I first wrote a blog post on BSB in March of 2008 titled "Someone is going to get hurt".  It was in response to the veiled race baiting of the heated presidential primary.

"The unrelenting hatred that is now being spewed on conservative talk radio and on the internet…is being aimed at the most deep seeded racial divide in our country’s history, and is inevitably going to give the lowest forms of humanity in our country a permission slip to act out. In a bar after one too many, on a street corner, in the middle of the night, or in broad daylight…

It is inevitable, repeat, inevitable, that people are going to get hurt. It may be a few, it may be many. And no amount of begging them to tone it down is going to get these “thought leaders” to do so.

Conservative talk radio led to the environment that spawned Tim McVeigh, and I noted how we leapt over that line back in June of this year.  After months and months of this, conservative talk radio has dispensed with the niceties of coded race baiting and is now consciously inciting a race war.

Andrew Sullivan responded to this clip, in which Rush Limbaugh takes one stupid school fight and extrapolates it into "Obama's America," a place where black kids beat up white kids on a school bus,  yesterday ...

"Limbaugh will enjoy the scorn. But he's a disgusting opportunist and racist. And his acceptability - indeed total dominance - on the right is one reason decent people will steer clear of the GOP for the foreseeable future. There is no nuance or doubt here. This is a man who wants a race war."

In Cleveland, WTAM 1100, a Clear Channel owned station, known as "The Big One", airs both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.   After Limbaugh, WTAM goes to Mike Trivosonno, who is a poor man's Glenn Beck - a conspiracist race baiter wrapped in a Cleveland accent.  It then moves on to Bob Frantz for another three hours in the evening - Frantz is simply a dittohead at night.  That is 12 solid hours of incendiary hate, every single day, in one of the most liberal cities in America, one of the most historically segregated cities in America, and a city that is 50% African American.

WTAM is an original Cleveland radio pioneer, begun in 1923, with a storied history.  Its 50,000 watt transmitter reaches for hundreds of miles, well into Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across Lake Erie to Canada.  I listen to WTAM for sports, as most Clevelanders do. The Cavs legendary radio voice Joe Tait is a joy to hear describe Lebron James.  People still turn off the sound on their TVs to hear the play by play from WTAM for the Cavs, Indians, and Browns.  Their sports talkers come from a long history that dates back to the original sports talk master Pete Franklin.  WTAM is a Cleveland institution.

That WTAM has become a sewer pipe of hate aimed into the ears of Northeast Ohio should be a crying shame to the managers there.  It's probably turning the founders over in their graves.  I don't have a problem with conservative talk radio dominating the AM dial, I have a problem when it wallows in hate, because there are real consequences in our communities.  I do not want Cleveland to be the place that conservative talk radio blooms into violence, and if it happens because of what is aired on WTAM, that will stick to WTAM forever.

So my question to Cleveland blog readers is this - should we organize a boycott of WTAM's advertisers?  We've all been watching as dozens and dozens of Fortune 500 advertisers have been chased off of Glenn Beck's Fox News TV program, a previously unthinkable outcome.  Well, WTAM is right down the street, folks.  Their advertisers are in our neighborhoods.  We know them.  If we make a stand locally, we could have real impact.  But should we?  Can we succeed?

Here's my case - if I know that a Cleveland business advertises on WTAM's airing of Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, I will not spend my money there.  Period.  If I start compiling a list of those advertisers, publish it, and ask people in Cleveland to contact them, informing the advertiser that they've just lost business, I think this will have a far more profound effect than the national boycott of Glenn Beck, because we are local.  We can have real impact on the daily sales figures of Limbaugh advertisers in our neighborhoods.

What do you think?  I've cross posted this at RealNEO, BLACKHEARTCleveland, and my own blog.  I'm also sending this to the WTAM contact info on their website which is below.  I'd like to think WTAM will take some action absent a full boycott of their advertisers, but I know better.  I'd like to know from our readership whether you think this can work, and if so, what you will do to help.  No boycott will work unless a lot of people organize, activate, and take action.

Here's WTAM's contact info...

6200 Oak Tree Blvd, 4th Floor
Independence, OH 44131-2510

The News Room:
216-642-4636
news [at] wtam [dot] com

Contests & Promotions:
thebigone [at] wtam [dot] com

Sales:
George Allen
General Sales Manager
216-986-8956
Fax: 216-901-8151
georgeallen [at] clearchannel [dot] com

Michelle Hurst
Sales Assistant
216-986-8895
michellehurst [at] clearchannel [dot] com

Sharon Moses
National Sales Manager
216-986-8899
sharonmoses [at] clearchannel [dot] com

Having trouble with your WTAM MVP Club
Email us at rewards [at] wtam [dot] com

Having trouble with WTAM.com
Email us at webmaster [at] wtam [dot] com