Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s radio show may be in limbo, but those in the market for a wireless political fix can still tune to AM 570 every Saturday night at 11 p.m. to hear Assembly Member Dov Hikind (D), a fiery Orthodox Jew from Borough Park, talk about life, the universe and everything.
Being on the air can be tough, Hikind says.
“I feel very lonely very often, of course,” he intones into the microphone. Hikind’s radio voice is reassuring and warm, like a pediatrician’s.
“Sometimes I think enough already! Let me just go pick fruit in Israel or something!”
On this night, the tables are turned. Instead of Hikind asking the questions, he is being interviewed by his grown son Shmuel.
So of course, on this night at least, the show is not exactly Meet the Press.
“There is so much out there to admire about you,” Shmuel says. “How come you’ve never run for higher office?”
Hikind broadcasts his show live at 11 p.m. Saturday nights out of his neighborhood political club. His chief aide, Charni Sochet, mans the production, queuing up callers and reading off advertisements for Passover vacations and local bakeries. They rent the time from Talkline Communications, a left-of-the-dial AM station.
“We sell enough advertising that this show has become extremely successful financially,” Hikind says. “That makes my wife a little happier about it.”
Hikind is not the only politician hosting his own fireside chats—though with the care he brings to the broadcast and his commercial mindset, he does seem to take the job of broadcaster more seriously than most.
Council Member Gale Brewer has her own monthly public access television show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, as do State Sen. Tom Duane and Assembly Members Adriano Espaillat and Keith Wright. On the other side of the river, Rep. Ed Towns, State Sen. Marty Golden and Borough President Marty Markowitz all host regular shows on Brooklyn Community Access Television.
“It’s a format for electeds to talk to their constituents and let them know what’s going on,” said Greg Sutton, an executive producer at the Brooklyn station.
He says that as many as 10,000 people are tuned in to the station at any one time—a lot considering the burlesque quality of most of the programming. That is on average a .008 Nielsen share.
Public access has become the darling of the resurgent media rights movement that says its decentralized nature is the answer to major media companies’ never-ending quest for consolidation.
Keeping these channels in use is what keeps Brewer on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, where she hosts a charmingly lo-fi public affairs program called, “This Side of Central Park.”
“We fought very hard for this kind of thing, and I think it’s important to keep the public access current,” she said. “If you are a public official you need to share information, and at my level of public office, there aren’t a lot of places to do that.”
Not that she fancies herself an expert broadcaster.
“I’m no Tim Russert,” she concedes.
Politicians have always been early adapters of new technologies, according to Robert E. Denton, author of Politics and Communication in America: Campaigns, Media, and Governing in the 21st Century.
“Politics is basically just a means of communication,” he said. “And politicians have been pretty quick across time in terms of picking each new technology, from pamphlets and the Pony Express to hiring campaign bloggers. Anything that creates an interpersonal conversation where you are able to clearly articulate your message points is good.”
But those who do it say the benefits are too great to pass up.
“In the absence of being able to spend time with every constituent, it’s the next best thing,” said Council Member Simcha Felder, who about once a month fills in for Nachum Segal on his show on WSNR-620 AM. “It’s a way to get a feel about what’s going on in the neighborhood.”
And despite the glut of newspapers, radio and television stations focused on the city, Felder and others feel that too many media outlets are divorced from the concerns of everyday New Yorkers.
“The media is interested in selling whatever it is they are selling,” he said.  “They are most often not involved in the bread and butter issues of most people in the city. When else do you get to hear about sanitation issues, traffic issues, ticket issues? And these things are critical.”