The last liberal talk radio station in New York City will soon disappear, reportedly the victim of "a nationwide crisis facing commercial radio."
In an op-ed piece for the New York Daily News, NY1 News political anchor Errol Louis called the flip of WWRL 1600 AM next week to a Spanish-language music and talk station "an ironic development just as an unabashedly liberal mayor [Bill de Blasio] and City Council are set to take office."
"Sad to say, the steady elimination of progressive radio from the airwaves is part of a nationwide crisis facing commercial radio," Louis wrote in the Thursday piece, blaming commercial pressures, including deregulation and "the hard economics of persuading businesses to advertise on local radio."
"Another theory behind the collapse of commercial liberal talk radio is that it has gone mainstream," he wrote. "Some of the most popular personalities from the now-defunct liberal Air America radio network — Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz — now command much larger audiences on MSNBC every night, as does the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is syndicated on dozens of black talk radio stations. Air America’s biggest star, Al Franken, is now a U.S. senator."
Though Louis claims "conservative talkers are serving an aging, shrinking audience" — while liberal-leaning listeners can tune into "hundreds of National Public Radio stations," Town Hall writer
Cortney O'Brien disagrees.
On Friday, O'Brien asserted mainstream left-leaning shows aren't doing too well either, "suggesting maybe it’s not just the liberal talk base that’s shrinking."
"Although liberals may not want to hear it, it seems left-wing talk radio is becoming extinct," she maintains.