Passion Don't Pay the Bills

By Kanrei

March 31, 2004 was the birthday for a pony. This pony was brought into the world with all the best thoughts behind it. This pony was nurtured and raised. As it stumbled it was given leeway to learn from its mistakes. The world was hungry for this pony so this pony was guaranteed success as long as it didn’t screw it up. Unfortunately this pony only had one trick.

Air America was supposed to be the voice of the left. It had one goal in mind and that was the defeat of George W. Bush in 2004. They got major B-list celebrities and a few actual radio personalities and were off and running.

Two weeks into its life, the pony was pulled from a few stations over contract problems. Considering the full scale right wing attack on them and the already small list of stations they had, this was not a good sign of their future.

Over the next year there was nothing but bad news for Air America. Between CEOs leaving, checks bouncing, stations dropping them, a scandal with a Boys and Girl’s club in New York and average ratings at best, Air America was a sinking ship. It was built around defeating Bush and when that didn’t happen they were lost.

Now comes the punch line to epic of Air America. They are declaring bankruptcy. I do not know if this means they are closing shop or what. I know they have let many people go without a severance package of any sort and are, in essence, circling the drain.

I have not heard Air America since they left Sirius about a year ago. I did not know why they left and was never given any warning of it. Fox gave us a warning three months before they left and petitioned to stay. Air America did not give one thought to their Sirius fans and just went away.

To be honest, they were redundant anyway. Al Franken and most of their other on-air talent are not radio people; they are comedians and writers. They have very few real radio people and that is why they failed. It was not the concept because Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller do very well in their markets. It was the talent, or lack there of.

Air America thought the country was so appalled with Bush that they would tune into anyone who told them things against Bush. What they did not realize or underestimated was that people listen to their radios for entertainment first and news second and opinion a distant third. Rush is entertaining for all is spin and Al Franken was not. It really breaks down to that.

Bye-bye Air America. I am glad to see you go to be honest. You were an embarrassment to many of us who only lean left. It was a station that only hard core liberals need apply. Don't let the door hit you in the democrat on your way out.

Update to ThinkProgress, the source of the story:
"UPDATE: Air America responds.

If Air America had filed for bankruptcy every time someone rumored it to be doing so, we would have ceased to exist long ago; it may be frustrating to some that this hasn’t happened. No decision has been taken to make any filing of any kind, we are not sure of the source of these rumors and frankly can not respond to every rumor in the marketplace."

This story suddenly got very interesting. We have a new hobby I think.