[goldstategop]

Rush Limbaugh's exclusive look at the demise of the much hyped liberal radio network Air America. It comes down to two reasons: first, the libs ran this as a 527, a political organization and second, there was never a coherent business model behind the venture. Liberals have been trying to duplicate Rush's success since 1988 and they still can't figure out his secret. Actually, it has more to do with belief in your business than the ideology. But if you don't like your product, do you think it will really sell? Liberals don't even like what they do for a living, so how they can they convince other people its good for them. Just ask Al Franken if he made any money off the ill-fated Air America misventure. Its really as simple as Marketing A B Cs. So to Dead Air America - normal Americans can finally say good riddance!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[FormerACLUmember]

Excellent post. Rush however failed to note the criminal nature of Air America looting (literally) widows and orphans: $900,000 stolen from the Gloria Wise charity in NY City.

[proud_yank]

Well, you're looking at this rationally and logically and you're not looking at it from the liberal mind-set.

LOL! Great quote.

[CMailBag]

Error America is alive and well,
they just call it HARDBALL now.

[marron]

Rush's success is due to the fact that he undeniably has talent, and a good analytical mind.

But the success of conservative talk radio in general owes a lot to simple demographics. If you imagine a 50-50 country, the left half of the country has been well serviced by a long list of media outlets. We've had only one, until recently. Left-leaning media fights for market share with every other media company, they must share their 50% of the country among them, so they are lucky to get into double digits. A typical conservative talk show host has no competition at all, there is no other conservative outlet, the whole 50% is his.

Air America's competition was not Rush, it was Oprah. And CNN, and everything else on TV and Radio. They were never competing with Rush, and I don't think they ever understood that. Rush's success, beyond his personal talent, is due to the fact that demographically he has no competition out there.

Fox's success is due to a similar dynamic. There are many left-leaning TV broadcasters; there is only one Fox. The leftist broadcasters have to compete with all their brothers for market share; Fox is the only choice for their half of the country. MSNBC gets killed in the ratings because they compete with ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and on and on down the line. Fox stand alone in its demographic.

[upchuck]

They got $4 million dollars in assets? I have that much in my checking account! ... I'm just kidding about the $4 million in the checking account but, folks, that's embarrassing.

I wonder if he said that, and meant it, and then had second thoughts.

Given the bucks that Rush is paid, his having $4M in a checking account would not surprise me.

[Billthedrill]

I get the impression that some people expected Air America to succeed because it deserved to, and that it deserved to because Rush succeeded. It's as if some weird sort of "social justice" mandated equal success just as it demands equal distribution of material goods, and that failure was not merely a market result but an act of oppression on the part of an audience who had by God better listen or else. You can't run a lemonade stand on that basis.

[quantim]

I heard that call when driving through a white-out squall in northern MI this afternoon - when Rush made the remark about 4 million in his checking account (Air America's assets) I had to pull over. Not because I couldn't see the road, but because I couldn't stop laughing enough to stop my SUV from going over the guardrails.

[mvpel]

So, who won the Air America Dead Pool?

[VOA]

bump

[BenLurkin]

"...it's testimony also to something that you said frequently, and that is that liberals have to hide their agenda. If they come right out and say here's what we're about, it doesn't sell in the marketplace of ideas."

[Benrand]

Ol Rush is being modest or evasive...he's got 4 mil stashed somewhere, AT LEAST 4 million.

[Mr_Moonlight]

Chapter 11 is the first step of bankruptcy to sort out the financial assets and liabilities of a business .. and since Air America has plenty of liabilities and very little, if any, assets, this will lead very quickly into Chapter 7 ... liquidation.
And since there are very few, if any, assets to liquidate .. then we can conclude that Air America is essentially a dead entity

[dogbyte12]

They Aren't entertaining.

I did it in three words.

[William Tell]

goldstategop said: "Just ask Al Franken if he made any money off the ill-fated Air America misventure."

I thought that I had heard that Franken's salary was a million per year. The news about the bankruptcy includes the detail that he is owed $300k.

Has Air America been on the air for 24 months? That would be two million for Franken, and it's claimed that he is only owed $300k. Does that mean that he has pocketed $1.7 million?

It wouldn't surprise me if he had. With four million in assets and 20 million in liabilities, that means that Air America has convinced a lot of creditors that Air America was creditworthy. The bankruptcy filing indicates that they are not.

If Franken got stiffed for the whole thing, it is what he deserves. If the creditors who extended a net $16 million to Air America never see a dime, it is what they deserve also.

[Axhandle]

Well, they've officially declared chapter 11 bankruptcy. Any predictions as to when they will officially declare moral bankruptcy?

[nonliberal]

Nobody wants to listen to a political philosophy based on plunder.

[185JHP]

Crack and crank and perverted sex are the pursuits of a lot of the Dem voters. If they're listening to the radio at all, it's sports or nasty music...

[Yaelle]

Part of Rush's success is that he is correct. Smart, funny, incredibly articulate, but also correct in his worldview. He doesn't have anything to prove. And for all his bluster, you can tell he is quite humble deep down.

Gotta love him. He deserves every penny in that checking account.

[decal]

"So we've gotta get into talk radio, and they thought just by entering it, that they would dominate and be big and huge, and that's why I say they had no clue and no concept..."

Substitute "Internet" for "talk radio" and you have the mindset behind the DUmmies and KOSmiks..."if you build it, they will come."

How many of the Barking Moonbats (BM for short) think "Field of Dreams" was a true story?

[RayChuang88]

The big problem with Air America Radio is that they didn't bother to get radio hosts with REAL talk radio experience. Why didn't they pry Ray Taliafero and Bernie Ward from KGO, for starters? Why didn't they sign up Ed Schultz when they had the chance?