[Marxism] Radio's Bush-Bashing Air America Is Back in Fighting Form

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(While hardly a rapier-sharp critique as you'd get
with a Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce or Malcolm X, radio
humor of this variety was something of a relief in
an environment which is overwhelmingly dominated by
ultra-right talk shows and rightist Christian funda-
mentalism. We can certainly wish Air America success
and a more stable functioning during its second run.

(They have normal commercial advertising, such as
Sears, and they're now distributed by Clear Channel,
so don't expect the expansive humor we've come to
know and love as exemplified by internet flame wars.
And furthermore, don't expect the absolute clarity in
Marxist-Leninist thought during each and every yuk.

(Nevertheless, there's a market for such humor in the
angry millions whose voices, opinions and illusions
have been ignored or reviled in the dominant media.
Some people will complain about the disrespect for
authority which is expressed in such programming.
Bush and his handlers want to give the impression of
a bandwagon. On a cultural level, AIR AMERICA, which
has all the commercials you'd expect on AM radio, a
modest amount of resistance is being expressed. This
is a good thing, in my opinion.)

(Not near an on-air outlet for Air America, use this:
http://www.airamericaradio.com/listen.asp
=====================================================

January 20, 2005
MEDIA & MARKETING

Radio's Bush-Bashing Air America
Is Back in Fighting Form

By JULIA ANGWIN and SARAH MCBRIDE
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 20, 2005

Today's inauguration of President George W. Bush may
depress many Democrats, who had hoped to take back the
White House this year. But at Air America, the upstart
liberal radio network, there's at least some cause for
celebration.

Coinciding with the presidential ceremonies, Air America
will launch its brash Bush-bashing talk-radio format onto
the airwaves in President Bush's backyard -- Washington,
D.C. -- as well as Detroit and Cincinnati, bringing its
total nationwide reach to 45 markets.

It's a remarkable feat for a network that was nearly given
up for dead just last year. After a hype-filled launch in
March, stoked by the passion of the presidential-election
campaign, the network ran out of money within six weeks and
was kicked off the air in Los Angeles and Chicago, leaving
it with just a New York station and two smaller markets.
Critics predicted the company wouldn't recover, especially
after the election ended and interest in politics faded.

But with an infusion of new financing and new management,
the radio network has won high ratings in some of its local
markets and has garnered the support of radio-industry
giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. It has signed
three-year contracts with its top two stars, Al Franken and
Randi Rhodes, and raised an additional $19 million from
private investors. People familiar with the situation say
Air America is also finalizing a deal that would get it
back on the air in Los Angeles via KXTA-AM, a Clear Channel
sports station.

In fact, President Bush's victory might be the best thing
that could have happened to the network. Just as Rush
Limbaugh and other conservative radio voices flourished
during eight years of President Clinton, Air America's
hosts now have an inviting target for the rest of the term.

"What happened on Nov. 2 may have been bad for America but
it sure was good for Air America," says Rob Glaser,
chairman of Air America.

Since the election, Air America hosts have had plenty of
fodder. The network has called the move to privatize Social
Security "risk-based Social Security" and poked fun at the
peccadilloes of Bernard Kerik during his ill-fated
nomination for homeland-security chief.

This week, Mr. Franken is broadcasting from Washington,
while Ms. Rhodes mocks the inaugural parade, especially the
stuffed buffalo on Vice President Dick Cheney's float. If
it were up to her, she says, she would deploy a red-state
float and a blue-state float, and have them bash into each
other the entire length of the route.

Definitive ratings for most of Air America's markets won't
be released until later in the month. But local market
research and anecdotal evidence indicate that the network
is gaining traction. On the Internet, Air America is the
fourth most popular radio station, with almost 200,000
weekly Web listeners, according to Webcast Metrics. (The
top rated online radio station is Digitally Imported, which
offers "electronic dance music.")

In New York, Ms. Rhodes is tied with conservative Sean
Hannity for the talk-show host that listeners spent the
most time with each week in the fall season, according to
Arbitron. Ms. Rhodes points out that she reached that level
after just a few months of national exposure, and without
the television show and book Mr. Hannity has to boost his
public profile.

Phil Boyce, program director at Mr. Hannity's New York
home, WABC, says time spent listening is irrelevant when
the audience is so small. In the afternoon time slot Ms.
Rhodes and Mr. Hannity share, "he has almost four times the
audience she does," says Mr. Boyce. "He crushed her."

Indeed, of the big-time political talk-show hosts,
approximately 75 to 80 percent are conservative, says
Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers, a magazine devoted to
talk shows. And a June 1 study from Washington, D.C-based
Democracy Radio reported that national and local
conservative programming totaled over 40,000 hours every
week, while progressive, or liberal, programming totaled
just over 3,000 hours.

As it competes with the giants, a definite plus for Air
America is the support from Clear Channel, which syndicates
conservative talkers such as Mr. Limbaugh, Bill Handel and
Laura Schlessinger through its Premiere Radio Networks.
Clear Channel executives have made large donations to
Republican causes, and last year the company dropped
raunchy, and virulently anti-Bush, radio host Howard Stern.

When Air America was launched last April 1, Clear Channel
tested it in Portland, Ore., on a poorly performing
golden-oldies station, KPOJ. Results were startlingly good.
Among its target audience of adults aged 25 to 54, the
station moved from No. 26 to No. 3. The company started
slipping in Air America programming in place of low rankers
all around the country, including former sports/talk
station WINZ in Miami, former nostalgia station KABL in San
Francisco, and former Spanish-language station WKOX in
Boston.

This week, Clear Channel is flipping three more stations to
an Air America-heavy format, bringing Air America
programming -- Clear Channel calls it "progressive talk" --
to 22 Clear Channel stations around the country. The
company also made its studios in Silver Spring, Md.,
available for a live broadcast of Al Franken's show on
Tuesday.

While he acknowledges the warm welcome from Clear Channel,
Mr. Franken says he sometimes worries the conglomerate is
using Air America, "trying to get the left off their back."
But he says Clear Channel's support is also a sign of the
network's success.

If running more liberal talk is boosting Clear Channel's
reputation among liberals, "that's a side benefit," says
Gabe Hobbs, the company's talk-radio programming chief. "We
don't make programming decisions based on political
affiliations."

Smaller companies are switching to Air America, too. Last
April, Mapleton Communications LLC's KYNS in San Luis
Obispo, Calif., transformed itself overnight from
conservative talk to Air America. "People turned it on
expecting to hear Sean Hannity, and got Al Franken
instead," says station manager Nancy Leichter.

The new programming created "a lot of controversy," Ms.
Leichter says. But after an initial dip in listeners and
advertisers -- she lost a flooring company and a landscaper
-- Ms. Leichter saw both numbers pick up again. By late
summer, advertising revenue was running almost double what
it had been under the conservative format, a pace that
continues today.

Air America isn't in the black yet, but President Jon
Sinton says the network's revenue is growing rapidly and it
expects to be profitable. The radio network sells
advertising spots to medium-sized and small businesses on
its local affiliate stations, and it is starting to attract
the eye of some larger advertisers. Gary Schonfeld,
president of Jones Media, which sells Air America
advertising, says the network is just reaching the critical
point where it is available to 75% of the population, a key
measure for big marketers.

Talkers' Mr. Harrison says says it's too early to call Air
America a success. "When they start earning money as
opposed to raising money, then we'll know they've made it,"
he says.


.


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism