Air America Radio

Air America Radio is a full-service radio network and program syndication service in the United States, started on March 31, 2004. It features a liberal, left-wing, or progressive point of view. The network specializes in presentations and monologues by on-air personalities, guest interviews, calls by listeners, and news reports. The network's flagship station is New York City's WLIB AM 1190. Air America is scheduled to lose the lease to WLIB on August 31, 2006 when the lease expires.

Programming overview

Like most talk radio outlets, Air America Radio's programming includes news, talk, comedy, interviews, guest editorials, and listeners' telephone calls. In various markets, there are traffic and weather reports throughout the broadcast day generated by local affiliates. The talk portions feature some extended host monologues in the classic talk radio format. Live and pre-recorded comedy routines, featuring various comedians, are also aired.

News

Air America has a brief summary of current news at the top of each hour from standard wire service sources such as AP and UPI. However this news report differs from those on other talk radio stations in that it places more emphasis on labor news, and less on financial news. Many affiliates choose to use other news services or run their own newscasts during the six minute "news hole" at the top of the hour. Current newscasters include Bill Crowley, Wayne Gillman, and Felipe Luciano. Luciano is also the vice president for News for Air America Radio.

Public affairs and editorials

The public affairs shows tend to closely follow the news of the day with monologues and reflections offered by the hosts. Listener calls are worked into these sections along with guest interviews. Air America Radio has a definite political orientation, and many broadcasts could be described as advocacy journalism or editorial and opinion pieces. In general, the hosts, guests and viewpoints of Air America represent the left and center wings of the Democratic Party, or, in the case of Mike Malloy, the Green Party.

Music

In addition to parody songs, Air America Radio uses music in a variety of ways. Most of the talk shows use music as a transition between commercials and each segment. Most shows have a theme song, and some use music during other segments. Most music is commercially released rock music. The internet feed features a limited selection of non-vocal, non-commercial rock-like music during time reserved for local affiliates' commercials. Although better known for its political shows, Air America also features some music-oriented shows. Currently these are The Revolution Starts Now and On The Real. The cancelled program entitled The Kyle Jason Show also focused on music and music history.

Weekday programs

Air America produces twenty hours of weekday network programming, including news summaries at the top of each hour. All of the programs below air on stations under full control of the network, along with rebroadcasts of some of the day's shows from 1AM - 5AM ET.

The Air America Radio lineup as of March 15, 2006:

Air America Mornings, which is the umbrella name for two shows

The Mark Riley Show with Mark Riley (two hours: 5–7AM ET); the show debuted January 2nd, 2006.
The Rachel Maddow Show with Rachel Maddow (two hours: 7–9AM ET); the show debuted April 14, 2005
- Springer on the Radio with Jerry Springer (three hours: 9AM–12PM ET), since April 1, 2005.
The Al Franken Show (initially known as The O'Franken Factor) with Al Franken (three hours: 12–3PM ET)
The Randi Rhodes Show with Randi Rhodes (four hours: 3–7PM ET) Talk to The Randi Rhodes Show LIVE (3–7pm ET) 1.866.303.2270
The Majority Report with Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder (three hours: 7–10PM ET)
The Mike Malloy Show with Mike Malloy (three hours: 10PM–1AM ET), since August 2, 2004. Not run by Air America Radio's flagship station in New York City, WLIB. (Supplanted by the apolitical Satellite Sisters.)

Cancelled Programming:

Morning Sedition with Marc Maron and Mark Riley (three hours: 6–9AM ET) (Aired February 1st, 2004-December 16th, 2005)
Unfiltered with Chuck D, Lizz Winstead, and Rachel Maddow (three hours: 9AM–12PM ET) (Aired February 1st 2004-April 1st, 2005)

Weekend programs

For those stations for which Air America has full control, weekends feature repeats and highlights from their weekday shows, combined with new original programming and some syndicated shows produced independently.

