Free Republic

*** Exclusive To The Radio Equalizer *** Has Janeane Garofalo's liberal talk show been declared FUBAR by Air America Radio? With one source indicating (via hard copy information) that it may leave the airwaves as soon as tonight, it appears very likely that the self- loathing and acerbic talker / actress / Hollywood political hothead may already have done her last show.

*** Exclusive To The Radio Equalizer - Part One ****** Updated With Breaking News Below *** It has long been reasonable to characterize Air America Radio as having an every man- for- himself work environment, where the name of the game is to see who grab the most cash before the whole mess finally comes crashing down. Add to the mix a nearly- constant stream of financial support from Real Networks honcho Rob Glaser and billionaire currency raider George Soros and the greedy temptation to push for obscene salaries, perks and benefits simply becomes too great to resist. Central to...

Have some liberals finally had enough of Al Franken & Friends? While Stuart Smalley's defenders continue to pound your Radio Equalizer for relentlessly exposing the truth about this partisan talk network, some of its harshest critics actually come from the left! In the past week alone, "progressive" mega-blog Daily Kos has featured two anti-Air America Radio rants, the latest with reader comments similar to these sentiments: An earlier diary here has a lot of comments I agree with, including especially that Air America is too much top-down. Trying to build an instant radio network from a studio in New York...

For talk radio hosts seeking fresh fodder, it was just what the doctor ordered: yet another flap involving Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), son of the notorious Teddy (D-Chappaquidick). Call it talk's instant battery recharge. How could anyone resist this one? Late Thursday, news spread like wildfire that Rep. Kennedy had been involved in his second car accident in just the past two weeks, this time at 3am, near the Capitol. Unlike his father's infamous 1969 wreck, there were no fatalities this time. One striking similarity, however: in all three crashes, based on available details, favoritism allegations seem to have substantial...

.....Will Air America's chicanery pay off?--------------------------------------------------------Posted: February 17, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Is it a dirty scam to elect Democrats to office using inappropriate means, or an innocent effort to discuss progressive viewpoints over the radio? You be the judge. Featured on the website for the liberal radio network Air America Radio is an effort called "Fighting Dems" that targets Republican candidates for office. The idea of openly campaigning for Democrats is the raison d'etre of Air America Radio, which on a daily basis carries the water of Democrat politicians and liberal political causes alike. What really...

Last year, I was privileged to work with Brian Maloney of The Radio Equalizer on an ongoing blog investigative series about beleaguered Air America radio's finances. Brian has continued to dig and dig deep on the story. He has a new report here and will discuss it tonight on The O'Reilly Factor. Brian asks: "Did Al Franken's outrageous salary demands hamper Air America's ability to repay the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in 2005?" Excerpt: During the same mid-to-late 2004 period when Air America parent Piquant LLC was quietly considering how to resolve the still-undisclosed scandal, Franken was demanding...

For Seattle's Mike Webb, calling for President Bush's "execution" had no effect on his position. In fact, his show was subsequently expanded by an hour. Nor did his on-air hope that Ronald Reagan had "really suffered" before his death make any difference. While it's hard to imagine conservatives getting away with similar rhetoric, somehow one of America's most extreme, hate-filled radio programs managed to remain on a major radio station in Seattle for years, despite marginal ratings performance. To find something similar on the extreme right, one would have to look to shortwave radio broadcasts. Mike Webb was to the...

When Air America's epitaph is finally chiselled into a cold granite headstone, which antics will be most remembered as standout, rock-bottom moments? The Randi Rhodes Show's Bush execution skit? Or Al Franken clearing the room with a long-winded radio convention speech? The Radio Equalizer hereby nominates Air America host Sam Seder, who's managed not only to make the liberal radio network look less credible than ever before, but at the same time, taken CNN itself down for the count. It was audience tune-out, defined.

Video clip of Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney discussing Air America mess on "O'Reilly Factor" on FOX News Channel. Is it about to go under? More info: http://michellemalkin.com http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com

If you believe Air America, Al Franken, and their clueless defenders, the liberal radio network's now-notorious financial problems with the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club were solely the fault and purview of its previous ownership--and in particular, former AAR chairman Evan Cohen (the man Franken singled out as a "crook" on his radio show). In one of its first statements on the matter in late July, Air America attempted to distance itself from "the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club" and spoke of the charity's dealings with Cohen as if they were...

