What's next for Malloy and Air America Radio?

First, Malloy hasn't disappeared off the face of the earth. Yesterday, he left this message on his website, asking everyone to go easy on his temporary replacement, Peter Werbe:

Hey Truthseekers, Malloy here. My good friend Peter Werbe will be temporarily broadcasting on Air America Radio at night in my old time slot. He's a good guy, a true left-liberal, and now finds himself in an awkward position. He cannot comment about the circumstances of my termination on the air, which I completely understand and support. I have been in Peter's exact position in the past.

So I have a request: Please treat Peter with the respect he truly deserves. Please keep in mind he did not ask to be in this position. The righteous anger and frustration felt right now by so many supporters of our program should be expressed to Air America Radio directly.

Here's the phone number to call: 212-871-8290 or email to: comments@airamericaradio.com

Again, we will keep you updated as more details develop and thanks as always for your incredible support.

And he's right. Werbe's a good guy and a good host. He didn't ask for any of this, and he certainly can't discuss this on the air. He's filling in for one more night, so be nice.

So, what's on at night next week on Air America? Well, it looks like the NYC braintrusts pulled out all the stops and, according to an email posted on Malloy's message board from Ashley Shapiro, a programming assistant with KLSD in San Diego, they're bringing in "The Most Dangerous Liberal In America", Jon Elliot!

How do we know he's "the most dangerous liberal in America?" Well, his microphone is on fire! He's gotta be a badass! Don't worry - it's only for two weeks or so. No word on if this is permanent.

And perhaps Malloy isn't permanently dead to AAR. His presence is still evident on AAR's website. Usually, when someone is hastily shown the door, stations are rather quick to delete any memory of said individual (even the Clear Channel stations). But AAR is notorious for not updating their website often, but for the past few days, Malloy has still been featured, even on the front page. The only evidence on their site that Malloy is no longer there is via Malloy's blog comments. You can still leave a comment there too, until AAR shuts that party down. By the way, does anyone know who's minding the store at AAR?

Well, if Sheldon Drobny still had some pull at AAR, perhaps Malloy would still be around. Drobny weighed in yesterday on his Huffington Post blog entry. Currently, Drobny operates two AAR affiliates via his company, Nova M. One of those stations is KPHX, which has been doing reasonably well in the Phoenix ratings as of late. Local morning host Mike Newcomb is furious over Malloy's firing, making it a topic of his show on Thursday. Also, prominently posted on the station's front page is this:

SHOW MALLOY YOUR SUPPORT

SEND MALLOY SOME LOVE AT
www.mikemalloy.com

Let Air America know how you feel about their decision to terminate Mike Malloy. You can leave a message here: (212) 871-8290

Be sure to sign the petition to reinstate Malloy here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/Malloy/petition.html

MORE CONTACT INFO

Air America Radio
641 Sixth Avenue 4th Floor
New York, NY 10011

Doug Kreeger dkreeger@airamericaradio.com
Upper Management

Jon Sinton jsinton@airamericaradio.com
Upper Management

Jim Wiggett jwiggett@airamericaradio.com

Acting CEO Rob Glaser rglaser@airamericaradio.com

The petition, by the way, has over 5000 signatures as of this posting. Also posting a link to the petition is KPTK (1090 AM) in Seattle. Ironically, they're owned by one of those massive media companies, CBS Radio. KQKE (AM960 The Quake) in San Francisco also makes mention of Malloy's departure (though they buried his show in the wee hours of the night). And KTNF (950 AM) in Minneapolis/St. Paul regrets AAR's decision, expressing their desire to air his show if and when he comes back.

Other talk show hosts, such as Doug Basham and Guy James made Malloy's departure a main topic of their shows.

As for Malloy, he went on a few radio shows yesterday, including Alex Jones and Christine Craft. Malloy said that he currently has three offers on the table to resume his show, and he does not plan to self-syndicate.

If you want to hear his show every night for now, Head-On Radio Network is currently airing, with Malloy's permission, archived shows from his old I.E. America Network days (pre-AAR). You can tune in weeknights from 10P-1A (his usual time slot) at HORN. Or you can download old shows from The White Rose Society or Air America's site (which reportedly will still make his podcasts available).

As for Air America themselves, September 1, 2006 marks the first day of their newest affiliate, as they move from WLIB (now playing gospel music) to WWRL in New York City. Many people were obviously shocked when they woke up this morning and found notorious Bush Administration propagandist Armstrong Williams in morning drive, but this is part of an earlier agreement with the station, and may or may not be permanent. The regular AAR schedule resumes at 9A local time on WWRL only and continues until midnight or so.

In a few weeks (possibly September 18), AAR rolls out a new schedule, which reportedly will have Sam Seder moving to middays, Rachel Maddow moving to 6-8P, Randi Rhodes' show being cut an hour, and Springer likely going off AAR's regular feed and onto their secondary syndication arm (with Thom Hartmann). Other rumors have involved EcoTalk with Betsy Rosenberg and "Politically Direct" with David Bender moving to weeknights and The Young Turks being brought in for morning drive, but those are just rumors at this point, so don't take it as gospel. As for the whole Malloy thing? Who knows?

As always, stay tuned!