Posted on 03/24/2004 3:22:07 PM PST by RonDog
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Waiting for Al Franken
Posted: March 24, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.comAl Franken launches his new talk-radio program next week. The nation's news media is working overtime to help him succeed. The cover story of the New York Times Magazine this past Sunday was an extended appeal to the readers to give Franken a shot and to explain why he ought to succeed. I can recall no parallel attention ever being lavished on Rush, Sean Hannity or any other center-right host on radio or television. Clearly there is a lot riding on Franken.Radio talk-show hosts like me love this exercise. If Franken succeeds in attracting an audience that Arbitron can measure, he will be bringing additional listeners to the AM dial. This is exactly like adding a popular new store to a successful mall. Everyone wins. Folks who understand radio know that everyone on the dial hopes for the overall success of the dial, not just their own station. Sure we compete, but capitalists especially understand that rising tides lift all boats.
But it is more than likely than Franken will fail, and that scenario as well has a silver lining: With all this hoopla and all this cheerleading from the bigs like the Sunday Times, if Franken still falls on his face, there will be no excuses. A lesson will be written in stone. That lesson: The left doesn't have a popular following, only special interests addicted to benefits or power or both.
If Franken can't match Limbaugh's audience, or Hannity's, or Medved's, Prager's, O'Reilly's or mine, he's going to have to explain why. A lack of talent? Let's stipulate that Franken's the most talented voice on the left, a combination of nastiness and satirical humor as well as a little guy's fury, as demonstrated by his knock-down of a heckler at a Dean event earlier this year.
No, he should succeed if talent is all that it takes.
But it takes more than talent it requires an audience interested in listening to arguments that depend, at least in part, on logic and fact. And that's the Achilles' heel of "Air America," the new liberal network that Franken anchors. The modern Democratic Party is supported by interest groups that align themselves in large part because of power, money and fear not deep-seated beliefs. These folks aren't going to tune in for re-education on why they ought to believe in an agenda. They expect payoffs, and don't need to be tutored on the niceties of debate.
Sure, there are true believers in the agenda of the left. These are the folks who make Michael Moore a best-selling author, and Franken a celebrity in the first place. But their proportion of the radio population is miniscule, and already attached to NPR.
One example: A large segment of the left's coalition in America is the African-American vote. Does anyone seriously believe that Franken the lily-white, privileged Minnesota boy turned acidic voice of west-side Manhattan is going to bring south-central Los Angeles or downtown Detroit to his station?
Franken's appealing to the campus elite and newsroom hand-ringers. How many of them listen to AM radio ever? Sure, he's got the New York Times Sunday Magazine crowd, but how is his ad force going to sell that demographic in the middle of America?
Franken's got a big subsidy and a loud cheering section. But Arbitron ratings require listeners. The first set of ratings to judge Al by will be available in early July after a 3-month period elapses. Given the push he's getting from free ink, he won't have any excuse for not starting strong. If he can't make it here, he won't make it anywhere, and radio general managers and program directors know this and will watch the rollout closely.
I just hope we get updates on Franken's success or lack thereof every bit as detailed as the accounts of his launch. If he ends up in the box marked Mario Cuomo, Jim Hightower and Mike Malloy, there won't be any excuses except this: The folks who care about reason and humor find neither in the whining of the angry left.
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Death knell.
NEVERMIND.
Al Franken launches his new talk-radio program next week ....
Whadaya mean, 'truth' ??? How does that work, by the way ??
By the way, what station will he be on so we can listen and call in?? :)From www.centralairmedia.com:
PROGRESS MEDIAS AIR AMERICA RADIO NETWORK
TO BE LAUNCHED IN SPRING 2004
Talent and Inaugural Markets Announced for National Network
New York, December 1st, 2003 Taking another step toward redefining the landscape of American talk radio, program production and syndication company Progress Media Inc. today announced its Central Air radio network will hit airwaves in the first quarter of 2004, in time for the election season.
Our success to date proves what we have known all along: a progressive radio network can be entertaining and engaging while also being a successful business venture, said Mark Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of Progress Media, Inc. and the Central Air radio network.
Progress Media is in discussions with comedian and author Al Franken, whose book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, a current best-seller and actress, comedienne and commentator Janeane Garofalo. The company also announced the hiring of Lizz Winstead, creator of the Daily Show, to oversee entertainment programming; Shelley Lewis, a longtime network news producer who was most recently in charge of American Morning on CNN, to oversee news programming; Dave Logan, former Chicago radio executive, to serve as Executive Vice President of programming and operations and Martin Kaplan, a screenwriter and former chief speechwriter to Walter F. Mondale, to host a talk show about the news media.
