Gloria Steinem argues for women-friendly radio

women-friendly radio rare, Deborah Caulfield Rybak says in her Star Tribune article:

..... women AWOL from the airwaves, Gloria Steinem told an industry group Friday (during) the Minneapolis conference's....keynote speech at the 31st annual Conclave. Women want "less heat and more light -- more fairness," she added.
Steinem..... a board member (along with Jane Fonda) of GreenStone Media, a new FM talk network for women -- came armed with statistics to back up her assertions. Female listeners are down in almost every music and talk format, a seven-year decline that spans all ages and ethnic groups, she said. "Only public radio has shown a 25 percent increase in women" during the past six years, she added.... Too few of radio's decisionmakers are female. Radio remains a peculiarly male-dominated medium, she said. "Ninety-one percent of radio programmers are men, 85 percent of the general managers and almost all programming consultants." (Radio is not) producing radio that women wanted to listen to and that "we are not the airheads or bimbos that programmers assume."
"Women told me they don't want to hear the same top news stories that report only problems, not solutions. They want less politics and sports." And women are turned off by "verbal prizefights," she added, "even if they agree with the winner."
Steinem said that women want a radio community that "treats everyone with respect" along with more humor and more stories about home, health, books, movies and "how women live in other countries."