Too Many Conservative Watts

The recent hullabaloo about the undercover Fresno PD DUI sting revealed something unexpected: KMJ has too much power.

This isn't news to some but it may be something you haven't thought of before.

Fresno radio station KMJ reaches most of California and parts of neighboring states. In fact, while living in Phoenix, I was able to listen to it at night. But that's not the kind of "power" I'm worried about.

Ray Appleton and his callers (95% conservative - that's just a guesstament but I'll bet that's pretty accurate) put a stop to the undercover DUI stings - for the time being.

The day the Fresno Bee article came out revealing the details of the police sting, Appleton spent his whole two hours talking about it. He was against it as most of his callers were - me too, but who cares. Police Chief Jerry Dyer even called into the show to voice his concerns about the PD sting.

The next day the DUI sting was put back in the police liquor cabinet, citing the public's negative reaction, on Ray's show, to the sting. There was also similar reaction on Dale Julin's show, but, we all know whom is the king of radio in Fresno.

This kind of conservative talk show power is a little disconcerting. All it takes is two hours of conservative complaining and bye bye police-program-we-don't-like.