I took this photo of the Manhattan skyline from my window in the Chrysler Building back in April, 2005. At that point the progressive network had been on the air one year and was broadcasting from the WLIB studios at 3 Park Avenue, shown in the photo. From the first day they started broadcasting I've been an avid listener. For too long the air waves had been dominated by right wing talk radio and Air America was a welcome and necessary addition.
If memory serves me, back then the daily roundup was: "Morning Sedition," "Unfiltered," "The Al Franken Show," "The Randi Rhodes Show," and "The Majority Report." I recall in those early years Air America rebroadcast segments of the daytime shows at night and on the weekends. Of the original group it's basically Rachel Maddow, Sam Seder and Chuck D left on the network.
I have to say that I remember those early years of Air America fondly. I particularly looked forward to listening to two regular weekly guests of Al Franken's: David Brock of Media Matters and Joe Conason of Salon and the New York Observer.
Naturally, in 2004, when Air America started up the focus was a new voice for the progressive cause and that included the focus on defeating the Bush campaign in November. Air America has had its share of financial travails over the years but it was great to see the network finally achieve solid financial footing in 2007.
Comments
I was a huge Morning Sedition fan back in the day. The lengths that AAR management went to to run the programming into the ground was stunning. A monkey could have done a better job than Danny Goldberg. What a shame!
I'm encouraged to hear that there's a slight possibility that Mark Maron or even Sam Seder might end up taking over Randi Rhodes' old afternoon slot. That would certainly be a huge step back in the right direction. Other than Rachel Maddow, I find their programming unlistenable these days. I like Thom Hartman, and he means well, but sheesh, he has got to be the whitest guy on talk radio. Conservative OR progressive! And his bumper music is often not even up to the level of atrocious.
It's my biased opinion, but Air America didn't blow my skirt up. It wasn't so much the on-air talent in the beginning, it was the endless, tedious commercials for gold investments, male erectile enhancers, loan sharks, used car lots, get-rich-quick in the stock market software, and how to learn any foreign language in just three short weeks!
Because the format was new, they had to take any advertising they could get -- and they did. It seemed to me like there was a five-minute block of commercials for every three minutes of content.
Then came the moronic bomb-throwers like Mark Maron and Randi Rhodes. This was not the reasoned and rational voice of the Left I was hearing, it was the same screeching Ann Coulter harrangues you would get from the Right, only flipped to the Left. I can't stand Randi Rhodes. She's a self-important half-wit. She and Ann Coulter were separated at birth. One went right one went left. Mark Maron wants to overthrow the government. At first I though he was riffing on the old 1960s "After the Revolution we're gonna round 'em up and shoot 'em" as a comedy gag. When I finally realized that this guy is serious and he's not playing with a full deck, I dismissed him as an idiot, or a right wing plant to make liberals and progressives look like revolutionary subversive nut jobs.
But I came back for Al Franken, Rachel Maddow, Sam Sedar and my very favorite Thom Hartmann. And what did Air America do in my Denver radio market? They put the "Goddess of Talk Radio" on right smack in the middle of any afternoon driving I had to do. They relegated Thom Hartmann and Rachel Maddow to the nighttime dead air space.
So now at noon we get "Big Eddy" Schultz. Big Eddy is a big Jerky half of the time. I'm about fifty-fifty on him. I dislike anybody who starts their sentences with the presumptuous, "Folks!" As if we are all avid viewers of the Grand Ol' Opry, or reruns of Hee Haw. Plus Big Eddy accepts money from sponsors by plugging products in the middle of his content, including some alchemy that you pour in your gas tank and miraculously get at least 10 percent more miles per gallon. FOLKS, this stuff really works! I not only use it in my 3/4 ton Road Rager, I actually put it on my pancakes! Yup, you better call this number right now and get your first bottle ABSOLUTELY free! Tell 'em Big Eddy sent ya'. Oh and uh, did you know that the price of gold is expected to triple in the next 12 months? FOLKS, now's the time to get in on the gold investment market. Things are getting REALLY BAD in this country and you better not get caught with worthless dollar bills.
I never could understand how Big Eddy and Randi Rhodes could push gold as a way to be prepared for the coming total collapse of the good old U.S.A., while at the same time chirping optimistically about how much better things are going to be as soon as a Democrat comes to the White House.
Anyway, I just found a 60s Rock format station that takes me back to a different time and place and I can figuratively slit my wrists in a bathtub of warm water and go back to "the good old days" and not have to put up with all that yammering.
I remember that in the first few months of Air America there were a lot of public service announcements--I don't think I ever heard from Smokey the Bear as much as I did back then. Later came Wendy the clinical psychotherapist/hypnotist whose cds could make you stop smoking and start earning staggering amounts of money. For a while, more recently, it was Tanya Roberts and the Tahiti Village (or whatever) on the hot Vegas strip . . . "Get out of Dodge!"
In the noon to 3 pm slot in my area you can hear Ed Schultz if you're listening on XM or NYC's WWRL-AM. Thom Hartmann is on AAR internet radio at the same time. The majority of the time I go with Thom Hartmann given the choice.
designanator
JD, I pretty much agree with you on Randi Rhodes. However, I actually know Marc Maron, and I think you've got him all wrong. Maybe you just don't know when he's kidding, I dunno, but he's not terribly far left, and I can't remember him saying much of anything that I disagreed with then or now. I know comedy is subjective and a mater of taste, but he was the right combination of passion and talent that Air America is sorely lacking now. I alway s heard a genuine level of warmth that I found lacking in Janeane, Seder, and Randi.
As far as the commercials, I was a Premium member at the time, and just downloaded the shows I liked as mp3s onto my computer or ipod. It was great. I could listen to stuff commercial free, stop or pause or fast forward or rewind at my leisure. Now, except for RAchel, it's not even worth it.
I really miss Al Franken's show - he was definitely my favorite. I was both sorry and delighted to see him go. Sorry because I would miss him on air, delighted because he's trying to do something far more important - run for the Senate. Joe Conason and Christie Harvey were always my favorite guests. The skits Al did with the fantastic Katherine Lanpher were just hysterical. And Bebe Neuwirth does a great Ann Coulter.
I've never been a fan of Randi Rhodes (she seemed a little too impressed with herself) but I loved Mike Malloy and the Majority Report. Thom Hartmann is a worthy successor to Al's slot - Ed Schultz is not. It's worth noting that Ed isn't affiliated with Air America in any way. XM airs his show in Hartmann's time slot.
Thanks for joining -- and welcome!