Air America Media is ceasing live programming operations as of this afternoon

[jefferson_dem]

Go here for official statement - http://airamerica.com/

[KansasVoter]

1. Wow, bad timing. Limbaugh will have a ball with this!

[johnlal]

2. Can't say it was a failure.

Look where Rachel Maddow is today. And Al Franken. Radio is not a great progressive media, but you have to start somewhere. It was a great springboard into bigger and better things. AAR deserves its place in history.

[Robb]

12. Good way of looking at it. nt

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

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[wyldwolf]

3. sad, but expected

I always felt they took the wrong course in their programming, anyway.

[lapfog_1]

4. Did they have any programs left?

I listen to Steph, Thom, sometimes Randi, and Mike... I don't believe any are currently syndicated by Air America.

I would occasionally listen to Ron Reagan, but recently he was dumped by Green960, which is my favorite streaming station.

[NICO9000]

9. I think Ron was the only left

The station in L.A., KTLK, isn't AA, so I think his show is the only one that may be affected. Hope he gets picked up by someone else soon. As much as I despised his dad, I really like his son. I find it interesting that even though he had one of the preeminent RW tools for a father - who really started the end of this country - his son ended up as thoughtful atheist liberal.

[nylefty]

22. Air America had a full day of programming

Air America had programming around the clock. Most progressive stations didn't carry most of it, although you could stream it from the Air America website.

The weekday lineup included Lionel, Montel Williams, Jack Rice (who makes a lot of appearances on MSNBC and CNN), Ron Reagan, Richard Greene, and Nicole Sandler.

[tnlefty]

38. Welcome nylefty!

:hi:

[Bullet1987]

5. Radio has never had many liberal followers

[eleftherios]

39. Completely expected.

As Jay Severin wrote in the Boston Globe op/ed piece waaay back in 2004,

" success depends on embracing the utterly fantastic notion that we are what's wrong with America; that our national, cultural, and personal woes stem from taxes too low, affirmative action too meek, defense too strong, and illegal aliens too few. People who believe such twaddle are for the most part home watching Jerry Springer reruns. Numerous they are. A commercially viable national talk radio audience they are not."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/03/30/liberal_talk_radio_no_one_will_buy_it/

That is why America failed and why NPR/PBS needs annual taxpayer bailouts.

[Armstead]

6. So what does this means for progressive stations? Is there enough other material?

[Sebastian Doyle]

17. Considering that Ron Reagan was the only Air America show left on most affiliates

I think they'll do OK. Ron should hook up with Dial Global, like Thom Hartmann did. They also syndicate Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, and Bill Press. Not a Liberal corporation (they also syndicate right wingers) but ironically the last major player standing in the Liberal talk radio game.

[dionysus]

27. jones network has steph and big ed... they're doing well.

[pstokely]

7. Would this have happened if they still had Randi and Mike?

They fired their best hosts

[pstokely]

8. None of the programs on XM167 are Air America

nt

[kdsimantel]

11. It's too bad but seriously

Randi and Mike were not their best hosts. I listed faithful to progressive radio... and I always turn off the radio when these two come on. But a progressive is a progressive even if they are obnoxious jerks.

[bigwillq]

13. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi: I couldn't stand Randi.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. 5 posts and bashing Malloy?

Extra cheese?

[pstokely]

16. Haven't listened to any AAR programming since they fired Randi?

nt

[jefferson_dem]

19. Yes.

Both are loose cannons that only appeal to a far extreme left elements. Don't judge, i'm just speaking the truth. There's little market for liberal talk radio. But we OWN the blogs.

[johnlal]

26. Well, that's just it

Randi and Mike are still broadcasting to big audiences on syndicated and satelite radio. Rachel's on Teevee. Franken is in the Senate. Al Gore continues to reach huge audiences. We don't really need AAR anymore.

[budkin]

10. I was a dedicated listener from 2004-2007 but It really was a horribly run operation

[Edgewater_Joe]

14. I Want to HEAR What RANDI Says About It - And I CAN!

Because Randi's still on the air on XM 165.

Which just shows that progressive talk's death is ... um ... wrong!

[jasi2006]

18. Fewwant to hear the truth and anything that provkes thinking.

Besides, liberals and progressives just don't hate enough.

[Armstead]

20. At least Rachel Maddow gets a little extra free time

[GoCubsGo]

21. I stopped listening when they dumped Sam Seder.

I had no idea that he was back on Sundays. Too late now.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

42. ditto

Malloy getting canned was bad enough

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

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[Orsino]

24. It was hard to find...

...buried in the ass-end of the staticy and low-fi AM band. As Randi loved to point out, she consistently beat Rush in the markets that carried her.

Air America's pitiful array of snake-oil sponsors couldn't have kept anyone afloat.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

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[Orsino]

34. Randi obsessed over those numbers...

...because they were the only way she could "beat" Rush. Air America, though, never had much of a chance, for the reason I gave, among others.

I listened when I could, despite the crappy AM signal on the only local station that carried it, until that station dropped it. I waited for over a year before finally shelling out for satellite access to AA.

Blaming AA's demise on its near-invisibility is not absurd at all, though I don't believe it's the whole story.

I'm sure that Democrat-bashers and climate-change denialism had issues with AA's content, as well, and are eagerly joining message boards everywhere to crow. They won't admit that the playing field was never level, either.

[Orsino]

37. Well, that didn't take long.

The blog was a clumsy, clumsy tell.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

28. Says more about the future of terrestrial radio that anything...

Between internet and satellite radio, I'm not sure there's much need for transmitter towers anymore.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

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[realFedUp]

30. Felt similar to losing radio host Michael Jackson in Los Angeles on KABC...

Hopefully all the people we listen to will find other radio homes.

[GOTV]

32. That's Sad (nt)

[Tsar_Bomba]

33. The left cannot be mainstreamed

It needs to be underground always. If not then the message is corrupted by the system we want changed. Air America did a lot to push back the GWB right wing agenda. In the end progressives can't be told what to think, some like myself are far left and some are not.

[Armstead]

35. Define "the left" -- A lot of progressive positions are very mainstream

[eleftherios]

40. Such as...?

1) sending people to jail who don't buy health insurance?
2) "rehabilitating" with art and music therapy and releasing them so they can attack again?
3) using billions of taxpayers dollars to defend a terrorist who tried to blow up a plane?
4) raising taxes when most families and businesses are already struggling?
5) strong-arming banks to lend money with no job, no down payment, and no collateral or face criminal investigations for racist lending practices?
6) supporting socialist regimes in Cuba, Honduras, and Venezuela while turning on allies such as Englad, Australia, and France?
7) appointing education czars who advocate child pornography?

Which of those "progressive" ideas are mainstream?

[Stardust]

41. Be gone.

[NYC Democrat]

36. uhhh dude if we want our positions to be enacted into law we HAVE to make the left mainstream.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

43. "Ring of Fire" with RFK Jr. and Mike Papantonio will continue in syndication

they announced on their Twitter feed that Westwood One will distribute the show