Who needs the Fairness Doctrine? The return of liberal talk radio host Lynn Cullen to the Pittsburgh airwaves after a six-month hiatus is good news for those looking for an alternative to conservative Rush Limbaugh and his less-talented imitators who dominate the market.
Ms. Cullen, a veteran of progressive talk radio, will have a two-hour call-in show on WAMO-AM (860) Monday through Friday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Longtime fans will recall that her show on WPTT-AM often opened with the theme from "The Lone Ranger," playing upon the conceit that Ms. Cullen was the region's "lone liberal" on talk radio.
When WPTT changed its format in August, Ms. Cullen lost her gig as a dependable progressive voice just as the presidential race was heating up. Suddenly, the overwhelmingly conservative slant of talk radio in the region took on an oppressive weight. The lack of ideological diversity was astonishing, given that Barack Obama's win in Pennsylvania was the key to winning the White House on election night.
It was a mystery why Pittsburgh didn't have at least one daily talk show host who reflected the views of those who voted for President Obama. When a local talk station replaced one set of conservative voices with another set after Mr. Obama's election, the mystery deepened.
To its credit, WAMO recognized an opportunity to capture an underserved segment of the area's talk audience. Ms. Cullen will bring new listeners and sponsors to the station. And WAMO now has a worthy lead-in to its popular "The Bev Smith Show."
Still, Ms. Cullen is only one liberal voice in a conservative echo chamber. With any luck, she'll be the first of many new alternatives.
judging from the laughter i heard from you during the show...you areglad to be back....congrats!
ReplyDeleteIt's a fun and unique challenge to be sure, from the different format to getting used to new equipment, but I am liking the new radio home.
ReplyDeleteIs the show going to be podcast Matt?
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of setting up an imeem account for that purpose. I currently have the webstream being recorded on my computer and just downloaded the software needed to change Audacity files over to MP3 format. I tested it tonight on the first hour I taped and all seemed well with it, now it is just the manual labor portion of editing audio.
ReplyDeletemay be able to catch the show online, I think it works out around 8am here, at least until daylight savings changes here at the end of the month.
ReplyDelete