Power to the People
Liberadio(!) brings liberal talk radio to Nashville’s commercial airwaves
by Jim Ridley
If transformers tumble this weekend, there can be only one explanation. This Friday and Saturday, the hosts of Liberadio(!), 91 Rock’s popular Monday-morning political show, are staking their claim to a toehold in the domain of Steve Gill and Phil Valentine.
After months of planning, Liberadio(!) co-hosts Mary Mancini and Freddie O’Connell have decided to challenge the old yap that commercial talk radio and progressive politics go together like peanut butter and failure. Starting April 6, the show will also broadcast Fridays in a 7 a.m. drive-time slot on WAMB-AM 1200, the former home of Teddy Bart’s Round Table. The next day, Liberadio(!) sets up 1 to 3 p.m. Saturdays on WNSG-AM 880, whose call letters stand for “Nashville’s Sound of Gospel.”
O’Connell and Mancini say the conditions for the move have been extremely favorable, from affordable time on the stations to encouragement from listeners and guests. Ultimately, their goal is to be on the air five times a week, preferably on a single station.
“Everybody tells us they think what we’re doing is important,” Mancini says. “Democrats in Tennessee know how badly we need to build an infrastructure by supporting progressive causes, by supporting young Democrats, by supporting new candidates for public office.”
Liberadio(!) has been broadcasting since October 2004 out of Vanderbilt’s student-run station WRVU-FM 91.1. (It also used to broadcast on Radio Free Nashville, LPFM 98.9.) The show grew out of a voter-registration movement Mancini sponsored before the 2004 election. Held in honor of the 10th anniversary of Lucy’s Record Shop—the Church Street all-ages venue Mancini operated in the mid-’90s, which became a lightning rod for teenage activists—the registration drive rekindled Mancini’s passion for political engagement.
Mancini hit upon the idea of a radio show, and she asked O’Connell to come aboard as her co-host. A Nashville native who attended MBA, O’Connell has a similar fascination with politics. In 2002, as a 25-year-old greenie, he ran for the state House as an independent against Republican Beth Harwell in District 56.
“The only downside of that process was that I didn’t win,” says O’Connell, who was listed on the ballot as Thomas F. O’Connell. The upside, he says, was “the thousands I met who were just glad to have a doorstep political discussion.” Mostly, he says, it restored his faith in the power of participatory democracy—a running theme on Liberadio(!).
The show has won a reputation as an oasis of civility and good humor, an antidote to the talkscape’s many inflamed hemorrhoids. Liberadio(!) has landed impressive guests, from U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (who will appear on Friday’s show) to FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. Friday’s guests also include Being Right Is Not Enough author Paul Waldman, and special guests are planned for Saturday.
Now, though, the show has more concerns than filling its bookings. Liberal talk radio’s track record in the Southeast is poor, says John Mountz, assistant program director for local talk-radio giant Supertalk 99.7 WTN, home to Valentine and Dave Ramsey. Mountz thinks the listener interest just isn’t there.
“If there were a wonderful show in the so-called progressive talk format that had tons of listeners, we’d consider it,” Mountz says. “The cynical side of me says, ‘We’ve already got it—it’s called NPR.’ ”
Zing! But Mancini points to progressive success stories such as syndicated host Stephanie Miller, who has earned big followings in tough markets. “If programmers never try something,” she says, “how do they know it won’t work?”
Fred Beasley, sales manager for WNSG, says that most gospel listeners are probably conservative, and yet he thinks they are “interested in hearing any talk show with a viewpoint that is intelligent and informative.” Since WNSG, like WAMB and WRVU, does not subscribe to the Arbitron rating system, Beasley says he will gauge Liberadio(!)’s success the old-fashioned way—through calls, letters and listener response.
Just five days before their commercial launch, Mancini and O’Connell are working a Liberadio(!)-sponsored WRVU fundraiser at the Ben & Jerry’s across from Vanderbilt. With about 20 Liberadio(!) fans talking, laughing and slurping up long strands of caramel, it looks less like political organizing than an ice-cream social. But at a front table, listeners Allen and Andrea May introduce their 9-month-old boy Brady as “already an activist.” Andrea, who moved here from Seattle, laughs when asked why she listens to the show.
“We came from a place where it was OK to talk about politics but you kept your religion to yourself,” Andrea May says. “We moved to a place that’s the exact opposite.”
Comments (0)