Atlanta talk radio (school, live in, move to)

[kansassun]

We're considering a move to Atlanta and thought that listening to local talk radio might give us a feel for the community. Can anyone recommend talk stations that aren't ultra-right wing and where callers/hosts don't shout at each other?

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by kansassun

We're considering a move to Atlanta and thought that listening to local talk radio might give us a feel for the community. Can anyone recommend talk stations that aren't ultra-right wing and where callers/hosts don't shout at each other?

Political talk that isn't conservative is hard to come by anywhere, not just Atlanta. But, not all talk radio is political talk. Clark Howard does a long-running consumer advocacy/personal finance radio show in the early afternoon.

Of course, there is satellite radio [and more of it that just Howard Stern, at that].

[Adric]

There's always NPR.

Atlanta's NPR station is 90.1FM WABE.

That and 88.5FM (Album 88) are pretty much all I listen to.

[MathmanMathman]

Talk radio isn't what it used to be. Back in the 70s, you could get a pretty good feel of Atlanta by the radio personalities. Now it's either conservative talk or corporate managed programming. Radio isn't that "local" anymore.

[noah]

Agree. I don't even think there is a afternoon drive local news program anymore.

[arjay57]

Although our talk radio is somewhat conservative, it's one of Atlanta's defining characteristics.

[K-SawDude]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Although our talk radio is somewhat conservative . . .

Somewhat?!? Neil Boortz and Erick Erickson spend multiple hours per day pretending like Obama is a radical socialist. I'd be thrilled if Atlanta talk radio had more range in its politics--the somewhat conservative, the somewhat liberal, the strongly liberal, the libertarian, the non-political news. But it's saturated with far right nonsense.

[arjay57]

Well, Sean Hannity also got his start here. I'm not saying he is a big Obama fan but you have to admit he does try to get both sides of an issue out there.

We're a fairly conservative city so it's hardly surprising that our media tends to reflect that.

[Mr. GE]

Originally Posted by arjay57

We're a fairly conservative city so it's hardly surprising that our media tends to reflect that.

Huh... What Atlanta do you live in?

OTP may be conservative, along with the rest of the state. But Atlanta is not a conservative city.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Although our talk radio is somewhat conservative, it's one of Atlanta's defining characteristics.

Not really. Talk radio is basically the same in most major cities with the exact same syndicated shows and some similar local ones. Nothing really special or different here.

DISCLAIMER: This statement below is not a political statement

The fact of the matter is that no one wants to listen to left wing, liberal talk shows on the radio. It's been tried by Al Franken and others on "Air America" and other networks, and each time the efforts have failed miserably from a lack of listeners and sponsors and were financial and commercial failures.

Now people may draw conclusions from that fact, and I have heard such explanations as liberals are working or in school or doing other things and so can't/don't listen to talk radio. Whatever the reason, they don't listen in any significant number, and so the only commercially viable talk radio is conservative talk radio.

Don't you think if the stations and syndication folks could make money from left wing talk that they would?