Bartram
Brand HBCUbian
Now this should be interesting to watch. Previously in politics related posts, I alluded to the "mainstream conservative" talk radio phenom that has swept the nation lead by grand potentates like the Limbaughs, Micheal Reagans, the Savage Nation, and I forgot about that G. Gordon Liddy fella.
I had always wondered why you never hear "liberal" talk radio? (yeah, yeah,, I know Mak B; "because the rest of the media is liberal biased!!",, yeah, yeah,,,) Well, looks like this is about to change. Check out the article. (article taken from AL,, "AlabamaLive")
Democrats take talk to airwaves
Twosome skew GOP and carry radio crusade on Fayetteville-based show
12/31/01
By KAY CAMPBELL
Times Tennessee Correspondent kayc@htimes.com
FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. - Unbiased? Absolutely, positively, blatantly not.
''We're all Democratic talk, all the time,'' says Stephen Crockett, 46, co-host of the Fayetteville-based Democratic Talk Radio. ''We believe in truth in advertising.''
''We come out and say exactly what we are,'' says Al Lawrence, 43, the other co-host of the year-old program. ''The others don't, but everyone who listens to them knows they're biased.''
''They'' refers to widely known conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy.
''And they're not really conservatives; they're rightists,'' Crockett adds. ''I'm a moderate conservative. A conservative believes in conserving something; they've just sold out to big business.''
Sitting at a battered table outside the control room at WEKR radio in Fayetteville, Crockett and Lawrence explode with facts and details. They both studied political science, history and economics in college. They both estimate they read more than 80 books a year. They research political and current events issues at a dozen Internet news sites.
More than a year since the end of what they term ''Selection 2000,'' when the Supreme Court declared George Bush as president, they're still riled about the sloppy election and think others should be, too. But their show also raises other issues, such as Bush's environmental policies and rising Democratic activism across the country. Lately they've spent several shows exposing the erosion of personal rights in the wake of Sept. 11.
Alternative to Liddy
''Based on (U.S. Attorney General John) Ashcroft's Patriot Act, Watergate would have been legal,'' Crockett said. ''In a time of crisis, we should turn to the Constitution, not against it. That's what made us great - isn't doing away with the Constitution the goal of terrorists?''
Crockett and Lawrence channel their frustration into Democratic Talk Radio, an hour-long weekly broadcast they produce and fund. They fax letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines across the country, and this week their first weekly column debuts in the Sparta, Tenn., Expositor.
''This certainly gives the public an alternative to the G. Gordon Liddys,'' said William Farmer, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, from his Lebanon law office last week. ''Steve and Al are great guys. They're making a dent in some of this misinformation, but their impact is limited because of their resources. I wish someone would pick them up and syndicate them.''
WEKR's AM 1240 signal reaches only to the borders of Lincoln County with the live program at 5 p.m. Saturdays. But Democratic Talk Radio reaches beyond the county borders with its web site, www.democratictalkradio.com, complete with a message board, links to other Democratic sites, and archives of the radio programs.
''It's one of the largest Democratic web rings on the net,'' Lawrence said.
They've seen echoes of their language in letters to the editor from other people, even in policy initiatives such as the recent call from congressional leaders for a Manhattan Project-style attack on energy needs and uses in the United States that came a couple of weeks after they called for the same thing in one of their shows. ''I actually think we're having a national effect, like a ripple,'' Crockett said.
And they've attracted fan mail, as Crockett calls it: reams of e-mail messages and piles of letters. One of those letters asked them if they'd been checked for anthrax. But that was before September, and they tossed it after laughing about it.
Atlanta-based talk show host Neal Boortz invited them to be guest hosts last summer, then uninvited them when they demanded that they have the same control over callers that he does. Boortz spent several days on the air attacking them for not respecting freedom of speech.
Osama Stephen Crockett
Boortz' attacks put them on the radar screen of radical Republicans across the nation. Crockett tosses one of the post-Boortz letters onto the table. It's addressed to ''Osama Stephen Crockett.''
''It's nice to be hated,'' Lawrence said.
''By these people,'' Crockett added, completing Lawrence's thought. ''We've had mail accusing us of being socialists, Nazis and Satan worshipers - that one really got me because it came right after I'd closed my Christian bookstore.''
Crockett, a devout Christian, closed the store in Park City after a heart attack made him re-evaluate just how much work he could pack into a day.
The owner of College Marketing, a company that links advertisers with students on college campuses throughout the Southeast, Crockett travels extensively and works cock-eyed hours, fueled by huge cups of coffee.
Crockett dates his own political activism, which eventually included coordinating several statewide campaigns in Maryland, from when he was 5. He helped his father, who worked for the United Auto Workers, hand out brochures outside an auto plant.
Lawrence, the program director at WEKR, works more predictable hours than Crockett, and lives a more conventional life with his wife and two college-age children. Preparing for the weekly show takes all his free time - a complete turn-around from his quiet, Republican upbringing in California and Nevada.
''I was always one of those armchair guys when it came to politics - I just voted,'' said Lawrence. ''But after this election, excuse me, this selection, I said, 'It can't happen again.' ''
''We have a democracy to restore and a nation to save,'' said Crockett. ''What's more important than the right to vote and to have your vote count? It's so important we can never forget it.''
''To me, this is more war on America than anything else,'' Lawrence said. ''If this had gone the other way, the Republicans would be marching in the streets. I'm aghast at the Republicans for not investigating. It should have been investigated from both sides - the American way is at stake.''
And they've both come to the conclusion that they must do their own part, as part of their American duty, to point out attacks on the American way.