The top talent in the country is coming together to ensure Central Air provides the most compelling and entertaining programming on radio, said Central Air President Jon Sinton.
Central Air will broadcast a full schedule of programming on radio stations they are close to buying in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Boston, five of the ten largest media markets in the country.
Central Air will be available in the first quarter in top markets across the country, and our distribution channels will continue to expand in the coming months, said Sinton.
# # #
There is only one reason that Franken and his ilk established this, they are are trying to get around CFR. This will be a failed piece of dung that will lose $$$, and lots of it, but it will be used for what they need it for. This is not a venture, it is a propaganda machine for the left, pure and simple.
From the Chicago TribuneLiberal talk radio to air in Chicago
By John Cook
Tribune staff reporter
January 14 2004
Ending months of speculation, political humorist Al Franken has signed a deal to host a three-hour daily talk radio program for Progress Media, a New York City-based firm that is trying to launch a national liberal talk radio network.
Progress Media also announced Tuesday that its broadcasts will air in Chicago on WNTD-AM 950. It is the company's first confirmed radio distribution deal. No launch date was disclosed.
"Quite simply, my plan is to alter the political landscape, drive this radical right-wing president from office and stand as a beacon for ordinary Americans who work hard and play by the rules," Franken said in a statement.
Franken said in an interview that he will have a co-host, whom he declined to identify, and that the show will include a mix of guests, produced comedy and listener calls.
Franken likely will go head-to-head with Rush Limbaugh, the embattled conservative radio host and king of talk radio. Progress Media Chief Executive Mark Walsh declined to say exactly when during the day Franken's program would air but did say it would be a "midday" program, which typically means 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Limbaugh airs on WLS-AM 890 in that time slot.
Progress is purchasing the rights to program 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on WNTD from Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, which is in the process of buying the station.
Walsh declined to specify terms of the deal with Multicultural Radio.
WNTD currently broadcasts Spanish language programming. Before that, it was the home of Sporting News Radio, a national sports talk network that failed to catch on with listeners.
Progress said it is close to announcing additional deals--either outright purchases of stations or contracts to air the network's programming--in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The company also announced Tuesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will co-host a weekly program called "Champions of Justice" aimed at exploring the corporate world.
Franken, who aside from being a frequent guest has no radio experience, said his contract is for one year. He declined to disclose any other terms of the contract.
Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune
enjoy...
... and in 10 years, Franken will be broadcasting frothing scat from a rusting bucket of a static-encrusted AM radio show, slamming the Conservative broadcasting networks and FRIN (Free Republic Interactive News), while Rush assumes the wise shoes of radio's greatest, telling the world, "The way it is!" and our kids wonder what the heck a radio is.
Atos
Sure sounds like a loser, doesn't it? Anyone want to bet that the "non-profit organizations and progressive groups" are MoveOn.org et.al. and this is just going to be a non-stop campaign advertisement for the dems?
Hmm ?? Those URL's usually croak after a short time. Good pic, so I saved/uploaded to my site:Orig. URL:
http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/mgm/bandits/al_franken/banditspre.jpg
There is only one reason that Franken and his ilk established this, they are are trying to get around CFR. This will be a failed piece of dung that will lose $$$, and lots of it, but it will be used for what they need it for. This is not a venture, it is a propaganda machine for the left, pure and simple. 26 posted on 03/24/2004 7:11:12 PM EST by timydnucThey have no intention of having a permanent liberal radio personality...they just want someone who will bomb conservatives until election day.
Actually, they have no need to "get around CFR." The liberalism which inheres in "objective" journalism is ratified in CFR; journalists will continue to bombard the public with the same old half-truth-at-best propaganda that they always have.I became conservative by listening to a liberal guy on the radio 20 years ago. He made the mistake of always telling his audience to "think for yourself" and that is the last thing you want to tell a liberal if you want him to stay liberal.
I think that is a likely long-run result of this exercise as well. The quickest way to kill a bad product is to adverise it.But I think that (leftist) journalism needs the cover of a talk show which is actually (or at least rhetorically) to journalism's left. Journalism needs that cover to "position" itself as being "neither left nor right" while it continues its business-as-usual criticism of all politicians from the left.
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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