On Friday, December 8, the Cincinnati Post reported that Clear Channel programmers were terminating the liberal talk radio format on WSAI AM 1360 on the following Monday.  The headline read “ Weak ratings doom local liberal radio.”  Mr. Darryl Parks, operations manager for Cincinnati’s Clear Channel AM stations, said they were relaunching WSAI as a “self-help station” with a weekday lineup that includes three hours of reruns of weekend WKRC gardening, auto and repair shows.

Last summer Clear Channel moved the progressive talk lineup from the 50,000 watt WCKY to the less powerful WSAI, converting WCKY to all sports programming.  (Cincinnati already had extensive sports on WLW and all sports with ESPN Radio on WMOH; and evening progressive talk programming had often been replaced by sports casts.) In November Clear Channel terminated 19 employees, including a sports reporter and producer for WCKY. (Cincinnati Enquirer article)

In the Post article, Mr. Parks was quoted as saying: "Radio, at the end of the day, is about ratings and revenue. There were some good (liberal) shows, but they need to start looking to more broad-based subjects than just harping on politics."

This now leaves Cincinnati with no balance to Clear Channel’s WKRC AM station, whose weekday lineup includes 15 hours of right wing political shows by Laura Ingram, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and conservative host Mark Levin.

In Ohio in 2006 almost 55% of the votes cast for statewide and national legislative races were cast for Democrats.  In Governorship and Senate races, normally conservative Hamilton County votes were very close. We want to show that there is support for progressive or liberal talk radio in Cincinnati. And we need to show support for some balance that better reflects the community.

We ask all visitors to this site to sign the petition and state why they believe progressive radio is important in the Cincinnati broadcast area. Show radio station owners and local advertisers that you are willing to take a stand to protect progressive radio in the Cincinnati area.

 Please click here and sign the petition. All of the fields, except for comments, are required. But feel free to add a comment.

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We will be setting up a market survey to help demonstrate the market viability of Progressive Talk Radio in the Cincinnati area. Check back for Information.