Air America 2.0: But will it float?

Over the last week or so, there's been a lot of talk about the 'new and improved' Air America Radio. With a new web presence, new personalities and shows, and a new lineup, they obviously expect great thing to come of it.

Yesterday was a good start, as they launched the new website and logo with a press release, and even featured an in-studio chat between New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former rival Mark Green, now president of Air America. The meeting of the former political foes was packed with New York-area reporters, and will air sometime next week.

But the question lingers in the back of everyones' minds: Is this whole 2.0 thing really going to work?

Lionel was the first addition, and a very controversial one at that. After a fairly successful run at late night radio syndication via WOR Networks, he moved his show over to Air America and late mornings. The goal obviously was to help the network gain new affiliates, or even bump time slot rival Stephanie Miller from a few. Less than a week into it, the results have been disappointing. Not only has Lionel not gained many fresh affiliates, he lost roughly a half dozen that carried Seder on delay. The only station he seems to have been added to is WINZ in Miami, on delay from 6-9P ET. Lots of stations still list him on their website schedules for his former show, but it is unknown if they are still running his new Air America show in those time slots. And judging by the response on various blogs, message boards and even Air America's own site, listeners are very vocal about "The Lionel Show."

Of course, time will tell if the show will grow and expand, and its up to Scott Ellberg and David Bernstein to make this happen. Particularly since predecessor Sam Seder actually improved his ratings on flagship station WWRL in the most recent Arbitron book.

In regard to the other changes, so far the only one that seems to be working is the move of Jon Elliott to three hours later. This was one move that made sense on paper, since it carves out a new shift for the network (Midnight-3A), gets him out of the way of Mike Malloy's 9-Midnight show, and many of Elliott's affiliates delay him to a later time slot anyway. In essence, Elliott's new shift is nearly competition-free, since Lionel is now gone from late nights and FOX News Radio's Alan Colmes wraps up his show an hour into Elliott's.

As a result, Elliott's flagship station, KLSD in San Diego, will now carry his entire show live, immediately following Malloy's, which gets a full three hour clearance starting Monday. Elliott has also been picked up by KQKE in San Francisco, KKZN in Denver, KPHX in Phoenix (ironically), KPTK in Seattle, KPOJ in Portland, KRXA in Monterey/Santa Cruz (which carries the straight Air America feed in overnights anyway), and other stations.

"The Air Americans" is the other new show coming to Air America. Basically, the Mark Riley-anchored show is a hodge-podge of various hosts at the station, including correspondents Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mike Papantonio, David Bender and Laura Flanders. The four hour show essentially replaces two cancelled ones: "Politically Direct" (who's host Bender stays with the new show) and "EcoTalk" (which was going to die anyway). Thus far, no affiliate has announced their intentions of picking up "The Air Americans" and rumor has it not many people in the building are optimistic about its chances. Furthermore, there's a chance that WWRL may not even carry it, which in effect would kill the show, given that Air America all too often seems to be a bit too New Yorkish. Buzz about "The Air Americans" is not good. Nonetheless, they will promote the hell out of it, and even have some strong guests lined up.

For the weekends, the network has said very little about the changes and new shows that will debut. The only one we've really heard anything about is Seder's new Sunday show, but that's due to obvious reasons.

So, will Air America 2.0 be a success, or will it be yet another bit of bad luck for the much-beleaguered network? Only time will tell. Should be an interesting few weeks, so stay tuned.

Spring cleaning

Hi kids! Miss me?

Okay, news has been slow lately. So, I've been taking a bit of a break. Lots of things going on in the outside world, ya know.

Not to mention that this beautiful spring weather brings other things that are not so beautiful - namely every airborne allergen one can possibly imagine. Needless to say, I've been feeling pretty crappy as of late.

But there's oh so much to talk about. so without further ado, here we go:

Yes indeed, Lionel is now on Air America Radio. Lionel wrapped up his WOR gig just over a week ago, and some right-wing dork named Steve Malzberg has been hired to take his place. Nonetheless, Lionel fans (and I know you're out there) can tune in every day now, twelve hours earlier than normal, to hear "The Lionel Show" on Air America.

The rest of Air America's roster changes will be phased in starting this weekend, with Sam Seder's new Sunday afternoon show debuting this Sunday, May 20. Next Monday sees the weekday shuffle, as they launch "The Air Americans" weeknights (8P-midnight ET), bump Jon Elliott to three hours later (midnight-3AM ET) and make other changes. You can see the rest here.

And soon, you'll see a whole new Air America website. That is, if you can actually pull up their website (which seems to have been on the fritz too frequently as of late). I dunno, when I redesigned my site, I worked on it offline, then launched it in mere seconds, with no disruption. Then again, it doesn't seem like a real web-saavy bunch over there. Nonetheless, look for a redesigned presence and allegedly a new logo for Air America sometime soon. Perhaps prior to next week's on-air makeover. So if you haven't listened to or downloaded those year-old airchecks currently at the bottom of their front page, better get a move on. Stop procrastinating.

