INTERNET, TALK RADIO PROVIDE NEW PLATFORM FOR ACTIVISTS

http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/computing/center/radio062799.htm (article no longer available at this URL)

San Jose Mercury News - June 26, 1999

INTERNET, TALK RADIO PROVIDE NEW PLATFORM FOR ACTIVISTS

BY GEORGE AVALOS
Contra Costa Times

The bumper sticker is to the point: ``I don't trust the liberal news media.''

There's more. The vehicle, seen on a Bay Area street, also sports a red-white-and-blue sticker that touts KSFO radio.

Signs such as these may be more than random coincidence. They signal the possible appearance of a new brand of grass-roots activism and information dissemination that's based on radio shows and global online technologies.

The combination of something old -- talk radio -- and something new -- the globe-spanning Internet -- may produce an alternative kind of communication powerful enough to jolt the established television and print news industries.

``The marriage between the Internet, grass-roots activism and talk radio has been one of the most extraordinary developments in the political world that I have witnessed in 30 years of watching the political scene,'' said Melanie Morgan, a KSFO talk show host who is one of the San Francisco radio station's most adept practitioners of this fledgling digital activism.

Jesse Jackson and Jerry Falwell, move over. This isn't merely talk. There's a new cyberactivist on the block.

``Talk radio and the Internet have, to a great extent, bypassed what has pretty much been the exclusive domain of the major news media,'' said Lee Rogers, who is Morgan's partner on the highly rated morning show on KSFO.

Not everyone is convinced. Information consumers should be wary of talk radio and the Internet, said Ben Bagdikian, a Berkeley-based media critic. He warns people not to believe everything they come across in these emerging services.

``It's a very spongy process,'' Bagdikian said. ``You can't be sure whether what you hear on talk radio, or what you see on the Internet, is accurate. The Internet and talk radio bypass many of the traditional disciplines of journalism.''

Still, Rogers argues that talk radio and the Internet can fuse successfully because they may appeal to people who wonder whether they get all the news that's fit to consume. The expanding ratings of talk radio, fueled largely by chat trailblazer Rush Limbaugh, and the dazzling rise of the Internet, bolsters Rogers' argument.

``People realize we don't have to have a newspaper editor's approval, we don't have to have a TV news director's approval to decide whether we merit coverage,'' Rogers said. ``We can make some noise on our own and can scare politicians who need to be scared.''

The station has also scared up listeners since going to the conservative format.

In 1994, when KSFO was an eclectic mix of primarily left-leaning hosts, the station was ranked 28th in the market and languished with an anemic 1.0 share of the audience.

But after the conservative hosts took over in early 1995, the station has increased its share of the audience and risen steadily in the Bay Area radio rankings. In 1998, the station had gotten to 7th and commanded a 3.2 share, according to an Arbitron Co. survey. The Rogers-Morgan show has also soared. In 1998, it was ranked 4th in the 6-9 a.m. time slot with a 3.9 share.

Perhaps the most notable frightfest for politicians orchestrated by KSFO came during the debate over MTBE, a potentially hazardous gasoline additive that has fouled some California water supplies. In 1996, reports began to surface that officials had detected contamination in some Southern California aquifers.

When Rogers and Morgan got wind of the reports that year, they hammered away at both the MTBE issue, along with another vehicle-oriented controversy, the Smog Check II program. The two hosts beat a steady tattoo on the state bureaucrats who defended the programs, which were designed to reduce air pollution from automobiles.

As the campaign continued, Rogers and Morgan frequently directed listeners to various Internet sites with data about MTBE. They also advised them of electronic channels to contact state political leaders, who were peppered with e-mail. Some listeners uncovered information on the Net and shared it with the radio audience. And so on.

``Politicians are either terrified, or they hate our guts, or they recognize inherently that here is a political force that can be harnessed,'' Morgan said.

Some officials already agree. State Sen. Richard Mountjoy, who was one of the spearheads of the anti-MTBE movement in the state Legislature, likes the idea of being able to use talk radio. He points out that in a newspaper story, or in broadcasts on the evening news, issues are greatly boiled down.

``Talk radio gives you the opportunity to express your total views about a subject,'' Mountjoy, R-Arcadia, said. ``And placing information on the Internet expands the means to distribute your views.''

Mountjoy said the proponents of MTBE eventually got thrashed in large measure because KSFO was able to meld its on-air discussions with the Internet links via the station's online site.

``The on-air and online pressure caused the Legislature to be unable to ignore MTBE,'' Mountjoy said.

Grass-roots activists also have embraced these new ways of communicating.

KSFO is far from done with grass-roots activism. Recently, Morgan and Rogers have launched campaigns to exorcise other vehicle-related gremlins. These are California's diamond lanes, the annual vehicle registration fees and burdensome gasoline prices.

``It doesn't matter if you're a liberal and I'm a conservative when we're both caught in gridlock while there's a bunch of empty pavement next to us,'' Rogers said. ``To me, it's a freedom issue. I don't want some social manipulator telling me where I can drive and indirectly where I have to live.''

Rogers and Morgan believe it's unfair to tax everyone for freeway lanes that not everyone can use.

As one might expect with a talk-oriented format, some of the causes taken up by KSFO are more about politics than consumers and motorists.

Michael Savage, the afternoon drive host on the station, used his radio pulpit to organized a rally in 1997 supporting the anti-racial-quotas initiative, Proposition 209. About 3,000 people turned out, which Savage believes helped the initiative, which had been overturned by federal court judge.

``I believe the rally empowered the three (appeals court) judges who overrode the original decision,'' Savage said. The initiative has been confirmed by the courts as legal.

Despite such successes, Savage readily concedes that it's the old-fashioned newspapers that provide the grist for the talk-show mill.

``There's a dichotomy here,'' Savage said. ``Talk radio prides itself as being an alternative to the establishment media, but virtually all of our stories begin with the hard, gumshoe work of a newspaper reporter.'' He cited the China spy scandal as an example.

But to Savage and other hosts, there's a big difference. Savage believes that all too often, mainstream news outlets won't pound away on an issue.

``We'll take a story and run with it,'' Savage said, ``because the papers will take it and drop it.''.