Milwaukee Radio: Liberal Groups Target Talk Radio

Liberal groups are trying to hit the mute button on Milwaukee's conservative talk radio hosts, or at least get more air time of their own.

According to Fox6-TV, they are in the first phase of a fundraising campaign called "Radio Active," trying to raise $20,000 of seed money to monitor the shows of five talk show hosts whose views they find troubling. The plan faces an uncertain future: previous attempts at progressive radio have failed, but organizers said this effort has more momentum.

"We sense a lot of excitement, we don’t think it’s going to fizzle out," said Ted Kraig, regional director for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the statewide teachers' union. "This campaign is about building something permanent so other points of view are heard.

WEAC is one of a handful of groups fundraising for the campaign. Organizers with Citizen Action of Wisconsin say if it's successful, they will pressure radio station owners to put a progressive voice on the air, and may consider buying a small station of their own.

The targets of the campaign are WTMJ 620 AM's Charlie Sykes, N/T1130 WISN 1130 AM's Mark Belling, Vicki McKenna and Jay Weber, and Jerry Bader with Green Bay's WTAQ 1360 AM / 97.5 FM.


Bader told FOX6 News the campaign shows a lack of understanding. Conservative talk radio is on the air because it's popular, he said.

"I`m going to be honest -- I thought it (Radio Active) was hysterical," Bader said in a Skype interview. "Conservative talk radio is a business. We are there for profit. So if they want to raise money to try to challenge that, or silence that, good luck."

Some of the liberal groups' concerns -- that talk hosts have too much influence over the political process, and hosts coordinate with one another on a central message -- are untrue, Bader said.

Jerry Bott with iHeartMedia, which owns WISN-AM, says the plan is a political attempt to silence popular and influential voices.