Trish nelson and I were guests on the Fallon Forum Thursday evening. While we were returning home, we agreed that we would both put down our impressions of the event.

The purpose going in was to discuss Trish’s recent research on the total dominance of right wing radio in Iowa during the first segment and then to discuss the coming LPFM availability. LPFM was part of my recent series on media and radio in particular.

I had an unspoken suspicion that once Trish began to discuss her subject, the phone lines would light up and we would be involved in a wrestling match with those who think there is nothing wrong with the right monopolizing talk radio. And that is just what happened. I was sitting directly in front of the monitor. I believe Trish had barely started on her third sentence and the phone lines were lit like a Christmas tree.

For the next 40 minutes we had caller after caller defending the status quo. The callers had one talking point and it was presented in various wrappings.  One after another they asserted that the market determined that Rush was king and should not be disturbed. I believe we did a good job of refuting this contention. Yet as one caller was dispatched, another was right behind to take up the talking point.  Many times last night I heard Trish say “as I said before……” Obviously there was some lack of active listening on the part of some of the participants.

My major refutation is that if the market offers but one choice, that is what people will buy. Democracy needs competing voices to bring new ideas to the table. We need competing voices to help ideas grow into the best policies. 

For those old enough to remember the telephone industry as a monopoly, compared to the telephone industry as competitive entity, know what I mean. As a monopoly, change was slow and there was little choice. Very shortly after the monopoly was broken, we had many new styles of phones and many new and often cheaper choices of service. We can repeat this example in a wide variety of industries.

One other observation is that radio is still a very viable medium to a wide swath of people. And those of us who are frequent radio users take our radio very personal and very serious. Many people react personally to discussion of changes in that phase of the media.
   
I must give major props to Ed and Lynn Fallon. The callers were for the most part courteous. I have no doubt that this is due to expectations that the Fallons have established  for their show.