{"id":1569,"date":"2007-11-05T07:08:08","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T12:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1569"},"modified":"2007-11-05T07:56:25","modified_gmt":"2007-11-05T12:56:25","slug":"the-barnett-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1569","title":{"rendered":"Maybe They Mean No"},"content":{"rendered":"

I, along with King, Michael, Ed, Brian, Chad and John, have been doing the Northern Alliance for almost four years.<\/p>\n

The downside? We don’t get paid (regularly, anyway – we get the occasional talent fee for appearances and such).<\/p>\n

The upside? We don’t get paid. We don’t depend on radio for a living. Of course, none of the other guys ever actually have <\/em>depended on radio for a living.<\/p>\n

I did, for many miserable years. Radio is a funky dichotomy; doing<\/em> radio in any of its many forms – music, talk, sports, whatever – is just about the most fun thing in the world. But the business itself is just about the skeeziest, most dysfunctional industry<\/a> there is. The stories I could tell. In fact, I told one: I wrote this about radio<\/a>, back in 2004:<\/p>\n

The industry is a breeding ground for dysfunctional people. It’s no wonder; people usually start in the business at a very impressionable age (late teens, early twenties), when so much of one’s adult personality is formed. It’s a crappy field for people who want to have a life like everyone around them You almost never quit a job; you get fired, for every kind of reason. If you stink on the air, sure, but if your boss is replaced, you can count on the new boss bringing in a clutch of their own people; if your station is sold and the format changes, or just sold, or (these days) goes from being a live to a satellite operation, it’s back to the trades, looking for that next job. As competitive as the field is, it requires monastic dedication not only to advance, but to stay employed. And it draws that dedication – you could call it an addiction, because being on the air is truly addictive. It’s not a recipe for well-rounded human beings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I was one of them.<\/p>\n

So to sum it up so far – radio is kind of a crazy, ugly, scummy business.<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

I’ve noted it a million times; when I started in talk radio<\/a>, in 1985 during the final years of the “Fairness” doctrine of passive-aggressive censorship, talk radio was a fringe player and a very different beast than it is today. After Limbaugh, talk radio went from being an also-ran aimed at bluehairs to a cash cow; when I worked for Hubbard Broadcasting, the AM station was the poor cousin, a property Hubbard tried for 10 years but failed to sell off. When I came back – in 2003, for a one-night fill-in for Bob Davis – the AM station was carrying <\/em>KS95 and Channel Five, with plenty of money left over.<\/p>\n

But for all of that, the business isn’t for everyone. And I’m not just talking about talk show hosts, here.<\/p>\n

Some radio stations’ management are distinctly <\/em>uncomfortable with the flak they take by taking a political stance (even one that is as remunerative as conservative talk). In some cases, management figures “if we can land half of the audience by pissing the other half off, just think <\/em>of how many would listen to us if we pissed nobody <\/em>off”. Others just don’t like conservative politics. And for others, criticism stings. For some stations (and the consultants to make a living out of telling stations to try one thing, and then another, and then another, for years and years), it’s just too much; for all that conservative talk pays them, they’re looking for an out<\/a>.
\nAnd when you dip into politics, the audience always yields a bumper crop of criticism – some of it justified<\/a>, some of it dimwitted and irrational<\/a>.<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

Speaking of dimwitted and irrational, some people think <\/a>I didn’t “fact-check” my story the other day about the firing of Andy Barnett, the morning host at KNSI radio in Saint Cloud (although taking the unvarnished, spin-driven word of a city council candidate does <\/em>qualify as a “fact”, apparently). They are wrong, as usual. It’s just that there are precious few “facts” to check.<\/p>\n

But King Banaian – who knows many of the people involved, whether on the Barnett Show, KNSI’s management, and in Saint Cloud civic politics, knows a thing or two<\/a>. And here’s the big question:<\/p>\n

One is compelled then to ask, did KNSI change its format under duress? What are its intentions to its listeners (of which I am one)?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Duress is a real thing for people who manage small radio stations. KNSI <\/a>is a tiny station – 1000 watts, high up the dial at 1450 AM. They’re duking it out for the small Saint Cloud\/central Minnesota drive-through land audience with WJON, which is sort of the WCCO of Saint Cloud (and is 5000 watts at the much clearer 1240 AM frequency), a station that tries to be all things to all people and, within the context of Saint Cloud, largely succeeded for many years. It’s the sort of thing that, before 1987, would have left KNSI as radio roadkill, broadcasting polkas and community billboards and, with satellite and computer technology becoming ubiquitous and relatively reliable, have led to the station becoming – like so many smaller stations around the country, including my own alma mater<\/a> – “computer in a closet” stations.
\nBut conservative talk – Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham and Joe Soucheray – have made KNSI a legitimate player and money-maker in Saint Cloud, as well as an audience. And money. Things that precious few 1000 watt stations in metro areas – and Saint Cloud qualifies – have <\/em>these days.<\/p>\n

But as King notes, KNSI’s owner – Leighton Broadcasting – has been uncomfortable with the label that goes along with the format:<\/p>\n

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