''I don't even want to do radio - Al's the one with the great voice,'' Crockett said. ''But we can't sit around waiting for someone else to do it because it was not getting done.''
I had always wondered why you never hear "liberal" talk radio? (yeah, yeah,, I know Mak B; "because the rest of the media is liberal biased!!",, yeah, yeah,,,) Well, looks like this is about to change. Check out the article. (article taken from AL,, "AlabamaLive")
Democrats take talk to airwaves
Twosome skew GOP and carry radio crusade on Fayetteville-based show
12/31/01
By KAY CAMPBELL
Times Tennessee Correspondent kayc@htimes.com
FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. - Unbiased? Absolutely, positively, blatantly not.
''We're all Democratic talk, all the time,'' says Stephen Crockett, 46, co-host of the Fayetteville-based Democratic Talk Radio. ''We believe in truth in advertising.''
''We come out and say exactly what we are,'' says Al Lawrence, 43, the other co-host of the year-old program. ''The others don't, but everyone who listens to them knows they're biased.''
''They'' refers to widely known conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy.
''And they're not really conservatives; they're rightists,'' Crockett adds. ''I'm a moderate conservative. A conservative believes in conserving something; they've just sold out to big business.''
Sitting at a battered table outside the control room at WEKR radio in Fayetteville, Crockett and Lawrence explode with facts and details. They both studied political science, history and economics in college. They both estimate they read more than 80 books a year. They research political and current events issues at a dozen Internet news sites.
More than a year since the end of what they term ''Selection 2000,'' when the Supreme Court declared George Bush as president, they're still riled about the sloppy election and think others should be, too. But their show also raises other issues, such as Bush's environmental policies and rising Democratic activism across the country. Lately they've spent several shows exposing the erosion of personal rights in the wake of Sept. 11.
Alternative to Liddy
''Based on (U.S. Attorney General John) Ashcroft's Patriot Act, Watergate would have been legal,'' Crockett said. ''In a time of crisis, we should turn to the Constitution, not against it. That's what made us great - isn't doing away with the Constitution the goal of terrorists?''
Crockett and Lawrence channel their frustration into Democratic Talk Radio, an hour-long weekly broadcast they produce and fund. They fax letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines across the country, and this week their first weekly column debuts in the Sparta, Tenn., Expositor.
''This certainly gives the public an alternative to the G. Gordon Liddys,'' said William Farmer, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, from his Lebanon law office last week. ''Steve and Al are great guys. They're making a dent in some of this misinformation, but their impact is limited because of their resources. I wish someone would pick them up and syndicate them.''
WEKR's AM 1240 signal reaches only to the borders of Lincoln County with the live program at 5 p.m. Saturdays. But Democratic Talk Radio reaches beyond the county borders with its web site, www.democratictalkradio.com, complete with a message board, links to other Democratic sites, and archives of the radio programs.
''It's one of the largest Democratic web rings on the net,'' Lawrence said.
They've seen echoes of their language in letters to the editor from other people, even in policy initiatives such as the recent call from congressional leaders for a Manhattan Project-style attack on energy needs and uses in the United States that came a couple of weeks after they called for the same thing in one of their shows. ''I actually think we're having a national effect, like a ripple,'' Crockett said.
And they've attracted fan mail, as Crockett calls it: reams of e-mail messages and piles of letters. One of those letters asked them if they'd been checked for anthrax. But that was before September, and they tossed it after laughing about it.
Atlanta-based talk show host Neal Boortz invited them to be guest hosts last summer, then uninvited them when they demanded that they have the same control over callers that he does. Boortz spent several days on the air attacking them for not respecting freedom of speech.
Osama Stephen Crockett
Boortz' attacks put them on the radar screen of radical Republicans across the nation. Crockett tosses one of the post-Boortz letters onto the table. It's addressed to ''Osama Stephen Crockett.''
''It's nice to be hated,'' Lawrence said.
''By these people,'' Crockett added, completing Lawrence's thought. ''We've had mail accusing us of being socialists, Nazis and Satan worshipers - that one really got me because it came right after I'd closed my Christian bookstore.''
Crockett, a devout Christian, closed the store in Park City after a heart attack made him re-evaluate just how much work he could pack into a day.
The owner of College Marketing, a company that links advertisers with students on college campuses throughout the Southeast, Crockett travels extensively and works cock-eyed hours, fueled by huge cups of coffee.
Crockett dates his own political activism, which eventually included coordinating several statewide campaigns in Maryland, from when he was 5. He helped his father, who worked for the United Auto Workers, hand out brochures outside an auto plant.
Lawrence, the program director at WEKR, works more predictable hours than Crockett, and lives a more conventional life with his wife and two college-age children. Preparing for the weekly show takes all his free time - a complete turn-around from his quiet, Republican upbringing in California and Nevada.
''I was always one of those armchair guys when it came to politics - I just voted,'' said Lawrence. ''But after this election, excuse me, this selection, I said, 'It can't happen again.' ''
''We have a democracy to restore and a nation to save,'' said Crockett. ''What's more important than the right to vote and to have your vote count? It's so important we can never forget it.''
''To me, this is more war on America than anything else,'' Lawrence said. ''If this had gone the other way, the Republicans would be marching in the streets. I'm aghast at the Republicans for not investigating. It should have been investigated from both sides - the American way is at stake.''
And they've both come to the conclusion that they must do their own part, as part of their American duty, to point out attacks on the American way.
''I don't even want to do radio - Al's the one with the great voice,'' Crockett said. ''But we can't sit around waiting for someone else to do it because it was not getting done.''