One show that will be displaced is "EcoTalk" with Betsy Rosenberg. Air America programmers dropped it from the weekday lineup, in order to roll out the new lineup. They did however reserve a Sunday slot for the show, 10A-noon ET. Only thing is, Rosenberg and company are trying to line up sponsors to keep it going. Doing a radio show isn't cheap, and they actually have to pay out of their own pocket. You can read more here.

As Lionel makes his Air America debut today, another liberal talk show makes its return today. After pondering the shuttering of the whole operation, Radiopower.org has rebounded, deciding to rebuild instead. And today, they welcome Tony Trupiano to the fold, with a new show airing exclusively on Radiopower. It will air from noon-3P ET weekdays, displacing Thom Hartmann, who will no longer be on the service. Trupiano has been around talk radio for awhile, mostly syndicated around his home state of Michigan. A few years back, he left radio to run for Congress. As of late, he has returned to the airwaves, often as a fill-in for Ed Schultz. Now, he's back on the air. Other shows on Radiopower currently include "American AM," a Tampa-area morning show, "KC Live," which I have absolutely no information on, and Peter Werbe's Sunday night show, which airs on WRIF in Detroit. Replays of the shows fill out the remainder of the schedule.

Another web radio service serving up liberal talk is Head-On Radio Network, which I regrettably don't get around to covering much (and some of those guys have been getting on my ass about it). Like Radiopower, they carry a generous slate of original programming, running a live lineup from 10A to 9P ET weekdays, with replays filling out the remainder of the lineup. There's been quite a bit of shuffling as of late, a new website layout (take THAT, Air America!) and other tweaks. You can check out shows such as "The Cup-o-Joe Radio Show" with Joe Vecchio, "Fox'd Up" with Jon Fox, Jeff Alan Wolf, Bill O' Brien, Guy James, Mark Levine and Bob Kincaid. They do a pretty bang-up job, pay out of pocket to provide quality talk radio to the streaming masses, and generally kick ass and take names. So instead of bitching and moaning about Air America and their balancing act of trying to please fickle listeners and terrestrial radio people at the same time, you can check out some legitimate alternatives. Check them out at Headonradionetwork.com.

Fans of Stephanie Miller are still gushing over her MSNBC simulcasts a few weeks ago. Don't look for this to become permanent. Miller said she would not want to do it again, whatever that means. MSNBC, in the wake of the whole Imus fiasco, has been in the process of throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. Last week was Moral Court radio clown Larry Elder. MSNBC has also been shuffling their own hosts in and out of the slot, and this week White House correspondent David Gregory steps in, and he may get the gig permanently.

If you're a fan of fine theater looking for something a little more esoteric, then head over to Chicago, where "Jerry Springer: The Opera" has made its trek across the Atlantic from 609 performances in London. The production, about the talk show host and former Air America personality, starts on May 14 at Bailiwick Repertory in Chicago. How intriguing is this? David Soul, the former "Hutch" of "Starsky and Hutch" played Springer at one point, and both Harvey Keitel and Kevin Kline have reportedly been courted to play the role. Wow. Just plain wow.

Last we checked, WCMI in Asheville KY/Huntington, WV was still on the air and carrying Air America Radio programming. And they're evidently getting some attention, since the local paper even wrote an article about the syndicated radio show that appears on the station - The Young Turks. "They're one of the hottest commodities in progressive radio," WCMI Assistant Program Director Brandon Millman said recently. You can read more courtesy of the Herald-Dispatch.

Another newspaper article about a talk radio station came Sunday, as the Traverse City Record-Eagle did an article about Petoskey, MI move-in WJML. As you read here last week, the owner of WJML consummated some station-swapping, dealing mostly liberal talk WWKK and a quarter million in cash to another company in exchange for their high-powered Traverse City station. As a result, the best of the former WWKK and WJML have been combined on one station, simulcast in both Petoskey and Traverse City. So, liberal talk fans in Traverse City can now hear Ed Schultz every afternoon right before Michael Savage, and maybe even tune in to Air America, albeit delayed into the wee hours. Provided they don't sleep at night, of course.

Conservodorks are paranoid and live in perpetual fear that liberals are coming after them to force Limbaugh, Hannity, et. al. off the airwaves. Oh boo fucking hoo!

Oh shit. It's back. Just what we need - more unfunny comedy on television.

And finally, a side note to President Bush: Never, NEVER accidently joke about a 281 81-year old woman being alive during the the time of the 13 colonies. Especially if she's the Queen of England. Just plain embarassing. I'm beginning to worry about the 28% that still like this guy. Perhaps expected incoming British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will remember this, as he's expected to be less of a lapdog to the Bush Administration. We shall see.