a private company (with another load of debt and huge payouts to Clear Channel's principal shareholders).
—Clear Channel boss John Hogan issued (yet another) order to his thousands of employees that salaries were being frozen, ditto hiring, and, oh yeah, expenses, too.
—A rumor bubbled up here in the Twin Cities that the Pohlads—yes, those Pohlads—and their new-ish Northern Lights Broadcasting company, which bought hip-hopping B96 (KTTB-FM) last year, was going to buy a couple low-performing Clear Channel stations, possibly oldies KOOL 108 and KTLK-FM, the all right wing talk station.
Although I wait on return calls from Steve Woodbury, the Pohlad's radio manager, and Mike Crusham, top dog of all things Clear Channel in the Twin Cities area, which reaches as far as the Dakotas, let me register my doubts that Clear Channel is going to sell off two FM signals covering the country's fourteenth largest metropolitan area.
The great Evil Empire (Clear Channel) has said that it will clear its books of some of its properties in smaller markets—the Minots of the world, if you will. But lopping off high-powered FMs at a time when the value of an FM license is lower than it has been in years because of declining ad revenue and thus lower multiples of revenue? Huh, uh. Not now. The fire sale hasn't started yet.
Crusham called back to say, "Sometimes a guy in my position is the last to know about something like this. I don't doubt they might have looked, but I just don't see our company selling either of those properties.Neither of those stations, [KOOL 108 and KTLK] is losing money. They may not be making a lot. But they're not losing."
Still, we congratulate Dan Barreiro for getting his cushy new contract signed and filed before Clear Channel starts chopping up the furniture for firewood and the janitors get eight hour on-air shifts added to their toilet duties. (Actually, it 'd be more like the on-air jocks being told to bring their own mops and Brillo pads for the two extra hours they'll be spending cleaning the rest rooms.)
Clear Channel is hardly the only offender when it comes to supplying inadequate amounts of localism, but as the Death Star of consolidated media to everyone else's lumbering RV, they always get first mention when talk turns to gargantuan stock market gambits milking broadcast licenses while masquerading as a community asset. Clear Channel's infamous 2002 "Minot Incident", where a railroad tanker carrying 250,000 gallon of anhydrous ammonia derailed and because none of Clear Channel's six Minot stations— like so many of Clear Channel's small town properties—was staffed by an actual live, local human being at the time, authorities weren't able to use it to get word out to citizens nearby. One person died.
The FCC did a dog-and-pony barnstorming show over the past year and got an earful from something like 83,000 "commenters," very few of who thought the Clear Channel's et al. of the world were doing a very good job at delivering local community coverage—unless of course your idea of great local radio is thirty-seven minutes of computer-selected music by the same eleven "artists" interrupted by nineteen minutes of commercials and four minutes of FOX News.
The Poynter Institute comments on the FCC's report here.
It notes that the commission is considering:
Forcing local stations to establish permanent advisory boards (including representatives of underserved community segments) in each station's community of license and to consult periodically with those boards on community needs and issues.
Taking into consideration whether the station has produced some locally oriented programming before renewing a license.
Doing a better job of educating members of the public as to the obligations of broadcasters and the commission's procedures so that viewers and listeners can become more actively involved in ensuring that stations offer locally-oriented programming.
To this all I can say is, "Oh, baby."
If motivated consumers actually knew what rights they have in demanding real-world useful programming and information from local radio broadcasters—who, as I always like to point out, don't pay a nickel for their use of the public airwaves—, you'd guarantee yourself a couple high-octane confrontations between pissed off consumer rabble-rousers and the various stations' corporate hatchet men when/if they ever held one of these more public and active "advisory board" sessions.
My first question: "Can we at least quarantine Sean Hannity and year-around Christmas music on the same low-powered AM?"
Not being much of a fan of the Bush-appointee dominated FCC, I don't see any serious action going down here for another year. But, with the FCC back under Democrat control, Clear Channel and others have good reason to start cleaning up their act, pronto. (That said, Clear Channel was born under Bill Clinton's watch—with a Republican Congress.)
Another intriguing sword of threat waggled at broadcasters was talk of re-instituting the so-called "main studio rule."
