A little of this, a little of that...

No new stations or Air America Radio affiliates to report on as of late, but considering that many major markets (with a few glaring exceptions) have liberal talk stations, there's not a whole lot of new markets left compared to before.

However, there are two situations worth noting. First, Randi Rhodes announced on her show last week that her show will begin airing in St Louis on September 18. No station was mentioned, but Al Franken's show does air on KRFT (1190 AM). KRFT is owned by a local company called Big League Broadcasting, which also owns KFNS (590 AM, 100.7 FM), two stations simulcasting a sports format. KFNS-AM is floundering, and the FM station, whose rimshot signal hits only part of the market, may be sold down the road. KRFT, which also carries shows from Don Imus and Neal Boortz, seems to be the most likely station. Reportedly, they dropped the syndicated "2 Live Stews" from their lineup, so this does create an opening.

And another recent Air America affiliate, KXIC (800 AM) in Iowa City, IA, is adding a second AAR show to their schedule. Thom Hartmann joins Rhodes to create a six-hour block of liberal talk programming, and KXIC's program director seems to be enthusiastic about adding more.

Oh, and speaking of affiliates, congratulations to KQKE ("960 The Quake") in San Francisco, which took two staff awards in SF Weekly's "Best Of The Bay" issue. The Quake won for Best New Talk Radio Station (AM) and morning hosts Will Durst and Willie Brown won Best Morning Radio Show.

It does look like Air America will lose on minor affiliate next week, as WSRQ (1450 AM) in Sarasota, FL, which airs only the Jerry Springer Show, will drop all talk programming (including Sean Hannity) and flip to a simulcast of a sister FM station from Tampa by next week.

Meanwhile, on the Mike Malloy front, Malloy made guest appearances on two shows last week, with Guy James (MP3) and, ironically, Air America's "Majority Report" (MP3). He has not announced his future intentions yet, but he did have a meeting with the suits at Sirius Satellite Radio last week. Stay tuned for more updates.