Buffalo talk radio gets a progressive makeover
By Christopher Schobert
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Tim Wenger of WWKB
Photo by Jim Bush. |
That’s why it’s so intriguing that suddenly—in fact, almost simultaneously—Western New York has two new progressive radio stations: WHLD Newstalk1270, “The Voice of Reason,” and WWKB-AM 1520, “Buffalo’s Left Channel.” When contemplating the lineups, talent, and approach of KB and WHLD, it is clear that only WHLD can truly be labeled (for the most part) locally focused. That’s not necessarily a critique of KB, but it must be acknowledged. KB, part of the large Entercom empire, features a lineup composed mostly of syndicated talk from the Jones Radio Network, with one program, The Leslie Marshall Show, that can claim a direct link to Western New York. Tim Wenger, the operations manager for Entercom’s three Buffalo AM stations, WBEN, WGR, and WWKB, says it makes sense for KB to have a mostly national focus, since WBEN is, at its core, a local news outlet. However, he does not want to classify KB as purely national, or BEN as purely local. “I don’t position KB against BEN, I don’t position it against WGR,” he says. “We try to get the most people, and offer the most perspectives to the audience in Buffalo. We think we’ve gotten together a tremendous amount of talent.”
WHLD is funded by a group of Buffalo-based investors calling themselves Niagara Independent Media. The station features a number of local shows, while also carrying several programs from Air America, the national liberal network, including headliners Al Franken and Randi Rhodes. “We are what radio is supposed to be,” says WHLD president Brian Brown-Cashdollar. “We are owned by people in the community. We are locally focused. We want a radio station that sounds like Buffalo. For all of us who have invested in this, Buffalo is our home.”
Its creation was indeed a long time coming. Brown-Cashdollar said the seeds were planted more than a decade ago, before finally moving forward in the summer of 2003. “It began to dawn on us that it was possible to do some radio that gave some real news and had some real information,” he says. With several nonprofit stations already based in Western New York, including the well-respected WNED and WBFO, Buffalo’s two National Public Radio affiliates, the decision was made for a commercial station. “It went from there,” he says.
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WHLD’s Ray Marks
Photo by Jim Bush. |
“It’s the voice that we hear all the time from people we know,” adds Brown-Cashdollar, “just not on the air.” It is key, Marks says, that “we do not screen calls. Everybody gets on the air. That’s a huge difference.”
So what kind of radio is Newstalk1270? To Marks, who also serves as 1270’s general manager, it is a more positive focus on local issues, and a more inclusive view of national and international stories. “I’m sick and tired of the other media constantly bashing what’s going on,” says Marks about the mood of Buffalo and Erie County. “I think it’s time we did some cheerleading. Why? Because we need it now.” He believes this mix of the local and the national will have a major impact. “I think it’s going to spread,” he says. Marks and Brown-Cashdollar stress that they don’t necessarily see the station as inherently left wing, or Democrat, for that matter, pointing to the recent addition of former Erie County Republican Chair Robert Davis as a consultant. “There have been lots of calls from people who identify themselves as conservative, or Republican, who like the station,” says Brown-Cashdollar. “They probably don’t like everything, but they like the local stuff.”
As both 1270 and 1520 develop, the competition between the two will likely grow even more fierce than it has already been. Predictably, both stations have confidence, even though ratings books weren’t released as of the writing of this article. While 1270 began broadcasting on February 13, Brown-Cashdollar believes many listeners did not discover the station until March and April.
“I think the summer book is going to be telling,” he says. “I don’t expect to be top dog. We aren’t that kind of operation. But we will be a force. We flipped KB. I would’ve preferred they didn’t, but they did. Which basically says they knew they weren’t meeting the needs of the community with WBEN. Our impact has already been substantial, and in the coming months, it’s going to grow. And as we get ratings, it’ll be interesting to see what happens here.”
