TIO-Re: Atlanta's 1010 Airing Liberal Talk

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Most people do not fit into convenient categories.....I know I certainly don't and I doubt you do either.

Well, I'm glad we got all of that out of our systems... both of us.  You and I ought to team up and do one really amazing talk show!

We could explore the conventional stereotypes that exist universally  (everywhere) and the stereotypes that are pronounced enough to become the accepted picture of certain geographies.

Getting back to "Atlanta's 1010" and the possibility of them becoming some kind of fixture for liberal talk:  I don't know the people who have this station.  I observe the various comments made here in the forums and I don't get the idea that they are known for being powerhouse innovators when it comes to carving out a programming niche.  This could be their moment to shine.  There are some "reasonable successes" being reported in some markets but I don't get the idea that there is a ground-swell of stations that are proving that they really know what they are doing in establishing liberal programming.  It apparently isn't easy to do.

When it comes to votes and political clout,  the liberal movement seems to ride on two significant groups of people:  females and African Americans.  Both of those groups seem to be in reasonably abundant supply in the "core of the Atlanta metro area".  By that, I am describing the geography covered by 1010.  The city of Decatur and to some extent the whole of DeKalb county appears to have an abundance of liberal persons no matter how they fit into demographic groupings.  Atlanta Metro is something of a mecca for GLBT persons who have a tendency to be more on the liberal side that the conservative side.  Around the nation there is a propensity for university communities to have an above average percentage of liberals in the population so with the Emory campus, the CDC campus, the Agnes Scott campus and the Columbia Seminary practically in the shadow of the tower(s),  a liberal format on 1010 would appear to have considerable potential for success.

[almaniac27]

They might do fine if they can get an FM translator, because liberals also tend to be younger, and people under 40 don't listen to AM radio. If they stay exclusive to the AM band, younger liberal ears won't budge from WABE.

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

They might do fine if they can get an FM translator, because liberals also tend to be younger, and people under 40 don't listen to AM radio. If they stay exclusive to the AM band, younger liberal ears won't budge from WABE.

You make an excellent point.  If they do the format with skill,  some young folks who haven't heard that they aren't supposed to wander off the reservation may listen anyway.  If you owned WGUN,  you might not want to reach down really deep into your pockets to obtain that FM translator until you see that maybe liberal radio will work,  and until you see that you are comfortable with the concept and that you prove to yourself you are capable of implementing liberal programming.  An operator who has done it before in other markets might have a higher comfort level with putting in the extra investment without waiting for some results to measure.

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

5. I don't even understand what you are trying to say here

Fifth would be the "chip on the shoulder" mentality about  Good Ole Boys, Bubba and the Redneck.  The Southern politician wants to pretend his background is that of Bubba,  and he wants to address the populace as being made up of Rednecks (which he wants you to know is his own background) but then he wants to get really torqued if you suggest that such a conversation might be an indicator that some of the participants might have a slightly lowered IQ.

I think taylorengineer and I have both had our chance to express ourselves, and this little outburst is, as far as I am concerned,  over.  But I think he was genuine in saying he didn't understand what I was trying to say in Point 5.

This is a little bit like the cartoon from years ago where the little old lady is taking a good look at the big emblem about Harley's on the back of the biker's big leather jacket.  "Lady,  If I have to explain it to you,  you still wouldn't understand."

If a Caucasian is standing around the corner from a group of African Americans in casual chat with a bit of verbal push-and-shove  as men are prone to do,  they may use some words among themselves in good humor.  If you as a white person then walk around the corner and use one or two of those words in addressing the group,  you may encounter hostility.

Southerners, left to themselves, seem to revel in flaunting the rural ways and the poverty ways they endured going back to reconstruction and embellished in the era following the Depression of the 1930s.  The pick-up truck is one of the emblems of that bravado.  But let an outsider step around the corner and begin chatting about "Redneck Ways" and other such terminology,  you may encounter hostility.  If I go down to Waycross or Moultrie or Blakely, I accept the lingo, the style of dress, and the decor of the pickup truck (with the dog in the bed) as genuine and authentic.  But in East Cobb,  Alpharetta,  South Forsyth and parts of Gwinett that same appearance and speech style strikes me as fair game for some comments in the conversation I launched, including point five.

Let the record show, FULL DISCLOSURE:  I have a pick-up truck sitting in my driveway.  Much to my wife's chagrin I can reel off a few Arkansas Ozarks pieces of lingo in the middle of a conversation,  and my "Goat Rodeo Cowboy" personal is a spoof on the patterns of Texas ranch country in the 40s, 50s and 60s.  But sit down face to face with me for 30 minutes,  or sit in the seat behind me on the airliner and just listen to my conversation...  and you will know that regionalism DOES NOT guide my prejudices, my politics or my religion.

