The Air Out There (What did Al Franken know, and when did he know it?)

Weekly Standard via Yahoo ^ | 8/05/05 | Hugh Hewitt

[Libloather]

The Air Out There
Hugh Hewitt
Fri Aug 5,12:06 PM ET

Washington (The Daily Standard) - WHAT DID AL FRANKEN KNOW, and when did he know it?

When Air America launched last year, it was the beneficiary of more free publicity than any radio show or network launch had ever received. So desperate was the mainstream media to find some left-leaning response to the Limbaugh-led revolution in talk radio that the many and obvious flaws in the network's offerings went largely unreported. Those of us who have been around radio studios for a few years know, though, that launch hype and selective reading of Arbitron results can never mask the key question: Is a show profitable? Do the ads sell? Do sponsors arrive and stay, year after year? Does the affiliate list grow and grow?

The answers to those questions are yes, yes, yes, and yes for Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved and, yes, me. About Air America it is very hard to say because, well, the numbers are hard to come by. When the Philadelphia Inquirer took a hard look in July, the assessment wasn't rosy:

Now that it's possible to compare ratings for this spring to last year's start-up, it's clear that [Air America] 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. . . .

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.

To its troubles over audience decline must now be added the very strong smell of scandal. Though you, and apparently New York's publicity-addicted Attorney General Elliott Spitzer, may not have heard, Air America is in some serious trouble for its creative start-up financing.

The full details are available from bloggers Radio Equalizer, Michelle Malkin, and Ed Morrissey, and New York Sun reporter David Lombino is digging as well. Short version: Not-for-profits that exist to serve kids and Alzheimer's' patients, overwhelmingly via the funds obtained from government grants, should not be "investing" in incredibly risky start-up radio networks. But the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club--apparently now defunct--did just that last spring, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into Air America's coffers.

Here's the most recent IRS Form 990 for the Club. Here's the one from the year before. The Club does not appear to have made any prior "investments" of this sort, and if there are "investment guidelines" from which the Club's Board of Directors was operating, I will be very, very surprised. My producer and I have spent a lot of time trying to get a member of the board on the record about the investment. The only one who agreed to talk to us referred us to Rubenstein Public Relations. An assistant to Richard Rubenstein called me to relay that he didn't know anything about the "Gloria Wise story." Odd.

But nothing is so odd as the black-out of the story in the mainstream media. It took about a week from the first television mention of Eason Jordan's Davos speech for that story to break out into the mainstream media. CNN's Inside Politics blog segment covered the Air America story on July 29, so we may be getting close to break-out day. There is every indication--conflicting accounts, big names, big money--that the story has legs.

We know a lot about the medications Rush Limbaugh has taken.

We know a great deal about Bill O'Reilly's troubles.

But thus far we don't know much about how Al Franken got paid the big bucks last year, when all of the mainstream media seemed to be cheering his debut.

Hugh Hewitt is the host of a nationally syndicated radio show, and author most recently of Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That is Changing Your World. His daily blog can be found at HughHewitt.com.

[Libloather]

Short version: Not-for-profits that exist to serve kids and Alzheimer's' patients, overwhelmingly via the funds obtained from government grants, should not be "investing" in incredibly risky start-up radio networks. But the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club--apparently now defunct--did just that last spring, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into Air America's coffers.

Hugh Hewitt bump...

[umgud]

Well, I hope this story does have legs.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

One of the things that the Limbaugh haters always overlook, is that Limbaugh REALLY knows the business of radio. He started in it when he was a kid, and he's been involved in it from the ground up. Even someone with half a brain would learn the ropes being in it as long as Limbaugh has, and I think Limbaugh is brigher than that.

[WorkingClassFilth]

I think Al Franken is about to get funnier.

[NewHampshireDuo]

Franken's ratings have dropped 50 percent in Boston since spring 2004..

Boston? ... didn't even know AA was on in Boston. (Not that knowing this would change my listening habits in any way.)

[thoughtomator]

Let's face it, even liberals can't stand listening to liberals whining.

[soupcon]

The only problem with the scandal is that the sole indictable individual is Evan Cohen, and everybody on the left would cheer his indictment. This story is too risky to blow up because of its potential backfire. Check out Cohen's resume and you'll see the blowback factor.

[BunnySlippers]

The story SHOULD be about how the MSM can justify ignoring it while giving Air America massive coverage when launched.

[Darkwolf377]

Here's the most recent IRS Form 990 for the Club. Here's the one from the year before.

Oh, PLEASE! you silly conservatives and your "black and white" view of the world! There are perfectly fine explanations for all of this, but you just can't SEE them because you divide everything into good and bad, right and wrong, black and white! How un-so-FISS-ticated of you! ;)

[Darkwolf377]

I think Al Franken is about to get funnier.

Well, there's no way he could get LESS funny.

[Libloather]

Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications — including the Economist and the New York Times.

No interest in the Air America scandal?

Hugh Hewitt has a good piece on the mainstream media's apparent lack of interest in the Air America scandal. It appears that Air America, the liberal talk radio network, received in its startup period a six-figure loan from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx. This is an organization that receives most of its funds from government agencies and is supposed to provide services to children and Alzheimer's patients. It is apparently stone broke right now, and Air America says that it will pay the money back–but not when.

Hugh is quite correct in noting that if a community service organization had funneled money to a conservative talk radio operation, the New York Times would have been all over the story and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has oversight responsibility for nonprofits, would be threatening lawsuits and churning out press releases. But so far the Times is silent (maybe everyone is out in the Hamptons, and who wants to cover the tacky Bronx?) and Spitzer is motionless. All of which brings to mind the perhaps apocryphal remark of the late Congressman Jimmy Burke, a Massachusetts Democrat. Speaking with contempt of a young idealistic liberal colleague, Burke is supposed to have said, "That guy is so dumb he thinks this place is on the level."

Posted at 4:00 PM EST by Michael Barone

[pipecorp]

there is no justification for using the term funny in any way near the term al franken.

[Darkwolf377]

there is no justification for using the term funny in any way near the term al franken.

"Funny-looking Al Franken"?

[Ditter]

Air America is not on in my area so I have never heard it. If it is anything like the whining, griping, complaining and vulgar language that is on democraticunderground.com, it is no wonder people don't listen.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Oh, I don't know. I think listening him shriek and flail about as his station sinks into oblivion will be pretty funny.

[pipecorp]

homely, pathetic,unabashadly evil, maybe, not the f word though.

[JOE6PAK]

[pipecorp]

justified, inevitable, but again, not the f word.

[Mr_Moonlight]

the sole indictable individual is Evan Cohen

And where is ol' Evan anyway ?? Nobody knows. The NY Post today reported that he could not be located for comment. Sounds like another Craig Livingstone type character here ... nobody knows who he is, where he came from, or where he went.