MAIN-FM 103.5 LP

The nationally syndicated radio program, The Thom Hartmann Program, is moving to MAIN-FM, 103.5, where it can be heard live from noon to 3 p.m. beginning Monday, Feb. 15.

MAIN-FM is a low-power radio station licensed to the nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) in Asheville.

Hosted by best-selling author Thom Hartmann, the six-year-old talk show is heard weekdays in major markets nationwide, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The show was previously heard in Asheville on WPEK, 880 AM, via a 3-6 p.m. re-broadcast.

The switch to MAIN-FM marks the first time that listeners in Asheville and WNC will be able to hear the show live and participate in its call-in format, said MAIN executive director Wally Bowen.

“Thom Hartmann has a lot of fans in Asheville and western North Carolina, and our ability to broadcast and stream his show live in this market was a deciding factor in his making the switch to MAIN-FM,” said Bowen.

“Adding this live, call-in show to the heart of our weekday program schedule is a good fit for MAIN,” added Bowen, “because The Thom Hartmann Program is thoughtful and substantive compared to talk-shows which rely on sensationalism and dumbed-down gimmicks to hold an audience.”

Bowen called the show “compelling radio” due, in part, to Hartmann’s practice of interviewing conservative guests. “Thom is that rare talk-show host who is willing to talk to people who disagree with him,” said Bowen. He lauded the show as “evidence-based, give-and-take dialogue in the democratic tradition of debating important issues in a public forum.”

On Feb. 11, Hartmann interviewed Curtis Coleman, a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in Arkansas who compares embryonic stem cell research to “what the Nazis did to the Jews in the death camps of World War Two.”

In the interview, Coleman stood by his statement, arguing that a human embryo “is life at a different stage” and therefore “deserves all the protections the law provides” human beings.

But Hartmann chided Coleman for comparing the “pain and horrors“ suffered by Holocaust victims to embryos that – if not used for medical research – would be “flushed down the drain.“ He added that comparing “eight cells in a petri dish to a human being in a death camp in Germany in World War Two is a horrific comparison.”

Acknowledging that “we really don’t know what the cells are experiencing,“ Coleman eventually conceded that an embryo “is not experiencing the same personal pain that those people did, and I’m totally sympathetic to that.” Coleman also agreed with Hartmann that “we need a national conversation on when life begins.”

Bowen called the Curtis Coleman interview an example of Hartmann’s gift for “passionate but respectful debate.” By contrast, said Bowen, “conservative talk-show hosts would typically celebrate Coleman, while progressive hosts would typically mock him.”

Hartmann’s approach “helps move us beyond sound-bites, partisan cheerleading, and polarization to a more thoughtful, evidence-based discussion, allowing audiences to judge policy options on the power of reason, argument and evidence,” Bowen said.

Hartmann’s star has been rising since succeeding Al Franken as the nation’s most popular progressive talk-show host, according to a recent profile in Talkers magazine. In January, Hartmann was interviewed for C-SPAN’s “Q & A” series.

Hartmann is the author of more than 20 books, including “Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture,” “Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class,” and “Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights.”

For more information on The Thom Hartmann Show’s airing on MAIN-FM, call 828.258.0085 or visit the MAIN homepage. END