I hope our nation never becomes so homogenized that it no longer makes sense to plan a vacation in a part of the country you have never been to, because when you get there you find they have already become you, and you have become them!  I feat that when the history books are written a couple of generations from now we will find that radio, Walmart and McDonalds and cable talk-shows have indeed made us all alike.
 

[taylorengineer]

Politicians pander to their constituency no matter which part of the country they live.
Funny thing about prejudices.....it's impossible to look at ourselves and objectively see them for what they are. No one will ever convince you that southerners are no different than other people because you're convinced we are. It reminds me of the song, "Everybody Has to Have Somebody to Look Down On." You need the Southern stereotype because it makes you feel better about yourself.
Remember "Southern Man" by Neil Young? And do you remember Lynyrd Skynyrd's answer to Mr. Young? "I hope Neil Young will remember - a southern man don't need him around anyhow....."
If painting me as inferior because of my birth place makes you feel superior then knock yourself out.
BTW....if we're such "backward twig benders" then why don't you move back to where the "enlightened" people like Bill Mayher live? No one is forcing you to live here.......

[Albert19X]

Congrats to WGUN and its new progressive talk lineup. There may be some faint hope for Georgia yet!!!

What the hell does that mean? "Faint hope for Georgia.....YET?"
Would you like to compare IQ scores, sir? I'm a Georgia native and I bet I have 20 points on either you or Bill Maher!

If I may pose a question here (having wandered in from my own TIO thread) I'm curious as to why you find a rather tame jab at Southerners particularly offensive but seem to have found the multiple posts calling liberals dumb and stupid not worthy of rebuke?

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Politicians pander to their constituency no matter which part of the country they live.
Funny thing about prejudices.....it's impossible to look at ourselves and objectively see them for what they are. No one will ever convince you that southerners are no different than other people because you're convinced we are. It reminds me of the song, "Everybody Has to Have Somebody to Look Down On." You need the Southern stereotype because it makes you feel better about yourself.
Remember "Southern Man" by Neil Young? And do you remember Lynyrd Skynyrd's answer to Mr. Young? "I hope Neil Young will remember - a southern man don't need him around anyhow....."
If painting me as inferior because of my birth place makes you feel superior then knock yourself out.
BTW....if we're such "backward twig benders" then why don't you move back to where the "enlightened" people like Bill Mayher live? No one is forcing you to live here.......

I'm trying to make peace with you, and you are not making it easy.

I was born so far south that if it had happened 8 miles further south,  I would have been a Mexican citizen.  We are living 5 miles from the grave-site of my wife's great-great grandmother.  We just came home to our roots!  If I told you her maiden name it might turn out that you know a half dozen Georgia residents with that same last name.  The chief genealogist in my own family line has suggested that I need to get down to Waycross and document one of MY OWN PEOPLE with possible Georgia roots.  The last time I checked,  living in Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia tended to make me a Southerner.  People who lived in Indianapolis back in the 60s will tell you that Indianapolis was much more Southern than was either Louisville or Cincinnati.  (I won't count my time in Texas...  it was more Southwestern and Western in that era.)

I've pointed out to you that even Georgia natives make fun of other Georgia natives.

Why is it so socially acceptable for Georgia natives to automatically assume a Yankee doesn't belong here  (when I moved here people would sing that jingle from the radio commercials to me:  "Delta is Ready When You Are!") and yet some of them (including you) are so thin skinned about the characteristics that make Georgia what it is.  I think every state I have ever lived in had people who could laugh at the unusual characteristics some of the natives in that state tended to exhibit.  I've been here 15 years now.  How long do I have to live here before I am allowed to have an opinion about how we do things here?

Why is it o.k. for 8 out of 10 people in the country where I live to think of liberals as perverts and worse,  but they are ready to put me on that Delta flight if I say something less than friendly about the current policies of the Conservative Movement?

  Back to the topic:  Atlanta has a station that is going to give liberal programming "a chance in the batting lineup".We are discussing the reasons why the station may "strike out" and the reasons why the station might actually hit a "home run".  What kind of Southern Hospitality is it for the number of people who jumped into this thread yelling and screaming that Liberal Programming has NO PLACE in Atlanta... and saying with enough hostility that a portion of the conversation ended up here in the T-I-O "Penalty Box".

Just cool your jets, man.  There is a high probability that six months from now we will be having a discussion of WGUN's NEXT new programming format.  At my age I have no need to look down on anyone.  I'm just enjoying the scenery and watching the parade of people around me.  And just like every other state I have lived in,  there are a bunch of precious jewels here, and "there are few Bitterweeds growing here in the cow-pasture."  You ever milked cows and found out the hard way the cows had found the Bitterweeds?  I have.  (I hate alarm clocks to this day!)