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.

A virtual potpourri of tidbit goodness

Things have been somewhat quiet lately in medialand. Basically, just a bunch of little stuff. And I've admittedly been a bit lax in putting it up here. My apologies, as I often get sidetracked the last weekend in April when the NFL Draft comes around (and yes, I'm still giddy about Oklahoma blazing inferno Adrian Peterson in a Vikings uniform, though he still has to suffer through Brad Childress' boring-as-hell offense). So, here's some of the stuff you may have missed.

First, one comes, one goes. Sort of. Following the shuffling of Stone Broadcasting's stations in Western Michigan, the deal that sees WWKK (750AM) in Petoskey traded for a 50,000 watt signal in Traverse City has been consummated. Therefore, WWKK, which carried a mostly liberal talk format, is now simulcasting a country format of a Traverse City station, and Stone's conservative talker WJML (1110AM) is simulcasting in Traverse City on WLDR (1210AM). The new WJML combo combines the programming of both of Stone's Petoskey stations. Ed Schultz is on from 3-6P and Lionel from 10-Midnight. Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes air in the wee hours of the night, starting at Midnight. Of course, to get to that stuff, you'd have to put up with the likes of Neal Boortz, Glen Beck and Michael Savage. The good news is that Traverse City listeners can now hear liberal talk programming, courtesy of WLDR. So, welcome aboard!

And soon, a station will go away, if it hasn't already. Tiny WLFP (1550AM), formerly WURP, in Pittsburgh is not really a liberal talk station. They have carried The Young Turks for quite a few years, and even aired some weekend programming from Air America. But they also carried Tom Leykis, Don and Mike and G. Gordon Liddy, with Sporting News Radio filling in most of the other gaps. With a pending $225K sale in the works to BusinessTalkRadio.net, the station will soon air the feed of that network. The original plan was to bring Don Imus' syndicated show back to their morning drive slot, but we all know how that turned out. As far as I know, they're still working out a few bugs and the switch will be flipped anytime now. Currently, it sounds like they're running quite a bit of Sporting News Radio leading up to the flip, displacing their other programming, including the Turks. And they currently have a message on their website claiming that a format flip is imminent.

In addition, listeners in central Ohio, particularly around the Athens area can hear Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz on WAIS (770AM). The station is daytime-only, meaning they sign off from sunset to sunrise. But fans who miss WTPG in Columbus can now hear some of the departed programming straight outta Nelsonville, OH. The station has no web presence to speak of, but you can find out more about them at Radio Locator.

And don't count out new liberal talk stations on the horizon. Nova M Radio's Sheldon and Anita Drobny were in Boston last week appearing at an event designed to help work out a plan to bring liberal talk back to the city's airwaves. Thanks to the efforts of a swelling grassroots movement and Jeff Santos, who had the only local show on WXKS/WKOX before it's flip to "Rhumba," the Drobnys have taken an interest in their plight, and are exploring ways to do in Boston what they successfully accomplished in Phoenix. You can read more about the event and see pictures at Daily Kos. Incidentally, since the two Clear Channel stations dropped liberal talk, they have been nonexistent in the local ratings books. And Arbitron surveys have been known to be rather favorable to Spanish language radio stations.

Speaking of Nova M, they are offering listeners the opportunity to leave the country with Mike Malloy. Sort of. It's a seven day Mexican Cruise, departing October 7 and going to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. You can read more here. If Mexico doesn't intrigue you, you can also sail with Air America's Randi Rhodes to Alaska in August.

UPDATED ITEM: Wonder who WOR would hire to replace Lionel when he departs for Air America? Well, look no further - his replacement will be Steve Malzberg. Now, the name sounds vaguely familiar to me, but he was formerly on WABC and the old incarnation of WWRL. And judging by his website, which features links to NewsMax and Club For Growth, in addition to the typically hollow 'support the troops' mantra, he sounds like a run-of-the-mill conservojock. Anyways, Malzberg will also be syndicated in Lionel's slot on the WOR network starting May 7. Uh, I think I'll pass.

And finally, for people wondering who the hell is doing the 9-Noon shift on Air America this week, that is Dave Barber, formerly of WPRO in Providence, as well as the Michigan Talk Radio Network. The Flint, MI native has also worked at WWCK and WFDF in his hometown. And yes, he knows Michael Moore, featuring him on his shows from time to time. And no, Barber will not be hired by the network. In fact, he just got rehired by WWCK for the same time slot. So a double congratulations to Dave Barber. He continues at Air America for the rest of the week.

A minor correction: WWCK program director John Roman has set LTR straight. They haven't rehired Dave Barber, but are running his Air America fill-in appearance this week. Their schedule goes back to normal starting next week. My bad.