We're Two! - Democratic Underground

GrpCaptMandrake

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Wed Oct-24-07 12:19 PM
Original message

We're Two!

www.headonradionetwork.com
iTunes Radio (Talk/Spoken Word)

I don't often talk a great deal about our radio network here on DU, apart from pasting a link to the network homepage in my posts, but I'm going to deviate from that policy for a moment.

The Head-On Radio Network ("The H.O.R.N."), America's Liberal Voice, is two years old today.

A combined effort of veteran broadcasters and technicians from all over the country (and the world), we're damned proud of what we've been able to do. It's not a job, it's a calling; a calling shared by each and every person involved with the project; a calling to speak truth, to deal with facts in a forthright, passionate, no-holds-barred manner; to take on the world Head-On!

On the last thread of a worn-out shoestring of a budget, The H.O.R.N. produces on average 10+ hours per day of live, liberal conversation. We're truly independent, beholden only to the people who choose to share their precious, finite time with us. Instead of the usual talkradio two-minutes-and-gone caller format, we have long-form conversation with our callers. After all, our callers are our experts. Our callers work every day in Bushmerikkka and know what it means to "put food on your family."

It is now taken as almost axiomatic that the traditional, terrestrial airwaves are foreclosed to liberal, progressive conversation. Folks like the Center For American Progress and Media Matters For America have documented that fact quite exhaustively. What remains to us, then, is the the future, the Internets. We leverage the future to make it happen now, reaching out to Liberals and Progressives and other decent people around the globe, encouraging conversation and a return to the dialogue America once engaged in, but largely forgot.

On the Internets, we're not constrained by computer automation format clocks or right-wingers using the FCC complaint process to shut down opposing viewpoints. We don't sit and shiver with fear if somebody, for some reason, would happen to say "shit," or any of the other words that constrain "free" speech on the "public" airwaves. What's more, on The H.O.R.N., you'll NEVER hear an ad for a vaccuum cleaner that can pick up a bowling ball, a magick weight loss pill, a remedy for your baldness, an herbal concoction guaranteed to give a guy a boner like an Egyptian obelisk, or any of the other shams and snake-oil scams that are apparently the lifeblood of terrestrial talk radio.

Our hosts are among the most dedicated people I've ever had the privilege of knowing. Guy James is an oasis of blue in a sea of blood-red in Florida, and still he speaks truth to power on The Guy James Show. Mark Levine, in D.C., left an extremely lucrative and powerful career as a lawyer and hill staff counsel to take his message to the people via the Radio Inside Scoop. Peter Godbold speaks to LGBT issues unflinchingly, honestly, passionately and joyfully on Strictly Confidential. Joe Vecchio in Chicago talks the common sense of working America on The Cup O' Joe Radio Show. All the way down in Australia, Jon Fox, the "ranting, head-bangin' hippy," turns it up to Eleven and changes "Conversation Radio" into "Conservation Radio" with All Fox'd Up. Career educator Dr. Bill O'Brien brings the analytical skills of a professional historian to The Dr. Bill O'Brien Show. Me, I channel my upbringing in the Southern Baptist Church to call down hellfire and brimstone on the Right-wing for three hours a night during Head-On With Bob Kincaid.

Over at the White Rose Society, Ben Burch, the hardest working man in Liberal Talk, makes it all happen, channeling the magic of streaming audio and putting it out for any who want to share in it, either live, in podcast, archives or iTunes.

I've heard it said that during they hey-day prior to bankruptcy, that AirAmerica was going through something like Eighty Thousand Dollars a day. To give you an idea of the frugal business model on which The H.O.R.N. operates, one day of AirAmerica's finances back then would cover something on the order of forty months on the H.O.R.N., and still result in a product as good or better than anything out there.

So it's been two years now. Amazing. All it's taken is a boatload of grit and determination. To all the folks (and you know who you are :hi: ) who join us for all or part of our broadcast day, I say "Thank you." Yours is the greatest gift of all: your time and your thoughts; your ideas and your passion.

To those who have never experienced the refreshing reality of "Conversation Radio," all of us at The H.O.R.N. invite you to listen in and give it a try!

We're two today, still metaphorically scooting along the floor. All we have to do is keep at it, and someday we'll be running past everyone else!