Progressive talker enlists mad citizens for

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The full name of the new program is “Mad as Hell in America with Adam Klugman,” and it’s set to kick off on KPOJ-AM 620 in Portland OR in September. Mad citizens of any political stripe who have 60 seconds of steam to blow off will get that much time – uninterrupted – on KPOJ airspace.


KPOJ is a progressive talker and is also one of the stations in Clear Channel’s local cluster and is a former Air America affiliate. But that won’t stop host Klugman from providing an on-air platform for anybody, no matter what their views.

“Most people are afraid of their anger,” says Klugman, “because they think it’s going to make them like the small minority of belligerent Americans who scream and throw tantrums to get what they want. But that’s not anger. It’s childish rage and it has been getting its way in this country for far too long.”

He makes a distinction between destructive rage and genuine anger at the way things are going in society. He said, “…legitimate, human anger isn’t destructive at all. In fact, it’s inherently creative because it’s prodding us for a response. There’s nothing wrong with you if you feel mad as hell about America’s torture policy. You should be mad as hell… But what if, instead of throwing that feeling away because it isn’t popular at cocktail parties, I paid attention to it? What if I really listened to it? Well, in that case I just might have to change the world.”

The program will run on KPOJ from 3PM-6PM Pacific on two consecutive Saturdays – 9/18/10 and 9/25/10. Klugman is associated with a local advertising firm — Progressive Media Agency – that specializes in promoting progressive causes and candidates

RBR-TVBR observation: In this interactive age, people are getting very used to being able to weigh in on any topic imaginable. For a lot of people these days, getting a minute of air time would beat appending a rant to a blog post.

The problem with having it on just one progressive talker is that it will likely attract a fairly homogenous pool of callers. But can you imaging this as a joint venture between talk stations with contrasting ideological profiles? And of course, the prospects for such a program in syndication could be very promising.

Finally, although Clear Channel talkers tend to lean to the right like radio talkers in general, the very existence of KPOJ is evidence that Clear Channel programs to open format niches, not just to advance a conservative political philosophy.