LEFTY NET OFF WLIB (Air America takes away another black station - WWRL 1600)

The NY Post ^ | August 3, 2006 | John Mainelli

[new yorker 77]

THE liberal Air America radio network is going to be harder to hear in New York.

Next month, it is switching stations - to a weaker AM station, WWRL (1600 AM).

Al Franken and his lefty colleagues are leaving WLIB (1190 AM) apparently because they couldn't come up with enough cash for the owners, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, Pierre.

Starting Sept. 1, Air America will be on WWRL, at the top of the dial where AM signals are weakest - especially at night, when greater FCC restrictions apply.

As The Post reported last March, the ratings-challenged liberal network failed to renew its two-year lease with the Suttons.

Relations between the Suttons and the network's execs were rocky from the start and only got worse after the network's shaky finances became known and a scandal broke out involving loans to Air America from a Bronx charity.

WLIB's future after Sept. 1 is not known, although radio industry heavyweight Randy Michaels - the builder of 1,200-station Clear Channel - has expressed interest in leasing the station as a base for a new talk-radio network.

Michaels declined comment yesterday and the Suttons didn't return calls.

[new yorker 77]

I sometimes listen to WWRL to hear Armstrong Williams or to hear Larry Elder.

Most of the station is LIB, but it is primarily an black urban talk station.

So here come a bunch of failed white LIBS taking away another station from blacks they pretend to care about.

[EagleUSA]

They still live in denial. Racist liberal talk radio does not get it...never has. Yet, they keep spending Soros' money...they are such dangerous fools.

[mewzilla]

So here come a bunch of failed white LIBS taking away another station from blacks they pretend to care about.

But it's for their own good...

SNORT.

[new yorker 77]

http://www.wwrl1600.com/

[Tenacious 1]

George Soros should invest more money in it. If they just have more money, they could get more listeners and advertisers.

Note to self: If you can't get listeners with programing, just keep throwing money at it, if you spend enough money, someday, suddenly, listeners will come.

[new yorker 77]

FYI

[Izzy Dunne]

failed white LIBS taking away another station from blacks

I don't see it that way.

From what I see, it's the black station owners who are taking the program away from FrankenCo, because they wouldn't pay the asking price.

Sounds like capitalism to me - more power to them.

[new yorker 77]

1600 WWRL is 5,000W at nightime.

http://www.nyradioguide.com/cgi-bin/infoam.cgi/WWRL-AM

[new yorker 77]

1600 WWRL

B, 25,000W (daytime), 5,000W (nighttime)

http://www.nyradioguide.com/cgi-bin/infoam.cgi/WWRL-AM


1190 WLIB

B, 10,000W Daytime, 30,000W Nighttime

http://www.nyradioguide.com/cgi-bin/infoam.cgi/WLIB-AM


770 WABC

A, 50,000W

http://www.nyradioguide.com/cgi-bin/infoam.cgi/WABC-AM

[finnman69]

Wow, Alan Colmes has a radio show?! He's on the 1160 lineup.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I sometimes listen to WWRL to hear Armstrong Williams or to hear Larry Elder.

Damn! I used to listen for the soul music and Reverend Ike on Sunday nights.

[new yorker 77]

I remember when he was back on WEVD.

Here's his bio on WWRL where they clearly photshopped his eye to look straight ahead.

http://www.wwrl1600.com/personalities.asp?PID=1

[meandog]

OW!...No more Rachel Maddow!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

WABC is a "clear channel" station meaning no other station can use that frequency within a certain very large geographic area.

Problem with AM is that at night the signal can propagate very, very far, so that distant stations can interfer. Certain stations, like WABC, were granted exclusive use of a frequency over very wide areas.

[meandog]

I suck!

--Rachel Maddow

[new yorker 77]

Audio: Rachel Maddow Biography

[meandog]

"Hi, my name is Randi, and I suck too. But I also lick...just ask Rachel"

[new yorker 77]

You went to a bad place with that reference.

I threw up a little in my mouth just now.

[Cheburashka]

Soros should immediately double, no, triple their budget. They did such good work with the money he already gave them.

