Ron Reagan, son of the late President Ronald Reagan, and host of Air America's "The Ron Reagan Show." Photo/Wikimedia.
Air America, the liberal radio network, went down in flames, Jan. 21, when it announced it would file for bankruptcy. It wasn’t because of air-to-air combat with conservative talk shows and bloggers. It wasn’t because of the Recession, although reduced advertising revenue, a reality of all media, also affected Air America.
It wasn’t even demographics, even though older, marginalized conservatives tend to listen to radio more than do younger liberal professionals. And media history was only part of the problem.
By the 1960s, liberals had become masters at developing and using not only mainstream media but also an emerging alternative media to advance a social agenda. But then they choked, sputtered, and fell into disarray.
During the past two decades, conservatives slowly, almost methodically, established a talk show base that ignited its own movement.
By 2000, with liberals more focused upon the print media and the emerging social media, and having neglected the advantages of a re-energized AM bandwidth that was more adaptable to talk than to music, the personality-drenched conservative talk radio medium filled the vacuum. The talk shows targeted the same kind of audience that the liberal ’60s alternative media had targeted—the socially and politically marginalized who distrusted Big Government and believed in individual liberties.
Any emerging liberal network would be seen as merely an annoyance, rather than competition. The conservatives, embraced by Fox News and talk radio, solidified their hold upon the listeners by playing to irrational fears of their base—that the media were controlled by liberals, and that government was out to get them.
Air America had begun as a fresh challenge to the conservative talk show movement. It had a decent mix of comedy, rant, and music. Eventually, it would syndicate shows to about 100 affiliates. Air America had come into a market saturated by right-wing talk radio—and then committed suicide by incompetence. Its death was celebrated by a vitriolic rightwing mix of radio commentators and listeners.
Even facing the Recession, diminished advertising revenue, a target population that had almost abandoned radio except for niche music stations and NPR, and the dominance of conservative talk radio, the six-year-old network could have survived . . .
IF it had better investment funding . . .
IF it didn’t spend a disproportionate share of its small investment on lavish studios in a high-rent Manhattan commercial building . . .
IF it didn’t have so many management changes, and so much ineptness among senior managers. . . .
IF it could have hired more on-air personalities and off-mike producers who had significant radio experience. Even the most talented (among them Al Franken, Sam Seder, and Rachel Maddow) had minimal radio experience. In contrast, almost all of Rush Limbaugh’s career was in radio before he became the man most loathed by liberals.
Air America might have survived if it tried to evolve slowly, as had conservative talk radio, and not try to match it in salaries and personalities the first year.
It might have survived if its primary message wasn’t to attack the conservative infotainment hosts but to develop its own entertainment and issues. By the demise of Air America, conservative talk radio not only had a larger fan base but better websites and outreach.
But, most of all, Air America might have survived if it wasn’t so arrogant. Its hosts and producers ignored phone calls and e-mails from liberals and moderates who were not on its radar as “important.” And, it and many of its affiliates also ignored calls from many reporters who were trying to do stories about the network and its personalities. If the producers arrogantly didn’t think something mattered, then it didn’t.
In the end, Air America didn’t do for the liberal movement what the rest of talk radio did for its conservative movement—it didn’t respect its listeners enough to allow them their own voice.
Walter Brasch is a professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University. His most recent book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush. He can be reached at brasch@bloomu.edu.
You say most of all, liberal radio might have survived if it had not been so arrogant. Of course that’s a critique of liberalism in general.
Wow, other then the operational mismanagement described I do not agree with you at all. The first question we must ask other selves is what are my personal concepts and the difference between liberal and conservative to me; the reason is that the two political party systems have nothing to do with (liberal and conservative) self searching question. Air America pre 2004 on channel 1360 KLSD in San Diego was assume radio!!!, in my opinion it had the best programming on all of the radio stations. I went to many KLSD promotion parties around San Diego and there were over 1 hour lines out side and standing room only inside. The demographics of the Air America audience at these events where off the charts it was unbelievable; which would cause a dimwitted marketing director to an orgasiam but the sales force of the stations did not understand what the had. The reason was that many of the stations playing Air America were on clear channel stations. Remember the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections the vote was nearly a perfect 50 percent split, your potential listening base was equal the problem is who owns the radio stations? Nearly all clear channel stations that put the Air America programming on them used their weakest power signal stations and no sales force to back it up. If I were a stock holder of clear channel during that time I would contact a lawyer to sue over mismanagement by clear channel upper management for not utilizing their radio stations properly and maximizing profits with the Air America format.
Look at GM they dumped a shit load of money on conservative talk radio how did that work for them? Nobody correctly sold the concept of Air America; in the exact same fashion as global financial melt down nobody said WTF going on, like when gas was humping $5.00 a gallon with global gas surpluses. You see fascism brought down Air America.
KLSD was really great while it lasted I can honestly say that when KLSD was on the Air in San Diego it was the best talk radio I have ever listened to and I am truly grateful to have been a part of it.
The personalities on KLSD format were great except for Al Franken, you could tell Al Franken was scheming his show was the weakest of the line up Fuck you Senator Al Franken.
A Security Exchange Commission Violation or Mismanagement?
8/25/07
Jesse Hemingway
Cash is king that is what the CEO told me, while he was out raising fund for his new corporation. As corporation evolves then the shareholders become the critical component in the corporation the members of the management often pledging a return on the shareholders investment or (ROI); the almighty shareholders becomes king. Then the corporation will contrive a mission statement something like we know what is best for your money let us make it grow. The Shareholders invest in the management and officers of the corporation to maximize their ROI, this ROI has no political bent or ideology it becomes the measurement of the corporations’ success.
Currently as you read this; in the United States mismanagement of shareholders investments is taking place threw the public airwaves; battles are occurring totally based on political ideology, conservative against liberal and left versus right. The conservative have an extreme advantage by a ratio of many 100’s to 1 in this political ideology warfare. During the 2004 presidential election approximately 62,040,610 voted for the republican candidate and 59,028,111 for the democrat candidate. The public radio airwaves play a critical role in the disseminating political ideology leading up the elections.
If these broadcasting corporations were truly looking out for the ROI of their shareholders, then they would require a shift to balance out the programming to optimize the shareholders investment. The two potential audiences represented by the total number of votes in the 2004 election, 121,068,721 at nearly a 50% split. The ratio of left leaning radio talk shows are out number by 100’s to 1 ratios, in favor of the right leaning radio talk shows. Any semi-sophisticated investor would analyze that the management of these broadcasting corporations are under performing by not equalizing the ratios of programs to potential audiences and increasing the ROI for their shareholders. This the most basic principle in business management courses taught in colleges. This is not new information it appears that the management of the broadcasting corporations are intentionally losing shareholders value of their investments. Along with the future potential ROI by choosing political ideology over the shareholders investments as promised by the broadcasting corporations to get the initial investment. If in fact that this was and orchestrated effort by the broadcasting corporations it may be a violation of the Securities Exchange Commissions regulations. In any case it surly would be a violation of the broadcasting corporations’ ethics regulations. It is obvious that it is a glaring display of mismanagement of the shareholders investments and trust.