The battle in Washington over healthcare legislation has kept audiences and hosts active on talk radio, including the all-conservative talk shows of Salem Radio Networks (SRN). Add to that the heavy Internet activity the debate is fueling on Salem’s Townhall.com.
SRN announced Thursday that in a joint effort with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), more than one million emails have been sent to Congress opposing the healthcare proposal being pushed by the Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress. The campaign has been dubbed “One Million Patriots.”
“From both a programming and policy standpoint, ObamaCare has proven to be the perfect storm for SRN’s brand of talk radio,” said Tom Tradup, Vice President of News & Talk Programming for Salem Radio Network. “Our partnership with the NCPA and the resources it brings to our nationally syndicated hosts like Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher and Hugh Hewitt has helped drive listeners from our nationwide electronic town hall to direct political activism generating of one million emails to Congress,” he added.
This is the second time that SRN and NCPA have teamed up on an effort to have listeners and web readers deliver a message to Members of Congress. The “Free Our Health Care Now!” effort in September 2009 generated 1.3 million digital signatures on a petition sent to Congress.
RBR-TVBR observation: The more heated the debate in Washington, the more profitable it seems to be for broadcasters. The healthcare battle will continue on to the November elections, regardless of how any votes turn out on Capitol Hill. A Field Poll released Thursday shows Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) facing a serious reelection battle for the first time in her career. More and more contested seats are likely to make 2010 the year that political ad spending records aren’t just broken, but crushed.
