"Ha! Ha!"
Posted on 04/24/2005 8:10:02 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Air America is just a year old and the darling of the liberal media, who've touted it like there's no tomorrow.
Despite the help, Air America may be heading for the dustbin of liberal media history.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Brian C. Anderson, senior editor of City Journal and author of the new book "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias," says that the "left's answer to conservative talk radio is failing, just as previous efforts to find liberal Rush Limbaughs have failed."
Despite the widely publicized fact that the liberal talk network has grown to 50-plus markets, it pales in comparison with conservative William J. Bennett's morning talk show.
Bennett's program launched at the same time as Air America, and it now reaches nearly 124 markets, including 18 of the top 20, joining the growing ranks of successful right-of-center talk programs (Limbaugh is still the ratings leader, drawing more than 15 million listeners a week), Anderson reveals.
A look at Air America's ratings shows they are "pitifully weak, even in places where you would think they'd be strong," wrote Anderson. "WLIB, its flagship in New York City, has sunk to 24th in the metro area Arbitron ratings -- worse than the all-Caribbean format it replaced .... In the liberal meccas of San Francisco and Los Angeles, Air America is doing lousier still."
Anderson thinks he knows why liberals fare so poorly on the airwaves.
"Successful talk radio is conservative for three reasons:
• "Entertainment value. The top conservative hosts put on snazzy, frequently humorous shows.
• "Fragmentation of the potential audience. Political consultant Dick Morris explains: 'Large percentages of liberals are black and Hispanic, and they now have their own specialized entertainment radio outlets, which they aren't likely to leave for liberal talk radio.'
• "Liberal bias in the old media. That's what birthed talk radio in the first place."
Of course, before the genesis of Air America, liberals had their own radio network: It's called NPR. Unlike conservative networks, which rely on advertising and private means to broadcast, NPR enjoys taxpayer-funded support.
For the talkers, AA is insurance against the return of the "Fairness Doctrine". For Clear Channel AA is protection against liberal shake down when and if the Demons return to power.
Given their recent voting habits and sound bites, Air America is also serving as a source of intellectual inspiration for Chris Shays and Goerge Voinovich.
Reading that article was like trying to eat a third piece of Cheesecake, just too good to finish.
Now that is just plain Rich.
TT
Nam Vet
Interesting. Air America has had immense publicity, whereas I don't think there has been any mention of Bill Bennett's show at all. Yet he has reached double the number of markets over the same period of time.
Even as a regular visitor to FR, I hadn't even clicked that Bennett had a new show. Evidently people just listen to it instead of talking about it.
Are they still on the air?
Truer words were never..., well you know the rest.
They destroyed my favorite radio station (was classic country) when they switched formats last year. I don't remember the date but it was when I went to take my physical exam for my new employer.
New Media links with lots of conservative streaming audio shows
You'll have to go to launchcast.com for the country music though, I guess.
Just in time to pick up these "talents" (eh!) and put them on Al Gore's new network...after all, these twits have "experience".
Republican politicians are notoriously weak kneed. We may need another election cycle or two before we get real change.
I've heard Bennett's show a few times here in the Boston area but I don't like Bill Bennett so probably won't listen again.
Mike Gallagher and Dennis Prager follow him and I like them better.
The station is WTTT in Boston.
I'm proud to say I've never listened to Air America and never will.
Didn't we read Al Gore ( the inventor of the internet ) was ready to launch his much balyhood tv channel soon ?
Perhaps he and Err Amurika can compare notes.
I expect Soros will keep it going for a good while yet.
Efforts to reach people who are uniformed and wish to remain that way are useless.
http://www.rightalk.com
/shamelessselfpromotion
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