Liberal Air America Radio stuck in cellar

The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 07.28.05 | Beth Gillin

[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Her show, which costarred ex-rapper Chuck D, has been replaced by TV talkmeister Jerry Springer, who is mulling a run for governor of Ohio.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.

[11Bush]

...cannot pick up their signal for more than two minutes at a time.

Maybe your radio can't take it anymore and throws up.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

His show is now "dark," meaning it's dishing up reruns in a "best-of-Franken" format.

A dark, smelly pile...

[DoctorMichael]

Thanks for the explanation! I found it strange to keep hitting AIRHEAD RADIO as I surfed across the dial. I grew up there but moved away in 1978 and now only return infrequently to visit my elderly mother. Virginia, for the most part, currently suits my politics fine and AIRHEAD RADIO is not to be found. I think my head would explode if I was forced to move back there for any length of time.