[BC] Air America

[Donna Halper]

At 03:35 PM 10/10/2005 -0400, you wrote:
> >>No, but one morning, I happened to catch them via skywave on 1530, and
>heard
>them talking about something called "Morning Sedition". I just shook my
>head, and thought that was a rather inappropriate name for a radio  program.

Umm, AAR has had this program on the air since 1994.  It's a satire on the 
name "Morning Edition," from a show that was on NPR.  But so what?  We've 
beat this dead horse before and let's not beat it again.  Air America is 
doing very well in some markets and is making a profit finally-- not 
everywhere, but they are a factor in a number of cities.  That's good for 
democracy.  And AAR is NOT the only thing out there-- there are now 
Democracy Radio (syndicator of comedienne and satirist Stephanie Miller) 
and Product First (run by two former Clear Channel guys) who now offer q 
wide range of liberal and progressive talk shows hosts-- some are serious, 
some are angry, some are funny.  I recommend Ed Schultz 
(www.bigeddieradio.com) as a good example of a progressive talk host who is 
making huge inroads by being entertaining but not angry-- he is a former 
rightie who came over to progressive talk and is now on over 100 stations. 
As for so-called liberal anger, let's be honest-- there is anger on both 
sides.  The right wing talkers were furious and enraged and huffing and 
puffing when they went on the air too-- you are right that outrage is not 
the only way to do a radio show, but we live in a very polarised time in 
America, sad to say, and polarised talk networks are all over the place.  I 
doubt they shed very much light on the subjects at hand, but they serve a 
useful purpose.  I want to see both sides of the story told-- the right 
wing has dominated talk radio for far too long, and if the left can get 
their side out in an interesting way, I think that's a good thing.