Air America Show Shuts LA, Chicago Sales Offices; On last legs?

Reuters ^ | May 12, 2004 | Sue Zeidler

[nwrep]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Air America has shut its sales offices in Los Angeles and Chicago and is recasting its business plan, the network's president said on Wednesday as troubles beset the liberal talk show network.

With Air America not broadcasting in those two cities after a financial dispute in April, network president Jon Sinton said, "There's not much sense in having sales offices in cities where you don't control a station."

About 15 to 20 people were laid off in the closing of the sales offices, the latest sign of problems for Air America, launched on March 31 as a liberal alternative to the country's predominantly conservative talk show culture led by right-wing icons like Rush Limbaugh.

Since it started, Chairman Evan Cohen, Vice Chairman Rex Sorensen and Head of Programing David Logan have left while co-founder Mark Walsh has stepped down as chief executive to take a smaller role in the organization.

Sinton said Air America was in "high-level affiliate discussions in Chicago and Los Angeles" and other cities.

Sinton said the company had moved away from its original business model, which was to lease and totally control the radio stations in which its programing ran.

Rather, Sinton said Air America has found success with traditional affiliate relationships, under which it provides about 20 hours of programing per day in many cases in exchange for the ability to sell a certain number of minutes per hour of advertising.

"The business model has changed with our on-air success. The fact that we are moving the needle so quickly with affiliates has surprised us and negated the need for us to control our own stations," Sinton said.

After its launch, a dispute with business partner Multicultural Radio Broadcasting led to its programing being yanked from the air in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Air America, which is said to have more than $30 million in financing, is operating in about nine markets, and on satellite radio and the Internet. Its Web site said that 15 more stations will be coming in May.

"We're always looking for new financing, but the investors we have are committed and we would we like to raise more money," said Sinton, who said that certain people on the board with long-term radio experience have recently taken over key decision-making roles in a departure from the past.

Serious errors in business judgment account for Air America's problems, rather than its slate of programing, say various radio industry insiders.

"It makes you wonder why everybody is leaving the company," said Michael Harrison, editor for Talkers, a magazine about Talk Shows.

"I think the concept of liberal radio is great, but they went about it wrong. They first insisted that stations take an entire line-up. The odds of getting enough stations to take a whole line-up are so impossible."

[JOE6PAK]

1 AL DOWN....

1 TO GO!

[Smartass]

Ahhhaaaeeeee, beautiful toon.

[Mo1]

Air America has shut its sales offices in Los Angeles and Chicago and is recasting its business plan, the network's president said on Wednesday as troubles beset the liberal talk show network.

Didn't they aren't do this??

Well before the courts came in and saved their butts

[FastCoyote]

"The fact that we are moving the needle so quickly with affiliates has surprised us and negated the need for us to control our own stations"

Someone needs to post the BS Meter going into the Red. A lot of Freepers, myself included, have at least some media experience - I don't think any of us could figure out what what Air America's business plan originally was, unless it was "Turn all available investor money into cow manure in as short a time as possible."

[nutmeg]

ROTFL! ;-D

[arthurus]

that famous disclaimer about past performance not being a guarantee of future success.

That is ludicrous.

[Focault's Pendulum]

The fact that we are moving the needle so quickly with affiliates has surprised us and negated the need for us to control our own stations," Sinton said.

Yeah...OK...I buy that.

The most important job Sinton has....is hiring someone that can write a press release, that will not evoke overwhelming guffaws!

[ConservativeMan55]

I love it!

[Riley]

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/strips/mallard/2000/mallard1.asp

[Socratic]

"You can't make this stuff up!!"

But, they surely can!

[nutmeg]

;-)

[Smartass]

AL FRANKEN AND AIR AMERICA DOWN THE TOILET

[ConservativeMan55]

Don't forget to check out the first article on the news scroller at my Web site! Its about Ted Kennedy being an Oxygen Thief!

www.osurepublicans.com

[summer]

I had May 31st in the pool. Looking good

I had June 1. Looking good, too.

[InvisibleChurch]

i wonder how much of this was a ploy on some of these peoples' parts to raise a bunch of $$$ and then spend most of it on salaries ie: theirs ... didn't these people learn anything from coward dean's campaign?

[Realist]

He who laughs last, laughs BEST!!!!!!!

[staytrue]

Serious errors in business judgment account for Air America's problems

This is true with all liberals. Leaving them in charge is like letting the inmates run the asylum.

[billhilly]

""The business model has changed with our on-air success. The fact that we are moving the needle so quickly with affiliates has surprised us and negated the need for us to control our own stations," Sinton said."

Moving the needle so quickly for a lethal injection?

[MJY1288]

From what I have read about the comments made "on-air" by Air America's Hosts, it's no wonder why they're going down the tubes. It's one thing to be a Liberal, it's another to be an anti-American leftist spewing hatred for this country.

Many liberal minded people have serious concerns over the War on Terror because of their sensitive nature and their inability confront the evil in this world, but they do not appreciate a scumbag like Al Franken comparing what we are doing in Iraq to Hitler's Nazi Germany intentions for Europe.

Air America was doomed to fail the moment they contracted Al Franken as a Host. Franken has never had anything intelligent to say about todays political arena, nor has he said anything intelligent about much at all. Yet the Liberals hired this idiot to speak for them!!!!, GO Figure!

Here is the RUB....... Liberals will never succeed in talk radio because they don't want to connect with their audience, they want to preach to them. They don't challenge their audience, they patronize them. They don't lift up their audience, they drag them down.

the bottom line is this.... They will never succeed in Talk Radio because they look at the glass as half full, and that's not what America is all about

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

didn't these people learn anything from coward dean's campaign?

As I understand it, they think the problem with Howard Dean was that he didn't get his message out.