Posted on 05/09/2006 8:44:40 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Have some liberals finally had enough of Al Franken & Friends?
While Stuart Smalley's defenders continue to pound your Radio Equalizer for relentlessly exposing the truth about this partisan talk network, some of its harshest critics actually come from the left!
In the past week alone, "progressive" mega-blog Daily Kos has featured two anti-Air America Radio rants, the latest with reader comments similar to these sentiments:
An earlier diary here has a lot of comments I agree with, including especially that Air America is too much top-down. Trying to build an instant radio network from a studio in New York and broadcasting it across the country never did make sense to me. Instead, syndicating local talent seems a lot more viable way to grow, albeit much more slowly.
Frankly Big Eddie is probably the show I enjoy the most (on KPOJ here in Portland) and he's not even part of Air America. And I really like Tom Hartman who is local here but I think gets some air in other cities as well.
And as much as I love Randi Rhodes for playing old Rusty Warren records, which brings back great memories of Dick McGovern on KSAN in the 70s, I can't really listen to her monologue for very long.
So Air America in my opinion was a hugh experiment that proved that there is a market for progressive radio. Maybe couldn't have done that quickly any other way. But now its time to grow organically. We need to find great radio personalities and let them grow into new markets.
Just as Howard is pushing for the Democratic Party to be more grassroots driven and work from the bottom up, I think progressive talk radio should grow from the bottom up too. I will be eternally grateful to Al Franken for shattering old myths that it would never work, but now it's time to do the hard work and let the market pick the winners.
Next, to the comments, where some readers let loose:
Too Heavy Handed
I agree with the previous poster: Air Amrica is too heavy-handed. Lord knows, I wanted to like it. But it made me uneasy from the beginning. So i asked a friend to listen and give me his opinion, which was....
..."great, now we have Liberal hate speech. Forgive me if i don't applaud."
He's right. Listening to Al Franken screech:
"These people are liars!", moan loudly, then spit out "it's 25 past the hour" in a tone suggesting he is in the studio under duress....
...well, it's neither entertaining nor useful.
It's simply bad radio. And not many people want to listen to bad radio.
Hosts also rely too heavily on a few sources: Media Matters, Center For American Progress, etc...
by qwertman on Sun May 07, 2006 at 08:59:41 PM PDT
Air America: Ain't that great
First of all, most of the hosts interrupt their f------ guests! Particularly Laura Flanders. Why the f--- have Ray McGovern on if you're gonna interrupt the guy who just schooled Rumsfailed? WTF?
You listen in to Flanders next week and you'll see what I mean. It's the same with callers. And Randi Rhodes? Why the f--- even take callers? She interrupts everyone of them, most of whom are more politically astute than she is anyway.
And the tone of Rhodes and Malloy must turn people off. No one undecided would actually want to listen to these people.
Air America comes across mostly as Democratic Party radio and why the f--- would you want that? That's dumb, then you've got the Republicans listening to Hannity and Rush and no one in this country is talking to one another. You need actual discussion, folks, to get something constructive done.
Bring the fairness doctrine back, g------ it. Have stations where people get multiple views and, along with democratizing schools, you'll have a population of fairly literate folks who can think for themselves and they'll f------ choose liberal policies. That would be the beauty of that system. And until you get that, we're just wasting our f------ time.
The only decent show we have on the Madison, WI Air American is Matt Rothschild's show, the editor of the Progressive magazine, insightful and decent, he doesnt' shout at you and he lets the guests f------ talk without interrupting them. The Ring of Fire ain't bad either. Bobby Kennedy should get someone to fix his voice, though. He is a brilliant man and the show is informative.
Franken isn't even funny anymore and he has guys like Howard Fineman on.
"In a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes." Chomsky
by formernadervoter on Sun May 07, 2006 at 08:35:51 PM PDT
(edited for language)
Other then Rachel and Randi the rest bore me.
I love Rachel, she needs more time. She always seems to be right on. I don't always agree with her, I am not as progressive as she is I guess. But she can be entertaining while getting her message across.
Springer, thank goodness I get to work right as he is coming on.
Franken is a bore. I can not listen to him without yelling at the radio. His humor is gone, and he speaks so slowly. WHATS YOUR POINT, AL FRANKEN?
Ed Schultz is on from 2-5 and Randi is tape delayed until 5. I like Ed the best out of all of them and hes not even part of AAR.
Randi, even though she can go off the deep end, is also entertaining. Different funny than Rachel, but very good.
I dont hear much after that. Overall, I think Dallas can be a good market for AAR, even though the ratings look real bad.
They are trying to get their name out, and the commercials seem to be replacing the canned musak.
Take back Texas
by edalex on Sun May 07, 2006 at 07:18:16 PM PDT
While a few Kos posters do defend Air America here, others are chock- full of ideas as to how the network could potentially salvage itself.
To the network, we might now ask: is it really a right-wing conspiracy to bring down liberal radio, or does your programming simply stink?