Brown-Cashdollar disputes KB’s assertion that the station had been in the planning stages long before the move was announced. “The bottom line is, if they did, would they be playing Jones, or would they be playing Air America radio? This came together in four days for them over at KB. We spent a year on this,” he says. “We created fifteen jobs from day one. For them, it’s a switch. For us, it’s an enterprise.”
Wenger is quick to respond to the accusation that KB’s switch occurred as a result of HLD’s changeover. He says the move can be traced back to the 2004 presidential campaign. “The last presidential election really was kind of a hand-raising event for radio, where Democrats and liberal thinkers said, ‘Why don’t we have what Rush has, this national militia of conservative thinking on the radio?’ And there was born a lot of liberal radio stations,” Wenger says. “We watched it closely as a company, and started several of them in other markets.
“In excess of one year ago we started talking about the thought of putting a liberal, politically based station on the air on 1520,” says Wenger. “Entercom is a huge corporation. Our success on the radio is directly related to our talent in making decisions, and we don’t make them lightly. It takes an awful lot of planning … [WHLD] had nothing to do with why we made our switch.”
WWKB almost exclusively presents the Jones Network. It does, however, feature Leslie Marshall’s Buffalo-oriented program. While Marshall, a former WGR personality, broadcasts from California, the show is only carried on KB. “We knew [Al Franken] was going to go to another radio station. And we just thought the best thing to do would be to provide a local program,” Wenger says. “Leslie Marshall has been in the market. She’s been on the air on WGR. She’s a known entity. I think Leslie serves the market better than Al Franken.
“Do you care where your favorite television show is filmed? We put the best shows on the radio station that we could have,” Wenger says. “Leslie reads the local paper, she’s listening to BEN. She does a show about local things. It may be about President Bush, it may be about gas prices, but it’s related to gas prices in Buffalo, not gas prices in Los Angeles. So it is, indeed, a local show.”
KB’s other hosts include Stephanie Miller, the well-known Lockport native, and Ed Schultz, whom Wenger calls the “poster boy” for liberal talk radio. Wenger believes audiences have already begun to respond to the format, a major change from KB’s former incarnation as an oldies station. “Every day I’m getting e-mail from people, and for the most part it is e-mail saying, ‘Thank God there is another point of view in this town.’” he says. “Within the past month, the e-mail tide has turned.”
Tapping the much-hyped Air America as a partner has been a key to Newstalk1270’s launch. “Air America has exceeded my expectations,” Brown-Cashdollar says. “I think it’s a much better match than I ever imagined.” On April 24, Franken broadcast his show live from the Church in downtown Buffalo, and according to all accounts the event was a huge success. “We would not have gotten the attention we’ve gotten if Al Franken was not on the station,” says Brown-Cashdollar.
In May, Newstalk1270 moved into a new, more technologically advanced home at the TriMain Center on Main Street in Buffalo. This is one part of the station’s plans for expansion, which may also include more on-location broadcasting. “To make this successful is more than a mission, because it’s the right thing,” says Marks. “I think we’re here for the right reasons.”
Brown-Cashdollar believes the station’s mix of local and national “makes us stand out in the entire country. We’ve invented the format that’s on the air now. We have a lot of people, regardless of politics, who are cheering for us to be successful. And we intend to be.”
Things have been chilly between HLD and KB from the get-go, but grew even more fractured following an article about the stations by Anne Neville in the Buffalo News on April 23, the day before Franken’s Buffalo stop. The story elicited impassioned and angry responses from Brown-Cashdollar and Mike Niman, vice president of Niagara Independent Media. They were particularly incensed that the article misidentified 1270’s frequency as “1250.” Here’s a portion of Niman’s response: “Entercom branded WWKB, which changed format … immediately after AM1270 announced it would be coming on the air and challenging WBEN’s (ultra-rightist talk) local commercial news/talk monopoly, as ‘Buffalo’s Left Channel.’ Entercom’s idea of ‘left’ or alternative radio is a CNN News franchise. Their only ‘local’ show is actually broadcast from California and hosted by Leslie Marshall, a former Fox News personality.” Brown-Cashdollar’s response was similarly impassioned, especially with the claim that, in his words, 1270 “lacks the reach of other 5,000 [watt] AM stations in the area.” The station president asserts that “Newstalk1270 covers Erie County as well as either WBEN or WGR during primetime broadcasting hours.” (Wenger and Neville declined to respond to Niman and Brown-Cashdollar’s statements.)
