Norman Goldman Abruptly Ends Radio Show

Progressive talk stations running out of options, turn to the libertarians at Free Talk Live.  It's not easy to program a progressive talk radio station.  Nearly all the nationally syndicated shows are out-of-business.  After the Air America experiment flopped, a bunch of stations stuck with progressive talk, with most of them changing formats over time, presumably due to lack of commercial success. 

A memorable story was then-Clear Channel progressive talker WXXM-FM, "The Mic 92.1" in Madison, WI as of 2004.  After a few years, CC announced they planned to flip WXXM to sports.  However, listeners petitioned and even marched on the radio station.  Clear Channel changed their minds and kept the station progressive talk, eventually adding Free Talk Live to Saturday nights, live for several years.  WXXM lasted about another decade until 2016 when they flipped it to Classic Hits.  Most progressive stations didn't last near as long as WXXM.  Today, I'd say there are roughly a dozen left.

The available progressive talk programs in national syndication are so thin, most progressive talk stations are airing the few shows that are available twice per day.  So when Norman Goldman affiliates were informed that Goldman was not making any money and quitting, his affiliates turned to the libertarians at Free Talk Live.

We're the only issues-oriented program that appears on both progressive and conservative talk stations.  Listeners from the left and right will both agree with and disagree with us, and we hold no allegiance to their favorite politicians or political parties.  I'm grateful to have the opportunity to reach both conservative and progressive audiences around the country.  

To that end, we welcome new progressive affiliate KBBR-AM in North Bend, OR as they replace Goldman with FTL in afternoon drive 3-5pm Pacific.  Since we were already heard on most of the progressive stations, our existing affiliate, iHeart's KABQ-AM in Albuquerque moved us up to live 5-8p Mountain and KWAM-AM/FM in Memphis expanded us to weeknights 10p-12a to replace Goldman.
 

Other New Affiliates

Total affiliates now 194!   Despite being a short month, February was great for new stations.  John Gibson had announced he'd be ending his show and retiring in early March, so longtime Gibson affiliate and former FTL affiliate KFPW-AM/FM in Fort Smith, AR rejoined with Free Talk Live and put us in live on weeknights 6-9p Central.  Earlier in the month, we welcomed simulcast KYDT-FM in Pine Haven, WY and KBFS-AM in Belle Fourche, SD as they added FTL to their Saturdays.  Also new to our live Saturday show is KINN-AM/FM in Alamogordo, NM.  Whew!   You can get a full list of our 194 radio affiliates here.

 

Quote from an Industry Pro

"Free Talk Live is the only show we have on the air that defies all conventional political labels. It's witty, fresh, intriguing and sometimes completely outrageous...but always good radio." - Steve Hexom, PD of KBUR-AM