''Save KLSD'' is a 2012 documentary film about the history and effects of
media consolidation
Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates in ...
on democracy in the United States. Over the course of four and a half years, the producers attended media reform conferences, conducted research, and filmed interviews and presentations by leading media reform experts and commentators.
Those involved in the film include:
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...
,
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich (; born June 24, 1946) is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of President of the United States, Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as United S ...
,
Van Jones
Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American news and political commentator, author, and lawyer. He is the co-founder of several non-profit organizations, a three-time ''New York Times'' bestselling author, a CNN host and c ...
,
Phil Donahue
Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...
,
Ed Schultz
Edward Andrew Schultz (January 27, 1954 – July 5, 2018) was an American television and radio host, political commentator, news anchor and sports broadcaster.
He was the host of ''The Ed Show'', a weekday news talk program on MSNBC from ...
,
David Shuster
David Martin Shuster (born July 22, 1967) is an American television journalist and talk radio host. He most recently served as principal anchor and managing editor for i24 News, previously serving as an anchor for MSNBC and worked for Fox News, ...
,
Cenk Uygur
Cenk Kadir Uygur ( ; ; born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-American progressive political commentator, media host, attorney, journalist, and politician. Uygur is the creator of ''The Young Turks'', an American left-wing, sociopolitical, progressi ...
,
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...
,
Thom Hartmann
Thomas Carl Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio personality, author, former psychotherapist, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Thom Hartmann Pro ...
Richard Wolffe
Richard L. Wolffe (born 17 September 1968) is a British-American journalist, MSNBC commentator, and author of the Barack Obama books ''Renegade: The Making of a President'' (Crown, June 2009) and ''Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside th ...
,
Randi Rhodes
Randi is both a given name, and a nickname in the English language, popular in North America and Norway. It is primarily a feminine name, although there is recorded usage of the name by men. It may have originated as a pet form of '' Miranda'' o ...
, Congressman
Bob Filner
Robert Earl "Bob" Filner (born September 4, 1942) is an American former politician who was the 35th mayor of San Diego from December 2012 through August 2013, when he resigned amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment. He later pleaded gui ...
Bob Edgar
Robert William "Bob" Edgar (May 29, 1943 – April 23, 2013) was an American politician and administrator from Pennsylvania, and a member of the Democratic Party. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1 ...
, Mike Aguirre,
Marjorie Cohn
Marjorie Cohn (born November 1, 1948) is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild.Michael Krasny, J.W. August, Andrew Donohue, Marti Emerald, and author
Eric Klinenberg
Eric M. Klinenberg (born November 14, 1970) is an American sociologist and a scholar of urban studies, culture, and media. He is currently Helen Gould Shepard Professor in Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New ...
Jon Elliott
Jon Elliott is an American liberal talk radio personality, formerly featured on Air America Radio.
Business experience
Prior to his radio, TV, and film career, Elliott served as the chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also ...
Jon Monday
Jon Monday (born 1947 in San Jose, California) is an American producer and distributor of CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material such as Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, Chalmers Johnson, and Ch ...
, and directed by
Jon Monday
Jon Monday (born 1947 in San Jose, California) is an American producer and distributor of CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material such as Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, Chalmers Johnson, and Ch ...
for distribution by mondayMEDIA. It was released on DVD in April 2012.
The film's national broadcast premiered on
Link TV
Link TV, originally WorldLink TV, is a non-commercial American satellite television network providing what it describes as "diverse perspectives on world and national issues." It is carried nationally on DirecTV (ch. 375) and Dish Network (ch. ...
on Saturday, September 8, 2012 at 2:30pm PST.
Plot
The film traces the events of 2007 when local radio station
KLSD
KLSD (1360 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in San Diego, California. It is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts a talk format branded "The Patriot AM 1360". The radio studios and offices are on Granite Ridge Drive in the Serra Mesa neighb ...
in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
, California, owned by radio giant
Clear Channel Communications
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
, decided to alter the programming from
progressive talk radio
Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoints of news and issues as opposed to conservative talk radio. In the United States, the format has included syndicated and independe ...
to
sports talk
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...
. Local activists hold protest rallies and try to persuade the owners to keep the liberal format, the only outlet for liberal talk in the San Diego market.
At the time, the station was being considered for the change. It ranked #1 in
time spent listening
Time spent listening (TSL) is one of the measurements surveyed by Nielsen Audio in determining ratings for radio stations in the United States. It is the equivalent of Average
Time Exposed (ATE), Daily or Weekly.
TSL is defined as the amount of ti ...
and had a growing market share. It also explores the history of media and broadcast regulation, the move to deregulate, and the impact from deregulation that allowed for what the filmmakers consider to be unprecedented consolidation, to the point where a majority of all media (radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, and internet) are controlled by just five major corporations.Media Reform Center /ref>