[BC] Air America filing for Bankruptcy

[Rich Wood]

------ At 08:40 PM 9/13/2006, Bill Harms wrote: -------

>See the URL below.
>
>http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/13/air-america-bankruptcy

It seems Progressive radio can't seem to get its feet solidly planted 
on the ground. The first Progressive network was I.E. America, run by 
the United Auto Workers. Some of Air America's talent came from 
there. The Union decided radio wasn't their primary business and shut 
it down. Air America began with some very scuzzy people. They're 
gone. The real problem is that political radio is controversial and 
very hard to sell to mainstream advertisers. In order to sell network 
radio you need to cover 85% of the country with decent ratings. 
Otherwise, you get packaged with other networks to come up with the 
tonnage needed to convince an agency to buy. Companies like 
Dial-Global, Media America and United Stations do very good jobs at 
that. You still need ratings in major markets. I was extremely 
fortunate when I started the WOR Radio Network. I had a 50Kw 
blowtorch in New York City as my flagship. Each additional affiliate 
was ratings gravy. Our sales rep was Premiere Radio Networks, the 
same folks who sell (and own) Limbaugh.

Right Wing radio had a long head start with Rush Limbaugh, et al, on 
nearly every 50Kw. heritage station in every market. Conservative 
stations are reluctant to mix politics, so Progressive radio needs to 
find stations willing to commit to one political slant. Same with 
Neo-Conservative radio. The problem is that the stations left to make 
that commitment are the second and third tier stations in a market. 
You can only afford to LMA a few major market stations. Air America 
suffered a serious setback when they lost the WLIB signal. I 
understand Los Angeles is now only a partial LMA.

Unfortunately, none of the current Progressive hosts seems to be able 
to generate the "gotta have this show" interest the way Limbaugh did. 
They've all been on the air for years, except for Franken. Franken 
does what Pat Buchannan did. He scares the Hell out of stations every 
time he threatens to run for political office. I had the problem with 
Bob Grant when he threatened to run for office in New Jersey. 
Stations are reluctant to pick up a show that may go away. Once the 
candidate announcement is made it becomes a campaign and they're off 
the air. Once Grant made the announcement he might do it, his 
affiliation stopped dead in its tracks. No one wanted to take the risk.

It's been my experience that as soon as a company vehemently denies 
something is going to happen it happens within a week.

Rich

Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-454-3258