Al Franken, explain this one Published September 11, 2005 Al Franken appears to be caught in a fib -- a "lying lie," he might call it -- about Air America's loans-from-children scandal.     To his employers' credit, Air America is seeking to put the scandal behind it: On Thursday, the network wired the remaining $825,000 it "borrowed" from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx to the club's lawyers. Air America's parent company, Piquant LLC, had initially denied responsibility for the total of $875,000 in questionable transfers, claiming a previous owner was liable. But the negative publicity from...

INSIDE AIR AMERICA: AL FRANKEN'S LYING LIES By Michelle Malkin   ·   September 07, 2005 02:22 AM Inside Air America: Al Franken's Lying Lies Part of an ongoing investigative blog series by Brian Maloney and Michelle Malkin Sept. 7, 2005 (Part II of this installment is at The Radio Equalizer) *** Take a close look at this signature. It belongs to Air America host and crusader for truth Al Franken. It is contained in a legal document we have obtained that exposes the Grand Canyon-sized chasm between what Al Franken says and what Al Franken does. On July 27, our blogs...

What really goes on inside Cindy Sheehan's Crawford camp? Is it really about grassroots activists joining together, or has she merely been used by political operatives in Ben Cohen's San Francisco-based nonprofit? Friday's Rusty Humphries show (where I filled in as host), featured Curtis Loftis, a conservative activist who managed to get direct access to nearly everyone in Sheehan's group, merely by blending in.

Part One: http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003384.htm Part Two: http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2005/08/inside-air-america-investigation.html My investigative blog partner, Brian Maloney, watched the surreal appearance of Air America co-founder Sheldon Drobny on C-SPAN this weekend. Drobny was on the network to plug his 2004 book, "Road to Air America: Breaking the Right Wing Stranglehold on Our Nation's Airwaves." Click here for Brian's exclusive transcript/analysis of Drobny's remarks and the second half of our Sheldon Drobny files. Our thanks to the caller from Dallas who broke the silence about the Air American financial scandals on the program. Drobny was visibly uncomfortable. As he should be. Drobny, a deep-pocketed, self-described venture...

Air America, the much-hyped liberal media ven ture that was supposed to revolutionize talk radio, is "solvent and apparently stable": So claim the gullible cheerleaders at The New York Times, who made that unsubstantiated assertion in a recent glowing profile of Air America host Janeane Garofalo. But behind the fawning headlines and celebrity kiss-ups is a tale of astounding financial and legal chaos. The city Department of Investigation and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer continue to conduct separate probes into a dubious loan scheme involving Air America and the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. An estimated $875,000 of...

August 22, 2005 -- AIR America, the much-hyped liberal media ven ture that was supposed to revolutionize talk radio, is "solvent and apparently stable": So claim the gullible cheerleaders at The New York Times, who made that unsubstantiated assertion in a recent glowing profile of Air America host Janeane Garofalo. But behind the fawning headlines and celebrity kiss-ups is a tale of astounding financial and legal chaos. The city Department of Investigation and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer continue to conduct separate probes into a dubious loan scheme involving Air America and the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club....

On May 20, 2005, comedian Lizz Winstead filed suit in New York, detailing a laundry list of allegations against Air America Radio parent Piquant LLC. Accusing the company of failing to pay wages, promotional fees, accrued holiday compensation and severance, Winstead is seeking $290,716, plus interest. You can download her entire complaint here. Does the company's behavior toward her help to demonstrate a pattern of ethics and integrity lapses in its overall business dealings?

Until a few weeks ago, the biggest worry for executives at Air America was what to do about the liberal radio network's alarmingly low ratings. Launched amid much hype on March 31, 2004, Air America, with Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Randi Rhodes, and a host of other anti-Bush personalities at the microphone, has, with the exception of a few cities, had great difficulty finding an audience. Even in New York, where the network's true-blue message should be welcome, its daily average ratings are actually lower than those of the Caribbean talk-and-music station it replaced a year and a half ago...

