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Air America: RIP

Ran out of Boys' and Girls' Clubs to embezzle money from, did they?
 
Wow, you mean to say that the demographic of 'radio listeners stupid enough to buy lousy logic, lousy arguments and blatant lies' was already monopolized by Rush, Ollie, and Co.?

Who the hell could have guessed? Didn't see this one coming. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
 
I've always believed there is a huge market for liberal radio. No one can do it right. It's simple really: Hire good broadcasters with liberal leanings; don't hire liberal leaning folks and assume they'll be good broadcasters. Yet Air America never seemed to get it.
 
Snide said:
I've always believed there is a huge market for liberal radio. No one can do it right. It's simple really: Hire good broadcasters with liberal leanings; don't hire liberal leaning folks and assume they'll be good broadcasters. Yet Air America never seemed to get it.
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I'm not so sure that was the main problem. I think it had to do with the old saying that getting liberals together is like herding cats.
 
I have always thought that the problem was that there are only so many people who like being told what to think, and they are largely conservative. It just does not work with a liberal format.

Daredelvis
 
Snide said:
Can you expand on that? I'm not sure I follow.
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I can, but I don't want to! :D

I really don't want to open up a debate on liberals versus conservatives or face a bunch of accusations of stereotyping, so let me just say up front that I am speaking in generalities and don't mean to imply any liberal or conservative (or whatever) is a certain way. I'm just speaking in terms of what it would take for a liberal radio station to work. Phew!

One of the things I admire most about conservatives is their seeming ability to latch on to a message and see it through. While they have their differences, they seem much more able to unite and don't seem to tire of a message.

By contrast it seems to me that liberals, well, are not like that. The messages are more "general" and they seem to bicker among themselves over finer points when in reality once an issue hits the Hill, it's going to go through a sausage grinder anyway.

To give some examples and not to open a debate on the issues, consider the following with the understanding that I am not trying to say that on any given issue it is only message from conservatives or necessarily an accurate one. It's just my "impression" as a man on the street.

Gun Control - The message I get from conservatives is guns don't kill people, people kill people. We have a right to bear arms. Don't infringe that right and try to take our guns away. Simple and to the point. A great rallying cry. The liberals tend to say, well, yeh, people do kill people, but guns do go off accidentally. And, yeh, you do have a right to bear arms, but only to a certain degree (followed by lots of arguing over what that degree is). And we're not trying to take all the guns away. Okay, well some of us would like that, but I wouldn't. You mean, you want serial killers to have guns? No, that's not what I mean. We should keep them locked up. Yeh? But what about so and so? His civil rights were violated. Should we keep him locked up?

Health Care - Conservatives seem to say keep the government out of it. Let the free market do its thing. Liberals argue that the government is already involved, but it's a matter of degree. Then they argue amongst themselves what that degree is. Then they argue about how the free market gives us monopolies, which while "bad" is necessary for things like water and power. Next thing you know they're arguing about Enron.

What drives me nuts on conservative radio is how they can stay fixated on a subject. Move on, people! How do you think Move-On.org got it's name? Hell, the other day I was in 7-11 and somebody was listening to Rush (I think). Anyway, they were yacking about Clinton and Lewinsky!! WTF? When I tried to listen to Air America, I kept saying to myself, "Focus, people...F-O-C-U-S."

On Facebook I have a lot of friends with a good mix politically. Many of my conservative friends post political status messages, and their conservative friends will write comments saying the same thing their own way. My liberal friends rarely post political messages, and on the rare occasion a liberal friend comments, it's always on the finer points. Their conservative friends tend post the same responses.

And on a note closer to the Hill, my brother has worked for non-profit activist groups for the last 25 years and has been the controller for the Brady Bill people for many years (even acting president for a while). Mr. Brady came to my father's funeral. My observations are echoed by my brother and the Bradys, who find the same difficulty getting liberals to focus on a clear, concise message.

It's like herding cats because they run and jump all over the place. Just when you get a handful together, one of them hisses and the next thing you know they are scattered around the house again.

So, when I see that liberal radio keeps failing, I think it's the nature of the beast. And, no, I'm not prepared to back it up with scientific studies or sociological/psychological theories.
 
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daredelvis said:
I have always thought that the problem was that there are only so many people who like being told what to think, and they are largely conservative. It just does not work with a liberal format.

Daredelvis
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Pretty much how I feel. I'm as liberal as they come and, though I was well aware of Air America, I never even bothered to find out if it's broadcast in my area. I don't watch Olbermann or Maddow, either, and I don't read liberal bestsellers.
 
I heard that Air America required stations to subscribe to Air America's entire line-up rather than letting stations choose only some of the shows.

