When major league baseball withdrew the all star game from Georgia to protest Republican voter suppression in that state Republicans complained it was dangerous for a democracy to mix sports and politics. Senator Moscow Mitch McConnell got pissed. Now Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri want to punish MLB by removing its antitrust protection.
It would not be an exaggeration to say Republican electoral and legislative success, as well as all of those senators’ political futures, depend heavily on universities and professional sports teams continuing to broadcast sports on hundreds of political talk radio stations that almost exclusively serve Republicans.
No school or professional team using Republican radio that does not support Republican racism, voter suppression, or global warming and COVID denial has any excuse not to start looking for alternatives.
The sports broadcasts and associations with the team brands, logos, and mascots are used to attract advertisers to finance those stations, at little or no cost to the the GOP. If Republicans paid $1000/hr x 15 hrs/day, each station would be worth $75,000/week or about $4M/year.
For decades Republican talk stations repeated and ramped up the lies and exaggerations used as the predicate for passing voter suppression legislation, including accusations that Democrats bring in and help ‘illegal’ immigrants vote for them. Trump still uses those lies to claim the election was stolen. The Nov 19 2020 Giuliani/Powell press conference claiming the election was stolen was timed to start along with the Limbaugh show on those 600 stations.
By not looking for alternative stations or not telling their licensing companies to look for alternatives the universities and pro teams continue to support Republican talk radio. So do companies that advertise on those radio stations.
If Republicans want to take a university to the courts, let them. Any community discussion will scare off advertisers.
Republican talk radio is on the edge of a cliff and needs a push
RW talk radio already has a major problem because they can’t replace Limbaugh. While in a previous diary I suggested the combination of Limbaugh’s death and the inevitable use of artificial intelligence to record, transcribe, and analyze talk radio will end the 30 year talk radio short-circuiting of American democracy, that could take time the planet and Biden don’t have.
Republican talk radio dominance is key for their obstruction. Democratic senators like Manchin will continue to feel enabled and intimidated by Republican talk radio buzz in their states. That is the same buzz that will keep Republican politicians from compromising. When Republican talk radio starts falling apart the made-to-order pro-corporate constituencies it creates will fall apart too and the country will go 10 points left. Manchin and the Republicans will lose their leverage.
Limbaugh’s death and inevitable artificial intelligence-enhanced analysis and boycotts of RW radio should already have the advertising industry as well as any company advertising on those stations on notice.
One or two schools, teams, or athletes could start an avalanche. The advertising industry wants the tens of millions of ears those radio stations reach and they will have to start breaking up the Republican talk radio monopoly or lose a lot of customers to other media forms.
Target politicians and issues through radio stations and their sports connections
Unlike Fox, local talk radio programming is commonly coordinated by the GOP to pressure politicians and influence issues and elections by state or even by city or county. Many successful radical Republican politicians learned to parrot Limbaugh etc and rely on local talk radio stations or hosts for interviews and favoritism and free attacks on Democratic opponents. They may have left trails of podcasts and recordings.
That means particular universities and pro teams and their athletes are being used to support or attack particular politicians and legislation.
They don’t have to…..
Consider:
Georgia — The universities of Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, and Georgia Southern 2 broadcast sports on 14 x-Limbaugh stations (see list of 87 universities below — from fakenewsradio.org). Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons athletes are used to support at least 12 GOP/white supremacist radio stations (listed below). Those stations basically use those athletes to support Gov Kemp, excuse racism and attack kneeling athletes, and sell Ga voter suppression. They likely all defend Ga. Rep and Trump insurrectionist and loon Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Ohio 10 — Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1 How much will those stations effect the Ohio open senate seat coming up?
Missouri 6 — If you want to see Sen Josh Hawley out of the senate, get the University of Missouri to stop supporting 6 Hawley-loving radio stations.
Florida 20 — Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2. That’s 20 stations up and down the Florida peninsula that deny global warming and COVID and will defend or ignore Rep Matt Gaetz. They will help reelect Gov Disantis and senators Scott and Rubio.
Michigan 19 — Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1 have been helping Republicans pass voter suppression legislation as well as deny COVID and threaten and pressure Dem Gov Whitmer to loosen restrictions. It can be guaranteed that those same stations will somehow blame the latest deadly COVID surge on the Governor and other Democrats.
Some or most of those schools listed below also support Republican talk radio stations that don’t headline Limbaugh. Many other stations and universities do the same. There may be hundreds of other schools supporting hundreds of other Republican radio stations the same way.
87 universities supporting 260 x-Limbaugh stations
ALABAMA 8 Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARIZONA 1 Arizona St. 1
ARKANSAS 3 Arkansas 3
CALIFORNIA 5 San Jose State 2, USC 2, Fresno St. 1
COLORADO 3 Air Force 2, Colorado State 1
CONNECTICUT 1 Connecticut 1
FLORIDA 20 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2
GEORGIA 14 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
IDAHO 7 Boise St. 4, Idaho 3
ILLINOIS 7 Illinois 7
INDIANA 11 Notre Dame 6, Purdue 4, Indiana 1
IOWA 5 Iowa 4, Iowa St. 1
KANSAS 4 Kansas St. 2, Kansas 1, Wichita St. 1
KENTUCKY 3 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
LOUSIANA 3 LSU 2, La.-Monroe 1
MARYLAND 2 Maryland 2
MASSACHUSETTS 1 Boston College 1
MICHIGAN 19 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
MINNESOTA 4 Minnesota 4
MISSISSIPPI 6 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 Missouri 6
NEBRASKA 6 Nebraska 6
NEVADA 1 $ Nevada 1
NEW JERSEY 2 Rutgers 1, Seton Hall 1
NEW MEXICO 3 New Mexico 2, New Mexico St. 1
NEW YORK 7 Syracuse 6, Army 1
NORTH CAROLINA 16 North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
OHIO 10 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
OKLAHOMA 5 Oklahoma St. 3, Oklahoma 1, Oral Roberts 1
OREGON 12 Oregon St. 7, Oregon 5
PENNSYLVANIA 14 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 4 South Carolina 2, Clemson 2
TENNESSEE 7 Tennessee 4, Memphis 3
TEXAS 16 Texas A&M 9, Texas Tech 4, Texas 1, Texas Christian 1, Baylor 1
UTAH 1 Utah St. 1
VIRGINIA 6 Virginia Tech 5, Virginia 1
WASHINGTON 6 Washington 5, Washington St. 1
WEST VIRGINIA 2 West Virginia 1, Marshall 1
WISCONSIN 3 Wisconsin 3
Here are the Georgia pro teams and some of the Republican hosts they headline. I searched for the team and ‘radio affiliates’. One of the links gave a list of about 150 stations for the Braves. 75 of the stations were in Ga. I only checked AM stations so there are probably more than 6. Surely the Braves can do without a few stations, or find apolitical alternatives.
Atlanta Braves
WALG-AM 1590 Limbaugh Hannity
WLBB 1330 Beck, Limbaugh Hannity Levin
WBLJ-AM 1230 Limbaugh Hannity
WLAQ-AM 1410 Limbaugh Beck
WJAT-AM 800 Hannity
WKWN-AM 1420 Erick Erickson
Atlanta Falcons
WDAK-AM Beck Hannity Pags
WBLJ-AM Limbaugh Hannity
WDUN Kilmeade, Shapiro
WVCC-AM Hannity Beck Limbaugh
WMAC-AM Levin Hannity Bongino Shapiro Erickson
WJAT-AM Hannity