By Michelle Malkin · August 18, 2005 02:48 PM Part II is up at The Radio Equalizer. Brian Maloney and I take a close look at the financial plans of Sheldon and Anita Drobny, the deep-pocketed, far left Illinois Democrat couple who dreamed up Air America and have been involved in its many strange and dubious business reorganizations. The key questions that curious radio industry veterans, financial observers, skeptical investors, and business reporters should be asking Air America: What is Nova M? And why now?

On July 21, 2005, a standing room-only crowd of Democrats filled a Highland Park, Illinois, public library conference room to hear two local businesspeople talk about their company and its future plans. The attraction? These weren't your everyday corporate suits: it featured Sheldon and Anita Drobny, who last year put Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo on their upstart liberal Air America talk radio network. Hearing about their "success" was surely appealing. To Democrat activists, these were bona fide celebrities. Sheldon, a Venture Capitalist, CPA and former IRS agent, spoke first, according to the 10th District Democrats Newsletter:

KSFO/San Francisco talk host Melanie Morgan's group Move America Forward is organizing a counterevent, to take on Cindy Sheehan's Crawford circus, that has Rhodes so excited: Next week Move America Forward will be leading a caravan to Crawford, Texas - to present an alternative voice to that of Cindy Sheehan, who has become the heroine of the "Blame America First" crowd. The Move America Forward's caravan (the "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" tour) will consist of family members who have loved ones fighting in the war against terrorism - stationed in either Iraq or Afghanistan. The truth is that...

Inside Air America: An Investigative Blog ReportPart. 1: A Trail of Debts By Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney michellemalkin.com/radioequalizer.blogspot.com August 17, 2005 *** It's not just the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls that's knocking on Air America Radio's door looking for lost money. According to court records obtained by Radio Equalizer/MichelleMalkin.com, another major creditor has been demanding that Air America pay up. The liberal radio network has refused to do so, despite a court order and scathing words from a New York judge overseeing the case. Now, the creditor--Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc.--has filed a new complaint, accusing Air America and...

Why have so few on the left been willing to admit Air America Radio might be an ideological liability? So far, the Radio Equalizer has been wrong in predicting New York Times and AP scandal coverage would force liberals to try new ways to defend the network. Instead, it's still about insults and claims of a made-up story. Air America's own strategy is now about diversionary tactics, with Cindy Sheehan's rabid supporters in Crawford and one of the network's hosts providing needed cover. If enough people can be convinced AAR's programming is responsible for the activity around the Bush family...

Brian Maloney, who broke the Air America scandal in the blogosphere over a week ago while the Exempt Media still mostly ignores it, now hears whispers from inside the netlet that employees worry about the company missing its payroll obligations. A delay in posting direct-deposit pay for their final July paychecks apparently has Air America employees buzzing, although anonymously: It's bad enough the company is generating fresh bad publicity almost daily, over the diverted $875,000 in taxpayer funds intended for a Bronx-based community service organization. Now, to make matters worse, an internal memo obtained by the Radio Equalizer indicates Air...

Less than a day after the New York Times botched its Air America scandal coverage with an inaccurate Al Franken quote, along comes the AP, to do it correctly. Wow, there's a way to kick your weekend off on the right foot! Apparently, AP felt the need to wait until almost 17 days since the Radio Equalizer's first piece, but hey, better late than never. Also, releasing the story on a Friday evening, going into a summer weekend does not exactly ensure a lot of coverage.

Repairing Al Franken's mangled public image is probably not a job for the Radio Equalizer, but I do still have to wonder about his reconstruction strategy, unveiled today in the New York Post, via John Mainelli: AL Franken says 20,000 poor kids and old people weren't the only victims of an exec who allegedly arranged a Bronx charity's mega-buck "loan" to Air America. "About three weeks into the life of Air America, I became an involuntary investor — I stopped being paid," Franken told listeners yesterday on WLIB (1190 AM).

Just how bad are workplace conditions for Air America staffers? Perhaps far worse than we'd previously thought. It's bad enough the company is generating fresh bad publicity almost daily, over the diverted $875,000 in taxpayer funds intended for a Bronx-based community service organization. Now, to make matters worse, an internal memo obtained by the Radio Equalizer...

