Dead Air — America
That tree you didn't hear fall in the forest today was Air America, finally declaring bankruptcy. You can read the court filing here.
The failing network says it's going to stay on the air while it goes through "reorganization." My bet, and that of my friends who actually understand the world of radio, is that a couple of rich Democratic donors will most likely keep AA alive for another 3--4 weeks just to get through the election -- and then with a pfffft will evaporate forever into the ether.
Truth is that the network flopped from its inception just over two years ago and has been in a slow death spiral ever since. The rest of the liberal media has done a cowardly, rather miserable job in following up and reporting on the progress --or lack thereof-- of the network.
I do give credit to Ezra Klein for at least taking an immediate stab in interpreting the network crash. It's an earnest try by Ezra who is a very nice and smart guy but who, frankly, doesn't know much about radio.
Air America's failure has nothing to do with NPR. The network blew through a staggering $41 million in the last two years, a veritable mega-fortune in the "progressive" world. Just imagine the number of full-blown real world congressional campaigns that could have been funded with that chunk of change (in round numbers, maybe 20 or even more). Or the number of magazines that could have been funded. Maybe even a serious, daily liberal newspaper.
Air America's failure derives directly from a lethal mix of really bad programming, wild spending, and a bass-ackwards top-down marketing strategy in which instead of trying to build audiences with excellent programming the network tried to buy into big markets.
The result has been a dull-as-dishwater, politically shrill slate of programming, something that sounds like a mix between Pacifica Radio and a college radio workshop. Air America's own statistics don't do much to counter the notion of an ongoing disaster. Somewhere in today's news reports a network rep cites a national audience of "4 million." There are many, many creative ways to calculate a listenership, believe me. The 4 million figure is most likely a monthly cumulative of people who listened a minimum of five minutes per week. Anyway you cut it, a minisucle figure in national radio terms, totally reflective of the listener apathy generated by the daily line-up.
In spite of these tiny audience figures, the people's network apparently paid regal sums of money to its talkers. I notice in the banrkruptcy filing that former host Mike Malloy (fired about a month ago) is owed more than $100,000 in wages. Malloy is a total fringe character who would be lucky to have a permanent show anywhere and yet he was, obviously, being paid a more than handsome salary. Keep in mind that radio pay scales are far below that of TV. And a successful talker on a blowtorch AM station in a major urban market might barely make six figures.
Another gem in the filing is the more than half-million dollars owed to Mike Papantonio. He's been the co-host of a scantly-listened-to weekend show with RFK Jr -- the type of vanity show you'd hear on a rent-a-station outlet where the producers pay a couple of hundred dollars for airtime in hope of selling a few ads for profit. Papantonio, a wealthy attorney, is also a board member of Air America so let's hope that the five hundred grand he's owed is for doing something more than co-hosting a Class D radio show.
There was one piece, the only piece, written last year that got the closest to describing the reality of Air America. Written by veteran author Nick Von Hoffman in The Nation magazine, it described a network incapable of presenting compelling programming:
Progressive talk-radio has to be for something. You can't live off a straight diet of political paranoia. Liberalism has to have its thrilling moments, its heroes. It has to have a platform, a positive agenda, a program. But the invention of same is not the job of a small group of overwrought men and women leaning into microphones. When liberalism and liberals do find their platform, their new, progressive talkers will surely broadcast it. And if all will not be good, it will be better than it has been.Fairly prescient words from Von Hoffman. The coming demise of Air America might actually be a blessing for the future of liberal talk radio, because whatever replaces it has to be better than the current product. Air America's managers have no one to blame except themselves for their current predicament. It would be quite a stretch to blame external forces for the failure of Democratic radio precisely in a moment when Democrats are in the midst of a political and popular surge. The die was cast when the programming selection was made. Al Franken's a funny guy on stage or on film, but behind the mikes he's but a well-intentioned bumbler. Janeane Garofalo was an embarrassing screecher. And it was an insult to all progressives that ring-master Jerry Springer -- a man who has made a fortune by crudely exploiting the dysfunction of the poor-- was (until last month) granted the prime drive-time slot on Air America. This was to be the public voice of Liberal America? Please. (Disclaimer: For ten years I was co-exec producer and host of Radio Nation which was distributed to public radio stations by the the non-profit Nation Institute. Last January, management of the production migrated to the for-profit Nation magazine and the show was re-invented for broadcast on Air America as a weekend offering. By mutual agreement I did not follow the show to AA and, after a decade of doing the weekly show, was more tha happy to let go of the responsibility and continue with my usual writing for the magazine. I continue to hope that RN will prosper on AA -- if it survives-- or in some other venue. I have been publicly critical of AA since its inception, long before the migration of Radio Nation).