Now, don't get too excited about this, but if the FCC (or you, angry and informed citizen) really wanted to re-shape the broadcast world, "The Main Studio" rule would require not only live twenty-four-hour staffing of each and every station in a market but also that the programming of that station originate from within the same broadcast area as well. The horror! Local DJs picking music? Local reporters reporting local news? Has someone gone mad here?
This would mean no more of Clear Channel, or whomever, pumping Lil' Kim, Darryl Worley, and Rush Limbaugh into Minot via Minneapolis. Given proper oversight (and a couple good whacks with the sword just to show they meant business), Clear Channel would have to, you know, spend money in the local economies rather than just suck it out.
Anyway, if there's a bottom line to be detected here, it's that even the Republican-controlled FCC has heard the message loud and clear that the current ownership model for broadcast radio is falling far short of what the public has a right to expect. With a Democratic-controlled Congress very likely to look hard at restoring The Fairness Doctrine, I see long overdue course corrections looming on the horizon.
Anyway, as promised, before I start mixing some stiff drinks in preparation for W's last State of the Union speech, here are a couple Arbitron ratings slices from the last quarter of 2007.
ADULTS 18 to 34 (AKA "The Kids") MORNING DRIVE
STATION SHARE
KQRS...........14.5
KDWB..........11.8
93X.............10.5
K102............6.9
B96.............6.3
KS95............6.3
Cities97........5.2
WLTE...........4.4
KFAN............3.5
JACK............2.7
KOOL 108......1.0
KTLK............1.0
WCCO..........1.0
AM 1500.......0.5
LOVE...........0.4
FM107..........0.2
The Patriot....0.1
ADULTS 25 to 54 AFTERNOON DRIVE
STATION.............SHARE
KS95..................8.2
K102..................8.1
KQRS.................7.2
WLTE................6.3
Cities97.............5.9
KFAN.................5.6
AM 1500.............5.0
93X...................4.3
WCCO................4.0
JACK.................3.5
KOOL108............3.5
KDWB................3.4
B96...................2.9
KTLK.................2.8
FM107...............1.9
LOVE.................1.8
The Patriot..........1.5
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
Would the main studio rule also apply to local hosts who do their shows from their suburban basements?
I agree on Christmas and Hannity going to AM. (I thought I should at least point out one item we agree on).
LAMBERT: Can we agree that Rush Limbaugh should be forced to pick fruit for a couple months, just to get the feel of it?
Posted by: Tom O on January 28, 2008 at 5:27 PM
This "main studio" concept is soooo last century. I mean the only media dinosaurs who still do all their work in the office are writers. I'm pretty sure I'm right about that.
LAMBERT: Hey, pally, for a big time uptick in my shareholder value I'll happily write Minot Magazine right from here.
Posted by: Frogman of Grant on January 28, 2008 at 7:47 PM
Gotta' admire ol' Brian Quixote for once again hoisting his lance for another tilt at corporate radio's antenna. Who knows, perhaps this public good-serving FCC you speak of will be a part of the oft-promised "change" the everyone from Barack Obama to Mitt Romney is promising us.
Surely the moneyed interests that turned the FCC into a giant rubber stamp for whatever corporate radio wants to perpetrate on the ears of the credulous listening public will surely roll over and pee on its soft belly in the face of the juggernaut of change in the "post partisan" world that is somewhere just over the horizon of next January.
"Yes," said Jake, "isn't it pretty to think so."
LAMBERT: OK. Call me a cock-eyed optimist. But I truly believe, based on the overwhelming public response to THIS version of the FCC, that a Hillary or Obama FCC, with a Democratic Congress will make significant policy changes. I'm not saying they'll achieve broadcast nirvana. But it'd be tough to get much more tone-deaf.
Posted by: Jim Leinfelder on January 28, 2008 at 10:08 PM
Yep, we "informed consumers" need more hard news from FM 107, Twin Cities home of boob enhancement.
Give it a rest, Bri, radio is no-diff from TV in the financial arena.
It's a bidness. With shareholders.
If Katie Couric can pass as a "news" source, so can Terri Traen.
By this logic, you should be glued to MPR, but then you hate Kling for making money.
So which way do you want it?
LAMBERT: I don't hate Bill Kling for making money. I think he's worth whatever he's paying himself. My point is that the current radio business has degenerated, through shareholder avarice, into an out-of-touch bad business soon to be fatally flattened by the iPod. You however will still be able to inject Laura Ingraham, hourly.
