It’s pretty easy to miss, but KPOJ 610 “Portland’s Progressive Talk” broadcast on Sunday during the hours of 1 pm to 4 pm…

Alan Colmes.

I turned on the radio at 3 pm, ready to turn the dial to anything moderately interesting, and heard on KPOJ… Alan freaking Colmes.  A quick scan over the Internet shows that few people noticed.  A Democratic Underground thread pops up, with one interesting “management response” to a complaint.

David Bender is no longer doing a radio show. He has been replaced by Alan Colmes. Sometimes Alan likes to go “behind enemy lines,” but, I must admit, I was surprised to hear Ann Coulter and Dick Morris on the show. I will monitor the program in the future to see if it is something KPOJ should continue to air.
Operations Manager

If Alan Colmes has done nothing else, he aired three memorable interviews with Neal Horseley where the anti-abortion extremist was side-tracked to discussion of his loss of virginity to a mule.  That was radio worthy of enshrinement to the Museum of Radio Broadcasting.  He does bring on the crazies, which may or may not be worth anything in political discourse, but is worth something in entertainment value.  (The pastor praying for Obama’s death being another figure, something which came out from his disccing public declaraction that he had been praying for the death of George Tiller, another example.)

Unfortunately, Colmes is also stuck with a strange Fox News sphere of entertaining chummily the likes of Ann Coulter and Dick Morris.  There is no entertainment or enlightenment to be garnered there — there are far more substantial people to find if one is interested in discussions or debates with conservatives — fish around Thom Hartmann’s guest list.  But these are not associations he plucked from his time with Fox News.

It’s a mixed bag.  And consigned to three hours at roughly the least listened to time possible.  The execs at KPOJ probably have no particular reason to do anything but take the “replay” feed passed to them, but it’s a mineable 15 hours of programming — probably three hours are available ready to please a liberal audience.  (If they can get past the Fox News association and advertisements.)

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