Prisoners all their lives, radio listeners

For the snobs who look down their noses at talk radio in NL — and apart from CBC Crosstalk and the gardening phone-in, that means the up to 8.5 hours per day of navel-gazing and echo-chambering on the airwaves of the Ministry of Truth — a stark message today from StatsCan.

Stop. Looking down your nose, that is.

Lookit:

Radio listening increased in only three provinces in 2006: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

[...]

Talk radio was a tremendously popular format in Newfoundland and Labrador, capturing a share of almost 30% of the province's radio audience. This contrasts sharply with the rest of the Atlantic provinces, where talk radio's listening share was virtually non-existent.

The tables tell the tale. NL has higher radio-listenership rates than the national average in virtually every demographic except for teens and the 25-34 bracket. The (growing) 50-65 demographic has among the highest rates in the country; the 65 and up bracket, the highest, period.

Interestingly, the CBC, despite [editorial alert] having perhaps the best local and regional programming in the country; many other CBC regional radio broadcasts are utterly unlistenable [/editorial alert] has the second-lowest share of any province's audience, at 9.6%.

Talk radio — this means the VOCM-CFCB All-Newfoundland and Labrador Radio Network — has an astonishing 29.3% audience share. The next-highest share for talk, in any province, is Quebec, where the notorious, and notoriously right-wing, talk radio format, centred especially in Quebec City and Québec mou, has less than half the NL figure, at 14.5%. Manitoba takes bronze at 14.0%. The influence of CFRA in Ottawa, Rutherford in Alberta and Mair in BC may be somewhat overstated, as all three provinces have below-average talk radio audience shares. And when Statscan says talk is virtually non-existent in the Maritimes, they aren't kidding: New Brunswick's talk industry is the highest of the three, at a whopping 2.1%.

The message is clear for anyone trying to get a message out through the mass media in NL: You look down your nose at the Ministry of Truth at your own peril. You can decry the use of the airwaves by those with competing, opposing, or downright incorrect messages to communicate.

Or, if you can't beat 'em, you can join 'em. Truth spreads just as quickly from your phone line to the transmitter, as BS does.

VOCM Valley has powers. Awesome powers. They can be used for evil, or for good. If you're good, that's your call.