The mistake that Air America made from day one...was not becoming a regional voice in one area of the US. If they had stood up the network in Texas, and been a fairly tame liberal voice...with issue-oriented "DJ's"...they could have built onto something and gradually moved out to the midwest and the south.
The "slam" style that they displayed...didn't sell in the south. Most southern democrats would never listen to Air America. The rare bits of humor they did get across...just weren't the type that most southerners would take a likening to. So this was a dismal effort aimed toward failure on day one. Rush is just as big today...as he was ten years ago. Air America didn't take him down one single notch. That really says the entire story.
That's been tried before. Jim Hightower tried it, Ann Richards tried it, and Mario Coumo tried it. All three flopped.
What they failed to realise is that most Southern Democrats (Dixiecrats, Yellow-dog Democrats, or whatever you would call them) are church-goers who love their country. Therefore Air America's style doesn't sell down here.
Funny, Republicans are blamed for being dividers yet the lib's way seems to be to throw anyone they hate out in the cold. They H-A-T-E most of America.