In the tradition of Pastor Martin Niemller, let me explain what happened
to the radio media in New York City, starting in 2001.
First, they came for WEVD (started and named after Eugene Victor Debs). It was an outright progressive talk radio station with an impressive audience. All hosts garnered calls from all ages and all boroughs of the City. The shows concentrated on social justice, or lack thereof. Rudolph Giuliani was a frequent target. Young men who were assaulted and/or murdered by the NYC Police Department were discussed for more than three minutes. Abner Louima, Patrick Dourisman, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo. Callers were informed and engaged. No AM station offered this kind of outreach to the community. Then the owner of the frequency/radio station, the Jewish Forward, sold the station outright to Disney (which also owned another AM station, WABC). And WEVD went off the air at midnight September 1, 2001.
WABC. Up to that time when WEVD died, WABC had a balanced format of conservative and liberal (not progressive, mind you). Bob Grant and Rush were the only two conservatives at that time. After 2001, ABC programming fired the 2-3 liberal talk show hosts. Even after banishing Lynn Samuels to the dreaded overnight slot, she was replaced with Sean Hannity, who quickly secured a prime time slot and later syndication. So ABC because an increasingly RW mouthpiece. Michael Savage (The Savage Nation) joined the afternoon drive-time slot.
WWOR. WOR had a patchwork quilt of talk show hosts. Jay Diamond (liberal), Joan Rivers, John Gambling, Arthur Schwartz (fine dining), Joan Hamburg, Dr. Joy Brown, and more. Then in 2012, Clear Channel took over the station. Almost all the talk show hosts left or were fired. Rush and Hannity moved from ABC to WOR with their syndicated shows. Mark Simone and John Batchelor joined the station. Now there were TWO right-wing radio stations on the AM dial covering the New York City region.
WWRL. For a while, WRL had Air America and some local progressive talk shows. They even paired Sam Greenfield with Armstrong Williams (who worked closely with Clarence Thomas and was investigated for shady business dealings). It was Heaven: Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, Al Franken, Ed Schultz. Air America went off the air everywhere and RL struggled to keep an audience with some local talent, but failed. The station was sold to another format.
WNYC. New York Public Radio. Started by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia during the Depression. Some local shows, some NPR syndicated programs. Independent of politics -- until 1997. From July 1924 until January 1997 WNYC was owned and operated by the City of New York. Funded entirely by the City. Long story short: Giuliani wanted to take over and run the station to his liking. He threatened to cut WNYC from the City budget and install Curtis Sliwa as the general manager. (NOTE: This is the yahoo who's running as the republican candidate for mayor at this time. A joke of a talk show host for many years on ABC.) Here's an article with more details. https://www.wnyc.org/story/going-public-story-wnycs-journey-independence/ Giuliani did cut NYC free of the City, but the station prevailed, getting listeners to donate to the station and garnering more corporate underwriters. Now, NYC is neither progressive, liberal, or conservative. It is independent and has fine journalists on staff and very good hosts and programs. And obviously, NYC is under attack again by the Senate doing Trump's bidding to stop federal funding of all NPR stations. We can only hope more listeners and more underwriters will pick up the budget hole. This is a cherished station.
If NYC loses its license, the ONLY radio station that is protected against fiscal blackmail is on the FM dial, the Pacifica affiliate, WBAI (99.5 FM and http://www.wbai.org) BAI is more than progressive. It is an outreach for ALL listeners in the community, offering shows that address racism, wealth inequality, lack of social justice, etc.
My point of this post is that I saw what would happen if WEVD were sold and lost its format to ESPN. (BTW, that means there are THREE all-sports AM stations in NYC and no liberal/progressive AM stations.) Demographically, there are more liberal, progressive, left-leaning people in this City. But they don't sell radio time like the syndicated RW commercial talk shows who get listeners agitated without knowing why.
Would there be even a single AM liberal radio station if EVD hadn't been sold? Or was this all inevitable?