If you live in Burlington, Mt. Pleasant or Keokuk you can hear the Ed Schultz Show from 2:00-5:00 weekdays on KBUR 1490 AM.  And if you happen to live in Boone, as of March 2, you can tune into KWBG AM 1590 for the Ed Schultz show from 2:06-4:00 pm.  That seems a little grudging, starting six minutes late and stopping an hour early, but remember, it's progress not perfection we're after.

But why Ed Schultz?  It is curious that both stations chose the same host even though there are other excellent progressive possibilities, like Thom Hartmann, tagged by Talkers Magazine as the “tenth most important talk show host in America.”  Thom's website describes his show as “Renaissance Thinking About the Issues of the Day.”  Maybe that explains it.  But perhaps it has more to do with the fact that while Ed Schultz may be a progressive,  he actually looks and sounds rather conservative, not entirely unlike Rush Limbaugh in type.  A large, middle-aged, balding, white male with a booming voice, Ed Schultz could play Rush in the movie.  Someone in upper management may have decided they could slip him in the line-up without too much notice or uproar from conservatives.  Or it could just be a marketing thing.

But we digress.  The point is, we are now up to four, count 'em four, Iowa communities that can hear progressive talk on the local publicly owned airwaves!  And what's even better, not one of the communities is Iowa City.