Air America in the toilet?

[Van23]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0421/p09s01-coop.html

This is really frustrating. Air America is going south. What the hell is the problem???

I don't waste my time with NPR anymore. Air America is all I listen to. I know there's a lot of left anger out there, so why is the network not doing any better? Don't liberals listen to the friggin' radio???

[billbuckhead]

1. They're up to 64 stations

The reichwingers badly want AAR to fail and they have been known to lie.

WLIB is #10 in NYC and the #3 talk station.
<http://www.arbitron.com/home/ratings.htm>

[Van23]

23. I hope you're right...

I'd really hate to see it fail.

I know there's a market for liberal/left views. Witness the success of Michael Moore's movies and the Nation magazine. The Nation actually made a profit last year and is up to 150,000 readrers a week! That's up from the tiny 30,000 or so that the magazine had when Clinton left office.

Is it possible that liberals just don't listen to the radio as much? I kind of get the sense that movies and books are a more "liberal" medium, while radio and TV are a more conservative one. I've got no science to back it up...just an impression I get.

[hedda_foil]

2. There isn't any problem. It's a smear piece

The author works for a right wing think tank the Manhattan Institute: Brian C. Anderson is senior editor of City Journal, the quarterly published by the Manhattan Institute. © Los Angeles Times.

[LoZoccolo]

3. It doesn't reach beyond it's typical demographic, I don't think.

Rush Limbaugh reached a lot of white working-class people who were going from Democratic to Republican (Reagan Democrats) and has a good lock on a lot of them now. Air America pretty much speaks to people who already agree with them a lot. Mike Malloy is a good example of this.

[wryter2000]

7. Yes and no

I think Franken mostly appeals to people who are already aware of the disaster this country has become. I think Springer and Schultz (even though I can barely tolerate him), appeal to much more "regular" folk.

[LoZoccolo]

17. I should check them out.

I haven't really heard much of AAR even though they have a Chicago station now - thanks for the tip! I'd like to have something to refer people who aren't really activist to listen to, but I think a lot of people would be justifiably frightened by talk radio host who refers to his listeners as "truth seekers". :)

[wryter2000]

22. I don't much like either of them

But then, I'm already in the choir. I suggest you listen for a while before you refer anyone else. Springer tries to be "nice," one of his weaknesses, imho. Schultz has a backwoods, huting and fishing personality. I think he's a blowhard sometimes, and his voice sounds like Limbaugh's.

[PsyOpsRunsOurCountry]

18. Ya gotta wonder why Springer is there. Suspiciously discrediting...

At this west coast city Springer is now on in the morning 'drive time' slot' bumping the fabulous Morning Sedition crew back to 3-6am.

Springer is no credit to lefties and completely unlistenable.

I went to the local AAR website to write a complaint and the email address was so-and-so at Clear Channel. Yikes.

Could it be that as AAR gains listeners and stations that its quality gets intentionally sabotaged in that all-important morning slot?

[wryter2000]

21. Welcome to DU!

I miss Morning Sedition, too!

[wryter2000]

4. That's utter bunk

Notice it's under "commentary." It's not fact.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is the same guy Franken took apart with...what do you call those things, again?...facts.

The ratings are excellent. They're getting new stations all the time. In the meantime, Faux News has lost 58% of it's listeners 25 - 54 in the last 7 months.

This guy wishes AAR would go away, but wishing won't make it so.

[noamnety]

5. buahahaha

"liberals don't need talk radio because they've got the big three networks, most national and local daily newspapers, and NPR."

:rofl:

[Van23]

24. I agree

That is crap!!

[ClassWarrior]

6. Oh, is it time for this Radical RW talking point to surface again?

Sorta like Old Faithful. You can set your watch by it.

~yawn~

NGU.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. Well, it beats talking about reality, don't it?

I mean, slaughter in Iraq;

Fuckface's job approval ratings low, lower, lowest;

Gas prices are a joke;

Prices of everything are a joke;

Millions of uninsured;

Kids who are hungry;

Adults who are homeless;

and, of course, will Michael Jackson be convicted?

Sometimes I get so damn fed up ................