Posted by: bertram jr on January 29, 2008 at 9:09 AM
One can dream, right? Can there be a rule that Cities 97 can only play the Bodeans 1x per week?
Just out of curiosity, where did Air America and The Current come in for this book? I'm a big fan of AA's morning drive show...pretty damn funny most days...
Great post!
LAMBERT: AM 950 didn't register in the Top 15 or whatever it was. Not good. I have a very hard time getting MPR ratings for any group other than largest and most general, the 12+. The Current, last time I looked, was something around a 3 share, with KNOW about a 5. If I find more, I'll post 'em.
Posted by: essar1 on January 29, 2008 at 10:07 AM
I'm no lover of Clear Channel, in fact, if it wasn't for them, I'd probably still be in radio.
But the challenge for anyone trying to come up with a feasible local alternative to their methods is that all local radio is more expensive than satellite. And we're now in a point where the revenue streams for radio are much less than they were ten years ago.
Also, it's not easy to crack the sales issue. The Clear Channel's of the world do have one valid point about radio consolidation. Before they came along, many signals in smaller markets had already went to an automated format (or went dark altogether) because they couldn't sell enough to make the station a financial success. Clear Channel's solution was to move the signals as close as possible to larger markets, and consolidate sales and on-air staff.
While i think CC made the wrong call, there are still are some real financial issues to figure out in medium and smaller radio markets. Sure, it's a lot easier for a stand-alone station to make mony in the Twin Cities. But in Minot? hmmm...that I don't know.
All this having been said, if I had the chance to do radio tomorrow, I'd probably jump at it.
LAMBERT: Ironically, radio's future might be brighter with declining revenue leading to declining license value (that and of course internet radio delivered into cars) which translates to significantly lower valuations. Are the days of a $45 million FM license in the Twin Cities gone? You tell me. Frankly, with any website capable of being a "radio station", I'm surprised that huge content providers -- like the Star Tribune -- haven't hit on this as another way to test drive the future.
Posted by: Rick Ellis on January 29, 2008 at 10:58 AM
The Minot incident also pointed out that the local public radio station, KMPR, had no local operators because its programming was handled almost 300 miles away in Fargo.
So would the reinstitution of the "main studio rule" be applied to noncomm Clear Channel equivalents (you know who you are)? Oh joy! Truly local public broadcasting for all!
It's also notable that the FCC is proposing that public inspection files (for TV, possibly radio) be made available on the web. It's about time.
LAMBERT: What is good for the goose is good for the Great Public gander.
Posted by: Tuned In on Washington on January 29, 2008 at 11:30 AM
The lovely and talented Laura Ingraham is also crossing over nicely to Fox News Channel.
It must gall you.
LAMBERT: Since she's your idea of "news", no. It helps rest my case.
Posted by: bertram jr on January 29, 2008 at 12:01 PM
I actually believe the Clear Channel will sell some stations in major markets. This is outside of the mandate to get back within the FCC rules on stations by market size. Those stations are already listed in the Clear Channel filing with the FCC.
Private equity firms typically buy companies to chop them up and resell them, or to clean them up and take them public again. As we saw with Avista, buying media companies is bad business if you sit on them. Private equity firms are also lousy at running businesses, see Fast Eddy Lambert and Sears/KMart as an example.
I'm guessing they will sell off some underperforming frequencies in major markets to help pay the considerable debt they are taking on for purchasing Clear Channel. Pohlad paid around $25 million for B96, I'm guessing KTLK or KOOL would bring in over $30 million.
Credit markets are dry and I doubt the Minneapolis cluster would lose much value if you chopped off KTLK or KOOL.
LAMBERT: Well, the Twin Cities is not mentioned in the filing. But Clear Channel would be selling at something close to the bottom of the market.
Posted by: Dave on January 29, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Funny, today on KFAN's P.A. and Dubay show they took practically the first whole hour to discuss how they could be more attuned to younger listners. In typical P.A. and Dubay fashion it was pretty much tongue in check but I somehow think their Clear Channel overlords showed them the Fall Ratins Book and said "get younger!"