October 14th, 2006 at 12:39 am
I detect a lot of gloating Marc. AA is not Pacifica and Al Franken gets pretty good ratings. Sorry he isn’t your cup of tea but I like him even when I don’t agree with him. Like on Iraq. Still we’ll see if you are right. But if you are right why sound like Rush and O’Reilly? You’re better than that.
October 14th, 2006 at 12:53 am
Oh, and what makes you think that the money would have been better spent on a “liberal” newspaper or magazines. What paper? And don’t tell me starting one from scratch because it cost a lot more than $41 million,
(Hell, it would have cost around $60 million to modernize the old HER-EX in 1989)
Magazines? MOTHER JONES, the NATION, IN THESE TIMES, the PROGRESSIVE, There are plenty of magazines and how much are you willing to lose there? And how many people would you reach? I’d bet AAR reachedmore people monthly anyway. And at less cost than the Rev. Moon spends on the Washington TIMES or Rupert spends on the POST and the WEEKLY STANDARD. Both lose millions to influence people.
So then what?
October 14th, 2006 at 1:35 am
I’ve been listening to Pacifica since the late fifties, and to NPR and PBS since their inception and believe me I really appreciate the political paranoia as you characterize it of Air America. I’m cheered up by the openly on my side attitude. I listen every day. What’s your problem.
October 14th, 2006 at 3:55 am
Mr. Cooper—the only topic you didn’t cover is the most germane—the fact that the MSM is already, lightly, left-of-center and that NPR is more noticeably left-of-center than the MSM without any of their reporters or producers ever daring to jeopordize their 95th to 99th percentile salaries by really letting it rip.
In the end, we poor people don’t have a horse in the race, so, naturally, we prefer non-hypocrites.
How much did Al Franken make? How much did Rhandi Rhodes make? How much did Jeneane Garfolo make?
Can you buy left-wing show-business talent at less than market? Nope.
You might as well look for a member of the American hereditary poor interning at a major New York magazine. You might as well look for someone who is not filthy rich running, say, the Nation magazine.
One thing you have to respect, if not admire, about the American Left is how willing it is to overlook its own lack of poverty in its ongoing effort to offer monetary aggrandizement to already rich Leftists for the purpose of further beggaring poor Americans such as myself by raising my taxes.
October 14th, 2006 at 4:27 am
Franken does bumble soom but he has a lot of good guest and regular bits. Springer was an unfortunate choice but who can blame someone for trying to bring in a popular personality.
October 14th, 2006 at 5:37 am
Yes, Cooper is gloating, but most of it would seem fair enough and on target (and I like some of AA).
I admire Garafelo’s comitment (a rare show biz personality that didn’t roll over for Bush post 9-11, a T.V. age profile in courage), but She is almost as bad a radio personality as She was an awful stand up. There’s nothing wrong with being on the fringe, but Malloy was a one note broken record who didn’t seem to know much of anything. Alas, some responded to his bile.
The key point is, you can’t pay these people big salarys until you’ve cracked the big markets, and AA was still a long way from that. If you twirl the A.M. dial near the major market where I live, Rush comes up three or four times(!). Is there a piece out there for liberals? Maybe. But’s it’s going to be a tough nut to crack.
October 14th, 2006 at 6:23 am
Maybe its going downhill because of its schizophrenia between actual leftists and centre-right “liberals” like Franken? Good riddance.