[ClassWarrior]

11. Don't you just love it when someone you've never seen before...

...posts a Radical RW talking point, then just disappears??

Anyway, :hi: howya doin' Leftie?

NGU.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

15. Fuck them

I'm in this mood the past few days. Worse than usual. More fed up.

I do like, though, how quickly and neatly those asshole posts get sliced and diced by those gorgeous DU folks - like you.

Now, I must axe: WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?

Thanks. I feel better.

[ClassWarrior]

16. I don't hate America...

...I just love old leftie lawyers. B-)

DU is my sanity some days. And my insanity others.

If you need a shoulder, by the way, PM me.

NGU.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

20. You ...........

...........total doll.

I'm such a lucky OldLeftieLawyer.

Same to you, champ ............. :toast:

[kliljedahl]

8. "just past its first birthday"

Gotta be a freeper, doesn't know basic grammar. That's "passed", moran.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[yellowjacket]

27. Actually, that is correct....

In order to use "passed" there must be some sort of helping verb. My car just passed yours. But if something is just beyond something else, just past its first birthday, then "past" is correct. Only way "passed" works in that sentence is to say, "Having just passed its first..."

[Loki]

9. Gee, and article from April

by a former fellow from American Enterprise Institute (right-wing think tank) a Brian C. Anderson, now of the Manhattan Institute and published by right wing Regnery Publishing, why do I have a problem with anything this hack has to say about Air America. Don't waste your time worrying about this. Air America is fine and growing.

[wryter2000]

14. Bingo!

He is the guy. Franken made him look like an ape. Franken destroyed his ratings data with facts. Undeterred, the guy went on to explain why AAR was failing, despite the fact that his original premise had been disproved. It was-unfreaking-believable. IMHO, Franken's research people are worth every penny they get.

On edit: Guess why AAR was failing according to this clown. They're too negative. :rofl:

[Skip Intro]

12. Some other articles by this rw moron -

Brian C. Anderson
Leftist media missed a turn to the right
The Australian | 18 May 2005

Brian C. Anderson
Note to You Liberal Weenies -- Yes, the Right Really Can Write
Los Angeles Times | 15 May 2005

Brian C. Anderson
The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias
RealClearPolitics.com | 3 May 2005

Brian C. Anderson
Exposing liberal pieties
The Washington Times | 3 May 2005

Brian C. Anderson
Times a-changin’: Campus left losing ground
The Enquirer | 27 February 2005

more...http://www.city-journal.org/

---------------------

[still_one]

13. Brain C Anerson, LYING LIAR

April 20. Brian C Anderson: Lying Liar. A lot of giddy conservatives are passing around this oped, which claims some negative things about Air America Radio. There is one slight problem with the oped: it's full of lies and distortions about AAR. Feel free to disagree with the views of AAR, but don't resort to lying.

http://www.alfrankenweb.com/

For over a year they have been trying to talk down the Demise of AAR, believing that if they say it enough people will listen. It isn't happening. This is the nazi, er, I mean right wing echo chamber, who have NO ACCOUNTABILITY

AAR, will be around for a long time. Alex Bennet and Lynn Sammuels trash AAR because of professional jealousy, and because it is competition for his programming. You will never hear Ed Schultz do that.

The right wing snakes are threatened, and this is the only thing they can do. They want people to believe this is a right wing country, believing if they say it enough it will make it so

[xray s]

19. I think Springer and Ed Schultz play pretty well in the midwest

I like their way of explaining things. I think they connect pretty well.

Al Franken spends way too much time talking about what O'Reilly and Limbaugh and the rest say. Who cares.

[rurallib]

25. That story is about 4 months old

It was debunked then. AAR has added @15 stations since then and is ROARING. My area is one of the new ones.
I heard Franken offhandedly say one day that it looks like AAR will be profitable sometime next year - much earlier than ever anticipated.
Sorry about the late post.

[Van23]

26. This makes me feel better

I hope AA really succeeds. I can see how Ed Schultz appeals to a lot of people, because he destroys the effete sterotype about liberals that the right has been pushing for years. He's hetero, weighs 300 lbs, used to play football, hunts, fishes...and is a liberal.

I can see how he would have appeal in some of the red states.