LAMBERT: Radio's allure is almost entirely lost on everyone under the age of 20. As we see with KS95's current run, the personality-quotient will help stabilize ratings, where nothing but music (and way too many ads), is a loser in the age of the iPod. But even talk needs serious reinvention. The "successful formats" are moving inexorably toward cliches. And I generally like PA and Dubay's act ... in football season.
Posted by: Freealonzo on January 29, 2008 at 12:36 PM
What happened to CCO? I am a retired reporter for WJON in St. Cloud. It belongs to the Regent group. I am surprised to see a news station take such a drop. Course I haven't seen a Arbtron in a long time. Iagree with the need for stations to provide for local needs and the return of some sort of fairness doctrine. Relying on sattelite programming 24-7 is a disservice.
LAMBERT: 'CCO needs work. Ad clutter is accelerating the decline of a once effective format. While everyone else chases "edge", I've got to believe there is still an audience for homey, middle-class Lutheran values. But who can listen to four minutes of conversation interrupted by five minutes of commercials, pointless traffic, etc.
Posted by: Paul Stacke on January 29, 2008 at 2:57 PM
As if radio doesn't have enough trouble now - primarily because the content SUCKS (music especially), wait until the people meters take the place of the arbitron books.
LAMBERT: The (greater) accuracy of People Meters could very well convince music and talk stations to lean even more heavily on "winning" songs and lines of rhetoric. God help us.
Posted by: essar1 on January 29, 2008 at 3:01 PM
Yeehaw!
K102 keeps kickin' country butt!
LAMBERT: The demographic twist here is that the country music is probably the one least likely to evolve to iPods anytime soon. Do they still hate the Dixie Chicks on cue?
Posted by: dwight yoakam on January 29, 2008 at 3:25 PM
You might be interested in the following from Yahoo Financial News:
"...Arbitrage investors who have put their faith in the radio broadcaster’s buyout are the latest deal junkies running scared after the honcho of one of the private-equity firms buying Clear Channel went unnervingly mum today. At $29.51, Clear Channel stock is down some 6% today and is nearly $10 below the $39.20 buyout price..."
Since this release Bain Capital has reassured investors; however, those who make the bets with their own cash continue to bail.
LAMBERT: Yeah, that "no comment" was like a lance in a speculator's heart. Oh, wait ...
Posted by: Bleuler on January 29, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Dixie Chicks can kiss my dusty Bakersfield Buck Owens lovin' ass!
(Did that sound funny?)
LAMBERT: I think you'd have to pay to get those girls to do anything of the sort.
Posted by: dwight yoakam on January 30, 2008 at 1:25 PM
The Clear Channel Minot story is urban legend:
http://wotmedia.blogspot.com/2005/06/demythification-urban-legend-of-clear.html
And I count more than 11 artists on K102's playlist:
http://www.radioandrecords.com/Playlists/GetStationPlaylist.asp?Company=1002212&Format=4
Why does the MSM hate what the majority of the American public likes? Why do you want to cram the Rotting Scabs and the Festering Boils down the throats of the majority? When is the MSM going to hire media critics who support Today's Lite Rock and Today's Hot New Country--the same formats supported by ordinary people who work for a living?
LAMBERT: And you're talking about what, again?
Posted by: Elitism Fighter on February 1, 2008 at 12:00 PM
I always enjoy how disgruntled folks always refer to anyone in the media they don't agree with as "elitist." I like Brian, but I've met the guy, and he's by no means a member of the elite.
So, "Elitism Fighter," let me refute your points a bit.
I looked at your link concerning the Minot problem, and even if the blog post is true, the argument is that Clear Channel had *one* on duty announcer working (I'm guessing in reality it was someone to watch the boards and satellite feeds) among the six stations it ran in Minot. That's not exactly what I consider to be a "local" presence.
As for the link to K102's playlist, while it does list more than 11 artists, the reality isn't much more impressive. The list includes just 30 tracks, and several artists are getting airplay on two tracks. Plus, a total of 11 of the tracks were first added more than four months ago, with some dating back to last June. That's a squeaky tight playlist, no matter how you slice it.
I love country music, but wish that stations like K102 were a bit less predictable and less female-skewing. And I could do without the number of "classic" tracks that seem to dominate modern country radio. But that's just me.
LAMBERT: Thanks for the support, but something tells me "elitism fighter" would shrivel and die if he couldn't rail against "liberal boogey men". He needs me ... badly.
