Air America Radio is a radio network that began broadcasting in the United States on March 31, 2004. The expressed goal of the network is to serve as a liberal alternative to what they argue is the domination of right-wing voices on talk radio. The network includes several radio stations over which it has full programming control, and others which syndicate its programming.

During its development it was known as Central Air.

The network's headquarters are in New York City, using the Park Avenue offices, station, and equipment of WLIB, a station which used to focus on the African-American and Afro-Caribbean community.

The context of the time

Since their catastrophic defeat in the 1964 presidential election, opponents of the New Deal coalition had been building think tanks and media to formulate or contribute to a Republican alternative. Groups with right-wing politics moved to harness the emerging alternative media formats, particularly talk radio, and for many years, the airwaves were dominated by Rush Limbaugh and others espousing various right-wing political views. Writers including British journalists Jonathan Freedland, John Micklethwait, and Adrian Wooldridge, have credited this Republican alternative with shifting the tone of American public debate, creating an electoral environment where Republican candidates are more able to succeed, and in which Democratic candidates are forced further to the right in order to be "electable". Micklethwait and Wooldridge wrote about this in The Right Nation.

Conservative dominance of talk radio played a important role in winning a shift in the balance of the United States House of Representatives in the 1994 midterm elections, though other factors such as the Contract with America also played significant roles. That analysis also credits the media with hampering Clinton's second term by keeping alive stories of scandal in the White House, and contributing to the victory of George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election.

The growing realization that liberal groups were becoming ineffective in terms of getting their viewpoint across in the media, was the environment in which the concept of creating a liberal talk radio network emerged as a serious idea.

A rocky start

Air America was started as part of Progress Media, which said it had amassed $30 million in venture capital prior to its debut, a claim which later turned out to be untrue (only $6 million was initially collected).

Two weeks after their debut, Air America Radio was pulled off the air by the owners of two stations the network had licensed in Chicago and Santa Monica, California (near Los Angeles). This was due to a contract dispute between Air America and the station's owner, Multicultural Radio Broadcasting. Air America alleges Multicultural Radio may have sold time on their Los Angeles station to them and another party, and stopped payment on checks to them while they investigated. Multicultural Radio alleges that Air America bounced a check and owes $1 million. Air America Radio filed a complaint in New York Supreme Court, charging breach of contract and was granted an injunction to restore the network on WNTD-AM in Chicago. On April 20, the network announced the dispute had been settled, and Air America's last day of broadcast on WNTD was April 30.

Four weeks after Air America's debut, the CEO, Mark Walsh, and Dave Logan, its executive vice president for programming, left the network. One week after those departures, the chairman and vice chairman, Evan Cohen and his investment partner Rex Sorensen, also left. Some attributed Cohen's departure to investor unhappiness with how he handled the dispute with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting.

Columnist Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News quoted a marketing communications manager from General Motors, declaring "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates."

As part of a reorganization, investors in Progress Media bought the assets of that company, creating its current owner, Piquant LLC. An important change which accompanied the reorganization was a decision to stop trying to buy radio stations, lease air time, or insist that stations carry all of the network's programming.

Support from Clear Channel

Evidence of the network's success is demonstrated by the growing number of stations owned by Clear Channel Communications which broadcast Air America's shows as part of a switch to a progressive or liberal talk radio format. Such stations often broadcast the network's shows in combination with programming such as The Ed Schultz Show.

Clear Channel tested the format at KPOJ-AM in Portland, Oregon, the first station to join Air America as an affiliate broadcasting Air America shows combined with other programming. As a result, the station increased its market share for ages 12 and up by nearly an order of magnitude. KPOJ's spring 2004 Arbitron ratings grew from a 0.4 to a 3.7, and KPOJ moved from 22nd to third in listeners aged 25 to 54.

The success in Portland has led Clear Channel to switch more of its stations to the format, so that as of September 2004 over a third of Air America's affiliates are owned by Clear Channel. This includes stations in swing states such as Florida (West Palm Beach and Miami (12th largest radio market)), Colorado, Ohio, and New Mexico, as well as major markets such as San Diego (17th largest) and Boston (9th largest).

