Free Talk Live is an
American radio show hosted by Ian Freeman (formerly known
as Ian Bernard) and Mark Edge.
The format is that of a
call-in talk show and topics range from
politics to personal issues; however, it is a
chiefly
libertarian political talk show,
discussing
current events and, less
often, philosophy. Unlike most talk radio shows,
Free Talk
Live engages in only a very basic form of
call screening.
The primary hosts, Ian
Freeman and Mark Edge, broadcast from Keene
, New
Hampshire
.
Before
moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project, the show was
broadcast from Sarasota,
Florida
.
There are presently five 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 roughly forty five markets across the United States
and Trinidad and
Tobago
. It also provides the full nightly shows
through
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 [148098], [148099] was on November 3, 2002 from 7:00 PM to 11:00
PM on 105.9 FM in Sarasota, Florida. After two weeks on Sundays,
Free Talk
Live became a weeknight show from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM. 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 the program was
"discovered" and it has been a
syndicated program since September
2004.
Free Talk Live currently airs
Monday through Saturday from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern
time.
Free Talk Live won the podcast expo's
Best Cultural/Political Podcast Award in
2005 and won the Best Political Podcast Award
in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The program has been featured in
Talkers Magazine's 100 most important radio
talk show hosts in America.
[148100]
On January 29, 2007, it was revealed that one of the show's
co-hosts, Mark Edge, had served nine years in prison for his
involvement in the 1988 strangulation murder of a Florida motel
manager.
[148101] [148102] [148103] [148104]
Hosts
Ian and Mark are typically on the show all six days.
- Ian Freeman (aka Ian Bernard) - Identifies
himself as a Voluntaryist and hosts the
show from his home in Keene, NH.
- Mark Edgington (aka Mark Edge) - Has identified himself as a
minarchist while expressing support for panarchy He is the ad salesman for Free Talk
Live.
- Sam Dodson (aka Sam Miller)
- Dale Everett - Cartoonist for Anarchy in Your
Head
- Gardner Goldsmith - Typically
is on as a host on Mondays.
- Nick Michelewicz - Co-host on Free Minds TV and occasional
co-host on Free Talk Live.
- Julia Miranda - Occasional co-host when the show does not
conflict with her job at Panera
Bread
- Wayne Quinn
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 also features a
Shrine of Female Listeners on their website, where female
listener's photos are displayed.
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 e-mails.
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 ,
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 (an acronym for
Advertise,
Market, and Promote). An AMP subscriber or
AMPlifier
donates a pre-established amount of money to the show every month.
Any amount can be given with a minimum of three
dollars. The show has also been known
to accept
Silver,
Gold,
and
Liberty Dollars in lieu of
Federal Reserve Notes. The hosts indicate that all funds from the
AMP program go to advertising and promoting the show, as well as
contributing to the cost of production. Although the hosts earn
income through advertising and merchandise sales, all AMP proceeds
are used to augment the listener base of the program by increasing
the number of markets.
As of February 24, 2009, over 580 listeners contribute about $4,400
per month to the show via the AMP program.
[148105]
Ian's last name change
Ian has recently changed his last name from Bernard to Freeman. On
the September 17, 2008 airing of the New Hampshire-based talk radio
show Against The Grain with
Gardner
Goldsmith, Ian, who was a guest on the show, asked Gardner to
refer to him as Ian Freeman, not Ian Bernard.
[148106]
Ian's arrest
In August 2008, a local code enforcer in Keene, requested Ian
Freeman remove a couch from his tenant's property. After a warning
and several fines, Freeman was summoned to court.
During the initial proceedings of the trial on November 14, 2008,
Judge Edward Burke requested for Freeman to sit. After being asked
to sit multiple times, Freeman asked "Are you making an offer?",
but then said he would comply, stating "I'll be doing that under
duress". However, by the time Freeman complied, 18 seconds after
the first request, the judge had him placed under arrest for
contempt of court. Freeman was initially sentenced to 30 days in
jail for contempt of court, which was subsequently amended to 93
days which included 3 days for not paying fines for the couch and 2
additional counts of contempt. Freeman's contempt of court charges
were suspended on November 17, 2008.
Dodson's arrest
One of the weekly cohosts on the show, Sam Dodson, was arrested on
April 13, 2009 for filming in a public court lobby. After refusing
to give his name (exercising what he believed to be his
Fifth
Amendment right), he was held in a
detention center for 87 days, without
trial. Dodson called the show on a number of occasions during this
time. On July 9, 2009 he was released, and is currently awaiting
trial.
Popular discussion topics
Politics
The hosts are
libertarians and work to
apply their ideals to the show. For example, the hosts make it
clear that they feel that 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). For this reason, as of March 2009, Free Talk
Live has implemented the use of a
dump
box.
A major sponsor of
Free Talk Live and a common topic of
discussion is the
Free State
Project, an organization committed to recruiting 20,000 liberty
proponents of all stripes from around the world to move to the
state of New Hampshire. Once there, the members pledge to
exert
the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in
which the maximum role of 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
Labor
Day weekend of 2006. Three of the previous hosts (Johnson,
Torgo, and Melissa) are also participants of the Free State
Project.
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
References
External links
decision
New London
Wikis
Map
Search
