Clear Channel stations airing liberal talk shows

DETROIT – The day before President Bush’s inauguration, listeners tuning in to the Detroit sports station WXDX-AM were suddenly greeted by the sound of braying donkeys. By the time Bush was taking the oath of office, the radio station had new call letters and a full schedule of liberal talk shows.

WXDX-AM – now known as WDTW-AM – is one of 22 stations owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc. that have switched to a liberal talk format in the last year. This month, KTLK-AM in Los Angeles became the latest Clear Channel station to adopt the format.

Those who track broadcasting trends say there’s money to be made in liberal talk radio. Todd Webster, a consultant for Washington-based liberal talk show producer Democracy Radio, said Clear Channel is expected to introduce the left-leaning format on 20 more stations by the end of the year.

“There is a tremendous appetite out there for progressive talk,” he said.

Webster said that even as recently as a year ago, no one thought Texas-based Clear Channel, a media conglomerate that owns 1,200 stations, would ever become partners with upstart liberal talkers.

“There has been a tectonic shift in the industry from all of the big brains and the head honchos saying, ‘Nobody wants to listen to a bunch of whiny liberals on the radio,'” Webster said.

The partnership might seem surprising because of Texas-based Clear Channel’s conservative reputation. Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays and his wife gave $65,000 to the Republican National Committee in the last election cycle, and two-thirds of the company’s federal donations went to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Last summer, a Berkeley, Calif.-based group sued Clear Channel, which also owns an outdoor advertising business, after it refused to run an anti-war billboard in Times Square during the Republican National Convention.

The company also isn’t seen as socially progressive. In December, Clear Channel stations in Tampa, Jacksonville, St. Louis and Detroit awarded breast enhancement surgeries to 13 women as part of the “Breast Christmas Ever” contest; at the time, the company said it had no oversight of the contests and didn’t sponsor them. Clear Channel also pulled talk show host Howard Stern off the air because of concerns over mounting indecency fines.