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.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Air America 2.0: But will it float?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Big changes for Air America
Air America Radio today announced a few big changes both to its program roster and to its infrastructure, with some upcoming moves.
First, a revamp of the on-air schedule, effective May 21:
On the weekends, there are also a few changes:
"Our line-up combines the best of proven radio stars like Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow and The Young Turks along with new programming that broadens and deepens Air America's reach," claimed network president Mark Green. "When people ask what Air America 2.0 means, they'll hear the answer on May 21."
In addition, Air America announced a new advertising sales deal with Westwood One, which will replace a similar 3-year deal they had with Jones MediaAmerica, which terminates next month. Westwood One will oversee all of Air America's network and affiliate ad sales, in conjunction with the network's in-house affiliate relations department, effective June 1.
"Because WW1 is such a renowned network ad and affiliate sales firm," said Air America COO Scott Elberg, "it's obviously exciting that Westwood One will be a vital part of AAR 2.0. We appreciated Jones Media's past work and now look forward to a new effort behind the new Air America."
"We're pleased that the new ownership and management of Air America is looking to us to expand their audience and secure their success of being informative, entertaining talk programming," said WWI Executive VP/Chief Marketing Officer Roby Wiener.
You can read the official press release here.
Friday, April 13, 2007
This n' that
As Sam Seder does his last weekday show for Air America Radio today (and I gotta say, he's sounding pretty good), there are a few other things non-Imus happening in the world of progressive talk radio. Here's a whole hodgepodge of some of the other stuff going on:
First, after a two and a half year partnership, Jones MediaAmerica and Air America are parting ways, according to AllAccess. MediaAmerica will no longer represent Air America's ad sales effective May 31. Gary Schonfeld, president of JMA said, "We wish the new ownership of Air America the best of luck, and we will continue to provide AAR quality sales representation until that date." No word on who's decision it was to end the partnership. Air America contracted with JMA to handle their advertising inventory sales in October 2004.
Hey, remember that MoveOn.org candidate forum on the Iraq War that was carried on Air America a few days past? Well, they did a straw poll of MoveOn's members and Barack Obama was the big winner on the issue of getting us outta there, with nearly 28% of the almost 43,000 votes cast. John Edwards was the runner-up with almost 25%. Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson were third and fourth. But what about Hillary? She wound up in fifth place. Speaking of these people, am I the only one who's noticed how hard the right-wing media is propping up Obama and Hillary as the DNC's candidates? Like they want to scare the racists and misogynists among us that fear either a black man or a woman moving into the White House? As indifferent as I am to either of them (particularly Clinton, but that's another story for another time), I almost hope one of them wins just to piss off the FOX 'News' lemmings. I'd most certainly vote for that (disclosure: I currently have no candidate preference, ask me in a year). Anyways, MoveOn has a few more of these forums coming up later this year, including one on energy and the environment and another one on health care.
Wonkette is reporting that RadioNation host Laura Flanders has a new book just out, called Blue Grit, which examines progressive grassroots movements in America and asks who really owns the Democratic party, "the people in the suites or the people in the streets." You can check it out at Amazon or other booksellers. Also check the right-hand column for other related books.
The devoted listeners of WXXM (92.1 The Mic) in Madison held a premiere party for a new documentary this week, Born Again Free Speech: Victory of The Mic 92.1 FM. The film shows the organizing process, the people who did it and how the campaign to save the station from the chopping block succeeded. If you'd like to obtain a copy of the video, you can contact Luciano Matheron and Barbara Vedder at Brazen Video Productions at (608-249-8428) or via email (remove the "(nospam)" before you send it). Also, Ed Schultz did his show from Madison yesterday. You can hear highlights and interviews here.
And back to Seder, who as of this writing is doing his final weekday show (for now) on Air America. Mark Maron and other old friends will even make appearances. Last night, Seder was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, commenting on the whole Imus thing. Haven't sifted through to find an exact video link yet but you can prowl around on the Countdown page to find it. As for the four weeks leading up to Lionel's debut in the time slot on May 14, Air America will be featuring guest hosts. Seder on Sunday (working title) will debut within the next few weeks. Keep checking back here or check Seder's blog for more information.
Eureka, CA 