New network programming for weekends includes:

Radio Nation with Laura Flanders (three hours)
Ring of Fire with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio (two hours) 5–7PM ET Saturday
EcoTalk with Betsy Rosenberg (one hour)
Mother Jones Radio with Angie Coiro (one hour)
The Revolution Starts Now with Steve Earle (one hour)
Politically Direct with David Bender (one hour)
On The Real with Chuck D and Gia'na Garel (two hours)
State of Belief with Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy (one hour) 5–6PM ET Sunday

Cancelled Weekend Programming:

So What Else is News? with Marty Kaplan (two hours)
Liberal Arts with Katherine Lanpher (one hour)
The Kyle Jason Show with Kyle Jason (two hours)

Syndication

On September 8, 2005 Air America Radio announced that the Network has formed Air America Syndication, a separate division designed to offer additional programming and services to both Progressive Talk and other talk/music formats.

The Thom Hartmann Radio Program with Thom Hartmann (three hours: 12PM–3PM EST) as of September 11, 2005. Oddly, this precludes stations from airing both Hartmann's show and Franken's show, since they run concurrently.
The Marc Maron Show with Marc Maron (two hours: 1AM–3AM ET), since February 28, 2006.

History

Air America was conceived as a for-profit operation in response to the perception by many liberals that conservative dominance of talk radio--particularly Rush Limbaugh's popularity--gave the Republicans an electoral advantage over the Democrats because it helped the Republicans turn out their political base. Some argued conservative dominance of talk radio might have played an important role in winning a shift in the balance of the United States House of Representatives in the 1994 midterm elections.

Similarly, critics argued that conservative talk radio hampered Clinton's second term by keeping alive stories of scandal in the White House, and contributing to the victory of George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election.

Many, including British journalists Jonathan Freedland, John Micklethwait, and Adrian Wooldridge, have credited conservative talk radio with helping to shift the tone of American public debate. By creating an electoral environment where Republican candidates are more able to succeed, Democratic candidates are forced further to the right in order to be "electable". Micklethwait and Wooldridge wrote about this in The Right Nation, and David Brock wrote about it in The Republican Noise Machine.

The growing belief that liberal groups were ineffective in getting their viewpoint across in the media was the reason the concept of creating a liberal talk radio network emerged.

A number of conservative commentators countered that the reason conservative shows did well on radio was because of the lack of a conservative voice from more prominent news sources. They asserted that a liberal network would not do well, because those view points are already well represented by other news sources.

Beginnings

Air America was the initial idea of Sheldon Drobny and Anita Drobny, who wanted to start a progressive radio talk network to compete with conservative talk radio. The first liberal network, the UAW's i.e. America Network, which was home to current Air America host Mike Malloy, never gained national attention. Its last day on the air was February 27, 2004, only days before Air America took to the airwaves. Air America was started as part of Progress Media, which said it had amassed $30 million in venture capital prior to its debut, a claim which later turned out to be untrue (only $6 million was initially collected). Two individuals from Guam, Rex Sorensen and Evan Montvel Cohen, were involved in raising the capital but denied any wrongdoing. Cohen had an unusual background for someone in his position within a progressive radio network since he was a Republican political operative in Guam and former chief of staff for Republican Governor Tommy Tanaka. [http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0404270148apr27,1,4508151,print.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=3&cset=true Cohen dismissed concerns by saying he was a committed "progressive" and that Republicans in Guam "are left of Paul Wellstone."

Difficulties

Two weeks after its debut, Air America Radio was pulled off the air in two key markets due to a contract dispute. Multicultural Radio owned two stations contracted to carry the AAR signal, in Chicago and Santa Monica, California. Air America alleged that Multicultural Radio had sold time on their Los Angeles station to both AAR and another party, and claimed that that was why they stopped payment on checks due to Multicultural while AAR investigated.

