Air America Bankrupt: Please Settle All Bets.
Who had 11/15/2006, anyway?
By Moe Lane Posted in Democrats — Comments (44) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
From out of the blue comes a startling revelation: Air America, powerhouse of the liberal talk-show circuit and stake through the heart of VRWC minions everywhere, is going bankrupt.
'Zounds, the shock of it all. I'd excerpt, except that all you really need is the title ("Air America To Declare Bankruptcy, But Progressive Radio Remains Strong"). Be honest: you could write the article from that alone.
Read on.
Like Mark over at Decision '08 I'm amused as all get-out over this. He notes:
How bad is Air America? So bad that with the opposition party holding both chambers of Congress and the White House (the ideal position for talk radio - being on the opposite side of Clinton made Rush Limbaugh a star), and with voter discontent with the ruling party at historically high levels, they can’t stay afloat.
Which is true; so true. I seem to dimly remember commenting somewhere or other that Air America's bankroll would be better spent somewhere else than on what was essentially a cargo-cult scenario, but did they listen? No, they did not - but they put quite a bit of money into circulation trying, and, you know, in an election year, every little bit helps. So I suppose that they did help with the election... just on my side. That's something, yes?
The remaining question is, of course, whether they're going to send another 40,000 volts through the corpse and try to get it off the slab. I would think 'no'... but then again, I expected them to dump the silly thing after the '04 election. I figure that it was due to pride. You got to watch out for pride: it'll mess with your head every time...
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Speaking purley in terms of business:
Maybe now they understand:
Syndication is the way to go. Leftist shows like Ed Schultz will continue strong because it uses the business format that already works for everyone else: SYNDICATION.
This nonesensical model that AA came up with should serve as a good case study on how NOT to make it in the radio business.
Tsk. Tsk.
Don't tread on me.
From the people that gave us the social security ponzi scheme, the great society, work hiring quotas, won't accept school vouchers and only got the part of keynesian economics about spending more ?
The only thing thats amazing about Air America is they got someone to give them the startup money voluntarily instead of having the IRS rip it out of their wallets.
It's not like some of them don't have good ratings in some markets...they actually do. Some syndicated radio heads, regardless of politics do fine financially with lesser ratings.
If making a radio lineup to be sold wholesale to radio stations was winning model, righties would do it too but they don't. It's a bad model. It stinks...right or left. That was my point...regardless of content. Schultz, Hartmann, Springer and Stephanie Miller, like'em or hate'em, use a business model like Limbaugh, Snow (used to anyway), Ingraham, Beck and others and it works fine for them.
If AA goes under, expect Rhodes to go on her own. She'll get syndicated. Business is Business.
Don't tread on me.
Yes lefties can be talented individuals. Some even wind up as successfull businesspeople. In general though it takes a certain hard nosed attention to unpleasant facts to make a business work. Paying people loads of money who aren't performing because you like their views is not a successfull strategy.
Maybe yes about Rhodes maybe no. Sometimes guilt by association infects business as well. Nobody likes to embrace colosal failures. If she can dissasociate herself from AA definitely maybe.
There are very very few leftists that have any business sense at all.
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Eliminate the IRS and all payroll taxes! http://www.fairtax.org
I wish AA would stay on the air. The best thing about them is the waste of all that money that could have gone towards defeating Republicans at the ballot box was frittered away on this venture.
AA was the best waste of left wing money going. How can we keep them funded (With left wing funds only)????
Everyone with a family member suffering from diabetes, Parkinson's disease or heart failure wishes Bush had kept that veto pen in his pocket.
I wonder if any Boys and Girls clubs have submitted their debtor-in-possession financing proposals yet.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
I enjoyed listening to AA point out the lies [from] the [Right] and [Right]*[-]wing[]nut radio and [TV]. But[] the [R]ight is controlled by big corporate [prostitutes] who wouldn't buy advertising on AA. It's a simple financial thing. Really, the [L]eft [isn't] so stupid and [duplicated 'and' deleted] insecure to have to listen to hate[-]filled rhetoric for hours at a time. The [R]ight feeds off that [excrement], so let them have it.