Posted by: Rick Ellis on February 2, 2008 at 12:06 AM
Minot was a myth, MSM libtard. Clear Channel stations play more than eleven songs. And you MSM libtards hate ordinary people who work for a living and what the MAJORITY of the American public likes.
And you wonder why AMERICANS hate the MSM and why FOX NEWS CHANNEL is THE MOST POWERFUL NAME IN NEWS. How about GIVING THE PUBLIC WHAT IT WANTS, MSM LIBTARD?
LAMBERT: Hmmmm, "MAJORITY" ... "AMERICANS" ... "HATE" ... "MSM" .. "FOX NEWS" ... "MOST POWERFUL". I hear the familiar cadence of a proud group thinker.
BTW ... ALL ... FREEDOM ...LOVING ... REAL ... AMERICANS, besides slapping cheap, red, white & blue magnets on their 10 mpg pickups ... know how to spell "FIGHTER"!
Posted by: Elitism Figher on February 2, 2008 at 2:15 PM
I do believe Elitism Fighter is referring to your supposition that anyone who listens to country is an unlikely adaptor of technology, thereby revealing your own festering boil of "libtard" MSM elitism.
Even I tour on a a state of the art bus complete with SAT Nav and i-pod docks, etc.
BTW, is the "group think" you mention considered wrong by elitists because the "group" is well, RIGHT?
You know my song, 1,000 Miles From Nowhere, Bri?
Pretty much sums up your elitist lib platitudes.
LAMBERT: A question. Do you give tours of the 14th century?
Posted by: dwight yoakam on February 3, 2008 at 9:47 AM
Hey, Mediocrity Defender, or Elitism Fighter, or Bertram, Jr, whatever web moniker you'rr cowering behind today, this isn't talk radio, sonny. Care to document in some small way the "myth" status of the Minot incident. Wait, don't tell me, you "heard" that is a myth, right? It's a new day, Mediocrity Defender. Your crowd is back out on the tattered fringes where you belong. If you want to play here, you're going to have to make more of an effort than blurting out ditto points.
LAMBERT: What WILL he do when Ann Coulter starts campaigning for Hillary Clinton?
Posted by: Jim Leinfelder on February 3, 2008 at 10:01 AM
Come come
you know it is okay
to pose your argument online without facts..
as long as you remember...
TO USE ALL CAPS!
*heehee, I think I might smile all night with a smile after that one, thanks for the setup folks*
LAMBERT:
Only the dim believe
Their argument
Has more Bite
If they always shout
They're RIGHT!!!!!!!
Posted by: The Other Mike on February 3, 2008 at 10:22 PM
Talk radio will die when people stop lisetning to it. Weather it is locally owned Hubbard or the Empire of Clear Channel. If people tune out the pundits, or whatever else they are called they will go away. From the audience trends this is happening at least here without a government mandate of what people can and can not listen to. If Air America had taken off, there would have been no talk of the fairness doctrine.
An argument on this board has often been that radio is "public airwaves". Ok, lets first examine what our national broadcasters are offering on network tv. Where is the outrage for Fox entertainment's latest exploitation reality show, or for NBC for making pedophilia into a sitcom. The hours of talk shows with paternity tests on daytime TV can't be providing any service to the public.
LAMBERT: You won't find me defending the majority of content in broadcast TV's entertainment programming. ABC, NBC and CBS do however offer regular news programming, and, as much as I quibble with what they choose to cover and how, they are not constantly, ceaselessly advocating for one political party or ideological dogma - unless of course you consider "status quo" a dogma. More to the point, they are regularly admonished to report only what is factually knowable. the FoxNews business model is obviously built on partisan advocacy ... and it has been quite successful.
Posted by: Tom O on February 4, 2008 at 9:39 AM
If you'd bothered scrolling up a little bit, the link that proves the Minot is a myth has been posted, Libtard Leinfelder. Weren't you libtards taught to read in government school? Those of us who went to Christian academies, military academies or home schooled were taught to read, not Communist and homosexual propaganda.
And in case you didn't notice, Clear Channel is the most-listened to radio station owner in the country because it gives the public what it wants! Every day, Clear Channel talks to hundreds of thousands of Americans and finds out what they want--and that's not the Rotting Scabs or the Festering Boils, libtards--it's these:
TODAY'S LITE ROCK WITH LESS TALK!
