Social issues, not sports need more airtime

I had not realized how affected I would be with the loss of progressive radio programming in Seattle [“Seattle gets a third sports radio station,” sports, Jan. 3]. Apparently, sports talk is more important, far more lucrative to the broadcasting organization of CBS and their minions at AM 1090, Seattle.

Of course, since the great purge of broadcast channeling and public airwave giveaway to major corporations, now we have sports-talk figures lauding the “East Coast” formats of chatter — right here on the West Coast. We can now hear has-been sports figures from New York goading the “Yankee” ethic in Bronx parlance. Wonderful, just what I need to hear: “Deeze, dems, does, and de-udder-tings”.

I gave up television, cable and that ilk several years ago. I could no longer afford to pay exorbitant fees for mindless programming suffused with hours of commercialization of “reality” nonsense. Critical social issues face our public requiring very mindful consideration of/and attention to critical and oppositional information. We can however, discern when our politicians are pulling the proverbial wool in real time and not in the 48-hour news cycle if we are provided at least one station to receive the other side of the story, ideas and ideals of our critical times

--Barry Burgess, Edmonds