["]When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." [-] Sinclair [carriage break deleted] Lewis
*[OK, this just astounds me, that I have to make those two edits: he originally mixed up 'Left' and 'Right'. I mean, that's abject stupidity even by trollish standards. - Moe Lane]
because no one was listening to AAR.. NYC is not lacking for advertisers with a liberal world view who want to advertise on liberal venues - but only a fool (or someone with deep pockets) would buy spots on AAR.
Si vis Pacem, Para Bellum
shud hate bush and cheney even more cuz they reck EVREYTHING!! greedy corperate bush lovers r ruininhg america. wlamart sux.
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"It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race." - Chief Justice John Roberts
appreciated if anyone finds it. That should make for some fine reading.
Incidentally, I lost my bet after Air America was kept afloat for a second year.
Along with pre-petition and post-petition claims (aka who gets paid and who gets shafted), and contracts rejected in bankruptcy.
Gotta give the Air America luminaries one thing - they certainly have highlighted the dangers of deficits.
Oh, wait, you mean financially bankrupt. Sorry, confused for a moment.
Besides that, meh and good riddance.
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Anyone who claims that globalization is a conservative process is either a liar or a fool. - James Kurth
I'd really hate to see Air America go. Sometimes after a hard day's work, it's nice to unwind on the drive home, laughing at a deranged rant about the Bush crime family or whatever from Randi Rhodes or Sam Seder.
Does anybody remember John Belushi's "But nooooooo..." rants on the old SNL shows, which would end with him spazzing out and falling off his chair out of the picture? That's the visual image I get listening to the Air America hosts working themselves into a snit about the latest perfidy from the VRWC.
First of all, I had to chuckle a little when I read in that article on Think Progress that Clear Channel Communications was expanding the search for Air America's replacement. Isn't Clear Channel the most hated and despised corporate entity in the world, according to the Progressives? The irony is delicious. But this was the best:
The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format.
Bankruptcy? Unpopular? Perish the thought. A Century of Failure proves Nothing!! Actually, if you still have a brain, Air America succeeded in creating something that nobody asked for and nobody wanted, and that's why they're going bankrupt. Must be that central planning.
Second, don't worry: Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda are launching "V-Span: The Nodding In Agreement Network" to fill the, er, vacuum. I guess the hurricane season and the antiwar protest movement didn't turn out to be enough a vehicle for Jane and her Veggie Bus. But who knows what two women and a radio station can do? After all, six women and a fax machine have done incredible things in the past...
I don't need to link to either of those articles, you can find them on Drudge. But here's a warning: expect the financial and audience failure of Air America to be a big talking point for Al Gore in his next diatribes against media consolidation. Now that the hurricane season hasn't lived up to his expectations, he's back on the media consolidation bandwagon, BIGTIME.
"If only the media had been pushing my Inconvenient Truth more, those hurricanes would have HAPPENED, dammit!!"
Here's Tim Robbins at CommonDreams on Clear Channel, back in 2003:
A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.
Eric Alterman was sure happy that Eliot Spitzer served Clear Channel a bunch of subpoenas.
But today, licking their wounds, here is Think Progress about Clear Channel, calling their involvement in the resurrection of "Progressive Radio" a victory, not a defeat. And people ask how anyone can believe Democrats. Do they believe themselves?
...that Bush is blowing to fight "radical Islam" in Iraq would be better spent to keep Air America afloat so they can fight the equal threat of "radical Christianity" here in the U.S.
Wait for it...Rosie O'Donnell's next talking point.
"Your audience, which will clap at apparently anything, is frivolous." - Hitchens to Maher
...we hardly knew you.
Thank God!
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people...and I use the words 'nicer' and 'people' just to be polite.
I always wondered why PETA didn't try and stop this shameless beating of defenseless animals…liberals actually competing against conservatives.
You want the bankruptcy filing, I want Al’s unemployment application.
Al could always try comedy…oh yeah, right. Book writing then? Is there a right wing celib that he hasn’t put on a dust jacket?
And what of Randi? What is she qualified to do?
Maybe Wal-Mart spokesperson? I heard there is an opening available.
I know, I know…you guys! That’s not nice…and anyway, it wouldn’t work out…first the other girls on the corner would feel degraded with her there…second to actually provide a service to a customer? Lastly, would YOU trust her with THAT? Not me…
I dream of an America where my children will not be exposed to stuff like Air America
This time AA, STAY DEAD!