October 14th, 2006 at 8:38 am
Yes, Cummings, those pure, actual leftists at Pacifica are really taking America by storm……
October 14th, 2006 at 8:49 am
I’m not even gonna touch that last bit…
What rlc said. (Franken’s one of the best prepared, best informed interviewers I’ve ever heard on radio – or anywhere – and he’s got an excellent roster of guests. I also think he’d make a good Senator. A wonk with a sense of humor. We could use more of those.)
October 14th, 2006 at 9:13 am
Having worked in journalism, and havng been unemployed more often than I’d care to admit, I don’t gloat over ANYBODY in the media losing their job. Joblessness sucks.
But I don’t think it was just poor management and unclear focus that did Air America in. It was Jon Stewart making The Daily Show must-see TV. It was Keith Olbermann returning to MSNBC and nailing Fox News to the wall night after night. Heck, it was even shock jocks like Imus and Stern turning on the Bush administration. It was a group of existing media celebrities making the same points AA was and, dare I say, having more FUN in the process.
October 14th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Actually both Pacifica and some of Air America have taken to 911 conspiracy theories – the most backwards stupid thing the Left could possibly do, while others at AA have been unquestionably Begala/Carville centrists like Al Franken. It was a hodgepodge of paranoids and bourgeois mainstreamers without a single leftist.
If I were a startup enterpreneur I’d pick people with actual radio talent and good politics- syndicate Democracy Now, Marc Cooper, Studs Terkel (who still has it,) Bill Moyers, Laura Flanders, even an Olberman radio show. Instead they glommed onto Franken, who I admit is funny as hell outside of politics, but is simply not fitting a left demographic. The fact that the “Left” programs, as I said often focus on conspiracy theories shows how non-threatening those theories are, and how stupid.
I bet you’d get fired for mentioning Palestinians on Air America.
October 14th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Under the new bankruptcy law, a Chapter 11 filer has a much shorter period to propose and confirm a reorganization plan, and its creditors have more power to nix what they come up with. I won’t be surprised if the case gets converted to Chapter 7, and we see a straight liquidation of the remaining assets (ie., selling some of the successful programs, like Franken, to other networks).
October 14th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
And that is the point. As Smith says if AAR goes Chap 7 their will still be shows from people like Franken (who will probably stop next year when he runs for the Senate) and the only difference will be the provenance of the syndicator. Right now Ed Schultz is kicking the crap out of both Hannity and O’Reilly on head to head matchups. And he and stephanie miller are on here locally and neither is an AAR personality.
JCummings Laura Flanders is on AAR.
Several years ago Jim Hightower said that there were too many right-wing loudmouths on talk radio and what progressives needed were more loudmouths of their own. I always thought that was what people like Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes were for. And Randi beat Rush in his home market of Palm Beach before she went on AAR. For some reason no one else would give her a national spot. Bill Moyers talked about that on NOW when he was part of that program.
Oh and Papantonio and RFK have a “vanity Show”? Pretty damn good vanity show if you ask me. And I wonder how better they would do if they didn’t share airtime with the Sparks and the Kings on ntheir LA station. Nothing spells ratings success like WNBA games on radio!
October 14th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Flanders is the only talented host on AAR, in my opinion……I admittedly have only heard it in bits and pieces in my American travels…but from what I see and hear (and saw in the doc about it) is that it is mildly-left of centre Democrat radio, which doesn’t have an audience that radical radio would, if promoted correctly.
October 14th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
I listen to AA because it basically sings my song.
Tonedeaf and self-absorbed is the vain Franken. Soft on his homework and long on employing smart laughtrack sycophants. He interrupts everyone and insults his audience with banal paraphrase and obvious dumb questions.
Randi creates and sustains a tireless rant that accurately finds the heart of Bushco crime, injustice, greed. She cheerleads the too long losing team and builds confidence/education.
Seder is smart and dry funny; he manages talkradio’s weakest link, the callers, with skill and brevity. He is most hip.
