- ‹ previous
- 5789 of 8831
- next ›
Air America 2.0 -- Any Different from the First Time Around?
In January, Clara wrote about the plan to sell the financially-troubled Air America to brothers Stephen and Mark Green. That deal was consummated yesterday and Mark Green celebrated the event by posting his vision for the new Air America (a/k/a Air America 2.0) on Huffington Post.
Unfortunately, having read Green's essay, I'm a bit skeptical of the "new" attributes of Air America. They sound an awful lot like the old attributes -- the ones that sent them into Chapter 11. Green asserts in the "Huff Po" that Air America will now:
I think you can do all three of those things and still not make any money if the idea of progressive radio is a fundamentally flawed one, or if the execution of your core product is shoddy, or if there simply isn't a market for what you are selling. Green also says Air America will "be a business with a sharp point of view. The era of on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand liberalism is over" (what, AA didn't take a strong point of view before?) and that "Air America will aggressively cover national politics and policies in ways that will be informative, opinionated and entertaining."
Well, okay. It sounds a little like, "We're going to do it better this time!" but I'm willing to be optimistic. Air America covering and maybe even breaking news would be cool, and some genuinely funny content would be welcomed. Go for it, boys, and good luck.
Any readers who have heard Air America in the last few days (or in the next few) should leave their thoughts in the comments. Any material changes?
I will be guardedly opptimistic that AAR 2.0 will be an improved version re politics, direction and financing. I never could reconcile the content of the shows on AAR with the nitwit/regressive advertising of Clear Channel. I hope the new owners will try and woo more 'progressive-minded' sponsors such as Whole Foods, Toms of Maine, NPR/PBS, NRDC, hybrid car manufacturers, etc. I realize that corporations such as Whole Foods are hardly revolutionary, but they can only be an improvement over Viagra, etc.
Good luck AAR 2.0!
I've liked Air America so far. I bought the annual gold membership to the podcasts and hear at least a couple daily, and there are programs I won't miss. I used to listen to Mother Jones Radio and I'd like to see it come back. I realize financially they need change, but I'm not looking forward to it.
The question of advertisers isn't a network issue so much as an affiliate issue. Listeners for our part need to patronize local sponsors. Most sponsors of the Twin Cities station are small local businesses. Maybe even more important is Air America needs more affiliates. Tell local stations to pick up Air America programs. Also, don't expect every program to be funny. Different hosts are, well, different. Franken was funny, to me anyway. David Bender is not funny, but he is a very good interviewer.
I subsribed to XM for Air America, listened to AA for Al Franken, but I stayed around for Randi Rhodes. She is arguably the smartest woman on the planet.
I think aar Is a joke, they have 2 bad incidents operating in nyc as it is, with wlib that they couldn't pay and wwrl that they still haven't paid, both black stations that rather have someone else pay it's bills like aar but aar always jerks them, I expect wwrl to aar on it's dial, because they have been validated via arbitron in the latest ratings, funny how a difference in color in listeners to wwrl gets them into the ratings books, so I don't see aar leaving wwrl, But what would set the world on fire would be to have a liberial network really be liberial and inclusive with voices on it's airwaves...could that happen now? I mean aar is now owned by the green brothers and we all know what Mark Green did in the 2001 nyc mayoral election by having flyers sent into white areas scarring people not to vote for the latino candidate because they were allied with al sharpton...does that really sound liberial? oooh race card? or boogie man card?
Of course Air America is great. What's the alternative? Virtually every AM station on the "public airwaves" is corporate Republican propaganda. AAR has been a godsend to people with a greater-than-eight grade education. I love Air America, because it is the only talk network that loves me.
I would like, however, to see a return of Mike Malloy to AAR.
I'm hooked on AIR AMERICA. Any one I get to listen to it also gets hooked. There is someone for everyone from Randi to Ed. The station rocks and actually has values.
"..AAR has been a godsend to people with a greater-than-eight grade education.."
That is the kind of comment that caused my mother to refer to all progresives as "the liberal elite" when I was growing up. The people liberal values are most often meant to protect are often the disenfranchised and undereducated. It's the Republican with the college degree who can still reveal him/herself to be ignorant of the kind of world views and information that Air America has strived to make available. I like inteligent programming, as well, but we shouldn't think that the division between idealogical perspectives is based on formal education alone.
Good point, Paul Miller - we do need to be careful that we don't fall into the easy trap of assuming any one group ("liberals", in this instance) are *better* than any other group. There's certainly truth in the idea that some folks are more intellectually gifted than others, but it's been my experience that intellect and wisdom do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.
But I don't want to appear like I'm piling on the criticism as regards that comment by hugochomsky. He makes a good point when he illustrates the need for the inclusion of intelligent discourse on the radio. There are a great many of us who crave thoughtful analysis and commentary as opposed to partisan blather and divisive bloviating.
Well said, Deacon.
The best thing about Air America is Rachel Maddow ("monkey!"), who has a sense of humor whereas Jeanine Garafalo didn't, like a lot of our fellow liberal/progressives. Stephanie Miller, and her fill ins this week are even funnier, but they're not AAR. That's how I get thru the Dark Ages, along with Jim Rome and Keith Olbermann.
There is one assumption I wonder about. That the target audience for Air America actually listens to radio, besides NPR that is.
As for
"AAR has been a godsend to people with a greater-than-eight grade education"
That just indicated that you can find bigots anywhere and that some are confused by the difference between intelligence and sitting in a classroom for long periods of time.
I have news for the writer the latter does not create the former.
Case in point I would say.