The AAR station in Columbus is run by amateurs.

[mwb970]

Right now, they are transmitting "dead air", as they have been for the last ten minutes. Less than an hour ago, they ran two commercial streams at the same time for more than five minutes, then returned to Morning Sedition in the middle of a segment. (Wonder what I missed.)

I always wonder whather there is anyone actually operating or controlling the station. If so, why don't they notice these problems and fix them?

Are other AAR stations this bad? BTW, ours is owned by Clear Channel.

[NMDemDist2]

1. our station in PHX started out like amateurs, they are much better now n/t

[ohio_liberal]

2. You go to war with the radio station you have

Not the one you'd like to have ;)

[MadisonProgressive]

3. Outside with a doobie break?

[Ilsa]

4. No, nothing that mellow. If Clear channel is running the show,

some guy who works there is out having sex with minors while his wife wonders when her 2006 Excursion will arrive.

[peaches2003]

5. Atlanta

Our local AAR station, 1690AM, is fine in my car but not at home. In Atlanta you may get good reception in one place and nothing 5 miles away for all AM stations. I listen to it at home on XM.

[mwb970]

11. I forgot to mention the poor reception.

The Columbus station is at 1230, which is one of what used to be called "graveyard channels" because many low-power stations were assigned the same frequency. This is as opposed to, um, "clear channel" frequencies, which were assigned to only a few high-power stations across the country.

I sometimes can't get a good signal on 1230 even right here within Columbus, much less out of town.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. KXEB in Dallas isn't up to snuff either.

For weeks they've been covering the AAR spots with their own PSAs and Promos, and are frequently late back to the AAR program. (As I write this, they were again late back to Springer.)

I can't imagine why they feel the need to cover AAR promos/PSAs with different ones. Since they have a smaller "library" of PSAs you hear many of the same ones over and over, some only a few minutes apart. Sometimes the same one back-to-back!

We're not talking about the local broadcaster covering AAR with paid commercials, these are unpaid promos and PSAs.

My guess, and only my guess, is that like many stations they have a computerized system. Apparently they haven't figured out how it works yet. Maybe they should put a living and breathing board operator on duty to back up the computer until they get the bugs worked out.

Also, they frequently have periods where the sound drops out every ten seconds or so. It doesn't drop out long, just enough to make it annoying to listen to.

If the AAR affiliates want to be a viable alternative to the powerful and well funded RW voices, they have to do a technical job that is competent enough to attract listeners.

Otherwise the liberal/progressive message looks second-rate just because of this.

[derby378]

19. I've noticed this, too

Border Media is trying; they even had a live KXEB broadcast at the Dallas County Democratic Party Labor Day Picnic. Even though we couldn't hear a damn thing in the auditorium, once we got out to the car, we heard the broadcast loud and clear.

But yeah, this thing of letting the PSAs run over the show is getting tiresome.

[Ruby Romaine]

7. the Ann Arbor station (also CC) is beyond awful- they have RW PSAs &

even ran an ad on Nov 1-
"I'm George Bush- vote for me"
The have horrible rw local news too.
A local company that had a bilboard sized Bush sign on their property runs ads all the time.
they also cut the power to 500 watts from dusk to 7:15 am so you can't hear Malloy.

[LibDemAlways]

8. The other night the AAR station in Los Angeles

played nothing but commercials during Malloy. His voice would sneak through occasionally but the commercials stream would drown him out. I sent e-mails to the station and Malloy telling them that something should be done.

The night before, he took a call from a guy who criticized the station and I'm almost wondering if it was clear channel retribution.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

9. our clear channel AAR station has similar problems sometimes

i often wonder the same thing.....is anyone there?

most of the time it is fine.

this is in asheville, nc.

[Sydnie]

10. I get dead air quite often - lasts for hours!

I have to hunt around the dial for another outlet. The Boston station 1200 AM, quite often goes dead. I can switch to 1430 AM (supposed to be the same station, go figure) and sometimes I can get the signal there instead. My roomie calls it "static america radio" for that very reason.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

12. Chicago (WCPT 850AM) is sloppy, especially on weekends

Frequent dueling audio between local and network. On Saturdays they run a Best of Stephanie Miller for two hours but the second hour keeps getting messed up-- they've rerun the previous week's 2nd hour or they cut to Al Franken's repeat an hour too early-- fixing it after about 5 minutes.
This morning I had to turn it off because the end of Morning Sedition kept buzzing off and on like something wasn't grounded right.

[peaches2003]

13. Question about Malloy and XM/AAR

Mike Malloy broadcasts from here in Atlanta from 10 PM to 1 AM and as I said before I can't receive this local Atlanta AM station very well at night.

Why does XM carry Mike from 1 AM to 4 AM and not live??? All the other AAR shows are broadcast live on XM, but they have Alan Colmes on live from 10-1 and then Mike pre-recorded. Cmon- which show is more interesting and better radio? I'm thinking of sleeping all afternoon so I can stay awake 1-4 AM.

[Rob H.]

14. The one in Memphis isn't too bad

The owner hosts his own show for three hours in the afternoon and it cuts off the first hour of "The Majority Report," though. That I don't like.

I caught Thom Hartmann last week for the very first time when he subbed for Sam and Janeane--now I wish they'd carry his show here!

[Rob H.]

20. I take it back

I was driving home for lunch and they lost the feed for The Al Franken Show--nothing but dead air for at least five minutes; no static, no show, nothing. I checked in about ten minutes after I got home and they were back on, but still. (They've been on here for a few months, btw, so it isn't as if this is all brand new.)

[LeftyMom]

15. Ours isn't bad at all

The station's kinda low-powered but they've got thier shit together in terms of putting the right shows on and such.

[ovidsen]

16. Clear Channel? Say no more.

CC runs a radio station (730 AM) in Charleston, SC that until 2 weeks ago was running AAR. It was so annoying to listen! Double audio, no audio, cutouts and cutins in mid-sentence. Clearly (heh!) a computer run operation where the computer was programmed by a moron.

I blame it on Clear Channel. Cheap bastards.

Now the station's running Beck, Limbaugh. I haven't listened and can't listen long enough to hear if the audio's still screwy.

[MamaBear]

17. New facility in NYC

Morning Sedition broadcasts out of a facility in NYC, and this morning they were beside themselves because they had moved into a new studio. There were frequent dead-air problems even here in New York, although none lasted more than a minute or two while I was listening. Very young workers getting used to new technology could mean some problems originating in New York for a time.

It has taken the New York-based programs a long time to recruit and train semi-competent tech people. I understand that's because they have "no money" to pay for them.

Franken has all the money he wants to take vacation and fly first class, tho. Hey, but nobody's saying anything was stolen, Al.

[Liberal In Texas]

18. New stations typically have "shake-down" problems for a couple of weeks.

The bugs have to get worked out of the equipment and the employees used to working with it. But it should only take a couple of weeks. Some of these AAR stations have been having trouble for months, some are getting worse!

Also, just because Frankin and Springer have money doesn't mean they are funding AAR. They're employees just like the rest of them. That's how they got their money in the first place.

[Mr_Spock]

21. I've scolded the Boston station for playing multiple streams on web

They were aware of the problem and are improving things. They reminded me that the big stations in the area didn't have full technical competence at first either. I had to begrudgingly agree. I even offered my technical expertise for free if they needed it :D