A year ago today, a Clear Channel station airing 50s do-wop songs switched formats to become a Clear Channel station airing Air America. And thus, the symbiotic relationship between Clear Channel and Air America (and for that matter Ed Schultz, and later Jerry Springer) was borne.

The 1996 Telecommunications Act upped the number of stations a corporation could own to a point where Clear Channel doesn’t know what to do with a station. Such was 620 AM, which had gone from a mix of ESPN Radio and “Comedy” of whatever sort (welcome Phil Hendrie into the Portland market, at least) to a station of second and third rate Right wing talk shows (as well as Lionel — a holdover from the previous format, who push comes to shove I’d probably rather listen to than anything else on talk radio) to essentially an empty warehouse (that’s the 50s do-wop songs).

That is what is at the heart of thishere: Since switching from an oldies music lineup to progressive talk, KPOJ has moved into the top 10 most-listened-to stations locally. “We went from a 0.4 rating to a 3.7, and that’s a pretty substantial jump,” Dirkx says of the latest Arbitron ratings, for fall 2004. “It’s the most successful progressive talk station going right now.”

There’s something a little odd about hearing the promos of the voice that used to chant uber-patriotic slogans above Michael Reagan and Michael Gallagher promos now chanting vaguely liberal slogans above Randi Rhodes and Al Franken, but that’s the way the corporate world works. Such is the competition that we get something like this:

In one of the curious twists of modern media, KPOJ’s Dirkx is also operations manager for KEX (1190 AM) — a chief competitor for Portland talk-radio ears. “It’s been a good dog fight,” he says. Of the three leading talk-radio stations, KEX (which carries Limbaugh) has been the overall leader, with KXL (home to conservative talkers Bill O’Reilly and Lars Larson) and KPOJ close behind.

Today, one third of Air America Radio stations are Clear Channel stations. It probably works out well for both of them. And Ed Schultz needs radio stations that program something to slide him into, and thus… he can thank Air America for his success.

As for the unofficial/ official goal of AAR, to become part of a Vast Liberal (or perhaps Left-Wing) Conspiracy that would in some cases simply bring Democrats into power (Al Franken is basically a court jester for the Democratic Party, and sells himself off as a “DLC Democrat”) or in other cases bring some left-wing mindset into America (Mike Malloy hates the Democratic Party)? Well… Air America is available to about 75% of the nation, the problem there being that the other 25% is where the dearthline of “Liberalism” lie. The other idea I’m thinking is that you can’t quite claim success on that field until you have more than one station broadcasting “liberal talk”… thus, somewhere I posted a theoretical programming lineup of other talk show hosts to fill a different station. Then it’d be able to get itself away from a sort of “Anti-Bush Cottage Industry”, and…

Hm. Business plans, anyone?

George W Bush’s speech goes like this:

Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend our condolences to Terri Schiavo’s families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time. I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others. The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in the favor of life.

The most solemn duty of the American President is to protect the American people. Since September the 11th, 2001, we’ve taken bold and vigorous steps to prevent further attacks and overcome emerging threats. We face a new and different kind of enemy. The threats today are unprecedented. The lives of our citizens are at stake. To protect them, we need the best intelligence possible, and we must stay ahead of constantly changing intelligence challenges.

And it goes on from there.

Perhaps the first paragraph of the speech was just tacked on?

On the improved playlist of 94.7 NRK (which changed its whole operation after such an incident, jettisoning their “Limp Bizkits” and their “Marconis”), you’ll hear a somewhat generic Ataris cover of the classic rock standard Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer”, lyrics changed:

Out on the road today, I saw a Black Flag sticker on a cadillac
A little voice inside my head said, “don’t look back. you can never look back.”

from

Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a cadillac
A little voice inside my head said, “don’t look back. you can never look back.”

Meaning? The revised lyrics aren’t completely finished. To complete the effect of a more contemporary — hippy be gone turned to punk be gone — “Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac”, it would probably have to be a “Black Flag sticker on an SUV”.

Someone was throwing plastic Easter eggs around downtown, with with clever little notes inside them. Thus, I open one up and see:

“You know, The Goonies has a lot of plot holes. Happy Easter!”

And:

“Cory Feldman is underrated.”

Meaning? I’m thinking something akin to this is appropriate right here.

Let’s count the ironies in the public record. All posts come from 2004.

very nice dude
first time you say….WOW… keep it up and you mite and up on the front page one day

keep up the good work

Ironic, I guess.

A country founded on the deaths of millions of Native Americans, a country built on the deaths of innocents. A country forged from a holocaust greater then that of the Jews. Adolf Hitler supposedly killed 6 million innocent Jews in it’s death camps and ghettos, Christopher Columbus is responsible for the deaths of over 8 million Native Americans. Which one has his own holiday? On the subject of guns, one day I’ll gladly buy my sons (once I have them) assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, rifles, whatever. It’s my right as an “American.” God bless America, for killing billions of people world wide. Love it or leave it, you’ve got no choice. 🙂

Ironic. I guess.

I’m a big fan of overkill.

Ironic. I guess.

Difficult to tell if this is ironic:

I liked it, great artwork and coloring, smooth animation, and a story with a learnable moral. Great submission.

