Air America in Death Spiral
Liberal "talk radio" network, Air America, is a perfect example of the difference between the nice, happy thoughts of how one should do something and actually doing it. You might even consider using Air America as an example of liberal politics as a whole. They can't pay their bills, They don't know how much money they have - but it's less than they were told, they have to PAY radio networks to carry their show, nobody knows who's in charge and the rich guy gets screwed (Franken is no longer taking a salary) to keep the thing alive.
How about a frosty mug of "Spiral Death Syndrome"!
4 Comments:
That's kind of clever, but as the Times piece said (and as the Chicago Tribune said more succinctly), Al Franken is beating Rush Limbaugh in the ratings:
"But in New York, where Air America still broadcasts over WLIB-1190 AM, the network beat Limbaugh's station, Disney-owned WABC, among both 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-34-year-olds during the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. period. In the 25-to-54 demographic, WLIB garnered a 3.4 share to WABC's 3.1; among 18-to-34-year-olds, WLIB won sevenfold with a 2.9 share to WABC's 0.4."
But on the business side, which was the actual point of your post, did you know that every major conservative publication -- The New York Post, The Washington Times, The National Review, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard -- is hemorraging red ink and survives only on grants from wealthy ideological benefactors? The New York Post and The Weekly Standard are both charity operations of Rupert Murdoch. The Washington Times is run by nutjob benefactor Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The American Spectator suckles from the teat of billionaire Richard Mellon-Scaife, and the National Review is the recipient of John Birch Society funds.
All this is sort of in contrast to liberal publications, like The Nation, which actually make a profit (though still have endowments from their own foundations, but only about 10% of what the conservative foundations grant).
The NY Times did mention that Air America has a 3.4 share in NYC against WABC at 10am and 3pm, compared with Rush's 3.2 share. The Times piece also mentions that Air America is doing well in Portaland, Oregon. This is not quite the same as "Al Franken is beating Rush Limbaugh in the ratings"
Al Franken is heard on 13 stations (with 15 more coming in May, according to the website - um, it's May 31st where I live), including XM and Sirius. Rush Limbaugh is heard on over 600 stations.
You also say: "did you know that every major conservative publication -- The New York Post, The Washington Times, The National Review, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard -- is hemorraging red ink and survives only on grants from wealthy ideological benefactors? The New York Post and The Weekly Standard are both charity operations of Rupert Murdoch."
I didn't know, but I am talking about Radio.
Aside from Rush Limbaugh, there is Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Tony Snow, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram and of course the Northern Alliance Radio Network folks (brownie points go here) - just to name a few. Rush is not the only show in town. The point is (finally), these folks are not PAYING markets to be heard. They generate income for the markets they are heard in.
The Times piece also notes, "...listeners clicked on the audio programming on the Air America Web site more than two million times..." I was about 20 of those clicks. I would listen for a while, get fed up with the lack of single coherant point and leave. After a while, I would give it another go, and find myself no further in the discussion after 30 mintes and leave. This went on until I felt I had given the crap enough of a chance to honestly be able to call it crap. I would suggest there are probably many others out there in blogosphere who went through the same exercise. Does the left have a point or is it just comedic, anti-Bush ranting? If Air America is the voice of the left, no point noted.
First, those 2 million web listeners the first week has increased to 6.5 million now, if you believe Franken (and he did tell the truth about the Arbitron numbers). Second, the fact that Air America is paying to get airtime is not unusual. Fox News used to have to pay cable companies to air its channel, for example. It's what you do when you have unproven programming -- you use the broker model, rather than the more typical barter model. Air America is already switching to the barter model now, according to its president. And the fact that there are more conservative talkers than liberal ones is obviously a factor of the conservative talk format being around since the 80's (as well as also being funded by conservative foundations. Those Ovaltine commercials aren't paying for everything.)
Good comments; you could be right - we'll have to wait and see what happens.
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