April 15, 2004

Plug Pulled on Air America? Already???
posted by anonymous 20 years ago
  • Morons.org has more coverage.
  • Heh...as idiotic as the "Air America" concept was, and as confident I was that it would flop, even I figured it would last at least six months or so. Quite encouraging.
  • frac-b'ger: thanks for the link! Argh: soo sad.
  • Well, the morons link makes it seem as if AirAmerica isn't going out of business at all. It seems like someone screwing em out a contract. I'll wait and see on this, but I can't imagine that they'd run out of cash this fast. They'd at least solicit donations before running out I'd think.
  • If you aren't registered with the Trib, use this... username: cipher password: cipher /FuX0r1n9 733t!!1!1
  • Pulled off air for a bad check... Oh my... Limbaugh and Co. will be crowing about this one tomorrow...
  • I have no idea what to believe at this point but Air America's take on the matter is here. It's a pretty funny piece. ("And if we ever get low on cash, we can always call Barbra Streisand. Or any of the Baldwins. Except Stephen.")
  • I hope all monkeys will forgive a rant. I thought the idea of New Democrats conquering the airwaves was silly, at best. People have been rejecting them in increasing numbers. The root of the problem is how condescending they've been towards their party base. It's not so much that they're GOP lite as it is their willingness to smugly dismiss grassroots activists, or use them and then betray them. Cutting your door to doors off at the knees is bad politics. To paraphrase Wonkette, there's a limit to how much assfucking people will take.
  • Just so no one is confused, they aren't off the air completely, just pulled from two stations. They claim they've paid all their bills and that the company just shut them off one day and changed the locks on the studio doors without telling them. Who to believe? Who cares, and I'm a democrat. I heard one day of Air America and really couldn't stand the constant ranting, it's ALMOST as annoying as listening to right-wing radio imo.
  • and btw Dizzy, I long for your skill at post titles....
  • Quite encouraging. Encouraging? Fewer voices is encouraging? At any rate, it all sounds like a bunch of bullshit, just like the tempest about them supposedly throwing the only black radio station in new york out on the street, suddenly the rightwingers become the defenders of the poor opressed minorities. How transparent and shallow and stupid the whining has been since AAR has come online. I found it interesting to hear that they had 2 million streaming listeners, that alone gives them a respectable base for advertisers. So the talk of them going under is a bunch of shit.
  • Oh, please. You'd think the Monkeyfilter crew would be smart enough not to fall for this Drudge Report propaganda. AirAmerica paid for a period of air time on the LA station, and the owner took their check but ALSO sold that time to another party. This is no different than your landlord taking your rent check and then renting your apartment to someone else because you were on vacation. You'd stop payment on your rent check, too, if your landlord did that. AirAmerica offered to go to arbitration, but the station owner then chose to breach an entirely separate contract by, again, cashing AirAmerica's check for time on the Chicago station, but denying them access to the station. The story here is one of unlawful practices by a business, and it has nothing to do with AirAmerica's finances. I've heard some backwards folks say things like, "Haw haw! Th' libruls haf to BUY time! Cuz no one will lissen to them!" Let's get this straight: AirAmerica buys time, adds value to it via their programming, and resells it to advertisers. This is called capitalism, and liberals are very good at it. The demand for AirAmerica across the country has been tremendous. Their streaming numbers are huge. Only frustrated, threatened right wingers are trying to spin this as "liberal radio fAiLS!" I've really been enjoying the O'Franken Factor and the Majority Report. I often d/l MP3 archives of their daily shows (found at the fan-created airamericaplace.com) and listen to them in the car on my iPod. As a right-wing talk radio connoisseur, I can say with authority that conservative talk radiospace is completely saturated. In my market, there are 6 talk stations competing for a increasingly small share of the radio pie. Liberal talk radio is the only way this market is going to grow, and many station owners know this. You can expect AirAmerica's network of stations to grow fast. Count on it.
  • Stim - just because the truth is what it is, doesn't change the fundamental problem IMHO. That being, Rush & Co. are not known for their strenuous fact checking. All they need is a halfway reliable source - i.e. The Chicago Tribune, saying that Air America bounced a check, to harp on it for WEEKS. This WILL become a part of the standard attack repetoire on the right when dealing with Franken from here on out.
  • stimulantcaplets and other Air America listeners, I think you'll enjoy this recapitulation of the Air America story.
  • So we got screwed, Liu’d, and tattooed. How Liu can you get? In Liu of payment. Liu’d and lascivious behavior. These write themselves. What we’re getting at is that we hate him. heh. Nice post stim I think it's a non-issue as well. That being said, I've heard an hour or so and it's pretty rabid and cheerleadery. They were going off on the enormous amount of vacation time Bush has taken which is informational but I just plain ol' don't wanna hear someone growling through their teeth even if it's something i agree with. Haven't heard the O'Franken factor though, I'd imagine it's a little more toned down.
  • ...airamericaplace.com ... whoa, thanks stim.
  • just heard the neocon gun guy across from me say "Say what you want about Al-Jazeera, at least they pay their bills and stay on the air." Hyuk! okay, I added the Hyuk for effect. /Jayson Blair
  • stim, thanks for the news on the airamericaplace site. I've long wanted archived mp3s of the shows to see what I've been probably missing, I'm a fan of Franken and Garafalo but only have heard the other newscasters so far.
  • Oh, please. You'd think the Monkeyfilter crew would be smart enough not to fall for this Drudge Report propaganda. The linke goes to the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, not Drudge. You know why I find this amusing? Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are heard on a few hundred stations each, but they would be off the air tomorrow if they stopped making money. Regardless of idiology, they are worth a lot of money to the radio stations that put them on the air. In the meantime, Air America is paying to get on the air, not the other way around. I think that's telling, as far as demand goes. And no, I'm not a fan of Limbaugh or Hannity, but it's a free market, so complaining that they exist is pointless.
  • Not quite De Carabas. I think you misunderstand how Air America works - they ARE making money - by selling advertising - but they don't own stations in any markets- they have to lease the property. It's no different than how Macy's has to pay rent to stay in the shopping mall.
  • Radio Business Fact Check: There are a lot of radio shows that directly buy time on stations, but most of them are either Infomercials or "Religious Programming", and most of them make money with very low ratings. The big names in talk radio, Limbaugh, Stern, Hannity, Dr. Laura, etc., make deals with local stations where the producer sells some of the commercials, and the local stations sell some, and they both make money on the ads. But with Clear Channel, Infinity and a few others dominating the airwaves (and having no interest in the AirAmerica concept) except for the smaller time-brokerage-oriented stations, and Air America wanting total control of the content of their broadcasts without making the very large investment of buying stations, it was a "marriage of neccesity". But it's still a risky strategy: even the old-old-time radio networks (think "Fibber McGee" and "The Lone Ranger") let the local stations sell their own ads. One thing I noticed the first couple times I tuned in AirAmerica was that almost half their commercials were "mainstream" national advertisers, like Sears and Tylenol, which is a good sign for their long-term sustainability. But losing two of the top three markets will require them to provide a major pile of free "makegoods", which is going to make the short-term a lot tougher. Stay tuned...
  • This brand of journalism is found almost nowhere else on the commercial dial. It is brandished as "liberal" because it does not practice journalism as stenography to those in power. This is the same reason that Bill Moyers doesn't have any of these 90 firms lining up to underwrite his PBS reporting. Ding!