Air America expands with syndication division

Just as the naysayers claim they're near dead, Air America surprises them by staying airborne. And interestingly enough, they're expanding. Imagine that.

Here's the slightly-edited press release:

Air America Media has now formed a syndication division to distribute radio programming outside of its hallmark progressive network offerings. Under the direction of Bill Hess, senior vice president of programming, Air America Media Syndication (AAM Syndication) on March 22 will begin by offering the award-winning weekend radio show “Newsweek On Air” to radio stations across its network and around the country.

For more than 27 years, "Newsweek On Air" has taken listeners behind the headlines and ahead of the news with the sources, resources and seasoned staff of Newsweek magazine, and more recently of the Newsweek Web site. The program, also a top-rated podcast, explores a wide range of topics from national politics and foreign affairs to health, technology, money and entertainment.

"AAM Syndication is pleased to team with Newsweek in this first venture outside of the traditional Air America package," said Hess. "This is a great show, with an excellent track record of performance on many great radio stations. We look forward to a long partnership with Newsweek."

"AAM Syndication is a great partner for "Newsweek On Air". This agreement will allow us to continue to grow our listener base across the country,” said Newsweek contributing editor David Alpern, the program's longtime producer and host. "We look forward to maintaining the same high quality content, balance and listener interest that has won our program various awards and a place on so many station schedules, some for nearly all of its 27 years on the air."

"Newsweek On Air" won its first major award, a Silver Medal, in the 1989 International Radio Festival of New York. Additional honors awarded to the program include numerous accolades from the Communicator Awards, including the 2000 Crystal Award of Excellence, two Communicator Awards of Excellence in 2005 and four Communicator Awards of Distinction in 2008. "Newsweek On Air" also received the 2000 Program of the Year award from the International Association of Audio Information Services.

Stations broadcasting "Newsweek On Air" include WNYC-AM in New York, WFED Washington, WELI in New Haven, KLIF in Dallas, WFTL in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, KTAR in Phoenix, KCBS in San Francisco and WSB in Atlanta.

The continuing Nova M(ess): Locked out

If upstart radio network On Second Thought, successor to Nova M Radio, is going to continue only weeks after they came into being, they may have to do it without a flagship radio station, or studio space, or something like that.

Phoenix New Times is reporting that KNUV (1190AM) has essentially been shut down, and their office doors have been padlocked. This is apparently due to a failure to pay their rent.

Even KKGN San Francisco PD John Scott claims that On Second Thought is virtually dead.

And apparently, the network's highest profile host, Mike Malloy, announced on-air last night that he will now self-syndicate his show, as he has made arrangements with Westwood One for satellite time, allowing him to reach his radio affiliates and Sirius XM.

According to some reports, the station is basically running on autopilot until they figure out what to do next.

Malloy fans can listen to his show via this streaming mp3 link.

And in a related note, Nova M refugee Randi Rhodes will reportedly return to the air soon, though no specific date has been announced yet.

WINZ of change?

It's already been a month since credible rumors began to surface regarding the fate of Miami progressive talker WINZ (940AM). Word is that Clear Channel is ramping up a flip to the company's FOX Sports Radio, possibly by early March.

March is now here, and there's still no official word from Clear Channel on the flip to sports. In fact, the station has made one change, ditching the syndicated Don Imus for the morning Air America feed of Rachel Maddow's show. Never mind that it's only an hour long. WINZ is currently airing the entire four hour repeat feed.

Now, this strange move could, in fact, mean that a change is coming. It is quite likely that Imus was dropped (at the beginning of the month, no less) because of a potential flip, and the Maddow marathon is essentially a placeholder. Likely, the dropping of Imus could be some kind of contractual issue. The switch to sports could happen this month.

Again, no word yet on when (and/or if) this will happen. And certainly no affirmation that sports talk will be more successful on WINZ than their current format. In the overall ratings for Fall, WINZ topped the top sports station in the market, WQAM, 1.5 to 1.4. Granted, sports talk-formatted stations tend to rely more on much narrower demographics. But needless to say, with several other sports stations in the market already, and the fact that WINZ has built up a rather solid audience over the past several years, isn't this wholesale move to canned network sports talk a little half-baked?

Limbaugh: The tail wags the dog

If you had doubts that the Republican Party wasn't a complete mess thus far, well, let me give you even more evidence of it.

Following the antics of Fat Bastard, er... Rush Limbaugh at this past weekend's CPAC gathering of bitter right-wingers, recently elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele put his foot in his mouth, telling all what he really thinks of the pill-popping radio talker, got roasted over the coals by Fat Daddy himself, and slinked back to make a half-hearted apology.

