Air America Complaint Department [Air America founder blasts Dem "elites" and Hollywood "phonies"]

Liberal site | Aug 25, 2006 | Sheldon Drobny

[summer]

Sheldon's new book, blasting "elites" and "phonies" in Dem Party who were too cheap to help start Air America

Believe it or not, I am not trying to offend anyone with my posts.

... many criticisms have been directed at me for the “problems” that Air America has had during its “birth pangs.” Almost 5 years ago I started the Air America project and invested over $3 Million on the start of a liberal radio network. In fact, Arianna invited me to her house in November, 2002 to present some of my ideas with a group of Hollywood elites trying to save Salon.com. At the time, I was a big donor to the Democratic Party and had personal contacts with Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as Al and Tipper Gore. They opened the door for me to meet with everyone on both coasts to try to raise some follow-on money for our project.

We had hundreds of meetings with the kind of people and organizations that collectively were worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Not a single one made an investment with us although many promises were made. The reason that happened is something I wrote about in my book, Road To Air America. I also had introductions to public and union pension funds with promises made to me that never came to pass. The reason was simple. I was not a part of any inner circle in the political or entertainment world. The cronyism is so horrible in the Democratic elite that they have no time for new faces or new ideas. So they continually talk to the same people over and over again with the same result. Nothing ever happens.

My new book is scheduled to be published in the fall and is pictured in this article. My last book was tame in comparison to my new book. The details will be much more informative to the people who look up to these power elites. You will all be shocked at the cronyism and incompetence in that world. Because of the lack of financial support we were obligated to turn over the project to another group that was totally responsible for the early problems of AAR. When we came back to help save AAR, I was the first to give almost $800,000 to save what I thought was a worthwhile project. While there have been substantial investments in AAR since that time, without my business skills and financial contribution in the summer of 2004, AAR would have been out of business.

The money that I put up for AAR was all that I could afford. I am not a mega millionaire nor do I need any handouts from the phonies in the elite to survive. I am doing fine in my business. I was misguided in the belief that these people really cared enough to support a noble project. AAR is going to be successful despite its shortcomings. I am no longer a part of management nor do I have anything to do with programming. I agree with many of the criticisms of AAR, but I am only a minority owner. As a result, my wife and I started a company to acquire radio stations to support the liberal talk format. We have stations in Phoenix and Little Rock and we saved Air America in Phoenix after a Christian radio company bought the AAR affiliate in Phoenix. With the help of the community and our resources, we paid $500,000 to get AAR back on the air in Phoenix. We handle our own programming in Phoenix and Little Rock and some of it is the best that Air America offers.

I do know how to run a business well and syndicated talk radio is not difficult. The program managers on most broadcast media are followers rather than leaders. They are not visionaries and generally look in the rear view mirror for programming ideas. If I were to have had control of AAR with the help of a little backing, things would be much different for AAR’s performance. I do think they are now going in the right direction and our radio company will do a lot to help the cause. The lack of financial support was a major disappointment for me and another example of the fact that “there is no good deed that goes unpunished.” I did not need to do AAR to make a livelihood. I did it because I was frightened about what was happening to our country.

As to Bill Maher and the other Hollywood phonies, please don’t count on them to help. They only care about themselves. It is interesting that shortly after I wrote my book about AAR, my publisher hired the finest PR firm to get some guest appearances for me. One of the firm’s contacts was to the Maher show. At that time, AAR was one of the biggest media stories in the country. And it was mostly positive and well supported. I watched with great interest that season the Ann Coulter premiere interview on the Maher show promoting her new book about how all liberals are insane perverts. That took precedence over a book about AAR, which could have helped publicize the network for the greater good. I did not write the book to make money and in fact I have spent close to $100,000 to get the AAR story publicized for the sake of some balance.

If anyone has any complaints about AAR, please direct them to the phonies in Hollywood and in broadcast journalism who grease each other’s palm instead of doing the right thing. Yes, I am angry with these people for their selfishness and disregard of the struggling constituency that they pretend to support. I actually was a true believer before this all happened. And for those of you who criticize me for my lack of tolerance of these crazy hateful people and their enablers, keep on watching these shows and make them all rich while your life goes down the drain.

Economics is a zero sum game. That is a fact and whatever share of the economic pot the wealthy elites have comes right out of your pocket. It is time for everyone to open up their windows and scream out, “I’m as mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.”

[CFC__VRWC]

That jumped out at me, too.

I guess when the promised funds looted from union pension funds didn't show up, AA had to resort to looting children's charities. Makes perfect sense to a liberal, I suppose.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Basically Leftists are cheap bastards who cycle money to themelves. A gives to B who gives to C who gives to A. It's the same freakin buck.

