Liberal Talk Radio is Busting out all over (ZOT!!! Troll is off to a crispy start)

Contrary to the news on all the major networks, Liberal talk radio has not just begun. Air America is off to a Kick-butt Start and they're just the beginning of a whole WORLD of Progressive media Content, if you're not already familiar with it, that's been in existence and coming into existence, all aimed at sending George W. Bush Back to Crawford, and taking back the congress from the far right wingers who are trying to radically change America; a bloggish article.

Air America Radio goes live, joining a host of other already up and running talk radio, talk internet and soon to arrive liberal cable programs...

Today, there's a huge amount of major media coverage of the new kid on the block, Air America Radio. But they are not alone. There are new liberal talk shows, networks and cable operations either up and running or on the verge of going live. These will be a strong supplement to the existing liberal and progressive news and opinion websites and blogs that already serve millions of visitors daily.

Air America Radio, fielding Al Franken, Jeanene Garafalo, Chuck D,, environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a team that will cover the airwaves from 6:00 AM through midnight EST, will start broadcasting today. The cities they will be covering on opening day include:

New York - WLIB 1190AM Los Angeles - KBLA 1580 Chicago - WNTD 950 AM Portland, OR - KPOJ 620 AM Inland Empire, CA - KCAA 1050 AM Minneapolis MN - WMNN 1330AM If you can dial them in, make sure to contact the station and let them know how happy you are that they are carrying the shows. Then, make sure you support the local advertisers. Tell them you are doing business with them specifically because of the network. Tell them you weren't doing business with them before if that's the case, and tell them how much more you appreciate them for supporting the network if you were already a customer.

If you can't tune in the dial, you can also tune in to Channel 167 on XM Satellite Radio. Email them to let them know you are listening. And if you don't have XM radio, then the website www.airamericaradio.com is promised to have the show accessible by streaming audio on the net.

Here's the anticipated lineup, according to a press release from XM sattelite radio:

"Look out Rush Limbaugh," they're blasting on the major news networks, raising the question, "can the new liberal network make it?".

I'm hoping they're going to be a smash hit. At 10:58 AM the website still wasn't active. By 11:52, when I checked back, the front page of the site had new text and a simple link to a live audio stream. I clicked and in a few moments was listening to a hip-hop song with political lyrics, followed by the song CULT OF PERSONALITY. Here are some of the lyrics:

Look into my eyes, what do you see? Cult of personality I know your anger, I know your dreams I’ve been everything you want to be I’m the cult of personality Like mussolini and kennedy I’m the cult of personality Cult of personality Cult of personality

Neon lights, a nobel prize The mirror speaks, the reflection lies You don’t have to follow me Only you can set me free I sell the things you need to be I’m the smiling face on your t.v. I’m the cult of personality I exploit you still you love me

It is a great beginning that some serious investors have put up serious bucks to put some liberals on the air. We'll see whether political comedian Al Franken can pull in an audience that makes the new network a profit. As an occasional guest on conservative radio (always being going into the interviewed expecting to be savaged for my liberal views and usually invited because of specific statements I've made) I've always been pleased by the number of liberal callers. I know, when driving I listen to conservative radio because there are no liberal shows in my area (Philly.) So there's a good chance that many of the liberals already listening to "the enemy" will simply make the switch to the easily accessible liberal radio shows in the metropolitan areas where Air America Radio is starting.

From a political perspective, in the short term, one problem is, the stations are, for the most part, not in the 17 battleground states, or the cities where the 2004 presidential election will primarily be fought. Hopefully, in the next few months, as the network gets coverage and builds upon its initial foothold, more stations will pick up either the whole network or individual shows. It's likely that, as with any network offering a smattering of new shows, some will survive and some will disappear within weeks, or even days.

