More of Air America's Dirty Little Secrets

More private e-mails posted with permission | Paul Phillips

[E Rocc]

More from Paul on the infomercial network.

-Eric

[Straight Vermonter]

FYI, WTWK is up here in liberal lover land and folks are mad as hell that Dr Laura et al are off the air.

[blanknoone]

and they shower way more often.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

[Smartass]

When was the last time they took a bath?

[arasina]

I wonder if Air America is at 527 on the radio dial in any of the little markets they managed to fool? :o)

[rudy45]

Is a publishing analogy valid here? If I were an author, and had a truly great work, then publishers would clamor to print my work, and pay me royalties.

On the other hand, if I have a crummy product, then I have to pay the PUBLISHER to print my work (?vanity publisher?).

Is this analogy accurate?

[Focault's Pendulum]

WTWK, Plattsburgh, NY. A blowtorch signal for them, five thousand watts! Right now they are airing about half the Air America programming. This fall, they will air way less than half. They will only air programming from sunup to sundown, once the sun goes down, Air America disappears. That's becuase the station only has a license to broadcast during daylight hours. On the bright side, they ARE carrying literally all they can.

That's called a sunrise to sunset station....usually at the appropriate hour a 50,000 watt station turns up it's juice.

A good example of this is the old WADB station...now WOBM AM in Lakewood NJ. At sunset WWVA Wheeling West Virginia, takes over.

Also S2S Staions are almost always tuned antennas which limit their geographic broadcast range.

[UnChained]

, "Conservative talk radio is the alternative media. It became popular because conservatives lost the battle for the political culture, not because they won it."
---Jonah Goldberg ---

They don't need to succeed with Err America.

They already have: CBS_NBC_ABC_MSNBC_NPR_CNN_MGM_AP_UP_REUTERS_BBC_ALJazera_ETC

It's hard to take any glee in Franken's big failure since liberalism dominates the rest of the media.

[garyb]

Legitimate radio (and television) programs DO NOT, EVER, PAY FOR AIR TIME. The most basic arrangement is that the "network" provides a program in exchange for the local "affiliates" running paid ads within the program, and then the local station keeps a certain number of minutes to sell itself.

That might be true for radio. For the big three television networks, -with some exceptions- they DO pay local stations compensation for broadcasting their programs.

[okie01]

Is this analogy accurate?

100%.

[litany_of_lies]

Legitimate radio (and television) programs DO NOT, EVER, PAY FOR AIR TIME.

When O'Reilly went to radio, Drudge revealed that O'Reilly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get onto certain stations in certain markets (DC was one). This was framed as very unusual or almost unheard of at the time. O'Reilly bashed Drudge but never denied his central claim about paying to get on the air.

If AirAmerica is doing the same thing to a greater degree, it's obviously a reflection of their difficulty in getting on the air, and does not bode well for their future. But they're not doing something that has NEVER been done.

It also indicates that whoever their "investors" are might be more interested in getting the liberal message out and losing money ad infinitum than they are in ever becoming viable. By contrast, O'Reilly in most cases didn't have to pay to get on the air and is most likely making money.

If they weren't so unimportant in the grand scheme of things, it would be interesting to challenge their entire business approach on the basis that it is simply a "clever" way to get around campaign-finance laws. After all, if they're simply a paid vehicle to promote leftist views and (more importantly) to defeat Bush (i.e., influence an election), how can they be exempt from the law? BUT...they are so unimportant that any attempt to enforce this would give them more publicity and notoriety than they could ever get on their own, and might be used as a pretext for reopening the Fairness Doctrine issue that Renaldus Magnus so wisely swept away in the late 80s.

It's probably not worth pursuing, because they probably won't be around long, or if they hang around they'll never have meaningful influence (just like Salon). Also, any money being burned on Air America is money that could have otherwise been used more productively to promote leftist causes. So I say let 'em be stupid.

[The Great RJ]

Air America is going broke and is failing to garner either listeners or sponsors. When they fold--I'm betting long before the November elections--they will blame right wing media interests and conservative talk radio for killing their success.

Wake up Franken and Garafolo--no one is listening.

[litany_of_lies]

It's hard to take any glee in Franken's big failure since liberalism dominates the rest of the media.

Some glee should be taken when it is proven once again that any time it tries to compete in a free market for ideas (as a opposed to the entrenched shops of the mainstream networks and NPR), liberalism loses, and loses big.

Not an original thought-credit the lovely and gracious Ann Coulter.

[litany_of_lies]

I predicted that Salon would fold shortly after the 2000 election. It should have, as it continues to lose money, stiff creditors, and (probably) stiff ex-employees, writers, and others.

But I erred in underestimating the need for liberals to save face and NOT admit failure, no matter how much money it costs. That's why fools like Jan Wenner of Rolling Stone and the Adobe bigwig continue to pour money into it (likely at the urging of their DNC friends.

I believe that Air America will stay around until at least after the election because liberals can't afford the negative pre-election fallout if it fails before the election. If their backers have to flush millions down the toilet to enable that to happen, I predict they will. If/when it does give up the ghost, it will be the most silent failure ever not reported.

[THX 1138]

WKIZ-AM 1500 (Does the AM band go that high?), Key West, Florida. A three tower directional AM running....get this...TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY CONSTANTLY COOKIN' WATTS! WOO-HOO!!

Hamster on a treadmill.

Geez, no wonder I haven't heard them...

[litany_of_lies]

As of a few moments ago, they only have the nerve to list 4 (count'em) affiliates on their web site (NY, Cgo, Portland OR, Inland Empire CA), plus San Francisco is (supposedly) coming soon. The ones you mentioned (Plattsburgh, Key West, Minneapolis, Chapel Hill) aren't even indicated, so I guess we should give them half a brownie point for not totally deceiving us.

Geez, if they're having a hard time in SF, they really can't make it anywhere.

[GeronL]

WKIZ-AM 1500 (Does the AM band go that high?), Key West, Florida.

A three tower directional AM running....get this...TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY CONSTANTLY COOKIN' WATTS! WOO-HOO!!

250 watts!!!

I have light bulbs that powerful!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

[litany_of_lies]

The one direction the tower probably doesn't bace is towards the Gulf. They ought to enable that fourth direction so Fidel can tune in.

[Plutarch]

Err America has their very own 24/7 channel on XM, which really makes me wonder about XM. Its bad enough getting the unbleeped profanity on the alternative rock stations. XM hasn't seen fit to provide conservative talk radio but they were ready to offer Err America a raison d'etre from the moment it went on the air.

[Tribune7]

Air America is an infomercial? Would it be covered under the Dem-supported CFR law?