Stephen King's FM in Maine to flip from sports to progressive talk

[Newsjock]

Source: Radio-info

The best-selling fiction writer has long owned radio stations in his native Maine and programmed rock and more recently sports on the simulcast of WZON, Bangor (620) and WZON-FM, Dover-Foxcroft (103.1). Now WABI-TV reports that on Monday (¼), the FM will break out of the simulcast to premiere a new format featuring Montel Williams and Rachel Maddow from Air America Media, and a new affiliation with CNN. There will also be how-to shows plus Boston Red Sox baseball.

A spokesman for the station says owners Stephen and Tabitha King wanted a local station that reflected a progressive outlook on the country and the local scene.

Presumably WZON-AM will continue doing all-sports as “Zone Radio.” A second FM, WKIT at 100.3, does rock as “Stephen King’s rock & roll station.”

Read more: http://www.radio-info.com/sections/2-breaking-news/news_items/8000-stephen-kings-fm-in-maine-to-flip-from-sports-to-progressive-talk

[tulsakatz]

1. I love Stephen King..........

...it seems like he's always doing cool stuff like this!! Not to mention, he's a great author too!

[backscatter712]

2. Good for Stephen King!

I should read more of his books.

[Greyhound]

4. The Stand and the Dark Tower (or Gunslinger) series.

Much of his horror work is strictly commercial, but other stuff is inspired.

[backscatter712]

5. I'm a big fan of The Stand.

I need to get around to reading the Dark Tower series...

[Cheap_Trick]

10. Have you been reading Marvel Comic's MASSIVE adaptation of The Stand?

They're doing a series of 5 issue mini-series. It's up to issue 3 of the 3rd series.

Book 1 is "Captain Trips"

Book 2 is "American Nightmares"

Book 3 is "Soul Survivors"

Really good stuff.

[liberal_at_heart]

11. I knew there was a comic of The Dark Tower. I did not know there is a comic of The Stand.

My husband would love to have comics of The Stand. He already has several of the Dark Tower comics.

[dionysus]

43. and The Talisman too...

[PatrynXX]

45. Just saw that in an EW mag

whats up with that??

[backscatter712]

24. I've got the first series...

I'm gonna have to track down the newer issues...

BTW, the comic book has the best Randall Flagg ever!!!

[dionysus]

42. they also have dark tower and talisman ones going on too!

[The Gunslinger]

19. Yes you do!!

[liberal_at_heart]

7. The Dark Tower series was the first Stephen King I ever read and I love it

It is brilliant. I have a neighbor who is an author and yes when authors write to make a living sometemes they write simply to make a deadline and get a paycheck and I suspect that some of King's writing was strictly so he could put food on the table but the Dark Tower series is excellent.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. Many of the horror novels are connected with the Gunslinger series.

Salem's Lot
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
Rose Madder

All are involved in the Dark Tower saga.

It's silly to say the horror novels are commercial and the dark tower series isn't and vice versa.

[Jamastiene]

34. The Talisman was great too. n/t

[dionysus]

41. be careful with what you recommend. the Tower series is like crack cocaine.

reading binges will ensue...

[Greyhound]

3. Super, double-plus good on him. K&R n/t

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. Good on you, Stephen!

This is exactly what Thom Hartmann and Mike Malloy - who were both doing Liberal talk radio long before Air America was even thought of - have been talking about for years now - wealthy Liberals getting involved in media ownership and providing some real competition to the right wing conglomerates.

It's just one station, but hopefully others will take note, and this will start a new movement?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. Firestarter and The Dead Zone are King at the peak of his powers in my opinion.

They are not the scariest, or even scary... The most scary books of his are 'Salem's Lot and The Shining.

And if you've read a lot of his stuff it's beyond clear he's a classic New England liberal, God bless him.

[rasputin1952]

21. I read 'Salem' s Lot, cover to cover one very stormy night...

On Shelter Island NY...alone, in a house that was being scraped by tree limbs, lightning, thunder and sheets of rain...it was fantastic!

It took me considerably longer to read "IT", but the way it went from timeframe to timeframe was excellent. There were a lot of things in "IT" that almost everyone could relate to...:D

[dems_rightnow]

25. His early works were fantastic

I've read all of them, but mostly out of a hope he'd recreate his genius of the earlier works. The Stand, The Shining, Firestarter, Dead Zone.

I've been disappointed for the most part. I am enjoying Under the Dome, though.

[RamboLiberal]

9. Good for him - I'm doing the audio of his Under The Dome

And got a LOL moment today when one Repuke type character muses that the President signed his letter with three names including his middle terrorist one. Also a few comments from liberal characters about the town bullies being appointed cops being Nazi Youth and the Bush/Cheney admin being over.

I've done a number of his books including the Dark Tower series on audio. Always a great listen to fill the commuting hours since Pittsburgh we have a dearth of liberal talk radio.

[aquart]

12. I feel Maine could use it.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Good to see the format flip reversed for a change.

[Vidar]

15. Good for Stephen!

[Ian David]

16. The station used to carry Limbaugh. Now I can buy Stephen King books again! n/t

[Laelth]

17. Excellent. Now we need about 100 more philanthropists to do the same. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Echo In Light]

18. K&R

[Bluenorthwest]

20. Cool.

Hearts In Atlantis is one of my favorites, but I just love King's work. I make no apologies about that.

