AlterNet: Air America Radio, RIP -- It Didn't Have to Be This Way

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Danny Goldberg

Air America Radio, RIP -- It Didn't Have to Be This Way
Conservatives believe in spending whatever it takes to promote their ideas through the media. The crash of Air America shows that progressives don't have the right attitude.

January 28, 2010


I think the New York Times got it exactly wrong on Monday in declaring that "the enduring legacy of Air America's failure is that political media from either side of the aisle is more successful when run as a business instead of a crusade."

That very attitude is what has hobbled the growth of liberal talk radio, but conservatives have never thought about media that way and they still don't. The week before Air America shut its doors the Rev. James Dobson announced he was starting a new radio show with his son Ryan, a 39-year-old tattooed surfer who shares his father's ultra-conservative views. On Dobson's Facebook page he asked his supporters to fund the new show. "Your participation will be greatly appreciated, especially during this time when startup costs will be very expensive. The budget for the first year, including the costs of radio airtime, will be about two million dollars."

Conservatives believe in doing whatever it takes to promote their ideas. Richard Viguerie, viewed as one of the architects of the modern conservative movement, wrote a book in 2004 called America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media To Take Power, in which he explains how the right wing used talk radio among other tools. Viguerie stresses that conservatives understand that ideological change does not usually occur overnight; that it takes patience and long-term thinking to build a movement.

In the early 1970s the Washington Post and New York Times were instrumental in helping expose the Watergate scandal and publishing the Pentagon Papers. Conservatives felt liberals had an advantage in setting the agenda because of the influence of New York and DC newspapers on the national media. In 1976 Rupert Murdoch bought the New York Post and it has lost money every year since—the total loss estimated to be more than half a billion dollars. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/media/145460/air_america_radio%2C_rip_--_it_didn%27t_have_to_be_this_way

[JHB]

1. I had a thread on this yesterday...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7580959


Only got three replies. Hope you do better. :hi:

[marmar]

2. Thanks......I'm surprised by the indifference to progressive talk radio here.

nt

[comtec]

3. aar did a crap job of running things, pure and simple. they kept getting rid of GOOD talent

I'll never forgive them for canceling Morning Sedition! EVER!
The last straw for me was when they CANNED KENT JONES! (now) !!!

Now i follow Rachel on M$NBS with Keith.

The idea was great,and it HAS grown! But AAR has suffered from crappy management from day 1, and that's the painful truth.

[yurbud]

7. I'm not indifferent! When Air America went off the air here in LA, I bought a satellite radio

just to hear it.

[Bennyboy]

4. I am going to get flamed for this BUT,

It didn't work because it won't work. Preaching to the choir. And in this case it is an informed choir, unlike the right wing echo chamber. Over there, they have a bunch of dumbasses, who go to them for their insight, ideas (or lack thereof)etc. On the left we are informed and really don't need anyone to tell us what we already know.

Not to mention the demographic. Big difference in the lefties an the righties who listen to talk radio. I myself have not listened to a commercial radio station in ten years. And especially NOT a talk radio station. (I did listen to AAR for a very short time around the 2004 elections for AL Franken)

Whereas my parents are both avid Rush listeners, and all they listen to is talk radio. They have one station preset. And it is right wing radio, 24/7. even if they heard the show earlier int he day, they still listen to it. they depend on an uninformed listener. How many times to do you hear Rush say "I am all the news you need to hear" and "You can get anything off the internet"? In other words, don't think for yourselves.

[ShortnFiery]

5. There is an exception to "Preaching to the Choir" = Thom Hartmann's show is both

entertaining and educational. The man is a veritable treasure trove of valuable progressive history and information. :-)

Thom Hartmann :yourock:

[Bennyboy]

6. Sure, BUT

How do you get people who never listen to talk radio to listen to talk radio....Especially when I can hear all I want to right here?

[whyverne]

9. You are correct, sir.

They have a cult. We don't. We don't want a cult.

I drive a delivery truck. There are many places where I walk in and hear Rush on the radio no matter what time of day it is.

I've asked people, "How can you listen to that constantly?".
"Oh we love Rush".

So why doesn't the left have their own Rush?
The same reason we don't have our own Jim Jones.

It's a cult, man. Never forget that.

[Bennyboy]

10. Exactly.....

Everyone I know that listens to Rush has no interest in music. For me when I get in a car, it is time to put on some tunes. In fact, I plan my car trips and my music together.

But people like my parents? they don't own any music. Or play a little so they listen to talk radio......

Now when I hear Rush in a place I consider inappropriate, I tell management. I did that in a Home Depot once. guy was working (private contractor) in the section and I was trying to talk to the HD employee about something and RUSH was right there in my face. Bugged the shit out of me. I was enraged that I HAD TO LISTEN to him while I was in the store.

Manager told him to turn it off and the guy chased me out of the store swearing at me. I would never think of putting on Air America or any political content if I was working on a store during open hours. But these people think that EVERYONE shoudl listen to Rushh in the ay the religious fanatics are endlessly prosletyzing.

[undeterred]

8. I never listened to a talk radio show in my life till Air America.

I was amazed and thrilled when it came to my city in 2004. My local station started out with all the Air America hosts, but gradually the lineup changed. It turned out that the hosts couldn't get along with Air America, and my local station picked them up one at a time as they left AA. By the time Air America folded, none of the progressive hosts were still on that network- they had all been replaced with the likes of Montel and Lionel. Air America didn't do what they needed to do to keep the best and the brightest.

[Jade Fox]

11. I think Liberals don't need talk radio the way dittoheads etc. do......

Conservatives need to listen to Rush everyday to find out what they think and keep all riled up.

[rpannier]

12. Some perspective that seems to be getting lost (IMO)

This story is not about AAR, it's about how we're losing the edge on getting info out because we're not willing to invest the resources for the long haul the way the right is.