Free Talk Live
Free Talk Live is a radio show that broadcasts live six days a week in the United States.
The format is that of a call-in talk show and topics range from politics to personal issues, however it is primarily a libertarian political talk show, discussing philosophy and, less often, current events. Unlike most talk radio broadcasts, Free Talk Live engages in only a very basic form of call screening. The Primary hosts, Ian Bernard and Mark Edge (formerly known as Manwich), broadcast from Keene, New Hampshire. Before recently moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project, the show was broadcasted from Sarasota, Florida.
There are currently 5 regular co-hosts who are usually on one night per week each: Gard (Gardner Goldsmith) on Monday, Toby or Nick (both of Free Minds TV) on Tuesday, Wayne on Wednesday, and Julia (Ian's girlfriend) on Friday. Before the show moved to New Hampshire, there were three different co-hosts who did the show one night per week each: Torgo (aka Scott Wolf) on Monday, Melissa on Wednesday, and Johnson (aka Schuyler Rice) on Friday. Several other co-hosts have come and gone in the past.
The program airs in approximately 30 markets across the United States1 and also provides the full nightly shows (minus commercials) via podcast. One year's worth of archives is available for download in MP3 format from the main page of the website without requiring any form of logging in or signing up.
History
The first broadcast 2, 3 was on November 3, 2002 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on 105.9 FM in Sarasota, Florida. After two weeks on Sundays, FTL became a weeknight show from 7p to 10p. It continued on air, gaining the first ratings that 105.9 had seen in weeknights for quite some time. However, it was not soon enough, because the station changed formats in the Summer of 2003. After a short stint on Internet radio, the show was picked up by 1280 AM WTMY, where it stayed for about a year. On 1220 AM it was "discovered" and it has been a syndicated program since September 2004. Free Talk Live currently airs Monday through Saturday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time.
Free Talk Live won the podcast expo's Best Cultural/Political Podcast Award in 2005, won the Best Political Podcast Award in 2006 and 2007, and has been featured in Talkers Magazine's 250 most important radio talk show hosts in America. 4 On January 29, 2007, it was revealed that one of the show's co-hosts, Mark Edgington aka "Mark Edge," had served nine years in prison for his involvement in the 1988 strangulation [...] of a Florida motel manager. 5
The show
The hosts repeatedly state that Free Talk Live is your show and that you take control of the air waves. Listeners who call in will only be asked for a name, location, the topic(s) they wish to speak about, and how they listen to the show. It is stated policy that anyone who calls in will get on the air but each listener may only call the show once a day. The hosts also purport that all women who call into the show are moved to the front of the queue; this is done to make the female listenership more visible to station affiliates, and to encourage female participation overall. Free Talk Live cannot currently fill the entire broadcast with listener phone calls, so the hosts fall back to topics they are interested in. They also discuss topics from listener emails.
The show does not usually feature guests but has had them on the show in the past. Previous guests have included Marc Emery, Michael Badnarik, Drew Curtis, Cindy Sheehan, Aubrey de Grey, Gene Ray, Jim Babka, Jack Thompson (attorney), Daniele Ledonne, Doug Stanhope, Bill Westmiller, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, Glen "Kane" Jacobs, and Ron Paul US Congressman and Presidential Candidate.
Funding
Funding for Free Talk Live comes from a combination of standard on-the-show advertising and a donation by subscription service known as AMP, or Advertise, Market, and Promote. An AMP subscriber, known as an AMPlifier, donates to the show a set amount of money per month, beginning at three US dollars. The show has also been known to accept Silver, Gold, and Liberty Dollars. The hosts indicate that all funds from The AMP program, go to advertising and marketing the show, as well as paying for the cost of production. They also assert that, thus far, none have received payment for their time commitment to the show, because their efforts have been invested into growing the show and spreading the message of freedom and liberty.
As of June, 2007, over 375 listeners Contribute more than $2670 per month to the show via the AMP program.6
Popular discussion topics
- The 2007 New Hampshire Liberty Forum7
- Edward Brown's tax protest standoff
- The Wickard v. Filburn Supreme Court decision which vastly increased the powers of the federal government
- The Supreme Court ruling on the 5th Amendment giving power to the state to take property for the "public good" under eminent domain (Kelo v. New London)
- Various smoking bans across the country
- How the war on drugs ends up hurting people every day, especially the unintended consequences of the War on Drugs.
- How the US Constitution is supposed to restrict the government
- Problems with socialized medicine
- Public schools
- Young people being deceived by military recruitment officers
- Issues regarding police brutality, and the abuse of power/corruption by law enforcement officers
- The [...] offender registry, and the unintended consequences that end up hurting innocent people
Politics
The hosts are libertarians and work to apply their ideals to the show. For instance, there is no use of the industry standard delay and bleeper, or a dump box to restrict the speech of callers to a talk show by removing words from the broadcast. Instead, callers who use words that are believed to be against FCC regulations are immediately dropped. In the past, however, callers were warned once after using a curse word and then only dropped if they used another.
The hosts make it clear that they feel the FCC regulations are asinine. Regardless, the hosts want to avoid swearing on their broadcast because it may negatively impact the radio stations who rebroadcast the show (both in the form of listeners becoming disenchanted, and because of FCC fines that would be imposed on those broadcasters). While this itself could be seen as suppression of free speech, it is done through private property and voluntary agreements, ideals of libertarianism.
Free State Project
A major sponsor of Free Talk Live and a common topic of discussion is the Free State Project, a group committed to organizing a large number of liberty proponents from around the world to move to the state of New Hampshire. Once there, the members will fulfil the requirements of their pledge to exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of life, liberty, and property. Ian and Mark moved to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project over the Labour Day weekend of 2006. Three of the previous hosts (Johnson, Torgo, and Melissa) are also participants of the Free State Project.
Read the Bills Act
Free Talk Live has endorsed the Read the Bills Act, a piece of legislation proposed by Downsize DC designed to ensure that Congressional representatives actually read the text of any bill they vote for prior to voting On It. The show often features Jim Babka, President of Downsize DC, to talk about this and other goals of the organization.
See also
- Free marketeer
- Free State Project
- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition