Winds of Change at Air America

A website called thinkprogress.org is reporting that three independent sources have told them that Air America "will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing."

The piece continues:

"Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works. Sources say five Air America employees were laid off yesterday and were told there would be no severance without capital infusion or bankruptcy. Also, Air America has ended its relationship with host Jerry Springer."

Two points to be made here: 1) those five employees deserve their severance, and had damn well better get it, and: 2) Jerry Springer should never have been hired to begin with.

The piece continues:

"The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format. That format is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America. Indeed, many of the country’s most successful and widely-syndicated progressive talk hosts — Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, for instance — aren’t even associated with Air America."

And what was I saying in this very blog, not that long ago? Get rid of Jerry Springer and hire Stephanie Miller, you lunkheads!

I think Air America has a future, but they've made a lot of rookie mistakes. I wish I could access a copy of the letter I wrote to the guy who was founding Air America before it even had a name (if I find it on a disc I'll add it as a postscript to this blog entry). But I wrote to Jon Sinton (I think that was the guy's name) and said that instead of going out and hiring names that are recognizable but have little or no experience doing radio (as had been tried before with people like Mario Cuomo and Jim Hightower, with mixed to negative results), they needed to start small and build their stars from the inside.

But they did exactly what I told them not to do, with predictable results.

Rush Limbaugh isn't a name conservative who does radio. He's a radio guy who is a name conservative. Very big difference. Air America needs radio people who are progressives.

How do they turn it around? First they have to get their fiscal house in order, which is not my department (to put it mildly).

Then they have to finish what they've started in the way of restructuring their on-air talent. Getting rid of Mike Malloy and Jerry Springer were both smart moves.

Now they need to hire Stephanie Miller. And while they're at it, they could give Katherine Lanpher her own show...

Tom Moran

Note: 9/16: I found the text of the letter I wrote to Jon Sinton (that was his name) in December of 2003. Here's the relevant passage:

"I think it's important in these times that progressives do what they can to get their ideas across to people in a way that's less didactic than the left usually is when it tries to reach a mainstream audience. One of the reasons that liberal radio hosts have failed in the past is that the majority of them, like Mario Cuomo and Jim Hightower, were politicians trying to make politics entertaining, instead of entertainers talking intelligently about politics. It's similar to the distinction Anthony Trollope makes in his "Autobiography" between novelists who have to tell a story and novelists who have a story to tell. If progressives are going to win over hearts and minds on the radio they need to lighten up instead of talking down, and make the audience laugh as well as think. "