Author’s response:

A moral huh? Im not to sure what the moral is though, maybe ‘be carful what you wish for’for the ant or ‘sometimes the best intentions dont work out’ for the dragon

Reviewed by: WeeNfan157 Overall Score: 5

Yep, must be the 21st Century. God bless America.

Ironic. I guess.

And, of course, the one that’s in all the articles on the matter:

Umm… ok. Was that like a warning message? Hmm dude you need help badly.

Lol, you obviously can’t tell the difference between Fantasy and reality. This cartoon was made for nothing more than Random violence, and believe it or not theres an audience out there that this appeals to. So don’t try judging my Mental health based upon a simple animation, capisce?

What’s “neat” is that the ten the amature animations that “NativeNazi” reviewed have received a bit more attention. I noticed he reviewed, “You Can’t Spell CRAP Without…”, which you can make of what you may, but its impossible not to take into consideration comments he made at the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party website. (Never mind the amoral killing of the Ku Klux Klanman in the animation.)

Make of this what you may from there. The discussion box from the animation in question, which should be slowing down in a weeks’ time, is fairly interesting.

It occurs to me, as we watch the modern day Passion Play of Terry Schiavo play out, where Terry Randall cries out that “Even Jesus got a drink of water” (no, actually Jesus got a napkin drenched in vinegar), and Terri Schiavo gets to redemn the nation of its sins…

… that the “Michigan J Frog” effect, has its parallel with the biblical story. Consider it the test of faith, which the “Doubting Thomas”es refuse to see, or believe because they don’t have the “eyes to see” or the “ears to hear”…

And the wheel churns from there.

Personally I wouldn’t vote you Most Likely to Blow Up the School. That vote already went to (NAME DELETED)! Nearly three-forths of the G-view High Tennis team and most of my friends agree that if anyone were to blow up the school or ever do anything remotely like the Littleton, CO incident it would be (NAME DELETED) and not you.

That was posted on my website’s guestbook… actually after the final day of my last day of school. I deleted the name because I didn’t want to cast any suspicions anywhere. The comment, I must admit, is completely insane, and lead me to the response “What is that? The new category in the yearbook alongside “Most Likely to Succeed”??“. (It does take us back to how odd conversations that went on during that time at my high school, and likely across the nation.)

You want some relationship between (NAME DELETED) and I? Well… (NAME DELETED), I, and a girl I’ll call “Adele” (not her name) sat together in Junior year English class, and generally annoyed the teacher. The conversations went along the lines of — the feasibility of getting rid of our Republican System of Government — the Legislative and the Executive branches in particular — and Replacing it with Direct Democracy. Government would have to be de-centralized to a point where it might start to resemble something like the “Blade Runner” movie (which worked well for (NAME DELETED), but not so much for my perception of America), and, I pointed out, the fact that the only way we can get such a system working at the moment was through Internet Technology would tend to disenfranchise the poorer classes, and you’d already expressed a Marxist concern for the Proleteriat, so…

It was a discussion on how one can topple the Chinese Government that led the teacher to say, “Who are you? Pinky and the Brain.”

I’m not sure whether I was a bad influence on him, or he was a bad influence on me, and to what degree we were both bad influences on Adelle (though suredly I was somewhat a good influence on her), but The teacher shortly separated the three of us, to the point where whenever he counted out for random groups of 3 students to work together — we’d invariably be reunited. (I received Detention here once due to disruption of class.)

Those, my friend, are Misty Water Colored Memories… of the way… we were.

The day after Columbine, though, at a moment when (Name Deleted) was alone with me — at the end of lunch in the library or something — he asked me, “You know, if you ever need help committing a school shooting…” I gave him a dead serious face, and told him to shut the up. I half-considered contacting the police or a guidance counselor or the principal, not because I thought he was serious (he wasn’t), but to give him a good smacking for a lousy sense of taste. Never mind, his name itched itself often in class conversations through the day (along with a couple of genuine “goth” kids)… I wasn’t going to be the one casting aspersions his way.

Weeks later, someone else pulls me aside, and asks me a question that was evidentally on his mind (likely after putting together a jigsaw puzzle with him): “If he went to Columbine, do you think [NAME DELETED] would’ve be a member of the ‘Trenchcoat Mafia’?” My answer: “Well… in a weird way, he’s fairly popular, and…” “Yes, but I’m thinking at a bigger school…”

Curious items to chew on, and my conclusion was fairly short in coming that The “Trenchcoat Mafia” were innocent, except for two sociopaths, so it’s a meaningless question anyway.

I link to a Minnesotan for any real consideration, as on this blog I’ve been going back and forth between Terri Schiavo and this school shooting (though mostly through hangling over what exactly it is– the “Libertarian National Socialist Green Party.”)

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I had to add a few more people, because there’s just too many that ten simply can’t contain us. I should link to reasons why, and background on each individual, but I’ll leave that up to the curious… I don’t have the time or patience at the moment. Your list may vary, but we do get into some pretty fringe characters or some characters who oughta be fringe. Bo Gritz, for instance. Alan Keyes, if I wanted to do some affirmative action. (Likewise Michelle Malkin.) Pat Buchanan. The list continues, on into Alex Jones and Jeff Rense.