Madison WI Situation Heating Up

Listener revolts are a quarter a dozen (inflation) in the radio industry. This is one reason formats tend to change in the dead of night, with no prior warning. By the time listeners can band together and take action, it's beating that proverbial dead horse.

However, the format change at Clear Channel's The Mic (WXXM-FM) in Madison, WI, was announced for a future date. The response was immediate, and probably the most noteworthy in several years. If you can't rally "liberals" with radio stations, as the right wing industry axiom goes, then why is this the second time in a few months that listeners have risen up in surprising numbers to save left wing programming? For that matter, why did the "fired and banned" at Pacifica Radio wage an incredibly bitter 7-year war to successfully reverse programming decisions at that network and throw out the national board? It sounds like something's happening here, despite the best efforts of the radio industry to ignore it.

Getting back to Madison, it has even made it onto the national Associated Press wires:

New radio format angers listeners

RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
December 13, 2006

...

The decision by the nation's largest operator of radio stations to replace its highly rated progressive talk station here with Fox Sports Radio has sparked a major backlash. Some advertisers have threatened a boycott, more than 5,000 people have signed a petition and a rally was scheduled Tuesday night to urge the San Antonio-based company to reconsider.

Even the mayor is urging the company to save the station.

...

But some liberals here believe something more sinister is at play in the decision, announced three days after the Nov. 7 election that had the left celebrating Democratic victories across the country.

"I'm wondering if the switch to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Sports means the liberal station was more successful than certain people wanted," listener Yvonne Gagliano wrote in a local newspaper.

This conspiracy theory is pooh-poohed elsewhere in the AP story, but Z is not so sure. They are replacing a popular format with... uh... high school sports? Or maybe they think the parents will want to buy ads. "Bill and Jerry at East Side Insurance wish you and yours a very merry Christmas, and we'll be around to meet all your insurance needs in the New Year." Bzzzzzzzzz.