The EYE doesn't generally pay much attention to talk radio, but the other day we wandered over to KBND's website to check out the program lineup. We found it covers the full spectrum of political opinion ... if by "full spectrum" you mean everything from the right to the far right to the lunatic-fringe right.
Here's what the weekday schedule looks like:
5 am to 9 am: News
9 am to Noon: Rush Limbaugh
Noon to 1 pm: Paul Harvey
1 pm to 3 pm: Lars Larson
3 pm to 5 pm: Bill O'Reilly
5 pm to 6 pm: News
6 pm to 8 pm: Sean Hannity
8 pm to 10 pm: Dr. Laura Schlessinger
10 pm to 3 am: George Noory
3 am to 5 am: Jim Bohannon
If our arithmetic is correct, that's five hours of news and 19 hours of talk. And out of the 19 hours of talk, 12 hours are conservative talk - make it 14 if you include Dr. Laura -- and zero are liberal talk.
Now, The EYE realizes that Central Oregon is a conservative place - but is it really that monolithically conservative? Isn't there some market segment that might be interested in hearing from somebody a little to the left of Limbaugh and Lars?
Maybe progressives and moderates in Central Oregon ought to let KBND know they'd appreciate an hour of programming a day - hell, even an hour a week - to balance out the station's lopsided lineup a little bit. The address is PO Box 5037, Bend OR 97708; the e-mail is [email protected], and the phone number is 541-388-0456.
In the meantime we guess we should be thankful that KBND doesn't air Michael Savage. Yet.
