Talk radio fans; the quarterly ratings are out....there are three news-talk stations (and one sports talk station - the only one in Sacramento) in the Sacramento top 25 (stations that have 1% or more market share)

KFBK continues on its years long run at #1

KSTE comes in at # 7

KHTK (sports talk) #14

Air America #24

KGO, KSFO (both San Franciso), KTKZ & KNCO (Nevada County) register in the Sacramento ratings but have insignificant market shares, their combined total market share at just over 2%. That's not bad news for 3 of those 4; KGO & KSFO do not target this market and both lead their Bay Area home, KNCO only targets a small portion of the market because its trading area is localized in Nevada County.

See the whole list here

After I contacted the two major corporations listed as sponsors of Baghdad Bill Lockyer’s hate-fest, and both confirmed that they had been misled (both later demanding to be removed from the list of sponsors) I contacted the Arts Council to ask what I would learn if I called the rest of the “sponsors”.

I was floored by the answer.

The Arts Council says that it cannot vouch for the accuracy of their own list of their own sponsors! They told me that they just reprinted information given to them by the “artists” group and sent it out on state government letterhead, using taxpayer funded facilities without checking a thing.

Despite earlier comments touting the Council’s proud sponsorship of the hate-fest they now claim that they knew nothing about it! That all they did was relay a press release as a favor!

I will not bother contacting the other listed sponsors. It is clear to me that the list is a fabrication and that the taxpayer funded California Arts Council has been caught in yet another lie.


Mark Williams
KFBK (1530 AM)
KNEW (910 AM)
Fox News Channel
Sacramento Union

How does news become news, and then a target of talk radio listener action?

In the case of the offensive, anti-American puke being pushed by Baghdad Bill Lockyer and the grandmotherly Muriel Johnson (California Art’s Council’s $108,864.00 per year executive director) it was by their own hand!

On July 12 (while I was still in Baghdad broadcasting “Voices of Soldiers” back home to Northern California) the California Arts Council sent out this press release announcing their joint sponsorship (with the Attorney General’s office) of this “art”. The release went to news media state-wide and went into what news rooms call a “future file”…the show was set to open with a photo op and speeches on Friday, July 15. I do not know if any media showed up for this, I was in the air somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on my way home from Iraq and it would be considered a fluff story in any event, at least based on the innocuous information in the press release. A release which the Arts Council keeps trying to deny! Incidently, Muriel Johnson, the $108,864.00 per year executive director of the Arts Council was appointed to the position by Gov. Arnold this past January. We are still waiting for Arnold to address the issue.

The first that most of us heard of this offensive display was Monday, July 18th when News 10 did the first Sacramento news organization story on the display. Up until that point a very brief controversy had been simmering on the Internet, fueled by this in-your-face posting by one of the “artists” (Steven Pearcy) on his personal web site that same morning. Indeed, had the Arts Council press release crossed my desk I would have ignored it too as a piece of useless fluff. It was only Pearcy's crowing on his personal web site that brought the true nature of this story to the attention of the rest of us.

By Wednesday, frustrated with the lack of coverage Move America Forward and I decided to act, and do so constructively. Angry and misguided calls to boycott those companies listed as the display’s sponsors (that list a total fabrication as the Arts Council now admits - Incidentally, it took me a handful of telephone calls to debunk the corporate sponsorship lie) and the wholly inappropriate calls for censorship made by Karen Hanretty (the lose cannon spokesperson from the California State GOP who fancies herself a talk radio personality) had begun to paint those offended by this “art” as wild-eyed right wing wacko book burners right out of Fahrenheit 451, or worse. While I may rant and bellow I do so only after I know what I am talking about, it has been my experience that knowing what I am talking about also provides more reason to bellow and rant!

The people at MAF and I wanted to do something more effective, and constructive than was being screamed at the top of ignorant lungs. Hence, my airing of the telephone numbers for those who made the decision to support this display and the MAF counter display this Thursday.

Please go to the MAF web site, learn more, and join us all this Thursday.


Mark Williams
NewsTalk 1530 KFBK AM
Fox News Channel
Sacramento Union

Lexis-Nexis corporate officials tell me that, like River City Bank, we duped. "We were surpised to be listed as a sponsor"


"Had we known [about the content of the display] we would not have sponsored it."

They are also very upset with the California Arts Council and will proceed from here. They are going to demand that they be removed from the list of sponsors.


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