With rumors swirling around that San Francisco’s Green960 is headed towards a format change and Air America is now defunct, is this proof that progressive talk radio is dead? In the conventional sense, it’s been dead a long time. Progressive talk has never had the mass appeal in the same way that right wing talk has. Part of the problem that Air America had was that it wasn’t home grown grass roots radio. It didn’t grow out of demand, it grew out of a business-political venture/idea. Stations around the country like Green960 and Madison, Wisconsin’s WXXM “The Mic” were both born out of Clear Channel’s move to to capitalize on the early success of progressive talk (especially given the fact that their early experiment, KPOJ, went from the bottom of the Portland market to the close to the top in less than a year).
The anger that grew out of the President Bush’s second term fueled progressive talk as a format. When that anger turned into a political campaign and elected a president, the usefulness of the format had run it’s course. Clear Channel has no interest in progressive movements, they only care about their bottom line. They are the Wal-Mart of talk.
This morning a received an urgent plea, urging me to contact Clear Channel and show my support for Green960. I’m not going to be doing that. Besides the fact that it’s a fruitless endeavor (take it from a long time listener/fan/supporter of Morning Sedition, Break Room Live, The Marc Maron Show, The Sam Seder Show, Lee Rayburn, Live From The Left Coast). Protests rarely work in radio. And really, I don’t have the time, energy, or enthusiasm continue to support Wal-Mart radio. While I love Thom Hartmann and the like, I’m pretty much over hearing about ATM Gold trading or “right size smoothies”.
I hope progressive talkers will follow the lead of Amanda Palmer and Leo Laporte. Both Laporte and Palmer have become pioneers in the use of social networking and the Internet to remove the need for corporate middleman. Progressive radio shows like Karel and Live From The Left Coast ( and video shows like GritTV and Democracy Now!) can continue to grow and thrive, but they’ll have to do it under this newly emerging direct access model. Liberal content creators have to take advantage of ALL social and online media tools to promote their shows. That means Twitter, iTunes, RSS, Facebook, Youtube, and any other place they can put their content and build audience ( especially through blogging at places like Firedoglake or DailyKos and online forums). I hope they realize that Clear Channel is not their savior, but their slave master.
If listeners truly want to support progressive radio, give Clear-Mart Channel a giant middle finger and start supporting progressive media DIRECTLY!:
Last fall when I heard you could try out Windows 7 release client for free, I signed up. I absolutely LOVE the product. As has been said in 15,000 different places, it’s Vista done right. What just dawned on me when modifying my desktop:
that the release candidate will start shutting off with 2 hours of use. After a bit of research I’ve found that if I had Vista Home Premium on this PC, I could upgrade to Windows7 Home Premium. But since Microsoft isn’t selling Windows7 Home Basic, I can’t upgrade my Vista Home Basic License.
The question is, do I spend $200 on the retail version or buy another PC? For another 200 hundred dollars I could actually buy a desktop (Inspiron Zino HD with Windows7 on it). I could downgrade to Windows Vista, but that’s not an option. It’s such a horrible OS, I can’t put myself through that. Microsoft you aren’t making this easy.
Action Bowling ($2.99 USD) is a fun bowling game. The ssound effects are awesome, you can design your own ball, and you can throw the ball like you do bowling at your local alley. Just be careful when throwing that strike that you don’t throw your device across the room. You can download it here.
This post is the second of the series (part one here, part two here) on the best iPhone/iPod Touch applications by categories of apps. All applications I’m review are currently running on my 2 generation iPod Touch. Today I review social networking applications and reference apps.
Social Networking
Facebook (free) I’m sure this is a great app for iPhone users, but for Touch users I find the user interface a bit clunky. I prefer using the Blackberry application on my phone. The only time I’ve used this application is when showing my friends at work pictures of my son. You can download the app here.
I’m sure that many people who received either an iPod Touch or iPhone for Christmas this year are looking for good applications for their device. This post is the second of the series (part one here) on the best applications by categories of apps. All applications I’m review are currently running on my 2 generation iPod Touch. Today I tackle ways to use your device to make your life easier and more productive.
