Bush Team Uses Local Radio Approach

Local radio, as opposed to national media, is playing an important part of President Bush’s campaign, according to a story in the New York Times this week.
“While the Bush campaign maintains a low profile on the national campaign stage – content for now to watch the Democrats beat on one another – it is aggressively working the expansive hosts of Republican-friendly talk radio, priming the grass roots faithful for battle next year,” the newspaper reported.
It refers to “a network of conservative-minded local radio shows in politically important states on which campaign officials are heard daily, programs like ‘Mid-Day With Charlie Sykes’ in Milwaukee, ‘The Martha Zoller Show’ in Atlanta and ‘The Jerry Bowyer Program’ in Pittsburgh. … It is a network that the Democrats do not have – though they are trying to cultivate one – and one that Mr. Bush’s campaign strategists believe will give him an edge in an election that could go to whichever side best mobilizes its core voters.”
U.S. presidents, the Times wrote, have used radio to reach voters virtually since its invention.
“But strategists and radio experts say the Bush campaign has taken it to a new level of sophistication, using it far earlier in the campaign cycle and appearing regularly on shows with even the tiniest of audiences.”