What's 'Left' To Say (HBO's Air America fawnumentary: Lie to advertisers, berate guests, be a hero!)

NY Post ^ | March 29, 2005 | John Mainelli

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ALL-liberal Air America gets a great first-birthday gift this week: an HBO documentary in which everybody — who's still there — is a hero, and evil forces will be vanquished from the land. Maybe not by November, but soon.

"Left of the Dial: America Undercover," which airs Thursday night, is all about the rocky start, near doom and the somewhat-premature happy ending to the left's answer to politically powerful conservative talk radio… < snip >

Not knowing what's ahead, everybody is in liberal heaven during the much-trumpeted March 31 debut designed to stop — as Walsh tells a lavish p.r. bash — "satanic forces of the night."

Then-chairman Evan Cohen, told a newspaper reporter is inquiring about Air America's advertising receipts, asks a sales exec and is told they're "$639,000, pushing 650." In the next scene, Cohen is on the phone with the reporter saying, "Over a million dollars of sold advertising as of today. That's a fact — a documentable fact."

After an ad salesman tells Cohen he just closed a $6,000 deal with Hewlett-Packard, Cohen reports on his cell phone: "We sold a Hewlett-Packard contract for April — $16,000." < snip >

"Left of the Dial" has a fairy-tale finale — fresh financing, 50 affiliates, encouraging ratings — even if Kerry did lose the election, something many of Air America talkers are seen taking personally. But since shooting stopped last December, massive media coverage has faded, ratings have sagged, record-industry exec Danny Goldberg took control — and Jerry Springer was just inked.

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Air America survives only because it is subsidized. There are only a couple of markets where they sell enough ads to stay afloat. They are not a ratings challenge to any front-line conservative (without subsidy) in any major market. They can have Tacoma, Oneida and a few lib college towns -- we'll take the rest.