Offline RSS reader Byline ($3.99 USD) is one of my top five used applications. This is a great app. For a long time Google Reader had become an exercise in frustration for me. Leo Laporte has said that RSS is dead, and before this app I agreed with him. If I didn’t read my feed in a few days it would be come downright unmanageable. I’d end up missing a lot of content because I got frustrated and marked massive amounts of my feeds as read when I hadn’t viewed them. If I tried to, I’d be tied to the desktop for hours. This application basically mirrors your Google Reader feed and allows you to cache them locally on your iPod. Now when I’m standing in line at the grocery, or any other place I have to “hurry up and wait”, I’ve got content to keep me occupied. There are many other options to Byline of which you can see in the review below. You can download Byline here.
I’m sure that many people who received either an iPod Touch or iPhone for Christmas this year are looking for good applications for their device. I’m going to do a series of posts on the best applications by categories of apps. All applications I’m review are currently running on my 2 generation iPod Touch.
As I’ve written before, I love the iPhone, but I don’t like AT&T. The iPod Touch is perfect for people like me that love their Blackberry phones and Verizon service, but still want the utility of the iPhone.
Communications Skype (free) is a voip app that allows you to chat free to other skype users and allows you to make voip calls. I’ve used this app to make short calls and it worked fine. I don’t believe it’s of such a high quality it should replace your phone, but it’s very useful if you want to chat with users for free. If you have an iPod, you’ll need headphones with a microphone (standard iPhone headphones work perfectly with the Touch. You can download Skype here.
A friend of mine moved to Indianapolis, Indiana from New York because in his words, “Indianapolis feels like home.” As someone that’s always hated living in Indianapolis, I couldn’t understand how someone would WANT to move there. There are people I miss in Indianapolis, but I don’t miss the place itself. A year ago I moved to Wisconsin to be near my best friend. I now know what Danni was talking about. I’ve never felt this at home.
Home is where a light is left on until you get home.
Home is morning tea with your best friend.
Home is not locational, it is emotional.
Home is the place where you are loved.
For now, Middleton, Wisconsin is my home and I’m grateful.
I’ve always found great joy in music, but there are few songs that impact me to such an extent that I cry the first time I hear them. Tonight I heard the following song did:
“Dust in our eyes our own boots kicked up
Heartsick we nursed along the way we picked up
You may not see it when it’s sticking to your skin
But we’re better off for all that we let in
Lost friends and loved ones much too young
So much promises and work left undone
When all that guards us is a single center line
And the brutal crossing over when it’s time
Oooooooo
(I don’t know where it all begins)
Oooooooo
(And I don’t know where it all will end)
Oooooooo
(We’re better off for all that we let in)
One day those toughies will be withered up and bent
The father son the holy warriors and the president
With glory days of put up dukes for all the world to see
Beaten into submission in the name of the free Read more »
(Recently on a progressive e-list I’m on a person pointed to the work done by Science and Public Policy Institute and suggested that we “learn the truth” about climate change. The following is my response to him)
When someone claims to hold the truth to a question I tend to want to believe them. In my own life I want truth more than anything, so I my nature is to want to believe what people say. In third grade Ricky Crawford told me that his father worked for NASA and that his father had told him secretly that aliens from Pluto were attacking and would be here in three days. For three days I cried a lot, hid a lot, and waited for news to break that the aliens were attacking. When I realized that I’d been tricked, I trusted other people a lot less.
I’ve found consistently through my life that though I want to believe what people say, I have to dig down and see if there is a more sinister or politically motivated reason underneath. Many people (Christian creationists, for example) start with a belief and amass data to support their belief while dismissing anything that doesn’t support their beliefs. Read more »
For many years I thought I needed someone else to make me whole. Someone to “complete me.” I’ve tried so many ways to find that completeness, but sometimes the cliché is the truth. The easy truth is sometimes the hardest to actualize/realize/deal with.
Ultimately I realized that I never needed anything outside my own acceptance, my own love, and my own respect. Do I want those things from other people? Yes. Do I need them to be complete? Hardly.
But saying that doesn’t mean I want to be alone. It means I can be and that’s ok. I had a recent bout of loneliness that came over me quick and pressed down on me like an imploding house. But even in that, the above realization was always with me. I’m at a point in my life where my needs and wants are clearly defined. It helps to know the difference, especially when I get lonely. Filling that void in my life is a want, not a need. That is such a relief/weight lifted, I can’t even explain it enough for one to understand the gravity it implies.
media | admin February 23, 2010 | 
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