If you thought Air America's sleazy scandal involving $875,000 in taxpayer funds meant for a Bronx-based nonprofit had begun to fade into the background, guess again. Because the mainstream media ignored the story, public awareness has instead built up slowly. Yesterday, "Air America" was the most requested term at blog search engine Technorati, and we don't believe it's due to a sudden interest in Franken's political views.

Increasing Liberal Anger Over Air America Coverage Misplaced Anger Killing The Messengers, Plus Other Air America Updates Increasingly bent-out-of-shape Liberals are reacting with rage over Air America's corporate meltdown. Are they mad at Air America Radio, for not yet repaying nearly $900,000 in taxpayer funds, improperly received from the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club? Or for their terrible public relations mishandling of the scandal? Nope, instead, angry lefties would rather blame everything on Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt and yours truly. And, they've started a campaign to dominate the comments section of my site, in apparent retaliation for kicking...

BRIAN MALONEY: "Was a veteran CBS radio reporter sacked after complaining about her spiked terrorism reporting?"

--- Air America hosts are still pretending on-air as though nothing is happening, continuing attacks against the Bush "crime family". Apparently they believe the mainstream media will continue helping AAR avoid negative publicity. If the New York Times finally covers this, they're finished. Maybe that's what worries Times staffers most, they don't want to kill off allies. --- Common email question: where's Drudge?

What's next for Air America's programming and personalities, after a week of blogospheric pummeling and self-destructive corporate behavior? Many have asked that question in recent days, wondering if Franken & Co. could actually face real consequences. Not just legally, but in terms of public image, as they take self-inflicted beating after beating. A fresh example of success from St. Louis, however, proves Air America's real fate may be in your hands.

Now that Air America's sleazy funding scandal has received more attention, how can we continue to demand full accountability from the firm? Here's where things stand: --- Since the company isn't denying it received at least $480,000 in taxpayer funds meant for a Bronx community center, why doesn't it feel the need to repay the money, simply because of a network ownership change? If any of the money was repaid, why won't they tell us? Some radio talk hosts have begun on-air campaigns to demand it be returned.

What happens when mainstream media folk, after years of seething over conservative talk radio's success, discover its alternative got diverted federal funds, earmarked instead for inner-city youth and seniors? The answer, with one key exception: they pretend it didn't happen. Yes, only because of a New York Daily News tidbit do we know how Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club nearly shut down major programs recently, because almost $500,000 in federal grant money was instead diverted to Air America's liberal radio network.

Air America is being investigated in New York for diverting federal funds--possibly "hundreds of thousands of dollars"--meant for inner-city kids and senior into the station's coffers.Um, why isn't the New York Times, which has spilled tons of adulatory ink on the liberal radio network, covering this scandal on its front page? Radio blogger Brian Maloney has the lowdown. Read the whole thing. He sniffed out the story when he spotted this tidbit buried in the NY Daily News about Air America being targeted in a NYC Department of Investigation probe of kids' and seniors' programs being ripped off in the...

Will former President Bill Clinton soon take to the nation's airwaves? This potentially earth-shattering radio industry announcement was buried in a lengthy Business Week report on the future of Clear Channel Communications, America's largest station owner and program syndicator.

From the universe of annoying liberal habits, here are two that consistently jump off the page: --- When our viewpoints are intentionally misrepresented, to suit their cartoonish horns-on-heads images of conservatives. --- When they use their still-considerable mainstream media muscle to hire phony, weak, or otherwise ineffective "conservatives" for radio, television and newspaper gigs, in order to make our side look foolish. That likely explains how lightweight pundit Tucker Carlson has landed yet another TV talk show

Washington Post's Kurtz Adds To Liberal Talk Hype Recently I've been asked by several people, including in a national radio interview last night, why I spend so much time attacking liberal talk radio. Let me make it clear: if liberal talk can succeed on its own, then I have no dispute. After all, who can argue with success? If there's an audience for it, far be it for me to fight the tide. Countering the dishonesty, that's what motivates the Radio Equalizer. For over a year now, we've been subjected to slanted reports, puff pieces and softball interviews of Air...

What does it take for an award-receiving talk show host to empty a room full of radio industry leaders and supporters? Air America host and alleged comedian Al Franken managed to do just that over the weekend, with a long and rambling speech that had both liberals and conservatives, bolting from the facility.

