The only liberal/progressive broadcast media outlet in San Diego County is about to be shut down. Clear Channel, who owns KLSD 1360 AM, is in the process of switching the liberal talk format to yet another sports talk station.
Over 1,100 people have signed a petition calling on Clear Channel to keep KLSD's progressive format since word of the planned format change leaked out late last week. Clear Channel executives have also been deluged with thousands of e-mails, virtually all in favor of keeping Air America on the air in America's sixth largest city.
KLSD has received letters supporting KLSD progressive radio received from Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Mike Gravel, and Ambassador Joe Wilson, husband of former CIA-agent Valerie Plame. . .
"I think this is another effort to shut down progressive voices where the message is most effective, especially here in a military town," said Bree Walker, an Air America host in Los Angeles and former San Diego TV newscaster who recently purchased Cindy Sheehan's ranch in Crawford, Texas. . .
A caller to an Air America program last week offered a tip that the Carlisle Group may be seeking to buy Clear Channel - a rumor that has triggered alarm throughout the progressive community. A global private equity firm based in Washington D.C., the Carlisle Group's board has included George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The company operates several major funds and has business dealings in the defense, aerospace, energy and healthcare industries, among others.
Clear Channel, America's largest radio company with over 1,100 stations nationwide, was acquired by private equity firms Thomas H Lee Partners, Bain Capital and the company's founding family for nearly $US 19 billion in November 2006.
--- more ---
http://prorev.com/2007/08/carlisle-group-rumored-involved-in.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment