I will be filling in tomorrow morning for Dan "The Ox" Ochsner on Newstalk 1450 KNSI, 8-11am. Live streaming (but no podcast) available from the link. I will be with Dan's usual co-host Mike Landy; we anticipate a discussion starting at 9 about government waste.

Labels: KNSI, Media

6-8am on 1450 KNSI (streaming audio available for those outside the St. Cloud area.) I'd like to talk about the story Janet has been covering the last few days about VFF and Forest Lake High. I'll have something to say as well about the DFL budget solution -- I'm going to suggest there's a deal here the GOP should consider.

Labels: KNSI

Filling in for Don Lyons, 6-8 AM on Newstalk 1450 KNSI. (Don's calling the Huskies in the Final Five, including tomorrow night's game versus the Gophers.)

We'll be taking the week off on Final Word, and we'll instead replay the interview with Governor Pawlenty. You can get the podcast if you can't wait.

Labels: Final Word, KNSI

It appears that, for a while at least, I'm the substitute for KNSI's Morning Show. I'll be on 6-8 tomorrow and Friday this week, and Wednesday through Friday next week. AM 1450 on your dial, and I believe their streaming works (from the link above) when they're on local programming. We might do a little politics tomorrow, just maybe.

UPDATE: Whoops! Missed communication had both me and Don Lyons there this morning. "The Senator" will be trying his hand at the host chair tomorrow. I'll be on next week.

Labels: KNSI, Media

I'll be on Captain Ed's Heading Right Radio in about 25 minutes.

And for those of you who missed me on KNSI's Morning Show this morning, you can try again tomorrow and Wednesday.

Labels: KNSI, Media

A long weekend of radio for me:

• Today with Captain Ed on Heading Right Radio, 2pm. Scott Swett of "To Set the Record Straight" will be on for the first half hour, then I suspect we'll swing into talking about holiday sales.
• Tomorrow, 7-9am as co-host of Hot Talk on KNSI in St. Cloud. (Streaming occasionally works here.) Tony Garcia will be with me. Our usual nuttery will commence, though from time to time we steer into serious things like the Bhutto assassination, the funding of the St. Cloud schools and Northboonstardoggle.
• Saturday, 3-5pm as usual on The Final Word on AM 1280 the Patriot. We will be live with a wrapup of the year in Minnesota politics. Winners? Losers? Best piece of political art drawn by Freedom Dogs? (You know how I love "put your fork down!")
• Monday, 6-9am, back to Hot Talk, sans Tony. Last day of the year, what happened that affected lives of local St. Cloudians? The local paper has a list of difference makers. I have something to say about that. And of course there will be gloating as my Giants defeat the Patriots.

All times Central. Hope you can listen in.

Labels: Final Word, KNSI, NARN

Even Littlest could identify the fine radio tones of Dan "The Ox" Ochsner on KNSI this morning as we hopped in the car to go to school. He apparently was on for the whole hour, and according to sources did not get a welcome back or any such thing on the air. He just sat down and talked like he was doing his old show again. The real purpose of his visit was to promote a chefs auction for the March of Dimes in town tonight. Currently he works in commercial real estate. His old producer Don Lyons has been handling most of the host duties since the departure of Andy Barnett, with Tony Garcia handling last Friday's show while Don traveled with Husky hockey.

I have not heard whether the station is searching outside for another host or choosing from its in-house personalities. So far, though, there's been no change in format and that's good news.

Labels: KNSI

Andy Barnett is scheduled to appear on Glenn Beck on CNN tonight to discuss the KNSI case. Publicity is good, but how much good does all this publicity do for his future in talk radio?

Labels: KNSI

Responding to the criticism that has arisen about the Andy Barnett case, KNSI has posted "the COMPLETE, un-altered interview of two St. Cloud City Council Candidates from Friday, November 2nd 2007." It's a 20 MB file (compression would be nice, guys -- many of us do hour-long podcasts in smaller files), so proceed accordingly.

Andy is posting his story. Speed Gibson comments:

My heart goes out to Andy Barnett, but from what I've read and heard, including Barnett's own account, my head is with the station management on this one. Regardless, the worst behavior by far was that of the complaining candidate(s). I again ask, why are liberals so convinced they're right yet are so uncomfortable defending them in public?

Getting back to KNSI, abortion and same-sex marriage just aren't local issues. Barnett gave a couple of weak examples showing how they could relate to other local issues, but this just isn't good enough. Frankly, I think the intent was there to embarrass the candidates. If Barnett was adamant with management as I think I heard him say he was, then yes, he'd be gone at my station, too.

As I updated in the earlier post on this topic (not sure when it got up on this site, but I had tried to post this without success when our wireless modem went down yesterday), we have to be careful about besmirching the candidate -- as you will hear in the interview, she's adamant about her disapproval of the questions on-air, but that is the only evidence of disapproval we have. Leo has updated his post which started the ball rolling in the blogosphere saying that the station manager, John Sowada, has written to another blogger stating he did not speak to the candidate after the interview, and that in his conversation with Barnett earlier tonight Barnett said he did not see the two speaking, that "several people at Leighton told me." That's consistent with what I've found; it was not my understanding when I spoke with Andy Friday, but that came out in the interview Saturday (podcast now available -- interview begins about 12 minutes in) and confirmed by other discussions.

The part that one has difficulty with is how one goes from on-air debate to fired in four hours; given that Sowada made this decision without speaking with the candidate, one can conclude one of two things -- either it's an overreaction to an uncomfortable interview (to him as well as to the candidate), or there's more here that we do not know. Answer c: Answers a and b are correct, is permitted.

Labels: KNSI, St. Cloud

By now everyone in St. Cloud has heard about the events at News Talk 1450 KNSI yesterday. I've written and spoken to some people at the station and elsewhere. The facts in Larry Schumacher's Times article are essentially correct. What I think is missing is context.

Let's review the pressure the station has been under:

• In April, Pscymeistr reported on the newspaper's criticism of Steve Gottwalt, in which the local newspaper referred to KNSI as "KGOP." (The article is down, as is the comment stream, but Leo has captured most of what's written.)
• In July, state Senator Tarryl Clark stops by the station and inter alia informs talk show host Andy Barnett that she is not interviewing on his show any more because "is not comfortable doing opinion based entertainment talk shows."
• Over the summer, according to sources, the station has been advised by a consultant, and the talk show -- the only weekday local programming on the station -- underwent several changes at the behest of management. When I guest-hosted on the show in October I saw the new "clock" or hourly chart you follow to know when to do sports, news, commercials, etc. It was very different from what I had seen before. "Why?" I asked Andy. He indicated this was management-inspired.
• There has been criticism of Barnett's parodies, and those had created some criticism from mostly liberals.

Let's then summarize this as follows:

1. Barnett inherited a show from Dan Ochsner, and the show was singular in the KNSI format.
2. The station runs syndicated conservative talk (e.g., Limbaugh, Soucheray, Savage) the rest of its weekday. It has a weekly show by the local mayor, former Republican state Senator Dave Kleis, as well as current Republican state Representative Steve Gottwalt. The KGOP tag isn't exactly wrong.
3. Nevertheless, it does not appear the station was happy with the format.
4. The station was pressured by local DFL and appears to have been stung by the Times' criticism.
5. It fired Barnett within four hours of the disputed interview, between which times it had received a complaint from a city council candidate, canceled a debate, pulled Barnett from the air, and then waited two hours to make its move. This would seem to imply that the CEO, Bob Leighton, was at least informed and approved of this event, though nobody at the station will speak on the record. At least one member of the family that owns the business was in the station Friday morning.
   

One is compelled then to ask, did KNSI change its format under duress? What are its intentions to its listeners (of which I am one)?

This should not be construed that I think the station had no right to fire Barnett. It can do what it wants as long as it's not agreed to not censor Barnett through its contract with him; I agree with most that I do not think I would have fired someone for asking those questions (you can hear what was said by listening to this audio on Andy's site and decide for yourself.) It is quite possible that the decision to let Barnett go was made a while ago. But if you expect to be a news talk radio station that has credibility, appearing to cave in to pressure from the DFL and competing media outlets is counterproductive.

I hope the station has a plan to maintain itself as the news talk station that has served the city well as balancing its media ideological spectrum for the last several years.

UPDATE (11/5): Based on additional conversations at the station, I want to clarify that when I said "it had received a complaint from a city council candidate", I do not necessarily mean that the city council candidate ever went to the manager's office or even spoke to him. The only person who says she did was not a witness but says "others tell me." Meanwhile, the candidate and one other person says they saw her leave after a discussion outside the studio. More than this we cannot say with any confidence. I will emphasize again that Barnett's firing may involve more than this one incident but outsiders will be left with that impression, much to the detriment of the station.

Labels: KNSI, St. Cloud

Twenty-five years ago ("oh God, he's not doing one of those Mitch posts, is he?" -- ed.) I was a grad student-cum-radio DJ at KSPC in Claremont, CA, and morning drive was my beat that term, my last on radio before NARN began. The grad student wakes up usually earlier than your average Pomona College undergrad, so it fell to me to do this (the kids liked doing the after-midnight stints.)

Tomorrow morning I sit in for Andy Barnett on KNSI from 6-9AM, 1450 on your AM dial, here in the Cloud. (Hmmm, now that I look at your site, Andy, I notice a link missing from your blogroll?) Topics will be all over the place, I suppose, as I haven't been able to rustle up my usual collection of guests. Three hours of my voice? Maybe we'll invite Mrs. Scholar to her first radio experience!

Pray for me; I get up early enough, but talking to a corner of the world at that time will be quite the experience.

Labels: KNSI, Media, Northern Alliance Radio Network

Michael has been posting some information at the end of each post since Wednesday night with information on how to help with the victims of the Minneapolis Bridge tragedy. Here's some information (poststamped to stay top for the day.)

DONATIONS
Minneapolis Red Cross - donate blood and money
* Web site: www.redcrosstc.org/
* Donate blood: 1-800-448-3543
* Donate money: 612-460-3700

United Way (2-1-1)
The United Way has an established protocol for handling donations. They work with state and local officials by consolidating offers of emergency assistance and making them known to responders. Contact United Way's 211 hotline for donations. Just dial 2-1-1 or 651-291-0211. (Full disclosure: I am a board member of the United Way of Central Minnesota.)

FAMILY ASSISTANCE CENTER
Minneapolis Red Cross has established a Family Assistance Center at the Holiday-Inn Metrodome, 1500 Washington Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55454

We'll talk more about this tomorrow on The Final Word at 3pm on AM 1280 the Patriot, and I will guest host for Tony Garcia on The Tony Garcia Show on 1450 KNSI Sunday at 1pm. (Links go to sites where streaming audio is available.) More about the bridge tragedy as infomrmation develops, otherwise, we'll see you Monday.

Labels: AM1280, KNSI, Minneapolis, Minnesota, NARN