Eclipsing grumbling over the recent hot, muggy weather, Cape Cod is abuzz over two big developments on the Teddy Kennedy front. Together, they paint an unpleasant picture of just how poorly family members seem to treat each other, with Sen. Kennedy topping the list.

Blogging has quickly become the hottest thing on the Internet, so when media personalities such as Arianna Huffington and others decide they'd like to join the party, it's a yawner. It's late in the evening, the food is gone and the bar needs to be restocked. So Sean Hannity's announcement of his new "HanniBlog",

What's happening to talk radio in the Puget Sound area? Tonight's fresh ratings data for the Seattle-Tacoma market doesn't bode well for the format. Soon after the data's release, the Radio Equalizer was already hearing from readers, who thought these declines really jumped off the page. Liberal, conservative, it just didn't matter from Arbitron's perspective: Lattleland seems to be suffering from talk radio fatigue.

The Reverend Al Sharpton's fledgling talk radio effort, not yet even off the ground, just got a huge boost from the least likely place imaginable: Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh is offering coaching assistance to Sharpton, as he's apparently been invited to guest-host Rush's show for 30 minutes at a time, while being critiqued along the way by the man himself. Is the man-of-many-cigars serious about making Al "the Limbaugh of the left"?

Is talk radio becoming derailed by peculiar programming moves, unfocused hosts and some who just don't belong on the air? Recently, the Radio Equalizer has begun to receive feedback from industry managers, air talent and listeners, alerting me to disturbing developments in the medium. At a time when blogs, XM, SIRIUS and podcasting threaten AM radio from every angle, one would expect a sharp focus on what works, an effective plan of attack. Instead, the decisions become more baffling every day, with no sign of change coming soon.

Are Zimbabwean thug Robert Mugabe's increasingly brutal crackdowns on virtually every segment of society leading the country toward inevitable civil war? In a race against North Korea to claim the world's biggest basketcase title, the government recently attacked poor citydwellers and announced plans to nationalize all farmland, abolishing private land ownership.

What would have been a quiet holiday weekend for the blogosphere, has instead been energized by a single post, on a brand new site. It's about courage, a newspaper reporter not afraid to make waves in a stuffy, elitist atmosphere. And it proves that nothing has changed in America's newsrooms since last year's Rathergate. How could Boston Globe technology reporter Hiawatha Bray be virtually alone in demanding Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley back up her absurd statement, that American troops were intentionally targeting journalists in Iraq?

When Ted Koppel, host of ABC's "Nightline" program, announced last year he'd recite the names of 721 fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, a firestorm of controversy erupted. Conservative groups protested, a major television station owner boycotted the show and a fierce debate raged for days about Koppel's motives. Sinclair Broadcasting of Baltimore yanked the program that evening from all of its ABC stations, saying it was a partisan attempt to boost John Kerry's sagging poll numbers, by highlighting the toll of Bush's decision to invade Iraq. It's a whole different ballgame this year,

Isn't it amazing to watch one liberal after another, lining up to take on conservative talk radio, even as the latest "progressive" offerings are busy falling apart? There's something about a mindset that can really believe, despite any experience hosting talk shows, they can do what all the other liberals couldn't. Reverend Al Sharpton's the latest to take the plunge, with immediate questions about his viability, or real future prospects

(latest radio ratings in Boston): WBZ holds first place with a 7.3. Conservative talker WRKO up slightly, from a 4.1 to a 4.3, for sixth place overall. Conservative WTKK-FM turns in a flat performance and ranks 10th. Air America's two Boston stations disappear from the radar screen, that's right, they are no-shows. Blame the signal quality all you want, but they were getting at least some ratings before. Even major free publicity from the Boston Globe didn't help one bit. Can't wait to hear the lame excuses. Bet the Globers won't be dwelling on this news.

How does a crusty, mean-spirited, Kerry-supporting fossil like Don Imus manage to stay on the air? Does he have the best lawyers, who write iron-clad contracts? A world-class superagent? Compromising photos of corporate execs? All of the above? Or is it simply the age-old art of coasting on one's earlier success, where a shrinking energy level meets increasing compensation?