After a few weeks of listening, it is clear both stations have much to recommend them, as well as their share of flaws. A good portion of the Newstalk1270 morning show features typical radio banter—one short span in April featured a discussion of eight-tracks, the weather, and jokes about national Barbershop Quartet Day and the intensity of joggers—this may turn off some listeners hoping for a more prolonged, serious news discussion to start the day. (To others, the banter is likely part of the appeal.) And KB, while featuring a lineup of many names known to Western New Yorkers, like radio legend Joey Reynolds and Lockport’s Miller, simply does not bring in much of a local voice. Yes, there is Leslie Marshall, but is that enough?
So far, 1270 seems to have a solid mix of the local and national. It’s refreshingly long on issues and short on hysteria. My first taste of the station was an interview with the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh on the national show Democracy Now! on April 12 regarding Iran’s nuclear capabilities. What was fascinating about the interview was not necessarily Hersh’s opinions or info, although he did offer much to be contemplated (to the point of depression). It was the fact that the program’s host, Amy Goodman, barely said a word. She let her guest, Hersh, speak without interruption. As a listener weaned on inane deejay patter, it was stunning. Where were the interruptions? The sound effects? The idiotic callers? Is this real talk radio? Maybe so.
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Theresa Baker of speakeasy (on WHLD).
Photo by Jim Bush. |
“We are working to create a comfortable forum where people can exchange ideas and work towards positive change in the community,” Baker says. It’s an ambitious goal, and an admirable one. Also ambitious is the program’s aesthetic, which seems far removed from the pit-bull attack style that so often consumes the radio world.
“There is a lot of aggression,” says Baker. “Instead of trying to bridge gaps between people and foster communication and progress, it seems like a lot of these shows are polarizing people and reinforcing ideas of how different we are, how we’re either neo-cons or neo-liberals, red states or blue states, Democrats or Republicans. And those ideas don’t sit very well with me.”
Baker is not very impressed with many of the local and national news options available, and that seems to form her program’s approach. She questions exactly when the line between entertainment and news starts to blur. “Look at the news on television: the hair and make-up, the performance aspect of it, the computer graphics, the catchy names that we need to give to every event that’s taking place in history,” she says. “It insults people’s intelligence. For me, the instant that I start changing myself to be more entertaining or palatable to some group of people, that’s when it’s over.” Perhaps more programs such as Baker’s are needed, offering a local response to the often rank air filling the radio atmosphere.
For those who had been waiting for a progressive, admittedly leftist slant on local radio and news reporting in general, the appearance of multiple news stations has been a wonderful and somewhat surprising development. Still, I can’t help but contemplate what the stations’ effects on the local market will be. With satellite radio and podcasting skyrocketing in popularity, how will 1270 and 1520 differentiate themselves in listeners’ minds, and how will they find a way to bring in audiences who have given up on talk radio?
Maybe the approach should be even more locally focused than it already is, especially on KB. Or, perhaps they could bring in some of the Buffalonians who have made their presence felt with online blogs, since these are most likely the true future of political debate. My hope is that both are in it for the long haul, and that if ratings are slow to increase they won’t simply disappear into obscurity like so many Buffalo stations have, or convert to an all-banjo format. In order to keep this from happening, those with even a minor interest have an option: to seek out 1270 and 1520 on the radio dial and give them a try. Otherwise, what hope is there for alternative radio voices in Buffalo? Listen now, or we might be stuck with an army of Limbaughs later.
Christopher Schobert is an assistant editor at Buffalo Spree and editor of City Guide.
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