Al Franken opens the show by saying that this is a beginning and an ending-- an end to the right wing dominance of talk radio-- a beginning to a battle for truth, a battle for justice, a battle for America itself. Not to be grandiose about it," he spoofed. He goes on to say "This is about relentlessly hammering away at the Bush administration... because they are going down!" And then, my internet connection goes down. I try to log back on again and get a message it may be my network. I test it out, going to my usual noon to three show, the Thom Hartmann show and sure enough, I can tune in, via the internet to it. So I go back to the Franken link and it logs in again, for about 45 seconds. Then I lose it again. Then I get it back and it seems to hold steady for 90 seconds.. then I lost it again and again and again, and for the last five tries, the player seems to connect, but there's no audio

I'm guessing that the site is getting totally overloaded with listeners and they can't handle the bandwidth, plus, it's a new system with normal bugs to deal with. Meanwhile, I've switched back to the Thom Hartmann show, which, when it went independent, ran just fine on its first day on satellite

Blacks Offended by Air America
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040403/HOUPT03/TPEntertainment/Columnists
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1110657/posts

On Thursday evening, the basement of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church rang with passionate denunciations of institutional racism. Community leaders called for a boycott, spoke of arrogance toward blacks, and threatened a class-action lawsuit.

Their unlikely targets? Institutions that the causal observer might think would be bedfellows of the black community: The Democratic Party and Air America, the country's first full-scale attempt at a commercially viable liberal talk-radio network.

Something has gone terribly wrong. The launch of Air America was supposed to agitate Republicans and conservative talk-show stalwarts. Al Franken, the biggest name on the new network's bench, explained in his opening monologue during Wednesday's debut broadcast that he named his noon-to-3-p.m. flagship show The O'Franken Factor, "for one reason, and one reason only: to annoy and bait Bill O'Reilly." He explained that Air America's mission is to "take back the country" from the right wing and, especially, the Bush administration. "In the 2000 election, when George W. Bush said he was against nation building," Franken intoned, "we didn't realize he only meant our nation."

Later that evening, Janeane Garofalo took similar potshots at the Republicans during her three-hour show The Majority Report, named in reference to the Democrats winning the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election. Over the first couple of days, Air America's midtown Manhattan studios hummed with the voices of Lewis Lapham, Al Gore, former U.S. secretary of labour Robert Reich, Michael Moore, John Mellencamp, Ralph Nader and Sen. Bob Kerrey.

A few miles north, black hearts were breaking at the sound of this proud parade of white liberals. Air America is still finding placement on stations across the country, but in New York it is leasing the time for its 19-hour broadcast day on WLIB-AM 1190, which was until this week a pillar of the black community. For three decades, the station had broadcast a mix of talk radio, funky music and news reports on local and Caribbean issues.

But 'LIB was a perennial money loser, unable to pull enough advertisers to its tiny market share, and Air America made an offer the owners apparently couldn't refuse. To some in the black community the action looked predatory, the political stripes of the predator irrelevant because they don't see a difference anyway between Democrats and Republicans.

Bob Law, an activist and former talk-radio veteran, convened the Thursday night rally in Harlem to help organize a response. In front of a small but vocal crowd that often echoed his words in a preacher's call-and-response, Law offered a primer on the economics of radio in the United States as he sees them. He accused the broadcast ratings service Arbitron of intentionally undercounting blacks and suggested Madison Avenue prosecutes an "anti-black strategy." "Ethnic radio stations are kept poor by design," he bellowed, promising a class-action lawsuit against Arbitron.

"The advertising industry is literally subsidizing white radio stations. They take your money for granted, just as the Democrats take your vote for granted."

In the audience, Amadi Ajamu nodded and spoke of her own frustration at the loss of 'LIB. "They're turning this into a white Democratic Party instrument, turning it into something drastically different than what had been built through the years," she said. "We now don't have a voice for our issues like reparations, education, police brutality."

Law chastised the black community for patronizing shops that don't advertise on black radio stations and listed off the other black stations around the country that are either dying or already have been sold and reformatted. He echoed a long-standing complaint about exploitative businesses that open stores in the inner cities and drain cash from the community without investing in the customer base. "That's how Air America came into our community, with disrespect and contempt," he said.

"We're asking every black New Yorker to turn off 'LIB! They need to restructure their on-air product," Law said to applause.

The fireworks even drew interest from the conservative Fox News Channel, which treats infighting on the left with the sugary glee of a three-year-old digging into birthday cake. A reporter and cameraman showed up and feigned sympathy to the cause, grabbing an angry sound bite, then scooting away before the evening was through.

The flap hints at the difficulties for the left as it gears up to defeat Bush. Though Air America is not owned by the Democratic Party, Law suggested it was, and didn't correct those in the audience who attacked the party. "The Democrats have greatly offended us with their insensitivity," he said. "We should use our vote like a weapon." If they choose to pick up that weapon when it's offered them in November, they may accidentally shoot themselves in the head.

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