Posted on 07/28/2005 5:49:39 AM PDT by Prov1322
On March 31, 2004, Air America Radio, promoted as the liberal antidote to conservative-dominated talk radio, was launched with great fanfare and prolific media coverage.
Since then, it has generated headlines while losing some stations and picking up others. In April, it fired head writer Lizz Winstead, cocreator of Comedy Central's Daily Show, who is suing for back pay (including money she says she is owed for flogging Vermont Teddy Bears).
Her show, which costarred ex-rapper Chuck D, has been replaced by TV talkmeister Jerry Springer, who is mulling a run for governor of Ohio.
Now that it's possible to compare ratings for this spring to last year's start-up, it's clear that the network has yet to climb out of the cellar.
Air America's overall ratings, which rose initially after all the free publicity, faded before the November election and haven't recovered.
Still, it isn't yet time to call the coroner for Air America Radio, even though some conservative pundits are gloating that AAR is DOA.
"Air America is going to take a long time to grow ratings," said Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of the trade publication Talkers magazine. "People unfamiliar with our industry think ratings are like box-office receipts. But they're not. Radio ratings are slow to build.
"The network got an initial bump from the enormous amount of free press it got. There was a curiosity factor. Now it is settling in."
Air America's programming is now carried in part or in whole on 67 stations. Most are in smaller markets, such as Albuquerque, N.M.; Albany, N.Y.; and Reno, Nev.
Here, it doesn't even register a pulse. The flagship show, hosted by author and former Saturday Night Live comic Al Franken, airs from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays on WHAT (1340 AM).
Both WHAT and the show have fallen off the charts, according to radio-rating service Arbitron, meaning there were too few listeners to measure during the second quarter of this year - the so-called spring book. Franken's show didn't start on the station until Aug. 30.
Franken named his show The O'Franken Factor to tweak his archrival, populist pundit Bill O'Reilly, whose TV show The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel outdraws all other talk shows on cable, and whose nationally syndicated The Radio Factor, with more than three million listeners nationally, is tied for ninth place.
Measured season-to-season - the most accurate way to assess audience preferences, because listening patterns vary throughout the year - Air America has lost audience in major markets, including New York and Boston, since April, May and June of 2004.
Franken, best-selling author of such anti-conservative tomes as Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them and Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, chose to go head-to-head with gabber Limbaugh in many markets. This, it turns out, was not such a good idea.
Limbaugh, still the giant among talkers, with 14.75 million listeners on 600 stations, has squashed Franken like a bug.
Franken's ratings have dropped 50 percent in Boston since spring 2004, and he is down 14 percent in New York, where his listeners now number fewer than 188,000.
"Talk radio is not for the faint of heart. You do not have impact over a short period of time," Jon Sinton, Air America president and head of programming, said in a phone interview yesterday.
Ratings for many conservative talk shows have dropped as well, editor Harrison said. "It's what happens after an election."
But while more seasoned hosts know how to shift the focus to other topics while awaiting the next election cycle, critics complain that Franken is still obsessed with bashing President Bush (when he is not baiting O'Reilly). In contrast to Limbaugh, who mocks his own pomposity, Franken comes across to critics as angry and not funny.
"Is Al Franken going to be the hottest thing in radio? I don't think so," Harrison said. "But it's too soon to say he's finished. A lot depends on how dedicated he is to the show.
"And I get the feeling he's not dedicated to radio broadcasting. He's dedicated to politics and his own celebrity. I think he'll drop out to run for office."
Or, perhaps, he will stay on the air while running for the U.S. Senate in 2008 from Minnesota, his home state. Air America signed Franken to a multiyear contract in November, the network's Sinton said.
Franken has been floating trial balloons about a possible Senate run from Minnesota, and he and his wife have bought a home there. In January the network will move The O'Franken Factor from New York to that state, an Air America spokeswoman said yesterday.
Franken, on vacation and finishing up a book, could not be reached for comment. His show is now "dark," meaning it's dishing up reruns in a "best-of-Franken" format. But a network spokeswoman said that this was only temporary, and that Franken would be back next week.
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Contact staff writer Beth Gillin at 215-854-2917 or bgillin@phillynews.com.
It's another evil Rovian plot! Karl is suppressing the actual listener statistics!
Gotta love it! :o)
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Gotta love it! :o)
"And I get the feeling he's not dedicated to radio broadcasting. He's dedicated to politics and his own celebrity. I think he'll drop out to run for office."
Franken's ratings have dropped 50 percent in Boston since spring 2004, and he is down 14 percent in New York, where his listeners now number fewer than 188,000.
Given the 50 percent drop in Boston and his awful showing in New York, it would appear that more than just his critics agree that he is angry and not funny. I can enjoy funny even if it is at my expense and this guy just isn't funny. His "Oy, Oy, Oy" routine is painful to listen to.
And even his boss admits that his show is more about ego gratification than anything else. Rush enjoys what he does and it shows. Franken is biding his time until something more self-aggrandizing comes along. Audiences can sense this and that is why Rush has squashed Franken "like a bug."
On trips down to DC from NH I can listen to WRKO all the way down to Hartford or even further the I switch to WABC, I think, out of NYNY and can listen to that all the way down to exit 8 or further on the turnpike. I have never had to listen to air america because I don't need to.
"Limbaugh, still the giant among talkers, with 14.75 million listeners on 600 stations, has squashed Franken like a bug."
Gotta love it! :o)
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
I found one of Franken's loyal listeners...
Say what?????
Leni
bttt
If you're in CT and WRKO and WABC fade out, you can listen to Rush (noon-3pm) on WTIC 1080AM or WHYN 560AM. Sean Hannity (3-6pm) on WDRC 1360AM or Howie Carr (3-6pm) on WHYN 560AM.
One of the ways Err America stays afloat.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1451438/posts
Air America Steals from Kids (Air America stealing money from poor minority kids!)
Michelle Malkin ^ | 27 July 2005 | Michelle Malkin
Posted on 07/27/2005 5:31:07 AM PDT by watsonfellow
AIR AMERICA: STEALING FROM POOR KIDS?!
By Michelle Malkin · July 27, 2005 12:12 AM
Air America is being investigated in New York for diverting federal funds--possibly "hundreds of thousands of dollars"--meant for inner-city kids and senior into the station's coffers.
Um, why isn't the New York Times, which has spilled tons of adulatory ink on the liberal radio network, covering this scandal on its front page?
Radio blogger Brian Maloney has the lowdown. Read the whole thing. He sniffed out the story when he spotted this tidbit buried in the NY Daily News about Air America being targeted in a NYC Department of Investigation probe of kids' and seniors' programs being ripped off in the Bronx:
A Bronx congressman yesterday praised the smooth takeover of dozens of programs serving thousands of youngsters and seniors across the borough after the city yanked funding from two sponsoring agencies that have come under a cloud.
The nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and its affiliate Pathways for Youth found their city contracts, running into the millions of dollars, abruptly ended last month by the city Department of Investigation...
In its initial announcement, the DOI said it was probing allegations that program officials "approved significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies."
According to published reports, the allegations involve Charles Rosen, the founder of Gloria Wise who has stepped down as executive director, investing city contract funds in Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network.
Evan Cohen, Air America's former chairman, had served as Gloria Wise's director of development.
A local community paper, The Bronx News, covers the Air America troubles ignored by the national press:
The Bronx News has learned, through informed sources, that the diversion of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in Co-op City to the liberal Air America Radio is at the center of the city’s probe of corruption at the local club.
The money, which was reportedly paid to Air America as a loan, was supposed to be paid back with interest, two unidentified informed sources told the News. One source added that Air America officials, led by an official of the Gloria Wise Club, agreed to help the local club by publicizing its activities.
To date, no indictments have been handed down in the New York City Department of Investigation’s ongoing probe of the Gloria Wise Club’s reported transfer of funds to Air America...
Will Air America's self-proclaimed champions of the poor and downtrodden--Franken? Garafolo? Springer?--touch this story with a ten-foot pole? Will Randi Rhodes trot out her gunshot sound effects to blame the messenger? Or will the gabbers continue maintaining their radio silence?
Like they say: Stay tuned...
***
Just FYI, I've uploaded Charles Rosen's campaign contribution history via Political Money Line: Download file. Cohen contributed $2,000 to the Kerry campaign in 2003.
Money talks, even if Air America won't.
Hannity's ratings were not "slow to build". O'Reilly's ratings were not "slow to build". Were Laura Ingraham's slow to build? Larry Elder's? . . . I bet the "build process" was a hell of a lot faster. MSM making excuses for their Marxist RATs.
They seem to also not understand that they have to be entertaining. None of their shows are even that.
So thats why I find the Daily Show unfunny and liberals love it.
No one wants to listen to radio shows where the host bashes American day in and day out.
So the station isn't broadcasting anything?
We give them to much play here on FR, we should just let them dry up and blow away.
(musical intro)
I was listening to Hannity or Rushbo
When I tried another station...why?...I don't know
I heard someone and I said, man does this guy blow
Ooh-a-ooh
In no time I quickly reached the right conclusion
I determined that he needs a brain transfusion
The poor guy was really suffering delusion
Ooh-a-ooh...the guy was crazy...ooh-a-ooh...he's freakin' crazy
Liberals stunk my radio up...liberals stunk my radio up
Just 10 seconds...that's enough...now, it's in the trash can
CNN and Jennings spew the same old prattle
Those who watch them follow like they're sheep or cattle
In their heads we're sure we heard something rattle
Ooh-a-ooh...the guy was crazy...ooh-a-ooh...he's freakin' crazy
Liberals stunk my radio up...liberals stunk my radio up
Just 10 seconds...that's enough...and that decision had not been tough
Now, it's in the trash can...stuffed down in the trash can
(musical interlude)
I'll miss that old Grundig
Liberals stunk my radio up...liberals stunk my radio up
Just 10 seconds...that's enough...and that decision had not been tough
I won't put up with that stuff...always whining while in a huff
(musical interlude)
Liberals stunk my radio up...liberals stunk my radio up
Liberals stunk my radio up...liberals stunk my radio up
Liberals stunk my radio up...liberals stunk my radio up
Liberals stunk my radio up...liberals stunk my radio up
Liberals stunk my radio up...(fade)
(musical finish)
LOL! ..Who could tell the difference?...the BEST or the WORST...
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