I am finding more and more, as I delve into grassroots political organzing, that their are a LOT of politics in politics. This person within ths party doesn't like that person within the party. This conservative talk show host, doesn't like that conservative blogger. It really is a tightrope act, trying to get all of these groups on the same page!
It gets even tougher, when one of the local conservative radio stations decides it doesn't want to work with the other conservative radio station on the coverage of the events.
For the first Teaparty on Feb 27, 2009, Joe Kelley and KRMG radio in Tulsa were fantastic in helping to promote the event. Joe even acknowledged the presence of the competition, KFAQ's Chris Medlock, in one of the classiest moves I have ever seen.
However, for the upcoming TaxDay Teaparty, KFAQ was the more aggressive of the 2 stations in contacting me, and trying to get the word out. They scheduled one of their National TV & Radio hosts, John Gibson, for the Downtown rally from 11-1, and scheduled their drive time local host for the 5-7 event in Veteran's Park. Brian Gann of KFAQ also asked me if KRMG would be participating again, and I said "I hope so." I then contacted Joe Kelley, and asked him to reprise his role as emcee, and his first question for me was " is KFAQ going to be there?" I replied in the affirmative, and he said he would get back to me. I then was sent a message to contact Drew Anderssen, the KRMG Program Director. Mr Anderssen's stance was "we don't want to work with KFAQ on this. Why should we let KFAQ talk to our audience?" Needless to say I was disappointed. He said that they would probably braodcast from the South Tulsa TeaParty at la Fortune Park, to which I replied "Ok, great!" He assured me, however, that they would also let everyone know that there were multiple events going on in the Tulsa area. The conversation ended on what I thought was a relatively positive note, and I thought things had worked out pretty well.
Then, just last night, I heard KRMG's TeaParty ad, and I was dumbfounded! The ad starts out bragging about Tulsa being on the leading edge when it came to the Nationwide Teaparty movement, which we were, so that was cool. But, the next part of the ad is where KRMG started basically taking credit for the first TeaParty, and then ending with an invite to THE Tulsa TeaParty at La Fortune Park, and no mention AT ALL of any other events in town.
Joe Kelley's response, when confronted on Twitter, was @BATCOT Not sure how any of this effects you...
How disingenous can you get! KRMG has taken the TeaParty, and made it about it's petty little radio rivalry with KFAQ, instead of about the largerpicture of what is going on in our country!
As I Told Joe Kelley & KRMG, "you have lost a listener, and I wll never do business with you again. when this is over, i will still be here for the next teaparty"
