Know Your Constitution
Our local progressive-talk radio station, The Mic 92.1, was on the verge of being replaced by a local-sports format last year. Fortunately, a concerted campaign by loyal listeners caused station management to reconsider and keep progressive talk alive.
Probably helping in the effort was the news that Air America -- then in bankruptcy proceedings -- had found a financial backer with deep pockets. Air America is the source for about 75% of The Mic's programming.
But that still left the station in kind of shaky condition, in part because it wasn't drawing a lot of support from local advertisers.
One of the regular programs on The Mic is "The Ed Schultz Show". Ed's a plain-spoken guy from Fargo ND, and he's on the Jones Radio Network, not Air America. He always says "If you support progressive talk radio, buy an ad.". I decided to follow his advice.
The problem was that I'm just an ordinary citizen. I'm not running for office, I don't have a business, and I'm not peddling any goods or services. What I DID want to push, I decided, were ideas. More specifically, I am profoundly impressed with the United States Constitution -- surely among the most admirable and monumental works ever devised by human minds and hands.
So I contacted The Mic and arranged for a month-long ad campaign -- a series called "Know Your Constitution". Each day during March they carry 2 30-second spots of me reading the Constitutional amendment with that day's number. I polish it off on March 28 with an excerpt from Article 6 of the Constitution itself, then on March 29 I explain why I did it. The production entailed about half an hour of studio time for me and cost $100. The air time ran $1125.
Charlie, the production engineer (who added a nice trumpet voluntary in the background), supplied me with a CD of all 29 spots in MP3 format, and I've uploaded it to my computer, where I can play them on iTunes.
If you're at all interested, I can e-mail a copy to you. It runs 15 MB in zipped form. Just contact me at
RichardSRussell@tds.net
Blessings of liberty!
Probably helping in the effort was the news that Air America -- then in bankruptcy proceedings -- had found a financial backer with deep pockets. Air America is the source for about 75% of The Mic's programming.
But that still left the station in kind of shaky condition, in part because it wasn't drawing a lot of support from local advertisers.
One of the regular programs on The Mic is "The Ed Schultz Show". Ed's a plain-spoken guy from Fargo ND, and he's on the Jones Radio Network, not Air America. He always says "If you support progressive talk radio, buy an ad.". I decided to follow his advice.
The problem was that I'm just an ordinary citizen. I'm not running for office, I don't have a business, and I'm not peddling any goods or services. What I DID want to push, I decided, were ideas. More specifically, I am profoundly impressed with the United States Constitution -- surely among the most admirable and monumental works ever devised by human minds and hands.
So I contacted The Mic and arranged for a month-long ad campaign -- a series called "Know Your Constitution". Each day during March they carry 2 30-second spots of me reading the Constitutional amendment with that day's number. I polish it off on March 28 with an excerpt from Article 6 of the Constitution itself, then on March 29 I explain why I did it. The production entailed about half an hour of studio time for me and cost $100. The air time ran $1125.
Charlie, the production engineer (who added a nice trumpet voluntary in the background), supplied me with a CD of all 29 spots in MP3 format, and I've uploaded it to my computer, where I can play them on iTunes.
If you're at all interested, I can e-mail a copy to you. It runs 15 MB in zipped form. Just contact me at
RichardSRussell@tds.net
Blessings of liberty!
posted by Richard S. Russell | 2:30 PM
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