Air America removed from 2 markets in billing dispute

Chicago Tribune ^ | JOHN COOK

[Pukin Dog]

CHICAGO - (KRT) - After just two weeks of broadcasting, Air America Radio, the fledgling liberal talk-radio network featuring Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, was pulled off the air Wednesday morning in Chicago and Los Angeles, the network's second- and third-largest markets, in a payment dispute that shows no sign of quick resolution.Arthur Liu, owner of Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, which owns Air America affiliates WNTD-950 AM in Chicago and KBLA-1580 AM in Los Angeles, said Air America bounced a check and owes him more than $1 million. Air America and Multicultural had entered into a time brokerage agreement in which the network was essentially renting Multicultural's airtime, Liu said.

"They bounced a check today," Liu said. "It's a default. They have paid only a very small portion of what they owe us." Liu declined to say how much Multicultural is owed, but did say he is holding $1 million in checks that Air America has asked the company not to cash.

Full story ...

[Pukin Dog]

So essentially, the freaks paid for the time, but were not ready to go, so they could not use it. So the owner sells the time they did not use to someone else, instead of playing dead air for two weeks. So the freaks want the money for those two weeks because Liu got paid while they were getting their act together, and try to go back to the negotiating table. Liu had a contract in hand, said screw you, and went to the bank. The freaks stop the check, claiming they were cheated. The freaks are going to lose, and they are not going to find anyone else willing to do business with them. They should have been smart enough to argue their gripe in private instead of stopping a check. It shows a clear lack of business sense, which will cost them down the road.

[moyden2000]

Hard to pass judgment without knowing what the common practice is when it comes to leasing agreements. Could be Air America is right, but they cut off their nose to spite their face.

[RolandBurnam]

As liberals, they feel "entitled" to air time.

I thought radio paid for programming, except those cheesy infomercials where a business does a radio show to promote product

[freedomlover]

As liberals, they feel "entitled" to air time.

That's what free speech means, doesn't it? Hey man I know my rights!

[Tacis]

Hey, it was pay the rent or score some r e a l l y good stuff.! What would any leftie have done?

[moyden2000]

What I am reading is that Air America leased air time two months before they started to air. In that two months, Mr. Lui sold the same airtime to someone else. Air America claims they have a right to proceeds from airtime that they were paying for. Maybe they have a point.

[Victor]

I love it.....

[Hat-Trick]

I'm pretty sure that most everyone who bounces a check, with the exception of congresscritters, can expect to be prosecuted. Why do I doubt that will happen in this situation?

[HitmanLV]

I've accidentally bounced a check or 2 in my day, one case where i was writing agaisnt a check I deposited that bounced. No prosecution.

I think if a person goes around paying for lots of stuff with bum checks, then the cops come into play.

[I still care]

The funny thing is, they have to PAY for their airtime. Does Rush pay for his?

[Pukin Dog]

I doubt Air America has a leg to stand on. They may have had a case, had they gone to court to dispute their rights. By bouncing the check, they have essentially defaulted on their contract. Liu probably keeps the million he's got without having to give Air America anything.

As usual, by getting pissed instead of thinking, Liberals have shot off themselves in their own ass.

[daviddennis]

I dunno. That sounds like a dispute that could be resolved through reasonable negotiations.

I'd probably say Mr Liu has a perfect right to double-book the airtime if Air America paid for it, and let it go fallow without any form of replacement programming. Intuitively it seems to me to be imperative for a radio station to continue broadcasting. If Air America wanted to use the time, they should have found alternative material for it.

That being said, something about this just feels wrong. To resolve a double-booking dispute, the parties sit around a conference table and hash it out. Eventually there is resolution and the fundamental relationship continues.

In this case, the station owner threw the Air America staff out of the offices and changed the locks. That's the action of either a madman or someone who was treated very badly.

My best estimate of what happened is that Air America messed up their budget for the two missing weeks and didn't have enough money in the account to pay for them. So they bounced a big fat check and of course Mr Liu is upset. They're probably being paid by supporters based on radio transmissions made, so if they don't transmit, they don't get paid. Their position is that payments made to Mr Liu by his other customer for the airtime should have sufficed to deal with this downtime. However, those payments were obviously lower, or Mr Liu would have had no particular desire to switch.

In the end, this certainly doesn't show Air America in a very favourable light.

Incidentally, Air America's tacky press release deserves quoting:

This Liu-ser was ripping off our boss Evan Cohen big time (he can’t do that, that’s our job). Evan found out about it and he stopped payment on a check to keep Liu-cifer from ripping him off even more. You can touch Evan for the occasional meal or drinks but a million bucks is crossing the line. And if we ever get low on cash, we can always call Barbra Streisand. Or any of the Baldwins. Except Stephen.

This statement sounds, I don't know, almost like a racist attack against Mr Liu. If that's what their "comedy" is supposed to be like, it's way too forced to be funny. A lot like the worst of Michael Moore if you ask me.

D

[Pukin Dog]

The Air America press release pretty much shows them to have no business sense at all. How many companies will want to do business with an organization that would post such a release?

It shows them to clearly be in panic-mode and emotional, with no regard for professionalism. I am certain that other potential partner stations are looking very closely at their behavior.

[mlbford2]

~~And if we ever get low on cash, we can always call Barbra Streisand. Or any of the Baldwins. Except Stephen.~~

Typical lib way of thnkng. Let the rich bail out the morons. It is also the way they like to run gov't.

[Monty22]

It's astonishing they'd put that out as a public release. Can you imagine IBM or someone putting out anything similar? Will anyone ever want to subject themselves to such libel by doing a contract with these people?

This is one of the biggest 'what were they thinking' moments in business history. A case study example.

[reformed_democrat]

This "press release" is just too weird.

They threaten Liu with a pipe wrench, say they're going to slam his head in a car door . . . "but that's just a joke, man." Then they tell him he better not show his face . . .

No wonder libs need gun control. They have no self control.

[daviddennis]

I think they feel that they can somehow get a groundswell of support from the release. Since the release doesn't give a coherent account of what happened, I don't see that happening.

I wonder what I would have done in their position. To be honest, seeing that they are supposely lavishly funded, I would have paid the bill without complaint and moved on.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that they paid Mr Liu a lot more for his airtime than he was being paid before. His web site talks about a multi-cultural vision for the future featuring foreign language programming. The fact that he's renting out his stations for English language programming that's as lily white as things come is a strong indicator that his strategy wasn't working.

So let's say his existing programming brings in $250k a month. Let's say Air America comes in and offers $1m a month. If he continues his existing programming during an Air America contract, Air America STILL needs to provide, at minimum, the difference of $750k a month to hold the contract.

My guess is that Air America doesn't want to provide the $750k or maybe doesn't even have it to provide. They're trying to say that he's cheating them by wanting at least the $750k, and they're wrong and will lose, big-time, both in the court of law and the more important one of PR.

If this is even close to the truth, as you said, their credibility with other radio stations will be close to zero.

Incidentally, the Democratic Underground crowd are linking to The Smoking Gun's attempt to get an injunction for the Chicago station only. They appear to have given up in LA, which makes me think the legal facts there are damning. I'm sure Liu will have an interesting defense; I'd like to see it.

D

[Guillermo]

That's why they're going to court...to force radio stations to play their crap.

[Monty22]

The link to the release doesn't even work anymore, lol.

Maybe their ISP check bounced too?