Breaking: AIR AMERICA SOLD! ANNOUNCEMENT later today

[itsrobert]

Breaking.

Just and announcement later today. No conference.

Earlier article

NEW YORK - Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network headlined by the comedian and author Al Franken, is close to a sealing a deal with a buyer, a network spokeswoman said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061218/ap_on_bi_ge/air_america_radio_2

UPDATE:::::
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=111629&ntpid=0
Air America might get local hand
Kelly reportedly is financial backer
By Judith Davidoff
The New York Times reported today that local entrepreneur Terry Kelly is going to be the main financial backer in an attempt to revive Air America, the liberal news network that recently filed for bankruptcy.


The article also noted that the investor group included a new partner, but Kelly declined to name the partner.

Kelly, a Democratic Party activist and one of the original investors in Air America, did not return phone calls from The Capital Times seeking comment this morning. He is also the founder of Weather Central.
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=111629&ntpid=0

[originalpckelly]

1. Really?

:wow:

[tridim]

4. No joke, I thought it was pretty much dead

Not that the (good) talent wouldn't find ways to stay on the air regardless of the status of AAR. Hopefully the buyer is a real Democrat.

[Cleita]

9. I hope it's not a church station.

They have been buying up radio stations on the verge of bankruptcy for decades now. We had a wonderful classical music station with a powerful signal in Los Angeles at one time decades ago and a religious station did a hostile buy out because they wanted the signal to broadcast their "message".

:puke:

[elfin]

29. I hope so AND I hope it remains on XM

it is why I got XM in the first place - no local carries it here.

[itcfish]

32. Me Too

I subscribed to XM just for AAR

[pnorman]

36. "why I got XM in the first place" --- ME TOO!

I'll probably stay with XM, since there's enough other stuff to justify it.

I've been listening to it for the past few hours (I missed Al Franken), but haven't heard anything about that yet. I certainly hope AAR remains a progressive venue. But even if it fails at midnight tonight, it has made history, and it had MADE A DIFFERENCE. I don't really need AAR, this DU community has helped keep me well informed. But AAR has helped so many others develop a 'taste' for truth.

pnorman

[ronnykmarshall]

2. What? When? Who? Where?

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. This should be interesting. I hope it was sold to a LIBERAL company.

:(

[Trajan]

5. Geez Louise ....

What are the chances ?

Then again; what are the chances that some slimy, cynical, no-good repuke fratboy freeper ponied up just to get our collective goat ?

Damn I hope not ...

[acmavm]

14. Not to go too off topic here but everytime I see that damn

picture at the bottom of your posts I can feel my blood pressure go right through the roof.

[Trajan]

18. A gentle reminder ...

That the GOP's primary goal is power, and that democracy is nothing more than a tool to use or discard, if need be, to obtain that power ....

[IndyOp]

31. The GOP's primary goal is power, but the little ants that make up the GOP

don't seem to realize that. The little ants just think they are right about lots of important issues and are willing to work harder than the other guys to win elections. The question becomes, "How do we show the ants what the collective is doing?"

Just my few cents...

[tularetom]

6. Me too but whoever it is I hope they have a better business plan

than the assholes who ran it into the ground while they got fat.

[LTR]

12. I hope it gets sold to a RADIO company

AAR ran into problems because some of the people running it saw it as just a 'cause'. I'm in the camp that, while the message is important, in order for there to be an Air America in the future, people with actual radio knowledge need to be brought in to clean it up, not to mention people that know how to effectively run a business. There's no way they'll survive doing what they have been doing.

It should placate many here that among the people reported to be part of the new ownership group are a couple people who have been involved with AAR in the past: Doug Kreeger and Terry Kelly. And it sounds like Kreeger now realizes that they need to bring in some radio experts to help run it. Good move.

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2006/12/continuing-adventures-of-air-america.html

[Cleita]

16. What they need is a good sales department to sell advertising.

A good sales rep would be able to sell advertising time even to those companies that tried to boycott AAR. It the selling refrigerators to eskimos type of plan.

