Air America to File for Bankruptcy
Posted on September 13, 2006
Update: Air America Denies Bankrupt Charge:
Think Progress is reporting that Air America radio will announce filing for bankruptcy protection on Friday according to three independent sources. The company has experienced financial difficulties throughout its tenure, continuing to request infusions of capital and suffering the loss of several high-profile hosts. Five employees were laid off Tuesday without severance.
The radio has had several controversies in its brief tenure including a funding scandal involving Evan Cohen. Air America Radio was funneled $875,000 dollars from Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, a not-for-profit, in the form of a “loan” to fund its operations. Due to of the less-than-ethical funding arrangement, Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club has been disbanded.
In another incident, The Randi Rhodes Show aired a skit that could have been interpreted as advocating the execution of the President George W. Bush. Several of the shows have been accused as fostering bigotry against Christians, Catholics in particular, and have been seen as lowering the dignity of political debate.
In a comment on Think Progress on the matter:
The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format.
However, the progressive talk radio format did exist with the variety of IndyMedia projects as well as Pacifica Radio. Air America, however, was the first radio that put through an entire slate of radio shows instead of syndicating individual shows. This has largely caused problems with their expansion as it required stations to pick up the entire network for 24 hours a day instead of the most popular shows.
Ratings have shown that Air America has never been able to compete with rival Rush Limbaugh. However, Air America has brought a new broadcast model into talk radio and has led to similar projects. For instance, Wide Awakes Radio is an internet-only talk radio broadcast station that focuses on conservative content.
Air America’s troubled past has finally caught up to them. Board shakeups, hosts leaving, and shady financing have all contributed to the demise of the station. Air America Radio has not returned calls for comment as of this writing.
John Bambenek is an academic professional for the University of Illinois. He is a columnist for the Daily Illini and blogs at Part-Time Pundit deep from the corn fields of Illinois.
He is the current owner of BlogSoldiers, a blog-only traffic exchange.
Also see: Texas Rainmaker
Dan Riehl
Brian Maloney
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8 Responses to “Air America to File for Bankruptcy”
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What a surprise that Liberals operative at a disadvantage among those who form their views based on talk radio rants.
I bet the GOP has won the bathroom stall graffiti debate as well.
Ha! Good one chefrad. I love comedians.
What, George Soros isn’t willing to pay to keep them open?
Considering how many rich liberals gave them startup money, they didn’t start at any disadvantage… just not enough people listened to them, and the money from advertisers (hint, that’s how talk radio pays for itself) wasn’t enough to pay their bills!
I personally get my opinions from internet rants. So I take offense to that.
It’s the same thing that has been happenning to the left for years. They keep thinking that people “aren’t getting” their message. But in actuality they “aren’t liking” the message. So will Air America continue to run the 30 second “Bush lied/Rush is fat” loop or do we get to pull the feeding tube on this one?
I’ve listened to Air America on occasion. Randi Rhodes is absolutely disgusting in her vitriolic discourse. When people talk about “hate radio”, I say it’s mostly coming from Air America.
Air America is going bankrupt? Say it isn’t so! Aww, that’s too bad.
Who’s the big fat idiot now Al Franken?
I would just love to see a debate between Randi Rhodes and Ann Coulter. I bet Ann would have Randi for lunch.
All kidding aside, this further illustrates why the left has been up in arms over Fox News and talk radio.
In the marketplace of free ideas, the left just can’t compete. Their only hope is to control the media so that their viewpoint is the only viewpoint broadcast.
They pine for the good old days when it was only ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and NPR.
The popularity of conservative talk radio and Fox News over ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and NPR demonstrates that main stream America isn’t interested in the left’s viewpoint.
And that is why Air America is finally dying out.
But, I really would like to see Randi Rhodes try and take on Ann Coulter in a debate.
Wordsmith,
You nailed it! And, if you want to see the epitomy (sp?) of “hate Internet” check out the moonbat commenters over at Daily Kos.
The left almost has the corner of the market on hate. They are second only to the Islamo-Fascist terrorists themselves.
People like to think well of them selves and tend to reject messages whether they are true or false that make them think poorly of themselves. Maybe self abusive personalities would like a show like Air America.