I’m bummed. Anyone care to post a more articulate reaction?
APRIL 14–Air America, summarily booted today off stations in Los Angeles and Chicago for reportedly bouncing a check, is seeking a legal injunction that would return the fledgling liberal network to the airwaves. Air America filed the below breach of contract lawsuit this afternoon in New York State Supreme Court. The complaint alleges that Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, which owns WNTD in Chicago and KBLA in Santa Monica, improperly yanked the network from its Windy City perch over a dispute involving the California station. Air America, which contends that it has “paid all amounts due” for the leasing of airtime on WNTD, has petitioned for a temporary restraining order that would return shows like “The O’Franken Factor” to the dial. (5 pages)
Kind of amusing really… liberals want to run the finances of the government now? 
if only we had a dictatorship of the proletariat in charge, they’d be assured of being on the air. lololol
Air America was pulled from two stations, one in Chicago and one in Santa Monica (LA). Air America Radio’s side of the story is that Arthur Liu (whose media group owns both stations) broke their contract by leasing the time on the LA station (KBLA) to a different company after signing an agreement with AAR. After discovering this and stopping payment on their check to Liu, Liu pulled AAR from his Chicago station as well.
Now AAR’s counsel has asked for an injunction, as shown in TSG link above, to get back on the air as per their contract.
From the New York Times:
Hm. I’m not sure what I believe … but the timing is interesting. Not that I’m pulling out my tinfoil hat from the closeet yet, but I am amused by the coincidence of two of the top three markets pulling the plug on a Liberal network one day after the President’s speech/news conference.
Thank God for web streaming and XM satellite stations.
So, this means that Air America is now … Off-the-Air America?
Boy, that liberal control of the media we’re always hearing about is obviously a pretty slipshod operation. They should have gotten some advice from the Jews.
According to a recent press release, SIRIUS Satellite Radio will also be carrying Air America.
The oligarchs don’t look to be in any hurry to surrender theirs. (And who brings their own laugh track to open-mike night?)
HA! Now that’s comedy.
Could somebody in the broadcasting business explain to my why the Air America people leased air time over a period in which they had no programming to offer? Was it necessary to “reserve” the time or something? At first glance it seems pretty stupid.
I don’t get it. Why would Air America care who the station leased air time to before they went on the air? This whole thing makes me wonder what politics would be like here if right-wingers didn’t have a complete monopoly on the radio market.
I believe Arthur Liu/Multicultural billed Air America for that air time, even when they weren’t airing yet.
It’s certainly not a case of Air America being “out of money”, since IIRC they’ve got enough bankrolled for the first three years before they need to turn a profit.
Depends on what “here” you’re talking about.
An Air America executive was on yesterday trying to explain this. He compared it to opening a restaurant,saying that you wouldn’t start your lease on the day you planned to open. Essentially, they were making sure a slice of the AM airwaves would be available when they were ready to use it.
That guy (great cite, huh?) also said that since Air America had already paid for that time, the L.A. station owner had no right to lease it again. The time was Air America’s to do (or not do) with as it pleased, and it was entitled to any revenue from using that time.
Per the same source, when Air America found out about what it calls “double-dipping”, it stopped payment on a check or checks given to the station owner, and he pulled the plug on their broadcast not only in L.A. but in Chicago, where they had leased a station under a separate contract.
It sounds to me like Air America might have been in the right (pardon the expression), but both parties acted in a ham-fisted manner that didn’t do anybody any good, except for those who didn’t think Los Angeles had enough Spanish-language stations. Why they couldn’t talk try a little harder to talk things through, I don’t know. Idle speculation follows.
- The evil conservative station owner doesn’t mind taking money from liberals but would be happy to see the network fail.
- The network has a cash-flow problem and hoped to buy time by stopping payment on a few checks and/or squeezing some money out of the poor innocent station owner.
- It’s a publicity stunt.
- Air America is rethinking this whole “network” strategy and looking for ways out of existing contracts so it can concentrate on syndicating its programming and/or streaming it over the Web.
I’m in Los Angeles. I can’t imagine the midwest has a better assortment of liberal and/or moderate shows, though.:eek:
I wonder if the right-wingers’ (alleged) monopoly over the radio market is due to the fact that most truck drivers (who listen to the radio more than anybody else, I’d bet) tend to be right-of-center politically.
Nah, it’s due to buying up all the media outlets they can get their mitts on, coupled with the government’s abandonment of the “equal time” media laws in the mid-eighties.