:evilgrin:

[ronnykmarshall]

17. You are so right!!

AAR needs to be ran like RADIO network. They need to make money to survive.

This is good news that AAR has been sold.

[JacksonWest]

30. Ad's are not going to boost it's ratings.

There business model was flawed from the outgo. THey should have cultivated talent-not actual stations. Syndication would be a true market test. By buying stations-or rather, leasing entire stations- there was way too much outgo of capital. Randi Rhodes and Malloy could be heard in almost every market without having to lease a station. Franken had a shot to. But the rest of their rotating line of amateur crap wouldn't see the light of day. Oh well.

[endarkenment]

37. Leasing really shitty low power AM stations

a plan for failure. People can't hear the damn stations, good content, bad content, mediocre content, it don't matter if you cannot hear it.

[LTR]

7. Where does it say "later today"?

:shrug:

[itsrobert]

10. An insider at radio-info.com says he has some inside info.

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,57671.0.html

The posters on this forum at link, live and breath radio.

[LTR]

20. Take it with a truckload of salt

I occasionally post there. And I read that post this morning, and questioned it then. And while Phillip is a pretty good guy, and I do enjoy his posts, I don't think he's really privvy to inside information. I have seen nothing else that confirms anything about an announcement today. Many reports I've been reading in other places are saying it could be January. I'm not holding my breath.

As for the people who post there, while a scant few know what the hell they're talking about, and others are pretty level-headed fans of radio, that place has, as of late, been overrun by imbecillic fanboys and trolls. I don't post there very often because there's too many moronic freepers trying to start flamewars.

[valerief]

22. My employer has that site blocked. Can you tell us what it says in

a nutshell? Thanks.

[LTR]

25. Don't worry

You're not missing much. Just a vague rumor being spread.

I'll post something to Phillip over there to see what he's talking about.

[valerief]

28. Thanks. nt

[Lex]

8. Please don't let it be Rupert Murdock.

nt

[ecstatic]

11. Hopefully not to Rupert Murdoch -- imagine "liberals" like Alan Colmes

filling the airwaves. He disgusts me, with his faux liberalism. I happened to catch him and Hannity the other night. It seems they have made it their business to now mock black americans by putting on foolish extremists whenever they can.

[rocktivity]

13. Never doubted it.

But just in case something goes wrong, don't read this or http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2884860&mesg_id=2884975">this until after the deal is officially announced, okay?

:evilgrin:
rocknation

[itsmesgd]

15. let's hope they "fix" the lineup

Today has been great so far.
Marc Maron in for Seder- who's on vacation.
Thom Hartman in for Franken.
Keep Randi. Get Mike back.
They might save the damn thing after all

[valerief]

21. Yeah, Marc, Thom, Randi, and Mike. They're all terrific. nt

[Ganja Ninja]

26. Please bring back Marc Maron and crew.

He is replacing Sam Seeder this week and it made me realize just how much I miss that show. He also mentioned AAR owes him some money.

[valerief]

27. I sooooooo miss Marc on my drive in the morning. nt

[jazzjunkysue]

33. Me too. He's the best talent I've ever heard on radio. n/t.

[valerief]

34. Yeah. Even when he's an annoying hyper diaper, he's still the

most entertaining (while still being informative). I love his twisted humor.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Perhaps that explains Hartmann on the air today

serious

[ronnykmarshall]

23. Tom's on the air because Al's in Iraq.

Tom's doing a good job today.

[NYCGirl]

24. Hartmann just said he's filling in for two weeks. Al called into the show

just after the 12 noon start today.

[StClone]

35. AM Radio problem

What has hurt Air America is the domination of all the high watt stations by Conservative talkers. It was very hard to leverage a deal with conservative media owners to replace conservative yakkers on the big outlets. So Air America is stuck on the net (good), satellite (good) and many weak AM station (very bad). Air America's growth is not out of line for a successful start up company. Stay tuned and don't get down on how tough it has been and how much good Air America has done.