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1) SUPPORT THEIR ADVERTIZERS. Here in L.A., I heard spots for Starbucks, the Sit n Sleep mattress store, and for Tylenol and Advil. If they're on the air where you are, take a moment and either remember or jot down the commercials. Even just one or two. THEN: next time you're in one of those places, like Starbucks or some such, MAKE SURE YOU TELL THEM WHY YOU ARE THERE. DO NOT JUST TELL THE COUNTER-PERSON. ASK TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER, AND TELL THEM WHY YOU ARE SPENDING YOUR MONEY IN THEIR PLACE, THAT YOU ARE GLAD TO SUPPORT THEM BECAUSE THEY SUPPORT AIR AMERICA. Then, request that they pass that message along, farther up their own company food chain. If you have any time, put something in writing about this, and send it to the company headquarters. They ALL have PR departments, believe me.
2) Any and all petitioning and calling that people can do in their own areas where Air America does NOT have an affiliate is MOST helpful. If you send this to the Air America folks, their affiliate relations people and sales staff can use this documentation to prove that there's a huge, untapped ocean of listeners now available to potential sponsors. If you send this to one (or, preferably more) of your local radio stations, to the general manager or the program director, it will alert them that there is a listener base for this, IN THEIR OWN BACK YARD. If their own ratings are NOT stable, or less than desirable, there will be format changes. Having calls, emails, OR BETTER YET A PAPER TRAIL OF LETTERS in their files is more likely to make them sit up and take notice.
The goal here, for one thing, is more commercials by bigger sponsors - who provide the bucks to keep Al Franken and Randi Rhodes and Janeane Garofalo employed, and to fund more equipment and transmitters and engineers and everything else. Perhaps even, eventually, purchases of more stations. And for another thing, the objective is to add more stations so they become a really kick-ass viable network on their own.
Humbly submitted by a 25-year radio/tv veteran. I KNOW this works, folks. I've seen it happen over and over. Station management takes its listeners' input seriously. ESPECIALLY something in writing, that can be copied and passed around to different department heads. Besides, the conventional reasoning STILL holds that one letter or one complaint or one anything represents MANY more who feel the same way and just didn't have the time or inclination to voice it, themselves.
Forgive me for being repetitive, but I tend to be a sort of "Nag Queen of DU." The old cliche about putting your money where your mouth is could NOT be MORE relevant or applicable than it is, here. If advertisers get it through their heads that sidling up to Air America means more money in their pockets - because they're reaching Air America listeners, there will be more advertisers. We've had more than a decade now of wall-to-wall conservatives on the air, so that presents an established wall that only appears to be hard to knock down.
And by the way, for those of you interested in buying XM, you should do the same thing. TELL THEM: sales AND ESPECIALLY (AND PREFERABLY) their management that you are doing so BECAUSE YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO AIR AMERICA. If enough of us Good Guys do this, Air America will have an amazingly successful future.
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