Why Air America Flopped

By James Hirsen
October 17, 2006

Remember how the left had the ill-fated idea of establishing a liberal radio network?

Libs wanted to bring to the national scene a left-of-center parallel to the highly successful conservative radio talk-show universe.

What ended up happening, though, is a sterling example of the free marketplace at work.

On March 30, 2004, a posh soiree was held at the trendy Maritime Hotel in Manhattan. Folks gathered to celebrate the launch of Air America.

According to The Wall Street Journal, over 1,000 guests were present. With red, white, and blue vodka cocktails in hand, partygoers, including Tim Robbins and Yoko Ono, reveled.

Assembled libs accepted as true the idea that if only their message could get out, network success would surely follow.

Lefty leaders from Hollywood to Manhattan were loving the idea of sticking it to Rush Limbaugh and his conservative radio cohorts.

With cash that had been supplied by wealthy ideologues, the liberal radio network tried to get its entire 24-hour lineup picked up by radio stations.

But station managers preferred to choose programming that best suited their particular markets, and Air America hit a major snag.

Next it tried to buy its way into the big markets and even attempted to purchase some radio stations outright. Not enough dough was available, though, so it decided to go the route of leasing airtime in some of the largest radio markets in the nation including New York, Chicago, and L.A. This would later prove to be an unlucky gamble.

“Saturday Night Live” alum and rock-throwing writer Al Franken had been selected to be the lead draw for the network. He was given his own show in a primetime slot. Actress and comic Janeane Garofalo and rapper Chuck D were in the lib lineup as well.

Franken and friends did their best to promote the lefty venture, and they received a whole lot of mainstream media help in their efforts.

Air America was given unprecedented attention in the news. ABC featured it twice on “Good Morning America.” The late Peter Jennings pitched it a couple of times on “World News Tonight.” And Ted Koppel devoted an entire “Nightline” program to its coverage.

NBC lent it some publicity with an interview on the “Today” show and a reporter’s story on the “Nightly News.”

CNN aired countless stories on it, including some in primetime slots.

NPR plugged it on its regular radio segment “All Things Considered” and in an interview on its afternoon chat show “Talk of the Nation.”

“Newsweek” covered it with an article and interview with Al Franken.

The New York Times spotlighted the network in a front-page piece on the first broadcast day and in a cover story in “New York Times Magazine.”

And The Washington Post reserved some front-page space for it on the launch day, as well as some room in the Sunday “Style” section.

Despite all the media help, Air America ran into some huge problems (which, by the way, were virtually ignored by the mainstream media). The quality of the programming was less than stellar. The all-star lib lineup didn’t have the prerequisite radio experience. Instead of tapping the vast reservoir of radio talent that was already out there, the shows were hosted by comics, “gangsta” rappers and the like. The content mostly consisted of no-holds-barred hate. It was enough to make James Carville blush.

Things went downhill for the network pretty fast. The actual financial condition of the company was in poor health when it started, but it wasn’t long before Air America couldn’t pay the sizable lease fees to its Chicago station, which was owned by MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc. MultiCultural ended up having to lock Air America out of its studios and kick it off the air in Chicago and Los Angeles. Air America’s CEO Mark Walsh jumped overboard, and others in its management team eventually joined him.

Finding itself in the predicament, what did Air America do? It did what lawyer-loving liberals usually do after failing to succeed by conventional means: File a lawsuit.

Air America found a New York judge who would order MultiCultural to put the network back on the air in Chicago. The victory would be short-lived, though, because it would soon be bumped off again.

Investors in the network eventually set up a new entity called Piquant LLC. Picquant bought the assets of the old company and started over. Air America allowed local stations to pick up whatever part of the lineup they wanted to.

It stayed on the air in New York and in a dozen or so smaller markets. And Al Franken continued to try to paddle his way to the progressive promised land in a deflated inner tube.

Folks who know a little something about basic economics understand why Air America flopped.

The reason that conservative radio is successful is because people love it and want more of what it has to offer. And the reason that Air America failed to cut the radio mustard is because neither the interest nor the demand for the delivery of the lib message in that format is there.

The fact of the matter is, liberals get their messages out in media venues galore. Pretty much everything they need and/or want to convey is already being transmitted via our mainstream information and entertainment fare.

After spending a lot of time denying rumors, Air America Radio has finally filed for Chapter 11 protection, but the enterprise hasn’t been viable for a long time.

According to pleadings filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the company lost $9.1 million in 2004, $19.6 million in 2005 and $13.1 million by the time it filed in 2006.

It has assets of $4.3 million. But it also has liabilities of $20.3 million with its headliner Al Franken listed as a creditor who’s owed $360,749.