The tea party radio network
By KENNETH P. VOGEL and MACKENZIE WEINGER | 4/17/14

Glenn Beck worked the crowd like a preacher at a rally this month in Louisville, Ky., declaring that God had responded to conservatives’ prayers by sending a slate of tea party candidates to wrest control of the Republican Party from Mitch McConnell.

But there was a more earthly benefit to the arrangement that brought Beck to the rally. It was organized by the tea party nonprofit group FreedomWorks, which had endorsed the candidates — and which has paid more than $6 million in recent years to have Beck promote the group, its initiatives and events.

The FreedomWorks-Beck relationship is just one example of a powerful and profitable alliance between the conservative movement’s most aggressive groups and the most popular radio hosts. The details of the arrangements are little-known, but they have been lucrative for the recipients, and, in turn, have helped ensure that the groups get coveted airtime from hosts with a demonstrated ability to leverage their tens of millions of listeners to shape American politics. It’s an alliance that helped spawn the anti-establishment tea party and power Republicans to landslide victories in the 2010 midterms. It’s also exacerbated congressional gridlock by pushing a hard line on the budget, immigration and Obamacare, and it is roiling the Republican Party headed into critical midterm elections.

A POLITICO review of filings with the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Election Commission, as well as interviews and reviews of radio shows, found that conservative groups spent nearly $22 million to broker and pay for involved advertising relationships known as sponsorships with a handful of influential talkers including Beck, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh between the first talk radio deals in 2008 and the end of 2012. Since then, the sponsorship deals have grown more lucrative and tea party-oriented, with legacy groups like The Heritage Foundation ending their sponsorships and groups like the Tea Party Patriots placing big ad buys.

Quote by Mondobubba:

Quote by wickedpam:
So my aunt and cousin are down working at the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. Apparently Lee got his picture taken with Bo on Saturday - I'm so jealous

:thumbs up: That's pretty cool.

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Hi Mondo I hate you and your stupid birds.

Losing to the Orioles?

Quote by Will in Chicago:

Quote by livingonli:
Listening to the Nicole podcast. She's hinting that Clear Channel was dicking around with Randi's show because they were not selling ad time on the iHeart stream and with the loss of terrestrial radio affiliates, there may be more evidence that Clear Channel is still trying to kill progressive talk radio (the moves in LA and San Francisco may have solidified that). The only thing will be whether Randi can say anything to that effect on her show.

I think that Clear Channel had it in for Randi. We will soon know what she will say.

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Quote by Will in Chicago:
Randi said just now she is giving up radio period.

Radio wasn't a steady career when I went to school in the 80's and now job security has become totally non-existant. Not to mention any ability to be creative has been completely killed off by media consolidation where the music stations all have cookie-cutter playlists playing the same 300 songs.

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Quote by Will in Chicago:
Raine, thanks for the bonus link. I doubt that matzah will come up as a drug. ;)

Quote by clintster:
I have reached the breaking point with some people of my faith. Someone on my Facebook posted this ridiculous piece. I may have to address this in the next few days.