When liberal talk radio network Air America went bankrupt last October, it was the dullest, loneliest, least surprising one-car funeral in the history of media. There were no screaming talk-show hosts whining about ‘right-wing conspiracies’ from the unemployment line, no ‘mission accomplished’ speech from Al Franken on the deck of an aircraft carrier; nothing. The legitimate media barely stooped to cover the story of how the once loud-and-proud communist radio network finally ran out of resources and was pronounced DOA well before its third birthday.
I will make no secret of the fact that I’ve had the proverbial champagne on ice, with party hats and streamers at hand, ready to start the celebration the day Air America finally crashed and burned. It’s funny. When it finally happened, their demise was so anticlimactic, so pathetically weak, that I simply couldn’t bring myself to rejoice when I heard the news. It felt like when Saddam was hanged. There was no desire nor cause for celebration.
Should we mourn, laugh, or simply scoop Franken and his buddies up and flush them down the toilet like the dead fishes they are? Before we answer too quickly, let’s examine the brief history of Air America and decide whether or not they deserve our pity.
Air America began life in AM radio as a self-proclaimed oasis for the long-neglected liberal talk radio listeners, an escape from the countless Rush clones and moderate newbies like Bill O’Reilly. NPR was too soft and boring; Rush had amassed his enormous radio audience through entertainment, the libs reasoned, so it was time to fight fire with fire. It cannot be overlooked that virtually all of the hosts recruited for the nascent network were stand-up comedians: Al Franken, Mark Maron, Jeanine Garafalo. None had rudimentary knowledge of radio or politics their upon signing. Nonetheless, if wisecracking truly was the way to win the hearts and minds of NASCAR Nation and turn staunch Republicans into malleable Mensheviks, then Air America could not fail. Failure, however, for the network would come literally within days of its launch on March 31, 2004.
The dream of Air America’s founding fathers was to be able pump a steady audio stream of left-wing talking points into the brain cells of red-state Americans, thereby washing them clean of the RNC propaganda they had been fed for far too long by Limbaugh and Hannity. A second, although unstated, but even more important aim was to install a Democrat in the White House that November by giving the then-unnamed candidate a national radio platform. After all, wasn’t that how the nation turned to the Right in the first place?
No, actually, it wasn’t, as Franken and co. soon found out. Rush got started in the eighth year of the Reagan Revolution, and wasn’t a household name until the Clinton years. He had also failed several times in sundry locations before finally getting his big break twenty years ago. Air America’s pipe dream of competing with, and maybe even surpassing, veteran conservative talk giants like ABC or WOR in its rookie season proved to be ephemeral. By the end of April 2004, it was obvious that the station was not going to come close to reaching its ratings or ad revenue estimates. Panic ensued. With a critical presidential election underway, the network was in as much chaos as the Democrat Party itself. All through the Summer and Fall 2004, not a single one of their highly touted hosts could garner a large enough audience to attract important guests to appear on Air America. After the Democrats were massacred in the election, many wondered what would happen to the network, which from the beginning looked like nothing more than an ad hoc committee to push the Democrats back into power. Failing that mission demoted Air America from laughingstock to non-entity.
Over the next two years, nothing improved. Changes in management didn’t help. Lineup changes did nothing. Jerry Springer came in like a roaring lion and whimpered off after less than a year with his tail between his legs. With the furniture on the Titanic being rearranged constantly, no one had the courage to address the undeniable fact that the ship was sinking fast. When the books were finally opened after Air America filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct.13, 2006, it was discovered that the station had lost nearly 40 million dollars since its debut ($9.1M in ’04; $19.6M in ’05; and $13.1M in ’06--up until the Oct. 13 bankruptcy filing). Other low points include the discovery by the City of New York’s Department of Investigation that prior to its launch in 2004, Air America co-founder Evan M. Cohen pilfered $875,000 from the youth center in the Bronx where he used to work and shifted the stolen funds to the then-unborn radio network. It was the least-reported major misappropriation scandal in the history of the United States. Ask Media Matters about that one; they seem to have a very selective memory about just which media stories seem to matter.
When front-man Franken retired this month to begin his next incarnation as the opponent whom Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) will beat in next year’s election, the network officially lost all hope. He will be replaced by some guy named Thom Hartmann. Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Thom Hartmann. I thought so.
So finally, Air America has been given new life by another fantastically wealthy liberal, bailed out by multimillionaire real estate mogul Stephen Green, brother of disgraced New York politician Mark Green, who is delusional about the future possibilities of the network. For a guy who’s failed at everything he’s ever tried, I think he and Air America are a match made in Heaven.
There is no future for liberal talk radio now, just as there was no future for liberal talk radio in 2004, or at any other time in history. If anyone is foolish enough to take the new reincarnation of Air America off the Green brothers’ hands, then there will be no future for that moron, either. Stop kidding yourself. It’s over.
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