Wash. state GOP loses its radio voice as KVI switches to music

[Newsjock]

Source: Seattle Times

In its heyday, Seattle talk station KVI-AM was a powerful engine for local Republican politics.

... But all that came to an end just after the November election, when the station switched to an "oldies" music format, swapping political chatter for the BeeGees and The Beach Boys.

The demise of talk radio on KVI has left a void for local Republicans — a hole that has not yet been filled by social media or conservative blogs, say some local conservative leaders.

"Talk radio is to a large degree the base of the Republican Party in the way labor is the base of the Democratic Party," said Chris Vance, former chairman of the state Republican Party. "You could go on those shows and you could communicate to the Republican family. It's how Republicans got motivated and organized," he said. "Now it's gone, and it's a very big deal."

As a virtual arm of the Republican Party, KVI for years gave GOP politicians a platform free from what they viewed as liberal bias elsewhere in the Seattle-area media landscape. In 2000, KVI even produced the Republican nominee for governor in Carlson, who lost to Democrat Gary Locke.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014028072_kvi25m.html

[KT2000]

1. revealing article

talk radio is the GOP format for reaching their base like unions are for the Democrats???