Rayburn: 'I want to stay with the audience.'
Last week, it was announced that Madison's progressive talk radio station, The Mic 92.1 FM, would stop airing Thom Hartmann's show during its prime 2-5 p.m. timeslot. His replacement is Dan Ramsey, a conservative Christian who gives financial advice. Then, this past weekend, the station's popular local host, Lee Rayburn, announced that he, too, would be leaving.
It was a one-two punch for Madison-area fans of progressive talk radio, and they're not taking it well. A group of concerned listeners, Friends of Progressive Talk, plan a meeting tonight to discuss the station's decision to cut Hartmann and Rayburn's departure. Mike Ferris, Clear Channel's operations manager, has agreed to attend. The meeting is tonight at the Dardanelles restaurant, 1851 Monroe St., at 6:30 p.m. Anyone is welcome to attend.
The loss of Hartmann's program came as a surprise to many listeners. When asked about the decision by a caller to his own show, Rayburn expressed his deep admiration for Hartmann, his "mentor," and sadness over the loss of the program.
Rayburn has not commented publicly on whether his decision to leave the station was prompted by the dropping of Hartmann's show. I did, however, speak to him about the flurry of changes at The Mic, and his departure in general.
I was fortunate enough to have a standing date on Rayburn's show. After he'd read my blog several times, he went out of his way to contact me and ask me to do a weekly call-in, wherein we'd discuss everything from upcoming events to local politics. He was always willing to have me on when I had some public announcement to make or an event to promote. This tireless dedication to local people and organizations won him many fans.
"I am eternally grateful to my audience," Rayburn said during our brief chat. "I can't say for sure what's next for me, but I want to stay on the radio, I want to stay with the audience. I miss it already. Though I'm looking forward to some time away from the radio, I'll always be a broadcaster."
Rayburn was clearly upset by what's transpired and struggled to find the right words. I asked what he might do now that The Mic was behind him. The employment landscape for radio personalities is, apparently, as dire as anywhere. The recession is hitting everyone hard.
"I've been reaching out to other progressive broadcasters, trying to see if we could build a collaborative, cooperative type of thing for all of us," Rayburn explained. "I don't really know yet, but I've been talking a lot to the other 'B-team' people about ways to stay on our game -- because most of us are out of a regular gig right now -- even when we're not filling in for the 'A-team.' I just want to help find a long-term plan for broadcasters like me to continue making a living. In the meantime, I may be looking for a way to get back on the air somewhere else, maybe during that 2-5 p.m. timeslot."
With the loss of both Rayburn and Hartmann's shows, The Mic loses a good sized chunk of its actual progressive programming, not to mention local content. That's a shame, given how hard people here fought for the station when its loss was threatened in late 2006. The Mic is one of the few progressive voices left on the local airwaves.
Questions must be asked: Is this downturn simply a product of the financial woes being felt nationwide? Is there a real lack of interest in the station's format? Or is there something else going on at the corporate level?
One can't help but look at the jagged hole that's suddenly been blown into the middle of the station's line-up and wonder how that made sense to the suits in charge. Some fans are wondering whether the goal is to slowly kill off the current progressive programming so that, come time to shut the whole thing down, hardly anyone will notice or care.
Such speculation is, of course, based only on hunches and raw emotion. There are countless reasons things may have gone down the way they have. But whatever the case, many Madison residents are now mourning the loss of a strongly community-based, grassroots and downright friendly voice on the mainstream airwaves.
