Posted on Categories Blog

For Now, "That's All, Folks"

Friday’s final broadcast was bittersweet–great guests like Bob Dreyfuss, Bruce Fein, Rev. Robin Meyers sipping wine with us in studio, plus regulars Bob Parry Brad Friedman and more.

Thanks to all for helping us wrap things up for this phase of PBC on the radio.  Be sure to email me so we can alert you when our podcasts launch–peter@peterbcollins.com

Thanks to each of you who made a contribution via paypal or sending a check.  If you are able, we can still use your support to retire our debt and gear up for the next phase.  Just click on “You can help” for the PayPal link or our mailing address.

Feel free to email with your comments and suggestions about our upcoming podcasts–I’ve gotten a lot of good input already from smart listeners.

Thanks again for all the love and kind comments–it’s like I got to read my obits while I’m still kickin’!

Talk to you soon!

pbc

Posted on Categories PBC

3-20-09

Robert Parry: founder of ConsortiumNews.com.  His new book is called “Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush”.

John Stauber: founded the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media & Democracy and its news magazine PR Watch in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Cliff Schecter: political commentator and journalist. His blog is called The Political Carnival. His latest book is called “The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn’t”.

Danny Schechter: television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic who writes and lectures frequently about the media in the United States and worldwide. Check out his blog at Mediachannel.org.

Rory O’Connor: veteran media critic. O’Connor’s new book is called “Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio: America’s Ten Worst Hate Talkers and the Progressive Alternatives”. Read his blog at roryoconnor.org/blog

Bruce Fein: lawyer in the United States who specializes in constitution and international law. He is a pro-impeachment republican. His latest book is entitled Constitutional Peril.

Robert Dreyfuss: freelance investigative journalist whose work appears in The Nation, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, The American Prospect, and other progressive publications.  His work also appears in the new blog “Dreyfuss Report“.

Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers: is a minister in the United Church of Christ and a Professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. He speaks about what he sees as differences between the Religious Right’s values and practices, and what he sees as a path forward.

Brad Friedman: self-described election integrity muckraking journalist jerk. You can read his blog at Bradblog.com.

Alice and Lincoln Day: first teamed up with VideoTakes, Inc. and the  American University Center for Environmental Filmmaking to produce a five-minute trailer of “Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives,” which was screened at the 2006 DC Environmental Film Festival.

Mel Goodman: is senior fellow and director of the national security program at the Center for International Policy.

Stephen Zunes: is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies.

Posted on Categories PBC

3-19-09

Faiz Shakir: Research Director at The Center for American Progress and serves as Editor-in-Chief of ThinkProgress.org.

Paul Waldman: author of four books on media and politics. His latest is called “Free Ride: John McCain and the Media”. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Senior Fellow and Director of Special Projects at Media Matters for America. He is also a columnist for The American Prospect. You can read his blog at paulwaldman.blogspot.com.

Bob Borosage: president of the Institute for America’s Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America’s Future.

Norman Solomon: a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. He has been writing the weekly “Media Beat” column since 1992.

Scott Dick: regular contributor on Military/Vets issues. Dick hosts his own radio broadcast called The Scott Dick Show.

Tommy Panik: reporting on the latest.

Rep. Pete Stark: Congressman Pete Stark has served in Congress since 1973. A senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, he is currently the Chairman of its Health Subcommittee.

R J Shulman: political satirist. You can read Shulman’s blog at ptsd1.blogspot.com.

Gary Chew: regular contributor on film and entertainment issues. Today he reviews Duplicity.

Posted on Categories PBC

3-18-09

Karl Frisch: serves as director of media relations at Media Matters for America, a not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting alleged conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

Matt Renner: editor of Truthout.org

Harvey Wasserman: Free Press Senior Editor. Wasserman is a “Superpower of Peace” columnist and author of a dozen books including SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030.

Eve Pell: writes about civil liberties and freedom of information at the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco.

Ray McGovern: is a retired CIA officer turned political activist.

Free Speech:

Tim Carpenter: a Democratic member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 3rd District since his election in 2002. He is currently President Pro Tempore of the Wisconsin State Senate as well as the national director of Progressive Democrats of America.

Posted on Categories Blog

Thanks for all the Pledges!!

Activist listeners rallied to try to save the PBC Show, and I’m gratified by more than 200 people from all over the world (including Japan, Costa Rica and Hawaii) who emailed to pledge an average of $10 a month to support the program.

While this isn’t enough to reverse course, most of those who pledged said they would subscribe to our podcast in the future.  At this difficult time, it buoys me to see so many people who value what we do and want to keep it going.

So, with the support of current online listeners, I know we can launch a podcast show in June, and I’m excited about it.  If you want to be alerted when we launch, be sure to email me so I can add you to our list (which will not be shared with anyone else).

By the way, “podcast” has become a generic term for listening via the internet.  If you don’t have an iPod or other player, you can still listen on your computer, download the show and burn to CD or other means of making it portable.

I realize that some of our current AM listeners won’t make the transition, and I will miss you.  It’s possible that the podcast will be formatted for weekend broadcast on AM stations, and we can let you know if an when that happens.   In any event, Happy Trails to you!

pbc

Posted on Categories PBC

3-17-09

Lt. Gov John Garamendi: 46th Lieutenant Governor of California. He brings to the office 32 years of public service.

Chris Toensing:is editor of Middle East Report and director of the Middle East Research and Information Project.

Roger Nygard: has directed, produced, written, and edited for film and television.  In television, Nygard has directed and edited episodes of the HBO series, THE MIND OF THE MARRIED MAN, as well as editing episodes of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, and directing episodes of the FOX series THE BERNIE MAC SHOW and THE LOOP, and the NBC series THE OFFICE.

Jason Leopold: investigative journalist. He writes for the online publication The Public Record.

Melanie Sloan: serves as CREW’s Executive Director. Prior to starting CREW, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia where, from 1998-2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries.

Posted on Categories PBC

3-16-09

Ari Melber: is The Nation’s Net movement correspondent and a writer for the magazine’s blog. Article archive and contact information available at www.arimelber.com.

David Cobb: an American activist and was the 2004 presidential candidate of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS).

William Black: Associate Professor of Economics and Law, University of Missouri – Kansas City. He held senior regulatory positions during the S&L debacle and is the author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One” (2005)

John Dannenberg: has repeatedly been denied parole since he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder in the May 1985 slaying of his wife, Linda. In 2005, after the state Supreme Court barred his release, the state parole board changed course and decided that he could be freed.

Free Speech Zone

Posted on Categories Blog

I made a tough decision….

On Friday, I delivered the news of my decision to end the daily broadcasts of the PBC Show.

Our last live broadcast will be Friday, March 20, which will replay on some stations through March 22.

Since we started on KRXA in 2005, I’ve been covering the costs of producing the show and delivering it to our affiliate stations by satellite.  With phone bills and the other expenses, it adds up to more than $5,000 a month. We get a little advertising revenue and some generous listeners contribute, but most of it is absorbed by my small business, Collins Media Services.  Until last summer, I was able to cover the costs from my work as a radio producer and consultant.  Like everyone else, the Bush recession has hit me hard.

To make money in syndication, we need to be on 20+ stations and at least one of the big 3, NY, LA, Chicago.  As an independent, self-syndicated show, we’ve had to compete with Air America, Dial-Global and Nova M programs, and for various reasons, the PBC Show didn’t break through.  Air America is the brand that most people connect with progressive talk radio, and their bankruptcy and sequence of blunders has, unfortunately, defined our collective efforts in a negative way that has provided an easy target for the non-liberal media.  As a result, the total number of stations offering progressive talk in the US peaked at about 105 in 2006, and is now around 70.  Miami, DC, and even Ann Arbor have lost their progressive stations in the last month.

Over the past 3.75 years, I’ve tried it all.  I pitched all of the Air America programmers except the current one, who never returned my calls or emails.  I was offered a deal by Nova M, but they reneged in a bizarre story I’m saving for my talk-n-tell book. Air America just announced that Montel Williams will be their new offering in the Thom Hartmann time slot, which tells us that Jerry Springer’s flameout was just their first attempt to retread a tabloid TV host as a “progressive” radio host.

As I said on Friday, I’m very proud of what we’ve done here, and grateful to my partner, Kathee Shatter, for indulging my risky business, and to two exceptional producers:  Matt Renner (now DC editor at Truthout.org) and Katrina Rill.  Katrina was with me when we euthanized my satellite radio show, and I’m sorry she has to go through it again.

I’m grateful to every listener, even the ones who think I’m full of it, for taking the time to listen.  And to those who called and emailed and sent letters and checks, I couldn’t have done this without you.  To the many fine guests who spent time on the show, and especially to the regulars, I thank you for your immeasurable contributions to my program and to the knowledge base of my listeners.

Thanks for all the emails in response to this news, I will try to answer as many as I can, and all will be saved so we can notify you of future plans. I’m not going away, and may launch a podcast and/or weekend radio show after I take a break to recharge and re-wealth.  Special recognition to generous individuals who have clicked on “You Can Help” and made contributions, including the whopper from Seattle.  Your contributions will be used to retire some debt, pay off the bills and give Katrina and Nick something extra for their dedication.  No pressure, no guilt, but if you can help, you have my gratitude.

Many people who heard the $5,000 monthly cost figure have emailed to pledge $10 a month and said, “how do we find the other 499?”  We have tried that to some extent, but I don’t want to turn the show into a pledge-a-thon, ’cause I listen to the radio, too, and don’t like them.  Plus, I’m well aware that many of my listeners can’t even spare $10 a month right now.  Overall, I don’t think we can shift to a voluntary subscription plan to produce a reliable funding stream.

If you disagree, email me: fullofit@peterbcollins.com  Tell me if you’re willing to subscribe for at least 6 months, and how much you can pay.  If enough people respond by Monday night 3/16, I will make a final review of this decision. Dave Berman in Eureka, Tom McAfee in SF, and Aldous Tyler in Madison have offered to coordinate this kind of effort, but I need to give them your names and emails.

Keep listening this week, call in when you can–we’ll try to get allof our favorite guests to check in, too.

warmly,

pbc

Posted on Categories PBC

3-13-09

Robert Parry: founder of ConsortiumNews.com.  His new book is called “Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush”.

Jason Leopold: investigative journalist. He writes for the online publication The Public Record.

Sid Ganis: is an American motion picture executive and producer.  On August 23, 2005 he was elected President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Furthermore, he also serves on the board of directors of Marvel Entertainment.

Brad Friedman: self-described election integrity muckraking journalist jerk. You can read his blog at Bradblog.com.

Posted on Categories PBC

3-12-09

Faiz Shakir: Research Director at The Center for American Progress and serves as Editor-in-Chief of ThinkProgress.org.

Michael Ratner: is an attorney, adjunct professor of law at Columbia University Law School, and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a non-profit human rights litigation organization based in New York, New York.

Scott Dick: regular contributor on Military/Vets issues. Dick hosts his own radio broadcast called The Scott Dick Show.

R J Shulman: political satirist. You can read Shulman’s blog at ptsd1.blogspot.com.