I grew up in Michigan City. Entering the Northwest Indiana town on Dunes Highway, a visitor is greeted by the giant hyperboloid cooling tower serving NIPSCO’s coal-fired power plant. The sixty miles west of my hometown, leading to the Illinois state line, housed no less than four major steel mills - Inland, Midwest, Bethlehem, and U.S. Steel, whose Gary Works was the largest steel mill in the world for most of the 20th century. Additionally, the small town of Whiting serves as home to the nation’s sixth-largest oil refinery (and largest outside of Texas/Louisiana). Northwest Indiana ranks sixth in the country for toxic releases per square mile. Poor air quality was a daily fact of life.

Now, I’ve spent most of the last 25 years in Bloomington. We don’t have the same problem of living downwind from America’s industrial nucleus, but there is an air quality issue nonetheless. In one of Indiana’s bluest counties, our public airwaves are polluted by right-wing reactionary hate speech.

Since President Ronald Reagan’s FCC abolished the fairness doctrine and 1987, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated the radio and television industries, right-wing talk radio has proliferated nation-wide. Despite a short run by Air America from 2004-2010, there has never been a liberal analogue. Conservative opinion programming has been THE dominant format for news/talk stations since at least 2001, consuming nearly the entire AM dial. It is inescapable, even here.

I could turn this into an incredibly deep dive. There are over 1,500 right-wing talk stations in this country. Every media market in the state suffers a similar fate. Television ownership has only become more concentrated since 1996 and local newspapers are either dying or succumbing to takeover by large media conglomerates (whence they will be stripped of anything profitable and soon die). But today I want to focus on radio and use my little Bloomington as an illustrative example.

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Since I brought up the AM dial, let’s start there. Radio-Locator.com, opencorporates.com, and opensecrets.org have been invaluable in this little dive. We only get five AM stations in Bloomington, though you may be able to pick up clear channel stations from across the continent on a cloudless night. What kind of programming do our local stations serve up? Right-wing hate speech. No less than 80 percent of our local AM dial spews “semi-fascist” propaganda into our publicly-owned airwaves. Let’s have a peek at the offenders.

The first stop on the AM dial is WXLW-950 out of Indianapolis. In the capitol city, they broadcast the same feed on FM95.9 as “Freedom 95”. From their branding, you might see where this is going. The schedule includes such gems as Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Dave Ramsey, Mark Levin, Joe Pagliarulo, Ben Shapiro, Todd Huff, and Lee Habeeb. With a political balance that spans the spectrum from sanctimonious and vaguely conservative to venom-spitting fascist, who finds such programming suitable for Central Indiana’s public consumption? That little outfit would be Pilgrim Communications, owned by Randy Hood. Hood’s father, Dr. Gene Hood, a giant among evangelists, was the pastor of Beech Grove Independent Nazarene Church for 42 years, founder of New Palestine Independent Nazarene Church, host of Gospel Music Southern Style, co-founder of biblically-based Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum, international-incident-stirring proselytizer, and “a staunch advocate of religious liberty and freedom for Christian schools [who] was very active politically in order to safeguard the continuation of those freedoms.” Indeed, the elder Hood, had a lengthy history of substantial contributions to Republican candidates. Randy also has given significantly to Republicans over the years. It should be apparent these folks have an agenda of spewing right-wing “Christian” content into our air.

What’s the agenda a little bit up the dial at 1010AM WCSI Columbus? Much more of the same: Ramsey, Pagliarulo, former Fox curmudgeon and sexual predator Bill O’Reilly, current Fox host and serial-misogynist Brian Kilmeade, misinformation-peddler Dan Bongino, and conspiracy-theorist George Noory. WCSI, along with FM stations WIN 104.9 (adult contemporary), WKKG 105.1 (country) and WWWY 106.1 (classic hits) in North Vernon are owned by White River Broadcasting, a division of Findlay Publishing Company. Findlay owns three radio stations in its namesake Ohio town as well as the four in South Central Indiana. Their hometown AM station, 1330 WFIN, delivers a similar right-wing news/talk format to the poor folks of Northwestern Ohio. The Heminger family, children of long-time Findlay newspaper publisher Edwin Heminger, now own the company. Before his passing, the elder Heminger donated large amounts of money to Republican candidates and organizations. Son Karl, the current president, has a much shorter political history, a series of small donations to mostly non-partisan candidates - and a few Republicans. Verdict? We know that the old man was up to; the kids we’re not so sure. But he died in 2011 and we’re still being served garbage a dozen years later.