[progressoid]

22. Cool. Another 8 or 900 of these and there will actually be a liberal media

[spanone]

23. good on mr king

[11 Bravo]

26. I just finished "Under the Dome". The King is back!

[AzDar]

27. Is it good? I've always been a HUGE King fan; still am of the man himself...

but his work really seemed to suffer around the time of his near-fatal accident.

I almost grabbed "Under The Dome" , but put it back, thinking it might be...errr... "inspired" by "The Simpsons Movie".

I would love to read a good, old-school King book right about now. :hi:

[walldude]

30. Get it!! Old school King all the way.

I totally agree with your assessment. His later work doesn't come close to the old classics. There were a couple of his newer books I liked, Insomnia and Cell come to mind but they still were'nt the page turners of old. However this was an old story he decided to re-visit, it was not "inspired by the Simpsons". It's full of King weirdness and wonderful characters. I ended up reading it for long hours at a time. Didn't want to put it down. Recommended.

[Tashca]

28. I agree

I could never find one of his books to rival The Stand. I even lost interest with him the last few years. I don't know why I grabbed Under the Dome, but am very happy I did.

I think it will rival The Stand as one of his best. Once the thing got rolling it was nearly impossible to put down.

[Dappleganger]

37. That's good to know, we gave that to our ds for xmas.

[GreenPartyVoter]

29. Hubby just about had a heart attack. Thought it was the AM station that was changing over. LOL

[patrice]

31. Very Cool!

[jotsy]

32. As always, the man finds new ground to break.

First read was 'Carrie' at age thirteen. I've tried hard to be a constant reader, but can't bring myself to finish Roland's tale. The first six books have been an incredible adventure.

There's a part of me that hopes his clout as a storyteller will help bring back some 'mystery' radio stuff I loved to listened to as a kid, but that would mean he'd have to go national as I am closer to the other Portland. With affiliations like CNN and Air America though, I see a decent chance of that.

tyvm, Sir King!

[Jamastiene]

33. It's about time someone gave us a voice on the radio.

Thank you, Stephen King. :applause:

[Cleita]

35. Why Montel Williams?

He's really to the right of center. I just caught a smidgen of his show this morning and had to turn it off because of the RW talking points throughout it.

[immoderate]

44. Yeah, Montel is a poor choice!

He is in it for the money. He should stick to infomercials. I paryicularly dislike that he shills Sylvia Brown, the psychic who preys on the poor, the sick, and other desperate people.

--imm

[BlueJac]

36. I have read his books for 30 years

He is awesome!!! Just finished "Under The Dome" another great story!

[tabasco]

38. That's great news.

I had no idea King was a liberal.

Thanks, Stephen!

[HughMoran]

39. Good! (but crap, it's nearly 200 air-miles from me - I can't get it)

I wish he owned a station farther south in ME!

[varelse]

40. Good news

:)

[troubledamerican]

46. Stephen King comments on Sarah Palin:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3562759/Stephen-King-prophet-of-Palin.html

From the Telegraph:

"Referring to his 1979 The Dead Zone, in which an unwilling clairvoyant foresees nuclear devastation at the hands of a prospective candidate for the presidency, King referred to "that scene where Johnny Smith sees Greg Stillson in the future starting a nuclear war".

"Around my house," he added, "we kinda laugh when Sarah Palin comes on TV, and we say, 'That's Greg Stillson as a woman'."

I'm certainly no fan of Palin, but this seemed a bit harsh: as far as I could recall, The Dead Zone introduces Stillson by having him kick a dog to death, menace a youth with a broken bottle and pal up with a gang of brownshirt Hell's Angels carrying pool cues.

So I got my copy of the book out and turned to Stillson's first rally. And here is his election manifesto:

"We're gonna send all the pollution right into outer space!…We're gonna have clean air and we're gonna have clean water and we're gonna have it in SIX MONTHS! …We're gonna have all the gas and oil we need! We're gonna stop playing games with these Arabs and get down to brass tacks!"

Then Stillson starts throwing hot dogs into the audience.

"Hot dogs for every man, woman and child in America! And when you put Greg Stillson in the House of Representatives, you gonna say HOT DOG! SOMEONE GIVES A RIP AT LAST!"

Then out came this week's Knoxville News Sentinel from Tennessee with the headline: "Hot dog! Free food at events today": "'We'll have special McCain-Palin stickers and free hot dogs with all the fixins,' said Corey Johns, vice-president of the Knox County Republican Party."

Clearly we should be listening much harder to Stephen King..."

[Poll_Blind]

48. Snap! n/t

PB

[janet118]

47. True story about King . . .

I was in Maine in late October of 2004 canvassing for John Kerry for Move On. On Halloween night two days before the election, everyone in Maine got a robocall from Stephen King who said something to the effect - "Hi this is Stephen King and I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Halloween and tell you that the scariest thing I can think of is four more years of George W. Bush."

Kerry won all four electoral votes in Maine - even in precinct 2 - the non-coastal part of Maine that always votes Republican.

[Poll_Blind]

49. Nice- I really didn't know King had a preference. And a good one at that! n/t

PB

[donheld]

50. Did you say Carrie gets her own show?

:hide:

[crim son]

51. I'm hoping he does this right, and makes it an intelligent show, not merely

an angry or vindictive one. If anybody is capable of balancing entertainment with wisdom it is Mr. King and yeah, Maine does need it, especially up here in the Bangor region and further north/west.