Multicultural Radio noted that Air America bounced a check and claimed they were owed in excess of $1 million. Air America Radio filed a complaint in New York Supreme Court, charging breach of contract and was briefly granted an injunction to restore the network on WNTD-AM in Chicago. On April 20, the network announced the dispute had been settled, and Air America's last day of broadcast on WNTD was April 30. The New York Supreme Court ultimately concluded that the injunction was improvidently entered and that Air America Radio's court action was without merit, dismissing Air America's complaint and awarding over $250,000 in damages and attorneys' fees to Multicultural. According to a subsequent lawsuit filed by Multicultural, Air America Radio never paid the sums ordered by the court. [http://hyperion.hmdnsgroup.com/~malkin/archives/files/mrbi052405.pdf

Four weeks after Air America's debut, its CEO, Mark Walsh, and executive vice president for programming, Dave Logan, left the network. One week after those departures, its chairman and vice chairman, Evan Cohen and his investment partner Rex Sorensen, also left. Some attributed Cohen's departure to investor unhappiness with how he handled the dispute with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting.

Columnist Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News quoted a marketing communications manager from General Motors, declaring "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates." However, GM OnStar commercials have appeared on the Internet stream starting in the fall of 2004.

In April of 2005, Gary Krantz was named President of the network. Krantz, a veteran of Clear Channel, AMFM, and MJI Broadcasting was brought in to oversee Sales, Programming, Affiliate Relations, New York's Flagship station, AM 1190 WLIB, and Air America' s Interactive division. Together with Goldberg, and the existing executive team of Carl Ginsburg (COO), and Jon Sinton (President/Programming), and new CFO Robert, the newly established management team has gotten the company on track to consistent growth in 2006.

A documentary on the network's rocky start and ultimate resurgence, Left of the Dial, premiered March 31, 2005 on HBO.

In April 2005, the studio of an AAR affiliate in Warren, Ohio, WANR-AM, was briefly occupied by a group that changed the locks and began broadcasting Christian programming until the police forced them to leave. A few weeks later, the group seeking to switch the station's format to Christian programming was able to purchase the station, and the Air America programming was discontinued. [http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/randirhodes/messageboards/index.php?showtopic=51116&pid=427706&st=0&entry427706

On July 28th 2005, Sinohe Terrero, AAR's VP of Finance, issued a memo to employees advising that payroll direct deposits would be delayed by one working day and not post on Friday July 29th as expected. The memo stated "We have been advised by ADP that Direct Deposit will probably not post until Monday. 1st"

On April 6, 2006, AAR CEO Danny Goldberg announced he was leaving his post after a little more than a year.

On April 28th 2006, The New York Daily News reported that AAR would lose its flagship station, WLIB in New York City, when their lease expires on August 31st. According to Mediaweek, the new company holding the lease, ICBC, will be programmed by former Clear Channel executive Randy Michaels and AAR programming would keep a "progressive-talk format," but with more local personalities. An AAR spokesperson dismissed the report, stating that the company does not respond to "hypothetical speculation." ^*

On June 11th 2006, AAR's Atlanta area affiliate dropped all but Al Franken's show after the station was sold to JW Broadcasting. On June 23, 2006 AAR announced network president Gary Krantz was leaving the company after a little more than year on the job.

Ratings

In Arbitron's Winter 2006 ratings book, the most recent available as of May 2006, ratings at Air America stations nationwide average about a 1.2 share in markets for which Arbitron reports results four times a year (although this reflects the ratings received by each station as a whole, including any non-AAR programming stations carry between 6 a.m. and midnight as well). Some of the network's highest ratings coming from stations in Portland, Oregon (where station KPOJ ranks second among AM stations and sixth overall); Seattle, Washington; and Madison, Wisconsin. Markets where AAR stations have performed poorly relative to the competition include Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; and Washington, DC. The Air America stations with the highest ratings tend to be in college towns and large cities with culturally liberal reputations, particularly on or near the West Coast.

A daily podcast of The Al Franken Show was offered for download for a period in 2005 from Apple Computer's iTunes website, where it consistently appeared in the list of the most popular podcasts downloaded each day.

Nationwide, however, conservatives continue to dominate political talk radio, benefiting from greater name recognition and much larger radio exposure. For example, Rush Limbaugh, the most popular talk radio host in the United States, averages a cumulative weekly audience ("cume") of about 13.75 million listeners on more than 500 stations nationwide, whereas the Air America network as a whole reported a cume of 3.1 million listeners over 67 stations for the spring 2005 ratings period. [http://www.airamericaradio.com/node/657

For more ratings information, see the listings at Radio and Records, and search by call letter within the specific markets. Alternatively, go directly to the Arbitron website for this data: ^*

Affiliates

As of June 2006, Air America programming was carried on 87 terrestrial broadcast stations, as well as XM Satellite radio channel 167. ^*. AAR counts any station that carries their programming as an affiliate, similar to syndicates like ESPN Radio.

The New York Post reported a rumor in March of 2006 that AAR's lease with WLIB, their flagship station, would not be renewed. This was confirmed in April of 2006 ^*o be clear, Air America will not go silent on the New York City airwaves.”

Controversies

"Shooting spoiled child" skit

On April 24, 2005, a pre-recorded comedy routine broadcast during The Randi Rhodes Show sparked a minor controversy. The United States Secret Service reviewed the broadcast and did not pursue further investigation or action. Rhodes broadcasted that day from a Florida studio instead of her home studio in New York City.

The broadcast's opening skit was a monologue featuring an old man, saying: "We saw America through the Great Depression and hot and cold wars. Our muscles boosted this nations' economic superiority to dizzying heights. And then our time came to enjoy just a little of the comfort and security we brought to the U.S. of A. So we joined with others of our era to protect what's rightfully ours. But now we've learned the AARP isn't enough. Our pensions have been stolen our health benefits cut and those of us with homes too often have to choose between heat and food. A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: effect of 3 gunshots. The AAARP: the American Association of Armed Retired People. Just try it, you little bastard. effect of gun being cocked."

The implication, according to Matt Drudge, is that the spoiled child is George W. Bush. Randi Rhodes apologized for that skit on Wednesday, April 27, 2005, saying: "It was a bit. It was bad. I apologize a thousand times." She claimed that neither she nor her producer, both of who were on the road that week, were involved in writing or producing the bit, nor had they reviewed the bit prior to its broadcast. However, she said that since the segment aired on her show, she accepted full responsibility for any wrongdoing and promised full cooperation with any subsequent investigation.

Jon Sinton, Air America's president of programming said "We are not under investigation from the Secret Service. We regret that a produced comedy bit that was in bad taste slipped through our normal vetting process. We do acknowledge that it was an internal error and internal discipline will be enforced."

References:

Report by the Drudge Report
Applicable case law — U.S. Supreme Court Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705 (1969)

Lizz Winstead contract

A former on-air personality and executive with Air America, Lizz Winstead, is suing Air America for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. ^*

Boys and Girls Club Scandal

In July and August 2005, a funding scandal came to light. This is detailed more completely in the article Air America-Gloria Wise loan controversy. Evan Cohen, previously Chairmen of Progress Media, the then-owners of AAR, had arranged to obtain $875,000 from a largely state-funded charitable organization, the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club. Apparently much of this money, described as a "loan", then went to fund AAR operations. AAR characterized the situation, if true, as "absolutely disgraceful". Al Franken, who stated he had no knowledge of the details of the transaction, pithily and succinctly characterized Cohen as "a crook" and surmised, "I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul". AAR's new parent company agreed to repay the money, and after some dispute as to how rapidly it would be repaid, placed the entire amount in escrow in September 2005.

It has not been announced when the charity will have its funding returned as it is still in escrow and unavailable to the Boys and Girls club.

External links and references

Official Sites

Official Air America Radio site

Air America fan sites

Air America Critics

Morning Seditionists A group of Morning Sedition fans who lament the cancellation of the Marc Maron/Mark Riley Air America early morning show and (to a lesser extent) the Lizz Winstead/Rachel Maddow/Chuck D "Unfiltered" late morning show. As "progressives" who wish to see AAR continue to be an important alternative to conservative talk radio, they are frequently critical of AAR management and, to some degree, some AAR on-air content. "Morning Seditionists" has become much more than an AAR-critical site, or a show "fan" site, and is rife with political talk and humor.
The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney
BoreAmerica.com: Monitoring Air America Radio

Articles on Air America Radio

2004 establishments | Air America Radio | Radio stations in the United States | XM Satellite Radio channels