Air America no longer carries Lionel in NYC. Air America no long carries Thom Hartmann in NYC. They are being replaced by infomercials, barter shows, medical hours paid for by the people broadcasting them. These broadcasters are gone because Air America cannot afford to maintain them, and I assume WWRL (the flagship station) wasn't getting the money due them.
How could this have happened? How could all of these grandiose plans of a liberal outpost in the conservative world of talk radio fail? Let's shorten all the musing and cut to the chase with these five reasons:
1)Radio needs broadcasters. Alan Colmes joked that he couldn't work at Air America because he had experience in radio. The best broadcasters are people who you never heard of and become fixtures on the air. Rush,Hannity, and Lionel are all people who were never known until they became famous for radio,not Saturday Night Live,radio. The plied their trade in smaller markets,worked their way up to major markets, and are now stars in their field. Is anybody reading this thinking that Al Franken would stay in radio forever? TV, bookwriting,radio,government service,not one stop for too long.
2)Radio needs radio people running it. The first Program Director for AAR was Lizz Winstead, a writer and comedian who had NEVER worked in radio, and hired writers and gave out titles reserved for TV like Executive Producer. Ten writers for one show is a bit labor intensive,don't you think?
3)The money invested should be handled by someone who isn't going to run away with it. It should be a stream of financing,not going from handout to handout from liberal stars who might be looking for (heaven forbid) a return on their investment.
4)Since air time is paid for by sponsors, a dynamic sales staff might have helped things along,huh?
5)Try finding a signal that goes somewhere besides parts of Manhattan,Brooklyn,and Newark. Northern Jersey, Westchester, and Rockland Counties are lovely to embrace, not to ignore.
Some of the people on Air America will turn up. Randi Rhodes is a terrific radio personality and Rachel Maddow is becoming a star, but to paraphrase Marlon Brando, Air America could have been a contender.
2 comments:
Air America is a one trick pony. Conservative talk thrives and liberal talk never makes a dent in the market. Remember Mario Cuomo's horrible show? I'm still trying to forget that. While WWRL broke from the all liberal talk shows with Sam and Armstrong's show, it soon went back to all liberal. Frankly, some of it is not suited for professional broadcasting. Particularly the subs. The week before Easter, a person filling in for Randi Rhodes had two athiests on mocking christianity. (Try that with Islam). It was so over the top and in bad taste I turned it off. So much for progressive talk.
Never thought it was a good move for Lionel to leave WOR even though the hours were better for him personally.
WWRL's signal stinks. Some mornings it was easier to tune in a station in Cleveland than Sam and Army's RL show here in NYC!
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