Anyone know what's going on with that bunch lately? I didn't notice it anywhere on the dial in the San Francisco area, and now that I'm in the heart of eastern seaboard liberalism, I don't get it on the dial here, either. Whatever stations they may have in Philly or NYC don't have the power to get here to middle-NJ. I figure that, if nothing else, it serves to divert liberal money from the Hillary bandwagon to a relatively harmless rathole.
No station in Philly, so the closest one to you would be in NYC. You could always listen on-line: www.airamericaradio.com
Alas, the only time I'm tempted is when I'm driving and get sick of people telling Hannity that he's a great American
The only guy on there worth listening to is Ed Schultz, and he's not on all Air America stations. He's not on in your area. Most of the shows on Air America are just flat out bad, more interested in bashing than actual ideas and thought. Not that the right side of talk is doing much better, FWIW.
Is Schultz even affiliated with Air America? He is a decent talking head, but he is way, way, way too pro-union for the likes of me.
Looks like Air America is about to get a huge George Soros injection. Who knows? They might still be around into the summer.
Say what you want about Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest: they stay on the air because people listen to them, not because rich foreign criminals and Hollywood prettyboys pay the bills. And definitely not because they steal money from children's charities. I listened to a bit of Jerry Springer the other day. What a complete joke. When the facts don't suit him (which seems to be often) he just makes up his own. How a guy who made his name baiting fat rednecks who sleep with their spouses' parent to fight each other on TV gets taken seriously as a political commentator is a mystery to me.
I can hear fingernails scratching a blackboard and it doesn't affect me. Susan Estrich's voice on the other hand...
I disagree with Schultz about 80-90% of the time...especially when it comes to unions. However, his show is actually listenable. It could be because he's not directly affiliated with AAR. Yet...AAR stations are picking him up because he's listenable. As someone who enjoys debates and hearing other sides rather than just blindly following a sheepherder, Schultz provides the left viewpoint in a manner that actually shows thought. Unlike some of the others on Air America.
What's scary about Springer's show is...it's better than 90% of the stuff on Air America. Why? because this guy does TV and used to do radio for a living. In other words, he's a pro. Something that Al Franken is still struggling with after 3 years.
I've heard the same thing about Randi Rhodes's show. (I don't care for talk radio in general and thus don't listen to Air America.) If I'm not mistaken, she beats the conservative heavy hitters in some markets, but I may be wrong about that. Air America couldn't have launched if big names like Al Franken hadn't agreed to take part. It seems like they're (wisely) introducing persons with better radio skills.
Rhodes is a bit too whiney for my taste, but is a pro. You can tell the difference. The problem is, you would think after 3 years that Franken might get better. The problem was, he was carried by the woman who co-hosted...another pro. When she left he got even worse.
No doubt. I'm sure they keep him around for his name more than anything else. His show is late morning, correct? It's noteworthy that his airtime doesn't occupy any of the important drive-time slots.
I enjoy reminding DC United fans that the supposedly cosmopolitian lefty Soros bailed on DC United, leaving that right-wing troglodyte Anschutz to own the team.
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2006/02/bill-oreilly-fox-news-air-america.html Wow...a simple solution. Fire Franken. That would allow Air America to stay on the air by reducing costs and remove a guy who clearly cannot do radio.
I think they could solve the problem by bringing in Keith Olberman. Olberman's over-the-top deranged lunatic routine is even more unhinged than Frankens, and I bet he'll work for a lot less. In fact, judging from Olbermans' fever-swamp rhetoric and hate-filled on-air spewings, one might guess that he'd do it for free, just for the opportunity to continue his amazingly fact-free tin-foil-hat rantings. The MSNBA could bring back Phil Donohue, who got fired for lousy ratings which may have been lackluster but were actually BETTER than Olberman's, whose show is only watched by the most detached from reality fringes of the far left sewer. Problem solved.
Olberman now has a daily stint on his ex-coanchor Dan Patrick's show on ESPN Radio. He's still good at talking sports, well pretty much only baseball, but he is good at it. His desire to be a "serious newsman" was really a bad move. The only reason people remember his name was being on "The Big Show"
The worst part about Olberman is I think he's a pretty bright guy. But, he has that off the deep end thing going for him, which has endeared him to the left, albeit, not many of them judging by his ratings, or lack thereof. I still love listening to him on Patrick's show though. Like Schmack said, he can still really talk baseball.
Olbermann's ratings are pretty poor (especially when compared with O'Reilly's), but they have gone quite a bit up lately, and that's not even counting the help he's getting from the Olympics.