TODAY'S HOT NEW COUNTRY!
CLASSIC ROCK THAT REALLY ROCKS!
GOOD TIMES, GREAT OLDIES!
TODAY'S HIT MUSIC!
And talk radio that SUPPORTS AMERICA--including RUSH LIMBAUGH, AMERICA'S ANCHORMAN!
And it's the music the majority of the public wants to hear, whenever they want to--in long commercial-free music sweeps! Is that the Rotting Scabs and the Festering Boils? HELL, NO!
And you still wonder why America distrusts the MSM. Why newspaper circulation is going down. Why drive-by media ratings are going down while Fox News Channel's ratings go up. How about having media critics and journalists that support what the MAJORITY of the public likes for a change?
LAMBERT: Isn't THE popularity of PORNOGRAPHY going UP faster THAN the RATINGS of even BILL O'Reilly? DOESN'T that PROVE that what REAL Americans want is not DELIRIOUS sloganeering BUT hard-core SMUT? So THERE!
Posted by: Elitism Fighter on February 4, 2008 at 10:15 AM
BertramJrEllitismFighterDwightYoakum: If, as you assert, the MAJORITY of Americans like what you like, then it follows that YOU, and not Lambert, are the defender of the dreaded MSM. No logic classes at home school or Christian Academy? Sad.
Anyway, getting back to your claim that Lambert's Clear Channel anecdote re: the "Minot incident," you only offer a peer of yours' blog that merely links to snopes.com, not a specific citation re: the Minot incident. Is this how they taught research and backing up one's argument with pertinent and verifiable facts when you did yer learnin' at the bare feet of your mama on the filthy linoleum kitchen floor? Please tell me extreme poverty and lead paint dust are to blame for your substandard intellectual efforts here and not just willfull ignorance and sheer laziness.
LAMBERT: He CAN'T hear YOU.
Posted by: Jim Leinfelder on February 4, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Elitism Fighter (EF) would do well to remember the words of a great (Republican) president: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." (Abraham Lincoln)
The "link" that "proves" EF's point is a just another blog entry (and we all know how reputable the majority of blogs are...) about a "study" done by the blogger himself for a "think tank" (and all think tanks have a bias). It does not prove what EFer claims. Neither do any of the other links in that blog.
A cursory Google easily finds articles that give other perspectives - some arguably more "balanced". Three examples include:
The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dicola/the-debate-over-minot-rad_b_38421.html
Slate.com:
http://www.slate.com/id/2157395/pagenum/all/#page_start
and the non-blog Law Enforcement News:
http://www.slate.com/id/2157395/sidebar/2157437/
Frankly, I'll trust my own contacts in Minot (railroad employees, safety personnel, media) -- a place I actually spent time pre- and post-incident. It's not an urban myth, especially to the people of Minot. It happened. It's true.
Finally, I want to caution EFer about screaming that everyone all ought to get into lock-step with a self-perceived "majority" to "support the nation", among other things.
It's called fascism, kid. It happens when a group of people claim to represent the "majority" or, for example, claim superior "technology" / "knowledge" / "authority" and know what is best for everybody else. Ergo, there is no need for independent thought or voices (including media). And what happens to these thoughts/voices? Stifled, pressured or beaten/sued into submission and/or silence.
Don't ever make the mistake of thinking that it can't happen in America. It can and it does, regularly rearing its ugly little head. You hear it in statements from both the Left/Liberals and Right/Conservatives and, worse, from some hiding behind the guise of "religion". Unfortunately, all we learn from history is that we never learn from history. Those who cannot, or will not, remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
Oh, and stay away from my iPod/iTunes -- one of our newest bastions of individual choice and listening pleasure. There are no commercial or pledge drive interruptions on my playlists -- which I assure you are far more more diverse than any comm or noncomm "Clear Channel" broadcasts. POWER TO THE PEOPLE, indeed! (There. I used ALL CAPS. I'm feeling much better.)
Now... can we get back to some "real" news, Mr. Lambert, like your take on the latest Britney Spears meltdown?
LAMBERT: The poor girl is CRAAAAAZZZYY.
Posted by: Tuned In on Washington on February 4, 2008 at 2:14 PM