Meanwhile, in the blogosphere:
Expose The Left wonders why, after the infamous trashmeister brought up Bush's poll numbers, Hannity & Colmes failed to press guest Jerry Springer on Air America's poor performance. Good point, Ian!
"I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, and doggone it, nobody likes me."
>>hugh
(sic)! This is hugh! Is he series? :)
Yes, right behind the market for the all Caribbean music channel.
If your definition of a "market" is 22 people. I love this, Rush was right again.
Translation:
A liberal radio show might work if we could find hosts people actually want to listen to.
Good luck!
Elsewhere on FR today is a long, interesting read about populism. That's what the Dems THINK they are all about, as their recent wet dream movies like Good Night and Good Luck would have them believe.
But I can't imagine anyone on Air America just flat-out saying what the real working Democrat is truly interested in. Sure, there are SOME urban Dems who care about all that wacko crap, but how often will Air Americans talk about welfare, illegal immigration, religion etc. in non-PC ways that reflect voters who otherwise consider themselves Democrats?
It was hugh and vey series.
>> Bring the fairness doctrine back, g------ it. Have stations where people get multiple views and, along with democratizing schools,
Priceless: True sign of a liberal is embracing the (un)Fairness Doctrine--if brought back it would KILL talk
radio. Stations would be forced to put on "both sides" (you can HAVE both sides--callers are free to say what they want)
but that would mean boring liberal hosts would suddenly invade your fave station--and drag down the ratings...The market drives talk radio. It's what people want, and people want an alternative to the liberal media.
This is why conservative talk radio works and is wildly
successful.
And the part about democratizing schools? What does that mean--that the liberal viewpoint ISN'T being expressed in class? Far from it! Ask David Horowitz about the Jay
Bennish-type teachers out there. Just as liberals feel the MSM isn't liberal ENOUGH, they feel schools aren't, either.
"Give them both sides (indoctrinate students) and they'll
choose the liberal". No, give them both sides and they'll
hopefully see that the liberals don't have a leg to stand on!
I suppose if your definition of work is losing vast sums of money, getting clobbered in the ratings, and having to steal from children's charities.
Liberals ideas can't win in the marketplace, so have the government force it down our throats.
One comment said that basically Republicans listen to conservative shows, and Democrats listen to liberal shows.
No, liberals listen to both--in fact I think more liberals choose conservative talk radio over liberal because "conservatalk" is MORE WELL DONE, MORE INTERESTING. Listen to Rush, Hannity, Ingraham, etc., and you'll hear liberals calling in to express their views (and their opinions are promptly shot down by the hosts).
Ingraham has guests on from both sides. My fave was the guy from Lawyers Against the War. Right out of the box, Laura
asked if it was a good thing that we got Saddam out of
power. He refused to answer a simple question. Asked a couple more times, still refused, then hung up angrily.
Laura's producer called him back to try to get him back on,
and the man referred to her with an obscene term. Go ahead,
libs, the floor is yours: express your views. just be sure and be ready to defend them!
So, people from all sides love listening to and calling conservative hosts. Liberal hosts only have the hardcore
moonbats listening. Many liberals probably tune to NPR
instead, OR, again, they'll listen to an INTERESTING
conservative show. Even if the host has opinions that make their blood boil, at least it doesn't put them to sleep
like Franken, the Ambien of talk radio!
One of the pioneers of talk radio was the late Jerry Williams, who was considered liberal in his day. Later his views moderated a bit and he started calling himself a populist and a muckraker. He'd get on air about the hacks and cronies in
Massachusetts government, and he railed against Dukakis'
1988 presidential run--pointing out to his listeners how
arrogant and ineffective the Duke's governorship was.
One caller to Jerry's show sang "Unelectable..." to the tune of "Unforgettable", referring to Dukakis.
By the late 1980s, Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr--
who nicknamed Dukakis Pee Wee (as in Pee Wee Herman)--
made regular appearances on his show. Ultimately, Carr
succeeded Jerry in that time slot. Yesterday he was asking listeners when their epiphany was: when they stopped being liberal. Looking at their paycheck to see how much money was being taken out, and how it was being spent. Seeing the hacks and cronies on the public trough. Big money for
programs that didn't work.
So "liberal" Jerry Williams turned into a "populist" and then into Conservative Howie Carr...a reaction to the liberal
media out there. And a success!
I think his definition of a "market" is "if a few wealthy people are willing to fund it, or if, better yet, we can get a government grant... "
Jerry Williams and Ted Kennedy--priceless! From 1990:
http://jerrywilliams.org/audio/WRKO/wrko12.m3u
(hear above): RUDOLPH Murdoch (acc. to Ted) LOL!!
Is that photoshopped or an actual, honest to goodness, pose? I am almost afraid to know the answer.
Now wait a minute, I've listened to the Caribbean channel - but I haven't listened to airhead America
Hey, unlike Air America, at least the folks on the Caribbean channel admit they've been smoking something.
Well, exactly. The ratings did go down after the New York station switched from the Caribbean format to Airhead America. It may be the last place market, but it is a market I guess.
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