Air America was supposed to be the voice of the vast unrepresented left, it was to finally give the teaming masses, sick of Bush and conservatives, a voice. It was going to be a network that would tackle the dominance of right wing talk radio.
And now it seems to be imploding. Air America is now forced to beg money from its listeners in order to stay on the air like another low rated radio network.
For:
- $50 you get three “I’m Building Air America Radio” bumper stickers
- $100 you get the three “I’m Building Air America Radio” bumper stickers, plus the stylish tote
- $250 you get three “I’m Building Air America Radio” bumper stickers, the stylish AAR tote plus personal thanks on AirAmericaRadio.com
Air America tried to use creative financing methods, including taking unauthorized loans from the Boys and Girls Club of New York, and giving it’s on air staff shares of ownership instead of paychecks but these methods have only prolonged the inevitable.
In a free market, the listener will determine if a station is successful. Real Talk Radio is right leaning because the majority of listeners want to hear it. If there were a demand for a left leaning Talk show it would be out there on its own without the need to pay to be broadcast. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity do not pay stations to play their shows, the stations pay them for the right to broadcast them.
Air America started by paying for the air time to put their shows on. This model will not work as they have to pay more for the air time than they can collect by selling advertising on those shows. As a business model it is faulty and will not be able to sustain itself. Air America has to make a decision soon, it will either be forced to shut down, become listener supported (which they are trying to do) or fire the on air staff and look for people that will bring in ratings.
Air America is not a business. It is not serving the general public what it wants as proved by its dismal ratings, with no share higher than a 2.0 and then only two out of the 50 AA stations. It is a tool of special interest groups, pandering to a small portion of the nation that for whatever reason can not get past an election that happened almost five years ago.
Hate can not build anything positive, it can only destroy. Air America, like the angry left can not offer anything positive, they can only complain and tear down that which they refuse to tolerate.
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