WINZ, a heritage set of call letters in Miami talk radio, has been reborn after a leave of absence - and it's Air America's newest affiliate.
In a "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" moment, the station's owned by Clear Channel who also owns the city's neocon outlet. It's a very similar (or completely opposite, if you will) scenario to ABC's mostly-liberal KGO in San Francisco launching ultra-right-winged KSFO a few years back, thereby creating their own competition.
This seems to be the first fundamentally sound thing ever heard out of a talk radio executive in years, incidentally...
WINZ launches liberal talk radio
(The Kos login works here! -Hoff)
Billed as yin to conservative radio's yang, the self-styled "progressive" outlet WINZ (940 AM) made its debut in South Florida on Monday with a syndicated cast of counterpunching, Bush-baiting liberal commentators.
The launch of the remodeled channel, formerly sports-and-talk station WRFX, was not flawless: One short spell of dead air, followed by a plea to stay tuned, interrupted the afternoon chatter. But WINZ did get its new chorus of left-leaning voices up and running.
The Limbaugh and Hannity shows air daily in South Florida on WIOD (610 AM). The company that owns both WIOD and the insurgent WINZ, Clear Channel, is calling the dueling signals its "Crossfire Combo."
"We just think the timing is perfect," said Dave Ross, vice president for Clear Channel South Florida, adding, "This is going to be an incredibly controversial [presidential] election, and you've got Fahrenheit 9/11 doing well."
Clear Channel South Florida decided to jump into the fray, Ross said, after seeing Air America programming draw "spectacular" ratings in New York City and at a Clear Channel-owned station in Portland, Ore.
The daily lineup is not complete; Ross said WINZ wants to find a local host to complement the syndicated fare. But he said the liberal lineup challenges one frequent complaint about media giant Clear Channel, the country's largest radio chain.
"We get accused of being the big bad boy: We don't experiment; we don't do what's innovative," said Ross. "Well, this is about as innovative as it gets."