Infinity Broadcasting is also testing Air America on its stations. On October 22nd, Infinity announced that it was switching one of its country stations in Seattle (1090 AM) to Air America.

The senior vice president of Infinity Radio Seattle said of the switch, "We believe this is distinctive programming. There are those in the radio business who believe that shows with a liberal perspective won't get an audience. Air America in recent months has shattered that myth."[1] (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002069848_airamerica22.html)

Promos

Their early promos humorously describe Air America Radio as further to the left than a number of well-known right-wing groups, such as the House Un-American Activities Committee, the NRA, and the John Birch Society, as well as the fictional and apolitical character Betty Crocker.

List of weekday programs

Air America produces seventeen hours of weekday programming, including news summaries at the top of each hour.

• Morning Sedition with Marc Maron and Mark Riley (three hours)
• Unfiltered with Lizz Winstead, Chuck D, and Rachel Maddow (three hours)
• The Al Franken Show (initially known as The O'Franken Factor) with Al Franken and Katherine Lanpher (three hours)
• The Ed Schultz Show with Ed Schultz (three hours)
• The Randi Rhodes Show with Randi Rhodes (four hours)
• The Majority Report with Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder (three hours)
• The Mike Malloy Show with Mike Malloy (three hours, since August 2)

Weekends on some stations

For those stations for which Air America has full control, weekends feature repeats and highlights from their weekday shows, combined with new original programming and some syndicated shows produced independently.

New network programming for weekends includes:

• The Laura Flanders Show with Laura Flanders (three hours)
• Ring of Fire with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio (three hours)
• EcoTalk with Betsy Rosenberg (one hour)
• The Kyle Jason Show with Kyle Jason (two hours)
• The Revolution Starts Now hosted by Steve Earle (one hour)

Affiliates

The network's programs are streamed on the Internet and carried on XM Satellite Radio's America Left (channel 167, which replaces some Air America programming with unaffiliated shows) and Sirius Satellite Radio's Stream 144 (which carries the full Air America schedule). The network has announced a pending deal with Dish Network.

External links and references

• Official site (http://www.airamericaradio.com/)
• Unoffical Air America Message Board (http://www.airamericaplace.com/boards/index.php)
• Unofficial fan site (http://www.airamericatalk.com/)
• Air America Links Unofficial link and streaming site (http://www.airamericalinks.com/)
• Air America Place audio archive (http://www.airamericaplace.com/aa.htm) in MP3 format
• The Randi Rhodes Show ... ARCHIVES! (http://www.randirhodesarchives.com/) in MP3 format
• Archived Radio shows (http://bigelow-springs.net/airamerica/) in Ogg Vorbis format
• NYT: Al Franken, Seriously (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/21/magazine/21FRANKEN.html?ex=1395205200&en=5c47bbc5c11b11f2&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND)
• Liberal radio set for launch at month's end (http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/news/celebrity/mmx-0403110315mar11,0,1267999.story?coll=mmx-celebrity_heds)
• Legal document about dispute with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0414043air1.html)
• NYT: Two Senior Executives Leave Air America Radio (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/28/business/media/28radio.html?ex=1083902400&en=80dfa8b810d745e3&ei=5070)
• More Air America Radio Top Execs Bail (http://radio.about.com/cs/latestradionews/a/aa050804a.htm)
• Liberal radio is airing bad jokes and worst taste (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/192372p-166266c.html), a column by Michael Goodwin
• WSJ: Al Franken's Kitchen Surprise (http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108777724900342526,00.html) (subscription req'd)
• Sundance Channel to Launch Television Version of 'Al Franken Show' in September (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040803/nytu040_1.html)
• Soros Might Bail Out Air America (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/8/13/144228.shtml)
• Air America debuts (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20040822-9999-lz1b22unsaid.html) in San Diego County, California