Air America gets new owner

[LTR]

(NOTE: cross-posted from LBN)

Air America, one of the country's more powerful radio networks and a major progressive megaphone, is switching ownership.

Charlie Kireker, a former political official and creator of Pendulum Media will succeed Stephen L. Green, the New York real estate CEO who helped lift the company out of bankruptcy, as chair of the board. The move will be finalized in mid March. Mark Green, Stephen's brother and Democrat activist, will remain as Air America's president.

"We look at what Steve and Mark Green have done as the transition role of saving and stabilizing the business and now we think it is a good opportunity to expand upon that," Kireker told the Huffington Post. "The company has made a lot of progress, we have consolidated operations, and streamlined things to be more efficient. We are yet to profitability but we are heading there."

(snip)

Both Green and Kireker said that the ownership change would have no effect on the network's editorial content. "There are no programming changes at this time," said Kireker.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/21/air-america-is-changing-o_n_87765.html


I'll post more about it on my own blog:

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2008/02/air-america-gets-new-owner.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Now all they need is new programing. nt

[tridim]

3. And they need to stop firing their best talent.

Maybe Malloy and Sam would come back if they ask nice and gave them a raise.

[napi21]

2. I'm glad to hear that Mark Green is remaining. I enjoy listening to

him on Sat. I'm fairly pleased with most of their host lineup too.

[rox63]

4. I want an AAR station back in Boston

:(

[BlueGirlRedState]

5. Would be nice to have live programming in Austin

I podcast everyday and listen to Randi. Even day-old Randi beats whatever is on Sirius that Ford installed in my car....

Please bring back Sam.....

[madrchsod]

6. chicago station is great

live on saturday,feldman broadcasting live from downtown,the station is attracting big sponsors..now if they would get nancy skinner back on....

[orleans]

8. seems every time i turn the radio on in the car on the weekend

the only show i hear is THE DIRT DOCTOR

what the hell is that about on wcpt?

[madrchsod]

9. hey liberals are into gardening!

actually they do`t have enough to fill the plate yet and the advertisers love these shows.
i`m out a 100 miles and have been picking up 820 out of texas after about 12 and it`s conservative

[KharmaTrain]

12. They're Struggling...

The good thing about WCPT is the owner made $500 million from Rupert Murdoch and had other stations and papers to keep the station going. It's also good that Fred Eichayner is a loyal Democrat. However, the station has been a disapointment...both in revenues and content. It took them two years to do a local program and then it's sporatic at best...it's sad considering this is the third largest market and there are many great hosts in this town that have long since vanished from the airwaves. The other day someone posted an article about the troubles facing the Reader...a longtime bastion of the company that owns WCPT...and years of poor management have hurt this station from becoming a lot bigger and better than it is.

[blues90]

7. AAR has turned into complete crap

They had great shows and great hosts for the first two years and pared it down to a few . I can't think of one station that is all AAR other than their stream which used to be my home page until they fired Malloy . Funny how they could not afford Malloy but very soon after Malloy was fired the fastest show on the radio , the one that needs spoilers on the race car , the ONLY show you will ever need to get ALL your news , Elliot climbs into the slot .

The Greens , give me a break .

[SoCalDem]

14. The problem with the "model" was that AAR tried to be all things to all progressives

It was ONE small enterprises, launched 35 years too late, and up against a juggernaut of well-funded, established right wing stations..

There was NO way it could live up to expectations...especially when there were no "cheap & easy" entry points anymore.

Right winger stations evolved in a time when local small stations were a dime a dozen, and they built their little shop of horrors "network" of propagandists gradually, over 3 decades, with little or no competition..

AAR was never going to be able to compete in any meaningful way, against 24-7 broadcasting of right wing messages..

We were all so hopeful that it would break through, but it did not..

Our problem is that we are trying to put out a forest fire, with a water gun.

What needs to happen is for individual licenses to be yanked if they do not provide equal time for opposing viewpoints.. 2 hour Hannity show, balanced by a 2 hour progressive show.. We know that will never happen, so to quote our freeper buddies, we are screwn :(

[blues90]

15. AAR was fun while it lasted

It at least had humor and political set to humor and straight out ranting such as Malloy . It got me through alot of bad days , mostly nights . I could go anywhere in my car and hear it on XM and bring the XM indoors and continue on .

Now there is Nova M and head-on if you are near a computer . It is a shame we did not get more terrestrial stations and it kept going but that was a dream .

My favorites were Malloy and Mark Maron and Mark R together and Sam . They even played the entire lineup on KTLK 1150 am .

I only wish I knew about IE on the internet but at the time I was not into talk radio at all because of what was out there .

Now they have really cut alot of time from the shows with commercial breaks , and what breaks they are , all work at home rip off's and get out of debt or buy the home cheap because some poor soul lost out and all the free tapes with shipping only .

[librechik]

10. please, no more 24 hr infomercials on the local weekends!

I know. Don't Hold My herbal colon cleanser. I mean my breath.

[butterfly77]

16. I know what you mean...

I listen to Malloy podcasts on the weekends..

[live love laugh]

11. Again? Yawn. n/t

[KharmaTrain]

13. An Expected Cash Infusion On The Way...

I give the Green Brothers a great deal of credit...they saved this network from pulling the plug and we're not hearing about payless paydays or layoffs. These are real rough days for radio as the economy tanks and one of the first things that gets hit is advertising...and radio, working its way to the bottom of the media revenue food chain...has been hit especially hard. I'm sure the Greens see the need to bring in other pockets to keep the ship afloat...they've probably reached the limit where they could bear the financial liabilities alone.

The need is to find a new New York station for the network...also to actively go after new affiliates and better ones. The way to profitabliity is by building towards having large signals in large markets that would enable the network to demand nice coin...but to do this you need to invest in a big stations relations department/effort and hopefully Kireker can see this.

Here's hoping AAR is able to reach more listeners during this very exciting election year.