America Right
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| America Right | |
 |
|
| Broadcast area | United States |
|---|---|
| Branding | America Right |
| First air date | 2001 (2004 reformat) |
| Frequency | XM166 |
| Format | Talk Radio |
| Class | Satellite Radio Station |
| Affiliations | USA Radio Network News IMS Radio Network |
| Owner | XM Satellite Radio |
| Website | America Right |
America Right is a talk channel on XM Satellite Radio that plays terrestrial radio show simulcasts, which feature a conservative point of view. Up until 2004, the channel was known as Buzz XM and featured more of a hot talk lineup. However, with XM's decision to add a leftist talk channel, this channel was reformatted to compliment it. The channel was controlled by Clear Channel until March 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Buzz XM (2001-2004)
Buzz XM started off on channel 166 during the launch of XM, and carried shows including The Phil Hendrie Show, The David Lawrence Show, Bill Handel, Matt Drudge, The Glenn Beck Program, Bill Cunningham, and The John and Ken Show. Many of these programs originated from KFI in Los Angeles, California, especially on the weekends. Since it was a Clear Channel satellite station, the lineup was dominated mainly by Clear Channel programming. Also, since XM had less than a million subscribers at the time, there wasn't a lot of concern over how local Los Angeles some of the programs were. Nonetheless, Buzz XM went on for a few years without any big problems, like the ones its sister Extreme XM suffered from.
There was one casualty, albeit a minor one on Saturday nights. The clinical sex talk show Sex with Dr. Natasha which aired Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET was pulled from the air in March 2004 as a reaction to the Super Bowl and the FCC crackdown on indecency. The show was syndicated on terrestrial AM and FM radio, but was never cited nor fined by the FCC. The only incident coming close to this was when Dr. Natasha appeared on another talk show. Complaints were filed, but the FCC rejected them, claiming that the show's sex talk was for clinical purposes, not obscene ones. Still, Clear Channel cancelled the show entirely and it was removed from any and all affiliates, including Buzz XM.
Over time, the channel slowly began to become a bit more conservative focused. Clear Channel currently owns and syndicates a number of right leaning talk shows so this was no surprise. With XM launching a new channel for left-leaning talk shows, it looked as if Buzz XM would be a good choice to reformat, and so it was.
[edit] America Right (2004-)
America Right was born in April 2004, and featured a long line of conservative and Republican talk shows. Many of these shows were on the lineup to begin with, so the channel only made so many changes. Other shows, such as Phil Hendrie and David Lawrence, were absorbed by Extreme XM. Some of the new shows on the America Right lineup included Rusty Humphries, Michael Savage and Michael Reagan. Meanwhile over on America Left, their lineup featured liberal talk programming, mostly from the Air America Radio network.
In the beginning of March 2005, America Right talker Michael Savage caused a ruckus on his show talking about how satellite radio should be censored by the Federal Communications Commission. Many callers called in to debate him on the issue, pointing out that Savage himself was on both XM and Sirius. Savage claimed that his lawyers were working on getting him off of both satellite services because he didn't want to be associated with the type of talk presented by shows like The Howard Stern Show and The Opie and Anthony Show (who were just announced to be added to the basic XM service). Sure enough, The Savage Nation disappeared from the XM and Sirius lineups the following week. Of course, conspiracy theories followed, such as ones claiming that Savage wanted more money and that the indecency regulation cry was a crutch to make him look like the good guy. None of these have been proven true however.
In late 2005, more lineup shuffling occurred. Some of which confused listeners in regards to proper talk formatting. XM wanted to carry both Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes live, even though both were leftist talk shows in afternoon drive. With only one liberal talker, Ed's show was thrown onto Ask! live while Randi stayed on Air America Radio. This left Dr. Laura homeless on the XM lineup, so she was taken in by America Right. Dr. Laura's presence on America Right was an odd one, while her show promotes conservative values, it is not so much a conservative talk program. The decision stuck, and still sticks to this day.
In May 2006, Clear Channel decided to return the channel back to XM Satellite Radio. To make this happen, a couple changes were made to America Right's lineup, including the swapping and shuffling of shows with sister station Talk Radio, still programmed by Clear Channel. Glenn Beck exchanged slots with G. Gordon Liddy's program. Matt Drudge's weekend program also came along for the ride. The Wall Street Journal now goes to 10 a.m. ET. America Right also debuted a show in the 1-5 a.m. slot, Advice Line with Roy Masters. Roy Masters' family currently owns the Talk Radio Network, which syndicates programming such talk shows hosts as Mancow, Laura Ingraham, and Michael Savage.
[edit] Lineup
- America Right Lineup - PDF grid featuring the complete America Right lineup.