Quick somebody get Hillary to ‘earmark’ a half a million in the form of a grant, so that Al and Randi can spend a year in New York studying Rush and Shawn, and Laura, and learn how to make money at talk radio…
Better make it 1.5 million…New York after all…
How did they expect to succeed commercially when the liberal audience already has commercial-free, taxpayer-supported Democratic Party radio?
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead.
...business failures, because, well, the enlisteds who worked for the organization, even if it were, say, Wal-Mart or Halliburton or Al Gore's TV channel, would be most impacted ("Womyn and chirren hardest hit") while the Brass pull the ripcords on their golden parachutes.
That, and "there but for the Grace..."...
But in this case, I...just...can't...help...it.
Oh Frabjous Day!
Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish. My radio reception is improving already. I hope the bankruptcy court puts a stop payment on Al Franken's last, fat paycheck. I hope AA's COBRA bridge excludes coverage for Janeane's acne medication. I hope the door *does* hit Rhandi in the b*tt on the way out. I look forward to the appearance of deeply-discounted AA tchotchke's on Ebay. And so on...
--furious
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." -- Darth Vader
Given his history with Franken.
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"It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race." - Chief Justice John Roberts
Bankrupt but strong. Is that the new variation of "fake but accurate?"
...it's a rumor when you're a lefty in denial. It's reality when you're a lefty without a paycheck:
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2006/09/air-america-stiffs-franken...
"Your audience, which will clap at apparently anything, is frivolous." - Hitchens to Maher
I'd be interested in the "other" rumors to which you refer.
Maybe that Bush planned 911 or the New Orleans levies were bombed? Or do you have the identity of the shooter on the grassy knoll?
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
...that Karl Rove masterminded the unmasking of Valerie Plame and her secret decoder ring. That was an indisputable fact based on truthiness.
The bankruptcy of AA is a rumor despite that fact that its on-air "talent" has been working for tips and gratuities . . . sort of like lounge singers.
"Your audience, which will clap at apparently anything, is frivolous." - Hitchens to Maher
I was talking about the numerous other rumors of Air America shutting down in the past.
And don't worry I wouldn't even believe a rumor that Bush could plan his way out of a wet paper bag. *weak rimshot*
Sorry, my tinfoil hat is a bit rusty... (well, it would be if tin could rust.)
next?
I have seen, through Michelle Malkin, numerous reports of "financial problems" or "financial irregularities" at AA. Those have all proved to be correct. I've also seen reports of AA losing market share in major metro markets (NYC for one) and getting tossed from it's flagship station. That wasn't a rumor either.
I've seen several articles that questioned how much longer AA could stay in business without major cash infusions from people like Soros, but all of those have turned out to be pretty factually based.
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
Schadenfreud?
did I spell it right?
damm German words.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
De Opresso Liber
H.K. Mencken's reaction from over the horizon . . .
DAMN!!!!
I've yet to see a better example of an oxymoron than: "Air America To Declare Bankruptcy, But Progressive Radio Remains Strong" Is there "Progressive radio" other than Air America? Bankrupt ideology, bankrupt monitarily, but strong. With liberal interpretations of the word "strong" anything is possible I suppose.
"Always be honest with yourself even if you are honest with no one else...
...It helps you keep track of your lies..."
--Myself
Maybe Al can raise some money with a bare knuckle, John L Sullivan type brawl with Rich Lowery, the only person in the world he wanted to fight. On a barge of course, just like the old days.
It might have turned out a little different if Asinine America had people who knew politics and economics instead of who they wanted to destroy.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
Cage matches between pundits. Two men enter, one man leaves; perhaps not to the death, but definitely to the pain. Complete with bat'leths*.
It's what they all secretly want anyway, you betcha.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
*There are 56,700 Google hits for "bat'leth", 52,400 for "batleth" and at least one article on how to size your bat'leth. This tells you everything that you need to know about the Internet.
Stop snickering: you didn't have to be told what the word means, didn't you?
Come on, with batleths* one or two slashes would finish the fight, so it would just be boring minutes of the pundits circling each other and then suddenly its all over. I'm for the Celebrity Death Match approach, though maybe the ref could call the fight before a pundit is dead if he's bloody enough.
* Yes, I did have to look it up
Nope, couldn't even imagine it.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill