Air America Follow-up

Air America, the almost left-of-center radio network originally meant to challenge the hegemony of the right on AM, is in trouble. This from the AP:

Air America Radio Chairman Resigns

Fri May 7, 1:06 PM ET

By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK – The chairman and vice chairman of Air America Radio have resigned, dealing the latest setback to the fledgling liberal radio network headlined by comedian and author Al Franken.

The departures of Evan Cohen and his investment partner Rex Sorensen came just one week after the company said that co-founder Mark Walsh had stepped down as CEO to take a smaller role at the company. Last week the company also said it had forced out David Logan as head of programming.

Cohen declined to discuss the reasons for his departure Friday but confirmed that he was stepping down both as chairman and as a member of the company’s board. News of the departures, which occurred Thursday, was first reported in the Chicago Tribune.

Cohen also said Sorensen was leaving the company’s board. He declined to say what he and Sorensen planned to do with their stakes in the venture. Jon Sinton, president of the company, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The continued management turmoil marked the latest growing pains for Air America Radio, which launched on March 31 with a slate of left-leaning political satire and current affairs commentary.

Just two weeks after the network went on the air, a dispute with a business partner led to the network’s signal being pulled from stations in Chicago and Los Angeles. The signal was later restored in Chicago, but the company said it was looking for a new business partner there.

In addition to Franken’s show, which is dubbed “The O’Franken Factor” in a jab at Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, the network also carries shows hosted by Janeane Garofalo (news), Florida radio personality Randi Rhodes and Lizz Winstead, a co-creator of “The Daily Show.”

As something of a pioneer of leftie talk radio (on KFI Los Angeles from 1998 to 2000, and then again during the fall of 2001), I’ve taken more of an interest in most in what I feel to be a much needed idea and, if carried out correctly, a potentially profitable business. I’ve spent the last few weeks listening to Air America pretty much every day, and I think I know what ails them.

First and foremost, the central conceit of using comedy to counter right-wing vitriol doesn’t work. When I started on KFI, I wanted to do comedy bits too, and I did have segments–Brooklyn Traffic with Dave Eggers (for a station in L.A.), the San Francisco Fog Report with Jesse Kalisher, Cinema is Dead with Cole Smithey, Wade Hamilton’s Celebrity Watch with Ruben Bolling–but I quickly learned that on radio humor is the icing on the cake, not the main meal. People listen to feel informed, to hear ideas and arguments they can use at work the next day around the water cooler. You don’t get that stuff on Air America.

Second, most of the hosts have no talk radio experience. It’s embarrassing beyond belief for a talent the caliber of Al Franken to have to have a co-host to push the buttons and issue formatics (“This is the O’Franken Factor…”). Franken should have gone it alone after training at small station somewhere first.

Third, Air America is reacting to what the Republicans and the right does and says. They don’t set their own agenda. Successful political talk requires men and women who, were they appointed president by a rogue Supreme Court, would already have a list of policies to enforce and cabinet members to appoint. You don’t get that sense on Air America.

Finally, the editorial content is mushy. A few days ago, I heard Franken try to defend John Kerry on charges of waffling. Look, Kerry IS a waffler. It goes back to Vietnam, when he tried to be a war hero AND a peacenik, a game he’s still playing. My old program director David Hall, who has forgotten more about talk radio than I’ll ever know, used to harp on credibility. A host without credibility won’t be listened to. Anyone who tries to defend Kerry as a man of integrity is kidding himself but nobody else.

It sounds like AA is reshuffling its management. That’s good, if it leads to a clean sweep on the programming side. The only host I’d keep is Randi Rhodes, a veteran of San Francisco talk radio. I’d hire hosts ranging from radical left to centrist Democrat, all with balls out personnas and credible arguments to defend their points of view. And I’d lose the whole Comedy Central thing. It sucks and it’s boring.