Essentially, Michael Steele has no spine, and certainly no balls. Congratulations, GOP! You now have your very own Terry McAuliffe!

Here's the Politico.com account:

Steele told CNN host D.L. Hughley in an interview aired Saturday night: “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh — his whole thing is entertainment. He has this incendiary — yes, it's ugly.”

Then, Steele realized on what side his bread is buttered:

Steele, who won a hard-fought chairman's race on Jan. 30, told Politico he telephoned Limbaugh after his show on Monday afternoon and hoped that they would connect soon.

“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not."

“I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh,” Steele added. “No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”

And here's the retort from Jabber the Hut:

Okay, so I am an entertainer, and I have 20 million listeners, 22 million listeners because of my great song-and-dance routines here. Yes, said Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, I'm incendiary, and yes, it's ugly. Michael Steele, you are head of the RNC. You are not head of the Republican Party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the RNC and right now they want nothing to do with it, and when you call them asking them for money, they hang up on you.

So yes, as much as the Republican Party tries to claim otherwise, they are so destitute after losing the Presidency and Congress in the past few years that they have essentially named a pill-popping ex-Top 40 disc jockey as their unofficial messiah. That's funny.

And one of the great things about not being a Republican is that I can freely write whatever the hell I want about that drug-addicted, child-raping, racist, hate-mongering Nazi gasbag, unlike other bloggers who have their heads buried so far up Limbaugh's ass that all they see is what he had for lunch. And boy, that freedom sure feels good.

I don't like Mondays

Here it is, the start of the week, and the start of March. As I wake up this morning, it's 12 degrees above zero and snowing. Spring can't start soon enough.

Uh, Monday.

So here we go, an update of sorts. Enjoy.

Air America shuffle

Now that Thom Hartmann is hanging his shingle at Dial Global, he will no longer be part of the lineup at Air America, not even on the webstream. In his place, the network's journeyman David Bender will take the 12-3P ET time slot, with little fanfare and nary a simple announcement or press release.

Nonetheless, it could be worth tuning in for today's guest, notorious rock legend David Crosby. And if that isn't worth listening for (so long as he dishes more about his music and rather colorful rock star life as opposed to boring personal musings about government policy). In addition, he'll take calls, so perhaps that will help.

And there shouldn't be any changes at most (if not all) of his radio affiliates. For streaming, KPOJ in Portland seems to typically be the best bet.

The show listings in the center column of this page will be updated in the next few days.

Oh Cullen, where art thou?

Columnist Tom Taylor of Radio-Info is quoting that site's message board in floating a rumor about the possible on-air return of Pittsburgh's Lynn Cullen.

The station most likely to be her new stomping grounds is WAMO (860). Cullen was laid off last year when WPTT (1360) switched from general talk to an all-business talk format. Station management told her at the time that if he had a few more saleable shows like hers, they wouldn't have dropped the talk format.

You know you miss him

Another tidbit floated by Taylor concerns the infamous Jerry Springer. The television personality, who once did a radio show with Air America, could be coming back to the AM airwaves, albeit temporarily.

The venerable talk station WGN in Chicago has been using fill-ins for the vacant midafternoon shift, vacated when John Williams moved to mornings. The station has already tapped local radio veteran Garry Meier and a rumor floated by the Chicago Sun-Times claims that Springer could even be enlisted for fill-in duties.

According to the paper's Lewis Lazare, "Meier has the advantage of being a known quantity in Chicago radio, but some broadcasting execs wonder if he can carry a daily radio talk show by himself. Springer, on the other hand, could simply be too wild to fit the bill at WGN. Then again, it may take someone like a Springer to spark a buzz and perhaps attract a few more younger listeners."

Springer? Wild? Obviously Lazare has never heard his Air America show.

More Nova (M)ayhem

Things are obviously chugging along at the former Nova M Radio (now On Second Thought). They haven't been in the news lately, so that must mean things are fairly hunky dory.

But that isn't stopping some former Nova M'ers from casting a few flies in the ointment. Former weekend host King Daevid MacKenzie offers another installment of his adventures at the former network (and he STOLE MY HEADLINE TOO!!!). Click here for his own "Nova Mess". Remember, as with many of the other tell-alls by former Nova M personnel, this is merely his take. I'm just linking to it.

Fat man talking

And finally, I include this, not just because it's from BuzzFlash, but because it's the best headline I've read all week. Here is editor Mark Karlin's take on the Rush Limbaugh lovefest that was the rather grim CPAC conference. The title? "Limbaugh at CPAC: It’s Not Over Until the Fat Man Rants."