John Carlson asks why aren’t people choosing to listen to progressive radio? They are. In Minnesota, KTNF (950 AM) has been profitable for five years. In Madison, Wisc., WXXM, 92.1 FM just scored its highest ratings ever. And KPOJ in Portland, Ore., progressive talk just went from No. 23 in market ratings to No. 1.

Most progressive stations have the weakest signals, making them hard to find, thus making it difficult to compete. Here in Seattle KPTK has a pathetically weak signal but still gets (as of Fall 2008) a 2.5 share vs KVI’s 2.7 which has a stronger signal.

But it’s not really about profits, as Mr. Carlson suggests.

In Columbus, Ohio, the progressive station was rated #1. The conservative owners of the station took it off and replaced it with conservative talk radio which has tanked in the ratings.

Companies are given a license to operate public airwaves – for free – in order to make a profit, of course, but also – according to the terms of their FCC license – “to operate in the public interest and to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of issues of public importance.”

A relatively simple solution would be to to limit corporations to no more than 2 or 3 radio stations in any market, particularly for the news/talk format.

Ownership of radio stations is now primarily down to a very few conglomerates. That kind of control of the FREE airwaves should be unconscionable, even to Mr. Carlson.

S.R. Graham, Bellevue