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Saturday, October 14, 2006

Time for someone else to take over Air America
Posted by Jill | 9:20 AM
Yesterday's announcement of Air America's Chapter 11 filing shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.

It's not that Air America was a bad idea, nor is it the case, as the wingnuts currently dancing in the streets claim, that progressive talk radio is a concept with no market. The Air America Radio concept -- an entire network started up from day one -- demonstrated the kind of grandiose ambition that is often thwarted when financial realities take hold. This was like wanting to start your first job out of college as CEO. But two events in the nearly three years since the network's founding inflicted the wounds from which the company may not be able to recover.

The first, and perhaps the most egregious problem, took place at the network's birth in the person of one Evan Montvel Cohen. Those who have seen the documentary Left of the Dial are familiar with how Cohen lied about how much money was available to run the network, and how he was forced out in May 2004. It was Cohen who was the architect of the now-infamous transactions from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club to Progress Media, which are, depending on the source, characterized as investments in the network or illegal "loans".

One wonders how a progressive radio network could get embroiled in such a scheme; how anyone could have not thought about how this looked. Well, perhaps Evan Cohen wasn't the progressive he claimed to be. He had been a Republican political operative on Guam, and had been chief of staff to Guam Senator Tommy Tanaka. Why Sheldon and Anita Drobny, who had conceived the idea, latched onto this guy is anyone's guess, though it's pretty clear that Cohen is a huckster of the first order and swore up and down that he was now a committed progressive. It's difficult to believe this, given Cohen's track record in his short history at Air America. Of course, given that there were some Clintonistas involved in the founding of the network, it's hardly surprising that those involved would STILL not have woken up and realized that Republican sabotage of the concept was eminently possible.

The second major blunder took place with the hiring of record executive Danny Goldberg as CEO. For a guy who had written a book called How the Left Lost Teen Spirit, this dunderhead had absolutely no idea how to keep a young audience. The first actions Goldberg took as CEO were to cancel Marty Kaplan's weekend radio magazine What Else is News, and fire Daily Show co-founder Lizz Winstead and Morning Sedition's Marc Maron. The firing of Maron and dismantling of Morning Sedition were particularly egregious mistakes, given the show's slow but steady rise in ratings, and the fact that Howard Stern was just about to make the leap from broadcast to satellite radio. It was Goldberg who was behind such brilliant decisions as that of syndicating Jerry Springer's radio show, and the arsenal of unlistenable progressive - utopian - with - no - sense - of - humor shows that dotted the network's Saturday lineup. After being hounded by fans of the cancelled shows, Goldberg was given his walking papers, but not before he had succeeded in decimating the entire Air America lineup, and not before pocketing about $400,000 in much-needed AAR cash as severance payment.

The final nails in the Air America Credibility Coffin took place most recently with the bogus offer to Marc Maron to return to New York to do the morning show for no more money -- and the cancellation of his show on KTLK in Los Angeles; and the unceremonious firing of Mike Malloy VIA A CELL PHONE CALL ON HIS WAY TO WORK.

Who needs conservative corporate masters when our own team treats its employees like this?

So now Air America is in tatters, and in bankruptcy. Doug Kreeger, who almost singlehandedly saved the network after the Cohen disaster, left the Board this summer. The bankruptcy filing is posted at The Smoking Gun, and you can see how those who worked valiantly to get this ship on course are owed huge sums of money. Al Franken is owed over $300,000. Danny Fucking Goldberg is still owed $133,000. Mike Malloy is owed almost $115,000. Advomatic, a small startup which built AAR's web site and can ill afford deadbeats, is owed $13,000. Mike Papantonio and Rob Glaser are both in the hole for loans to the company.

The wingnuts are of course thrilled because they can't handle the idea of opposing views on radio and they think this is the end of commercial progressive talk radio. I think they're wrong. I do think, however, that it's time for AAR to sell its not inconsiderable talent assets, which right now consist of just Sam Seder, Randi Rhodes, and Rachel Maddow (omission of Al Franken is deliberate), to a company like Jones Radio, which syndicates Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz, and which seems to know how to run a business. And while they're at it, they would do well to pick up Malloy and Maron from the side of the road where AAR dumped them.

It's hardly surprising that a progressive radio network founded while George W. Bush was still getting a free pass from the rest of the media, and was started by a corrupt Republican operative, has never been able to quite regain its footing. It's not that the concept is unworkable, nor that there is no demand for its product. But it IS time for someone else to take over.
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