They are the cheapest when donating to causes but they want to be out in front to have their pictures taken. Case in point. Darryl Hannah, Danny Glover and company could have bought that plot of land in LA and donated it to the squatters. But no...

John Kerry gives a couple of hundred bucks to charity. He is worth a couple of hundred million.. And on and on.

Same with all the lefties. They tell us what is good for us and then they jet off to Europe in their private planes to ski and pat themselves on the back for being so courageous for helping the little guy. Then they tell us we need to raise gas prices to cut down on oil usage.

This guy is a fool. Err Amerika? He would have been better off starting up a Conservative station, competed with WABC and made some money. They just don't learn that the Marxist media is in a tail spin.

[CFC__VRWC]

It really was juvenile and raunchy.

What else can you expect from a "woman" whose biggest claim to fame was urinating in a punch bowl at her company's Christmas party?

[Chode]

from what i've seen, accountants are just bookkeepers and don't know from economics... they can tell you how much money your company is making or losing but don't have a clue as to why either happens.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Sheldon Drobny thinks Err America can be a commercial success. Delusions of grandeur?"

It could have been a success. He made a couple of small mistakes.

1. The Marxist Media is in decline. Hiring Marxists to run your station doesn't help. Plus he might as well of called the station 24 hours of Hate Bush radio. They would have gotten more listeners. Or Air Commy.

2. Throwing money at a problem only creates a more expensive problem. Ideas solve problems. Fortunately for us the RATS have no ideas. In addition, the RATS who he went to for money know this already. Their Conservative accountants tell them it is a bad investment.

3. On Air personalities need just that. Randi Rhodes is a skank ho from Brooklyn. She was when I was growing up with her. Al Franken is not funny. Never has been. His partner was funnier. They should have given Davis his own show show.

Other than that, he did ok.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Must have been tough competing with NPR for both listeners.

[sergeantdave]

"Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, Professionally."

Like Federal Express, but heavily armed.

[GOPJ]

I watched with great interest that season the Ann Coulter premiere interview on the Maher show promoting her new book about how all liberals are insane perverts. That took precedence over a book about AAR, which could have helped publicize the network for the greater good.

LOL - this rant is soooooooo funny....

[GOPJ]

The Democratic elite and Hollywood types only care about themselves. I am Shocked!

Yeah, I'm with you. Who would have ever thought Hollywood liberals would be a bunch of self-absorbed narcissists? Never would have seen it...

[headstamp]

"....many criticisms have been directed at me for the “problems” that Air America has had during its “birth pangs.”


Yeah that's the problem after 5 years, "birth pangs".

[ClaireSolt]

Hadn't heard that.

[Athwart]

Economics is a zero sum game. That is a fact and whatever share of the economic pot the wealthy elites have comes right out of your pocket.

No. It isn't and it doesn't. No wonder you're a leftist. Learn some economics. Learn why capitalism allows people to create wealth. Learn about comparative advantage and the power of the division of labor. You need to read some books before you write any, and before you sink any more money into such a counterproductive project as Air America.

[esoxmagnum]

Not only that, but I have seen posted here a few times that Bill Maher and Ann dated some years back.

Perhaps that may have something to do with him booking her on his show and not the AAR fellow.

[CFC__VRWC]

Actually, I was wrong - she peed on a Christmas tree. I got the following off the comments following an entry on The Radio Equalizer blog;

Here is an excerpt from a recent Palm Beach Post article about Randi:

"She is just low-class," says Linda Marx, widow of the late WJNO talk-show host Jack Cole.

Marx recalls an incident at a Christmas bash the couple threw in 1999, when an inebriated Rhodes squatted over the Christmas tree as a party antic. Rhodes admits she had a few martinis, but insists she didn't urinate.

"I pretended," she says.

Marx indicates otherwise. "I'm just happy the tree was on tile and not carpet," she says.

Real classy "lady", huh?

[Prost1]

"and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honorary fraternity"

Is this like being a graduate of Telegraph and Bancroft Avenue in Berkely, Ca?
Former address, "people's park".

[Texas Eagle]

At the time, I was a big donor to the Democratic Party and had personal contacts with Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as Al and Tipper Gore.

The hell you say.

[gcruse]

"As far as I know, business administration is as far from economics as anything could possibly be. "

Well, you're. Economics is integral to a degree in BA.

[bray]

Did he ever give back the money to the orphan kids from the ghetto??

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[Marysecretary]

Sounds that way to me. Hmmm.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

His 2004 book continues to do well at Amazon:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #298,211 in Books

Yeah, but it's dropping. Now it's at #300,930.