Posted on 01/25/2006 1:50:20 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Last year, I was privileged to work with Brian Maloney of The Radio Equalizer on an ongoing blog investigative series about beleaguered Air America radio's finances. Brian has continued to dig and dig deep on the story.
He has a new report here and will discuss it tonight on The O'Reilly Factor.
Brian asks: "Did Al Franken's outrageous salary demands hamper Air America's ability to repay the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in 2005?"
Excerpt:
During the same mid-to-late 2004 period when Air America parent Piquant LLC was quietly considering how to resolve the still-undisclosed scandal, Franken was demanding everything, including the kitchen sink.
A June, 2004 Wall Street Journal investigative report on Air America stated Al was making "over $1 million a year". That was accurate, but not for long.
Despite mixed reviews, low ratings and a perpetually shaky cash outlook, Franken was handed a virtual blank check by Piquant. Even as the extent of the Gloria Wise crisis became clear to an ever-changing series of managers, Franken pushed ahead anyway with an eye-popping 2005 compensation package.
Included was a staggering base salary boost to $1,725,000, plus fringe benefits and potential bonuses, after less than a year on the air. Nor was his bloated staff left out. The result: what is quite likely talk radio's largest-ever and most overpaid entourage, mostly from the ranks of Al's Harvard research team.
The kicker: Franken successfully insisted the entire base sum be paid in advance, during the first week of January, 2005...
Read the whole thing.
I'm no fan of AA. But Rhodes is 50 times the pro Franken is.
This is Franken's way of bailing out with dignity (thatis, to the extent he has any).
I don't think this qhole Air America fiasco has exactly been great for his career.
$1 MILLION? I know people who will act like an ass for far less than that, some at no cost.........
"I doubt if she is even getting 10% of his salary."
If she was making .001% of his salary she would be greatly overpaid.
If Al were being paid what he is actually worth, it would be bupkis.
O'Reilly's doing a segment on Air America tonight.
Randi Loads was bitching about the apartment rent she's paying in -20 degree weather! LMAO
I need to consider having my brains sucked out so I can pursue reaping what Franken is attempting to reap.
Randi Robertson is a hoax. She found a niche in post 9-11 radio.
Gee....
Take from Peter to pay Paul.
Rhodes is a pedigreed gutter rat. She has such a hateful personality that she makes Franken look like Mister Rodgers.
I'm guessing Randi only earns about $80,000. Good money in the rest of the country but tought to pay the rent in NY on that.
Pro as in prostitute? Give me a break. She is a brain-dead former AOR Rock jock who used to bang Jack Russel from Great White on the side...not to mention other hair rockers in the 1980s.
I worked on her show in the 1990s and she has no clue about anything other than bitching, copy and pasting stuff from liberal websites and newspapers,and stealing word for word from liberal blogs.
She is full of it to the highest story building. Her "crack" team of Bush haters are what fill her venom vials that she spits on her microphone on a daily basis.
She knows jack shit.
Bingo. I remember being an intern at WSHE back in the day in Ft.Lauderdale and watched her be a "pro" at many a live remote with her weed, coke, and booze.
Yeah...total "pro".
To be fair though...she found her niche during the Impeachment Scandal/Lewinski...where she got her base in South Florida.
Al is so worth every penny!
What a loser.
I remember Randi on the air down here in her South Florida days saying that her greatest fantasy in life would be to perform a "Lewinsky" on Bill aboard Air Force One.
Even liberals don't listen to AA; but then, they already have NPR.
She is like nails on a chalk board to work for....funny enough...it was while I was working on her show I discovered FR in 1999 when I met Freeper Seeking The Truth and went to interview him after being assaulted by a Clinton lover while he was holding a sign off a major road in Boca.
They will go under within the next year. Nobody is buying what they are selling and you cannot stay in business by not turning a profit. Seeeeee ya Air Enron!
Most likely to support his crack habit...
Would that be the Jack Russel that burned down that nightclub and a good many of his fans in the process?
LOL!!! Err Amerika is paying Franken about $2M ??
I love free enterprise!
Out of curiousity, I have some questions: How much is Franken giving to charity? To the poor? To the homeless? How many African-Americans does Franken employ?
Stuart Smalley may be a liberal icon, but even he is no dummy considering AA's history.
Stuart Smalley may be a liberal icon, but even he is no dummy considering AA's history.
Did you know Brian Craig?
I used to be able to watch that guy. Now he has turned into a left-wing hack of the lowest order. I will never watch anything with him in it again.
Phone sex?
Franken may be an idiot, but he is no dummy. He was smart enough to get the money up front....and AA was dumb enough to pay.
It shouldn't be too hard to find another charity to steal money from so the man can be paid.
I do see a way out for the Air America people.
"According to his contract, only death, disability or resignation would lead to any repayment."
So, if Al dies, he has to repay the money.....
$1 MILLION? I know people who will act like an ass for far less than that, some at no cost.........
Lets start a list!
people who will act like an ASS for free!
1 Al Gore
2 Babs Streisand
3 Jesse Jackson
4 Michael Moore
5 John Murrah
6 Cindy Sheehan
7 John Kerry
8 Howard Dean
9 Barbara Lee
10 ????
Research team? What the hell do they "research"? Bong design?
Once heard her show - she was making jokes at AA's expense.. lead me to believe that all is not harmonious over there.. she claims she's on Clear Channel stations? Hadn't heard that before..
Eddie Murphy played a pretty good ass in Shrek, but it wasn't for free.
Does anyone know what the financial state is of Air America?
Unless Soros is sending them a big check each month, where are they getting the money to pay these salaries?
Are their ratings any better than they were before? Do they even have a presence outside NYC these days?
I heard they got booted off the air in a few markets last year.
What the hey. If Stern can get $200 mil, I think they should pay Franken that much. Boys and Girls club are good for it, right?
I'd like to buy Al for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.
Occasionally I'll get into my car between 1500-1900 and the radio will automatically come on to WJNO/1290AM from West Palm Beach. Rush is on before Randi. She will screech and make my earwax run before I can change the station. When she's on, I call her show Radio Hanoi/Havana/Teheran
I saw it mentioned in Usenet's rec.radio.shortwave in that somebody in NJ caught the 5Kw station one night, a distance
of at least 250mi.
They could have had Lewis Black for half that.
They're still on the air?
In SF they replaced the "Morning Sedition" show with Will Durst (commie comic) and former SF mayor Willie Brown. Typically replacing nationally-syndicated stuff with local stuff is a cost measure, but I sure wouldn't dare to assume that that financial angle is something that is even relevant to AA prrogrammers. Dunno if that means anything nationwide either.
I saw Durst once on a TV show with Rush Limbaugh. Durst's ENTIRE shtick was to yell in a whiney tone, "RUUUUUSH!" whenever Rush said something even slightly UN-PC.
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