Thursday, September 14, 2006

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.

10 comments:

Rex Zeitgeist said...

Beleive it or not......I am sad that Air America finaly is getting flushed, at least when they were all in one cramped, dark studio we knew were these weird Anti- American haters, dwelled......

Al Franken had only one trick, his hatred for Rush Limbuagh, now I am no Limbuagh fan but builidng your entire career on slander and insults of one man doesn't seem very smart or economically feasible....

Randy Rhodes, just plain sickened me......a ill inofrmed fool who slanted the very air she breathes....I am sure some moonbat organization like Code Strink or Moveon will hire her to spew her vitriol for them.....

Jeanne Barfbagalo was just plain nasti, I don't think that tatooed, pachulli soaked freak has ever read a newspaper.....She had no clue what was going on in the world beyond a list of talking points her producer stuck infront of her face...every time I saw her in an interview, she had no idea what the questioner was saying....A complete and utter moron....


Yea, I sure will miss Air America...

Jack said...

This is my new identity. I am blogging here 24/7. There is no stopping what can't be stopped.

Anonymous said...

I see the Faux Rex is spamming you too. (different profiles)

Unknown said...

hi V,
I caught it. It comes up different when I get my email notification of a comment added. He is going to completely unrealted sites and posting as Rex as well.

Unknown said...

He must think I am still PWZ or something. He should know I am hated by the admin there more than he is.
Nice to have a second stalker I suppose. First the El Paso freak and now this one.
Traffic is a good thing.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I traced this one to El Paso

Unknown said...

OK, so I have the same troll. Either way, traffic is traffic. There is nothing he can do to this site. My posts are doubled on another site, so he cannot even take down my posts. The troll only gets me more hits, improves my standing on some of the webrings I am a member of and gets me more hits as a result. I encourage the pseudo-Rex to keep on coming. He doesn't fool me into thinking it is the real Rex and only helps this site by coming here.

Welcome troll.

Rex Zeitgeist said...

Hey wait a minute....did the faux troll uspurp my lemming status?

I demand compensation!

Unknown said...

No Rex,
I can tell the difference between you. You are the chief pervert lemming still.

Rex Zeitgeist said...

ahahahahha....If you only knew how straight laced I really am Kan, you would be shocked....Most people that know me in 'real life' consider me a goodie two shoes, prude....

Except my ex-girlfeinds....ehehehehe