Moving on up to 1340AM WBIW, our friends at Ad-Venture Media (who also broadcast classic hits at FM105.5 WQRK), spew poisonous hate particulates into the Southern Indiana sky nearly 24/7. They brand themselves “Voice of the Hoosier Hills” and damn, is that voice angry! Hannity. Pagliarulo. Ramsey. Noory. Trump-apologist in sheep’s clothing, Hugh Hewitt; and Focus on the Family Radio - perhaps the most virulent peddlers of homophobia in this country for the last 45 years, and a LITERAL HATE GROUP, as identified by Southern Poverty Law Center. Only news, weather, and BNL Stars basketball interrupts the constant stream of mental pollution emitting from West Heltonville Road. Ad-Venture Media was founded by Dean Spencer, who acquired the Bedford stations from his father, Les. In 2020, The Spencer family transferred majority stake to Holly A. Davis, retaining minority shares. I’ll be honest. I can’t find much on any of these folks regarding political activity. But I can’t say it matters much, because they broadcast LITERAL FUCKING HATE SPEECH!

Sorry. I got carried away. Now, surely the flagship station for the city of Bloomington, home of local news, weather, and high school sports in the state’s most liberal town wouldn’t broadcast such filth. At 1370AM (simulcasting at 98.7FM), WGCL was founded by the legendary Sarkes Tarzian - an Ottoman-Armenian immigrant, engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, conservationist, and fixture in the community. He passed away in 1987 and his equally-accomplished wife Mary passed in 1998. Their son Tom now runs the company and charitable foundation, which donates vast amounts of money to…

OH.

DON’T LOOK! IT’S AWFUL!

Sure, there are lots of valid recipients amongst those contributions. I can’t question the food bank, Boys and Girls Club, or Humane Society. But the rest of that list is aggressively anti-choice, and I don’t abide disrespecting women’s bodily autonomy. And I haven’t even talked about their programming! Hugh Hewitt. George Noory. Dave Ramsey. And now, a rebrand featuring Tony Katz? I’ll come back to Katz later, but I’m awed by the AUDICITY to brand this station “Bloomington’s Voice”. Pardon me, but Bloomington’s voice sure doesn’t sound like that. This information stinks, because Sarkes Tarzian, Inc. also owns my longtime favorite local music station 92.3FM WTTS and current worksite staple 96.1 The Quarry. I am tainted and complicit. I can’t un-hear that Imagine Dragons concert (before they sucked FYI) for which I won tickets. Blood money. I’ll be trying to avoid both going forward (Imagine Dragons AND Sarkes Tarzian). Is there anything on the AM dial that isn’t propaganda?

Hey there we are! Classic hits on 1460AM WJCP. This station, based in North Vernon, is owned by Keith Reising via Reising Radio Partners. This enterprise also owns FM stations at 107.3 WRZQ in Greensburg, WXCH 102.9 in Columbus, and WYGB 100.3 in Edinburgh. These frequencies broadcast adult contemporary, classic hits, and country music formats, respectively. So in review, we have ONE AM radio broadcaster in my area that doesn’t blast fascistic hate speech on one of their stations. Is THIS our champion? Reviews of political donations by Reising come up empty. He WAS previously the president of Good Shepherd Indiana, a Columbus-based Christian ministry (they’ll come up again), but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a raging right-wing loon. His Facebook page littered with right-wing memes, however, gives away the game.

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That was a terribly depressing trip through the AM dial. At least we know we can find music on the FM dial. Let’s flip over and listen to some tunes…

CHURCH. Dammit. Next!

CHURCH. Dammit! Next!

MORE CHURCH!?! Well, the next one can’t possibly be…

Remember the disappointed Pak fan meme guy? He is a manager at a popular MNC

That’s right. Still more religious programming. The first five stops on the AM dial are, respectively:

WMBI 88.1FM Mitchell, owned by Moody Radio, a division of Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute. Fun fact: WMBI, Moody’s flagship station, began broadcasting in 1925 and was the very first noncommercial educational/religious in the country.

W203BL 88.5FM Kirksville is a repeater for WQRA 90.5FM out of Greencastle. Owned by Educational Media Foundation, a large Christian media ministry located in Franklin, Tennessee, they broadcast the Air1 Radio Network. Broadcasting a Christian contemporary format on 334 stations and translators nationwide, their signal covers most of the country.

WOMB 89.9FM Ellettsville. I shit you not. WOMB Catholic radio. This is the broadcast arm of Mary’s Children, Inc. Mary’s Children Retreat Center, home of their radio tower, is a sprawling complex in Western Monroe County founded by Ruth Ann and Jim Wade after she received “messages from Jesus and his blessed mother”. There’s a big billboard on SR46 in Ellettsville. It looks like the following. Yeah…

WOMB 89.9 FM Catholic Radio – With Our Mother Blessed

WKJD 90.3FM Columbus is a Good Shepherd Radio joint. Based in Columbus, Good Shepherd is a non-profit, listener-supported Christian ministry. Branded BridgeFM Christian contemporary, they also broadcast in Batesville at 97.5FM and Seymour at 101.1FM.

WBKC 90.9FM Morgantown is another Educational Media Foundation-owned station. Instead of the Air1 programming that EMF runs back up the dial at 88.5, this frequency carries the K-LOVE brand. Between those two brands, EMF owns and operates over 1,000 signals nationwide, in addition to its streaming, podcast, film and publishing divisions.

Before we move on, I need to state on the record that I’m not inherently opposed to religious programming. But left-leaning denominations like Unitarians, Episcopalians, and Quakers don’t exactly have nationwide radio ministries, you know? And I can tell you I definitely haven’t come across a rabbi, imam, or Buddhist monk proselytizing on the dial.

Beyond these first five stops, Christian programming also occupies these additional spaces on the FM dial:

WZLT 94.1FM Worthington, WVNI 95.1FM Nashville, and W299BD Bloomington broadcast the same “Spirit 95” Christian contemporary format. These signals are all owned by Mid-America Radio group, based in Martinsville. In addition to religious programming, Mid-America also beams out classic hits at 97.7FM WCLS, classic country on WDCK 101.1FM Bloomfield, and modern country at 102.3FM WCBK Martinsville. David Keister, a 2012 Indiana Broadcast Hall of Fame inductee, founded Mid-America Radio in 1967 and was a prolific donor to Republican candidates and causes. Having passed away in 2020, his son Dan now owns the 12-station conglomerate.

WCYI 104.1FM Bloomington plays Relevant Radio, which broadcasts Catholic talk and religious programming. Relevant is the largest Catholic network by station base and drew condemnation from liberal Catholics for suppressing important discussions about race in America during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

Let’s reset. There are 28 local FM stations available in Bloomington. No less than ten of the 28 are religious programming, leaving 18 secular FM broadcast options. Of those 18, two are Sarkes Tarzian properties (whom we are protesting), four were owned by Mid-America group (of whom we’re highly suspicious), two come from White River Broadcasting (who platform some of America’s worst propagandists), and one is WQRK Bedford (sister station to LITERAL HATE SPEECH emitter WBIW). What is the ethical radio listener to do?

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There’s always Q95, WFBQ 94.7FM Indianapolis (if you can get it down here - it’s in and out). As the flagship station for nationally-syndicated The Bob & Tom Show, Q95 is the rest of country’s window to Indiana. It has the most powerful FM signal in the state and is the primary source for the Indiana Emergency Alert System. The owners are iHeartMedia, a publicly traded (Nasdaq: IHRT) gigantic media conglomerate, whose primary shareholders include PIMCO, Vanguard, and BlackRock. As the single largest owner of radio stations in the country, iHeart are major campaign contributors to both Democrats and Republicans, and spend millions on political bribery. Sorry, I mean “lobbying”.

On a much smaller scale, there are sister stations WBWB 96.7FM (Bloomington’s B97) and WHCC 105.1 (Ellettsville’s Hoosier Country 105). These two properties are controlled by Sound Management, LLC, who also own three stations in the South Bend area. Arthur Agnotti III serves as president. His father, Arthur Angotti, Jr. founded Artistic Media Partners, a firm that owned 20 radio stations around the country, including the flagship stations for IU, Purdue, and Notre Dame sports. He was a Indiana Broadcast Hall of Fame inductee in 2008. AMP sold its Bloomington and South Bend properties to Sound Management in 2014 and 2016, respectively, and the senior Agnotti passed away in 2019. Apart from a couple donations to former Senator Dan Coats (R) in the early 1990’s, the Agnotti family does not appear to be terribly politically active. Finally, I think we’ve achieved a single acceptable local broadcaster. I breathe a sigh of relief, as WHCC serves as the flagship station for IU sports and I insist on the dulcet tones of Don Fischer on gameday.

What about news? Is there a single trustworthy news source? So far we’ve only seen far-right news and information outlets. Thankfully, we have WFIU 103.7FM. Owned by the Trustees of Indiana University and located on the IU campus, WFIU has served South Central Indiana since 1950 and was a charter member of the National Public Radio (NPR) network. In addition to the Bloomington tower, WFIU simulcasts via transmitters in Terre Haute, Columbus, French Lick, Greensburg, and Kokomo. Furthermore, Indiana Public Media operates the WFIU2 service at 101.9FM in Bloomington and at 100.1FM in Seymour. One feed or the other almost always carries news. Between these eight towers, WFIU serves over 600,000 people in this state. We are fortunate to have this ONE source of liberal media. And by liberal, I mean centrist. NPR rates among the most highly accurate and least biased news sources, according to Ad Fontes Media, so we’re talking straight news. If anything, they’re guilty of playing it TOO straight, joining corporate media in the all-too common practice of bothsidesism, platforming bad-faith arguments from literal fascists just because they have an (R) next to their names.

As much as Republicans like to call anything to the “left of hunting the homeless for sport,” the WOKE LIBERAL MEDIA, the tepid centrism of NPR is as close to socialism as exists on the public airwaves for most of Indiana. What if I actually want programming with a people-first agenda? What if I crave a left perspective? Perhaps the only option in the South Central Indiana is WFHB, a volunteer-powered community radio station. With studios in the old firehouse in downtown Bloomington, they are available at 96.1FM, with a repeater at 106.3FM in Ellettsville. The volunteers at Firehouse Broadcasting play Democracy Now! twice daily and set aside additional block of time for progressive programming such as Counterspin, Alternative Radio, and Economic Update. All of this and a lot of eclectic music that cannot be found on commercial airwaves. Community radio like WFHB is a fantastic concept and those of us in Bloomington are grateful to have at least one progressive voice pushing back against the tsunami of far-right propaganda.

Now, I’ve saved one station for the end because I see an opening, and I’d like the rest of Indiana’s help. At 97.1FM, WLHK out of Shelbyville, is a 23,000 watt country music station called “Hank FM”. That’s some great branding, by the way, and I hope the originator got a a large raise and promotion. Just perfect - chef’s kiss. “But Scott,” one might say, “what does this one country music station have to do with anything?” Well, Hank FM was, until just last June, an Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications property. At that time, Emmis announced the sale of its last cluster of radio station in the state to Maryland-based Urban One, the largest Black-owned broadcasting company in the entire country.

Founded in 1980 by Cathy Hughes, her son Alfred Liggins III took over as CEO in 1997. She remains as chairwoman of the board. Both mother and son, but especially Liggins, have extensive records of donating large sums to Democratic candidates. The company claims to “proudly wear our banner and lift our voice as we ‘Represent Black Culture’ boldly, courageously and unapologetically.

Now, I’m not here to make conjectures about the frequency with which Black folks listen to country music. Kane Brown, Darius Rucker, and Brittney Spencer are just a few of the artists driving the sound of a vibrant Black Nashville. But this isn’t about country music, Hank FM, or any of Urban One’s newly-acquired music stations. This is about WIBC.

Founded all the way back in 1938, WIBC 1070AM basically served as the radio voice for Indiana, with the most powerful AM signal in the Hoosier state. Broadcasting from studios located right on Monument Circle in Indianapolis, the very center of our capital city, WIBC also served as the flagship station for the Indianapolis 500 from 1946 until 2018. Serious race fans in the grandstand and the infield every May could be identified by a portable radio tuned to WIBC. At the end of 2017, the station moved to 93.1FM when 1070AM became an ESPN sports radio affiliate.

Since 1993, WIBC has operated under a news/talk format. In addition to nationally syndicated personalities such as George Noory, Chad Benson, and the vile Dana Loesch, the very flagship station of OUR state produces over twelve hours each weekday of original conservative talk programming.

Now, thankfully, since Urban One acquired the former Emmis properties, we’ve at least been relieved of the Q-anon inspired, delusional rants from Hoosier pariah Dan Dakich. Still, WIBC spews the awful takes of Tony Katz (I told you I’d come back to him), Rob & Casey, and Hammer & Nigel ALL DAY LONG, blanketing Central Indiana with a toxic dust of thinly-veiled bigotry. Rob Kendall is a Libertarian property-supremacist who criticizes Republicans as insufficiently extreme, Hammer & Nigel amplify vaccine misinformation and voter fraud conspiracies, and Katz has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries front group Americans for Prosperity for at least the last dozen years.

Why do these people have such a large platform? Indianapolis is greater than 60% nonwhite and voted Democrat in the 2022 midterms by a 2:1 ratio. Wouldn’t liberals and progressives listen if they had the option? As we have seen, right-wing options blanket the airwaves in all directions, from multiple broadcasters. There are hundreds of thousands of democracy-loving Hoosiers who are not being served. I’m no businessman, but that looks like a huge, untapped market to me.

So, this is where I’m asking you to join me, Indiana. Let us come together and ask leadership at Urban One to get the cranks off the air and put some good-faith pro-democracy personalities in their place. I’ve created a petition at change.org asking as much. Please sign and share with all of your Indiana friends. The air quality problem in our beloved state won’t go away overnight, but with this, maybe we can start cleaning it up.

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Progressive Indiana Network

Poor Air Quality Plagues Indiana