If that's the case, I think that greatly hurt the network.

The conservative talk stations in my area broadcast shows from multiple syndicators.


I also think that conservative talk radio has a larger audience for the following reasons:

Many persons on both the far left and the far right like to hear unqualified blowhards saying things with which the persons agree.

However, I think the range of people who like to hear unqualified right-wing talkers extends further towards the center of the political spectrum from the far right end than the equivalent range extends from the far left.

I think a larger fraction of moderate liberals than moderate conservatives like to listen to people who are actually educated in the subjects they talk about rather than just people with whom they agree but don't know what they're talking about.
 
The message from conservative talk radio is, for the most part, more inspiring and thus entertaining. "You can make it if you try," is a better sell than, "You can't make it, the deck is stacked against you." If, for example, you have the option of hearing a story about somebody who's downtrodden but still manages to prevail, versus the story of a union guy who got laid off and then lost his health insurance, which are you going to find more entertaining? Hollywood, with its "always darkest before the dawn" plot design sells a conservative message despite itself.

Not that either side focuses a lot on that; it's mostly "look at the stupid things the liberals/conservatives just did". The difference is that contra a lot of liberals, we see ABCNNBCBS covering the foibles among conservatives along with PBS and NPR, while Fox largely toils alone with the radio talkers in exposing the foibles of the far left.
 
Brainster said:
The message from conservative talk radio is, for the most part, more inspiring and thus entertaining. "You can make it if you try,"
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That's the message? I thought it was "We're all DOOMED because the LIBERALS control society!"
 
You think age demographics contributed as well? You would think that Rush et al are targeting older white people who actually listen to talk radio. Younger folks who AA seems to be targeting don't tune into nationally broadcast talk radio.

Also, younger people who are out working have offices with rules about playing a radio. If you are retired, you can play your radio however you like.

It seems it was a combination of a bad business model, a lack of understanding the medium, and a changing industry that killed Air America.
 
Brainster said:
The message from conservative talk radio is, for the most part, more inspiring and thus entertaining. "You can make it if you try," is a better sell than, "You can't make it, the deck is stacked against you." If, for example, you have the option of hearing a story about somebody who's downtrodden but still manages to prevail, versus the story of a union guy who got laid off and then lost his health insurance, which are you going to find more entertaining? Hollywood, with its "always darkest before the dawn" plot design sells a conservative message despite itself.
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I'm guessing you don't listen to Glenn Beck much. He has cried on air because he his afraid the liberals have brought the country to the verge of collapse.
 
I quit listening to political commentary a long number of years ago. I want to hear even handed thoughtful responses to politics, not rabid vitriol on the other side is evil. That's what's missing in political commentary.

why I liked Art Bell so much. Even though his shows dealt with UFO and conspiracy Theories and out there kind of stuff, he was always respectful and thoughtful to his callers regardless of the vitriol they spewed at him. If he was truly upset he would simply turn them off and not really make a comment about it. The only exception to this though was a guy called JT who called in claiming God hates fags. To this day I think the guy who called in with his **** is Fred Phelps.
 
UncaYimmy said:
I'm not so sure that was the main problem. I think it had to do with the old saying that getting liberals together is like herding cats.
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Actually, it was the main problem. The people who started Air America back in 2004 did it in a hurry (to have it on air in time for the 2004 elections) and had NO radio experience whatsoever. They hired a whole bunch of showbiz celebs who although known for their liberal poltics had no radio broadcasting experience whatsoever (Jeanine Garofalo stands out) rather then experienced broadcasters with a Liberal view, and they rookies were terrible.
A few learned quickly and became good broadcasters (Al Franken) but most did not. AA never recovered from that.
 
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Philip said:
I heard that Air America required stations to subscribe to Air America's entire line-up rather than letting stations choose only some of the shows.

If that's the case, I think that greatly hurt the network.

The conservative talk stations in my area broadcast shows from multiple syndicators.


I also think that conservative talk radio has a larger audience for the following reasons:

Many persons on both the far left and the far right like to hear unqualified blowhards saying things with which the persons agree.

However, I think the range of people who like to hear unqualified right-wing talkers extends further towards the center of the political spectrum from the far right end than the equivalent range extends from the far left.

I think a larger fraction of moderate liberals than moderate conservatives like to listen to people who are actually educated in the subjects they talk about rather than just people with whom they agree but don't know what they're talking about.
Click to expand...

One of the mistakes Air America made in it's early days was to require stations to take the whole line up or nothing. That policy changed after about a year, but by that time the damage was done. And that the product they were selling was not very good did not help matters any.
 
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