Hartmann waits for a deserved turn at major national attention. All the rest– are minor players, deservedly.
Nevertheless, Air America’s demise will leave me to myself and my soundless blogs for comfort. Not good for lefties to feel disempowered… We need our noise out there where it has some chance to be heard, not merely hidden in a soundless blog somewhere– where no one will find it who does not make detailed effort to find it.
I think I will need another dog, lots of ice cream, and some unknown, pathetic substitute to appear from where? I was weary of my disappointments with AA, anyway. But AA has been far better than merely “any port in a storm”. And AA concentrated the dose of lefty voices and dependably located it for most to easily find. 24 hours every day the left has had a voice on free American radio.
I fail to understand the hypocritical double-standard that claims progressive radio suffers from poorer quality than rightwing radio.
And I do not agree that right and left radio are equally bad.
The business of radio might respond to better quality, but I doubt it. The worst hamburgers in America still sell best.
The American left will become more fragmented and less powerful with the demise of AA. Bank on this sad reality and drown, if you can, the shrill glee of the fascist dominant Right.
October 14th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
truettspeak: The American left will become more fragmented and less powerful with the demise of AA
Quick to the barricades!
October 14th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
[...] This is one of those cases where there is a distinction with no difference. If there was no resonance with the liberal listeners, would they be listening? How many liberal people listen daily to Rush Limbaugh? How many own Rush Limbaugh gear? Now Marc Cooper (Cited in an update by Klein) understands the radio business failures of Air America Radio. That is worth a read as well. (Incidentally, I suspect Cooper is dead on here. Some people will fund AAR until after the election, then "phhht", gone like the long, drawn out breaking of wind that it was). [...]
October 14th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Well, we shall see. Cummings, you would lose that bet, Franken’s shows on Isreal and the Palestians have been balanced and comendable.
Being smarter than you, Franken would not argue the Bush White House’s terrible policys and results in the Middle East are the same as those that would (and were) produced by having Dems in The White House.
October 14th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
JCummings seems to think that something called “Radical Radio” would thrive. If that were true than Pacifica would be a force to be reckoned with and it isn’t. But I am curious to know just what would constitute this radical element. Amy Goodman?
I’m sorry but I guess I’m a hopeless sell-out. I find Al Franken to be quite good with guests and well-informed and what I partticularly like about his show is the fact that he dispenses entirely with callers. Frankly listening to the great unwashed on radio (or on CSPAN) quickly makes me despair of our educational standards and the total inability of the public to sting together a coherent argument. And I like his regular guests – Joe Conason, Melanie Sloan et al – who are people with a point of view I find worth listening to. Sorry, they tend to be liberal democrats.
I too enjoyed Sam Seder but he was too often prempted by Hockey or basketball. And he had a lot of bloggers on regularly and not ignorami either – Juan Cole, Duncan Black (ATRIOS), and others who have real lives when not blogging. But I have said all that I want to on this subject. I suspect many of these people will still be around but if not I see nothing to gloat about in abandoning radio to right-wing blather and the steady drumbeat of the big lie.
October 15th, 2006 at 6:34 am
I mean radical to differentiate from Liberal. CBC radio 2 does very well in Canada. Its politically very left wing, in comparison with other radio stations…Robert Fisk used to do reports for it,etc. American friends hear it and call it radical. So I’ll say “radical” to diffentiate from the stock media “liberal” ideology. Goodman is a good host, and she seems to have radical politics, judging on (most) of her guests.
October 15th, 2006 at 6:37 am
Franken balanced on Israel….post details.. Did he do a tribute to Edward Said? I thought not.
October 15th, 2006 at 7:44 am
air america was orrible. The wrst radio that i ever listen. I love the show in HBO, real time with Billl Maher, and lately, i saw more repubblicans in the show than liberal, and this make show even better
October 15th, 2006 at 9:52 am
Continuing with my earlier post, it’s not only Stewart & Olbermann who’ve stepped up to the plate — it’s websites like Newshounds and Crooks & Liars and Media Matters which have annihilated right-wing spin better than Air America ever could.
Air America is dead. Long live progressive media.
October 15th, 2006 at 10:38 am
All this AAR talk is fun but I’d like to go back to another fave here – Chris Hitchens. He has a new piece in VF – and on his blog – discussing a recent biography of I.F. Stone. Most of it is a pretty good discussion of the pioneer independent journalist and his influence but Hitchens just cannot resist climbing on his favorite hobbyhorse. In the review Hitchens informs us that he is sure Izzy would be supportive of the “war” against “Islamofasism” and the Iraq Adventure. I’ll leave it to former readers of IF STONE’S WEEKLY and his later articles in NYRB to decide for themselves the plausibility of this.
Incidently, Hitchens was the “I.F. Stone Fellow” at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism.
I never knew the Board of Regents had such a wry sense of humor.
October 15th, 2006 at 11:19 am
My impression is that most people listen to radio talk shows that tend to confirm their outlooks, rather than ones that piss them off. I don’t think two many Clinton Dems, let alone progressives, listen to Rush more than once in a blue moon. The exception would be when there is value added, in my case, I listen to Ian Masters, to NPR news, and used to listen to Marc’s show because in spite of disagreement, they weren’t shrill, talked to interesting people, and seemed t have a brain.
If I’m right, for whatever reason, AAR didn’t appeal to the liberal or left demographic and was too predictable and partisan to attract listeners from the other camp.
October 15th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
The piece on Hitchens in The New Yorker, despite a valiant attempt at fawning, shows a man who can quickly descend into the vicious crudity of a half-crazed drunk, going into an insane tirade at a dinner party; a person who seems to be running on a high-proof mix of megalomania, an extraordinary facility for recalling what one’s read and an exceedingly nimble tongue. But it’s the megalomania seems to be shifting to the center of it all.
“[My critics] want me to immolate myself, and I sincerely believe that, for some of them, when they see bad news from Iraq, the reaction is simply ‘This will make Christopher Hitchens look bad!’ I’ve been trying to avoid such solipsism, but I’ve come to believe there are such people.”
Trying to avoid solipsism, but obviously failing.
October 15th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Air America in its inception years ago shot itself in the foot out of the gate by going for “big name” celebs to handle the mikes instead of actual talent. The fledging network had the opportunity to bring in quality people. Instead, it is almost as if they picked up a copy of PEOPLE magazine and made the bizaare decision to hire based on name recognition. As Marc pointed out, how do you expect to be taken seriously when you pick slimeball Jerry Springer to be the centerpiece of your network? And Randi Rhoades: This drama queen gives me a headache every time she opens her mouth. Give me Ed Schultz instead of the people on Air America.
Starting straight at the top instead of at the grassroots is not the way to go for progressives. Just ask Jim Hightower, whose show was pulled by Disney in 1995 despite big ratings and over 900,000 listeners in limited markets.
October 15th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
I agree with reg on Al Franken — he has a regular slate of fine guests and let’s them talk. Does some occasional good comic bits and has a fairly well-developed political point of view, too moderate probably for marc and others on this board but more nuanced than most of the other Air America jocks.
Garofolo was a self-indulgent embarassment, though her partner Sam Seder is well-informed, occasionally funny and makes an effective analog to right-wing radio hit-men. Ditto Randi Rhodes, though she’s even shriller, and since she eschews guests, can quickly grow wearisome. Springer was an affable waste of time. I find Rachel Maddow’s over-precise diction annoying but no more so than her knee-jerk political opinions (though she is intelligent).
All in all, despite its flaws, I’m glad the station’s around and listen to it fairly regularly.
I’ll miss it if it goes off the air.
October 16th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Air America was important in helping to establish an alternative to the right wing hate merchants. We have a 50,000 Watt monster in town that shouts hate 24/7. It has ratings because the signal reaches everywhere. You’re not going to slip a different flavor into that anti-liberal mix. Air America wanted to create a brand and stations that were consistant. I think that part succeeded. It failed because of management. There is good radio talent around the country that could be syndicated into the brand, and people who know the business should be used to determine the right performer for the right market. Jerry Springer was a snooze fest but maybe they like him in Ohio. As far as I could tell, RadioNation with Marc Cooper’s main competition was Diane Rehm. I’m not sure there is a need for another NPR. Sirius Left is a good example of using a combination of live talent and syndication.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
A centrist like Marc Cooper doesn’t understand liberal and progressive culture enough to be able to understand Air America’s problems.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
LOL. Im going to take back everything I said. Air America was clearly a success while I suffer from ignorance, jealousy and hate. Air America is prospering. I have declared bankruptcy.
October 17th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
No Marc, for your sins of aposty, you have to wrestle Roger L. Simon and his Hat in a tub of ambrosia. The first one to drop they’re glass of Pinot Gris is a rotten egg.
October 19th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Al_Franken’s *producer* is owed almost as much as Mike_Malloy. The amount “Alan” is owed amounts to two months’ salary, but I have a great deal of trouble believing that Mike_Malloy was making a half a mil a year, especially since Sheldon_Drobny says Mike_Malloy wasn’t making that much money.
I note also Marc’s neat trick of trying to disown Mike_Malloy. No dice, he’s a liberal/Democrat through and through.
As for “Pap”, the money he’s owed is almost certainly due to his investment, and it’s listed in that section of the filing.
They also owe Mike_Piazza $300.
October 24th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Swell. So we’re supposed to be content with NPR’s ever-increasing sucking up to the right, and Pacifica’s A.N.S.W.E.R.-left whining — the same stuff they’ve been doing for the last 30 years?
The demise of Air America can be largely attributed to one person: Danny Goldberg. It was Danny Goldberg who decided that Morning Sedition, the smartest and funniest radio program since the heyday of Bob and Ray, should be cancelled and replaced with Mark Riley interviewing musicians no one’s ever heard of and talking sports. It was Danny Goldberg who decided to replace Marty Kaplan’s So What Else Is News with a cavalcade of progressive utopians with no sense of humor. and it was Danny Goldberg who decided that replacing Rachel Maddow and Lizz Winstead with Jerry Springer was a swell idea.
It is a mark of how bad these decisions were that Springer’s show is now one of the better entrants.
Malloy may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he is a radio veteran with a sizable audience. But with him gone, AAR has exactly three talents worth keeping: Sam Seder, Randi Rhodes, and Rachel Maddow.
I’m hoping that the management of Nova M Radio picks all three of them up once the fucklewits who are currently running AAR finish running it into the ground. I know that Nova M is in talks with Marc Maron. If they can somehow manage to put together the best of what AAR has offered since its inception, only without the awful management and scam artists, progressive, entertaining talk radio may yet thrive.
October 25th, 2006 at 10:17 am
I think that Marc brings up the same point with Pacifica (which is even more pathetic than AAR, b/c pacifica has been sitting a half billion dollars of airwave real estate since the 70′s and can barely deliver an audience) and the Green Party. His point is simple — liberal/progresssive organization often don’t wingnuts to take them out. Through bad management, poor strategy, schizophrenic identity and a general out of touch basis with reality — progressive organizations tend to run themselves into oblivion.
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March 12th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Air America still tries to cough and sputter and I still hear it’s nonsense on the south Florida station. It is for pure amusement that I listen to it and marvel at these idiots that rant into the microphone things that most decent Americans don’t even believe anyway.
Sorry, but these people like Randi Rhoades and the guy from Fargo (can’t remember his name) try so hard to be Rush Limbaugh but it will never happen. I don’t want to hear negative, negative, negative. Even now they’re trashing Hillary. It’s fun to listen to (WHERE THE HELL HAVE THEY BEEN FOR TWENTY YEARS? HA?????) but it’s just that they can’t be positive for anything.
All of them, including this local joke in the early morning will soon have to find a real job, no doubt. They hate Bush, hate Bush, and did I say hate Bush? It’s pathetic. Goodbye Air America!!!!