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Posted on 01/25/2006 1:50:20 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Last year, I was privileged to work with Brian Maloney of The Radio Equalizer on an ongoing blog investigative series about beleaguered Air America radio's finances. Brian has continued to dig and dig deep on the story.
He has a new report here and will discuss it tonight on The O'Reilly Factor.
Brian asks: "Did Al Franken's outrageous salary demands hamper Air America's ability to repay the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in 2005?"
Excerpt:
During the same mid-to-late 2004 period when Air America parent Piquant LLC was quietly considering how to resolve the still-undisclosed scandal, Franken was demanding everything, including the kitchen sink.
A June, 2004 Wall Street Journal investigative report on Air America stated Al was making "over $1 million a year". That was accurate, but not for long.
Despite mixed reviews, low ratings and a perpetually shaky cash outlook, Franken was handed a virtual blank check by Piquant. Even as the extent of the Gloria Wise crisis became clear to an ever-changing series of managers, Franken pushed ahead anyway with an eye-popping 2005 compensation package.
Included was a staggering base salary boost to $1,725,000, plus fringe benefits and potential bonuses, after less than a year on the air. Nor was his bloated staff left out. The result: what is quite likely talk radio's largest-ever and most overpaid entourage, mostly from the ranks of Al's Harvard research team.
The kicker: Franken successfully insisted the entire base sum be paid in advance, during the first week of January, 2005...
Read the whole thing.
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She does? Is there an official market-bymarket ratings posted somewhere to refute this?
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