Please George, more money down the rat hole. It isn't nearly full.

[EQAndyBuzz]

I like Alan Colmes. He is pretty funny. Plus he is a good sport and is not ashamed of his liberalism.

I give the man credit. If he had a WLIB show he would do well.

This would be my lib lineup.

Mornings - Buy WABC's Curtis and Kuby broadcast. Libs need to get both sides of the argument.
Late morning - Ed Koch
Afternoon - Re-broadcast Tim Russerts Sunday morning TV show.
Afternoon Drive - Alan Colmes
Evenings - Mario Cuomo (Advertise as a sleep aid)

[IronJack]

It's a matter of time before Err America is "broadcasting" by standing on a building and yelling at the crowd below.

[Redbob]

Ah, but they were alive and well in Taos when I was there last week!

[GeronL]

Rachel is a girls name, is that her son or something?

[Dilbert56]

Problem with AM is that at night the signal can propagate very, very far,

Back in January I was able to hear WABC from a parking lot in Lakeland, Florida and while driving up Interstate 95 in South Carolina. Now that's propagation!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

There's a hobby called AM DX, in which listeners try to catch distant AM stations. U.S. east coast stations are received in England all the time. There is one report of WBZ 1030 (Boston) being detected in New Zealand.

[Erasmus]

High Concept for the New WLIB:

"All minstrel, all the time."

[pepsionice]

I think George Soros has to be careful in supporting Air America. If he throws alot of cash at them...then the public might say that this is the only reason they survive...and they don't have commerical drawing power. Even if George does support them alot...the numbers really indicate that other than NY and the west coast towns...they just aren't making a dent in mainstream America. They can't survive in the south...nor the midwest. I doubt that many listeners in the New England states listen to them other than internet radio connections of some dedicated folks.

Their weakness...is that they just don't have a figure with appeal to the vast US public. If they tried to bring in a hard-left team...then no southern democrat would ever want to support their agenda. If they select some centerist democrat...then the west coast crowd won't be happy. Its a lose-lose situation no matter what happens.

[Polyxene]

"...it is switching stations - to a weaker AM station..."

Clear Channel did the same thing to Err Amerika here in Cincinnati. Their ratings were in the toilet, so they bumped them down to far end of the dial -- the AM nether regions.

[summer]

I was just about to post this article from the NY Post. Very interesting that Percy Sutton, a well known black activist in Harlem -- and a lawyer and media honcho, as well as a former Manhattan borough president -- did not want to renew Air America's contract with his radio station. That can't possibly be good news for Democrats in NY.

Here's Percy Sutton, below, right:

[summer]

I like Alan Colmes. He is pretty funny. Plus he is a good sport and is not ashamed of his liberalism.

I like Alan Colmes, too, and for the same reasons you do. Yet, he is constantly bashed by his own because they want him to be more like Sean Hannity.

[meandog]

My name is big fat Ed Shultz and I suck too!"

[N. Theknow]

Jar Jar Binks without the ears?

[meandog]

"I'm the king of sucks on AAR and a redneck to boot!!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Here's yesterday's thread on this story with plenty of good links, including one to Randi Rhodes original threat to leave if she's not on WLIB ( post #90 );

AIR AMERICA LOSES ITS NYC STATION 1190 WLIB
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1676663/posts

[Yankee]

WLIB was a bunch of America-hating black racists before the America-hating white fools at Air Amerika took it over.

I used to tune in for laughs, such as on each Thanksgiving, when they would have a simulcast with some Indians on a reservation somewhere. They would commiserate on their treatment at the hands of the white man and refer to the day as "Misgiving" saying they had nothing to be thankful for.

[Phantom Lord]

I like Alan Colmes. He is pretty funny. Plus he is a good sport and is not ashamed of his liberalism

He is also ten times better on the radio than he is on H&C. Often on H&C as the liberal on the show I think he is forced to defend liberal positions and liberal actions that he personally does not support or believe and you can just tell his heart isn't in it.

He really is a different animal on the radio. He does a good job.

[Phantom Lord]

anybody got a DUmmie thread link on this news?