Progressive talk radio network’s Air America will debut March 31st in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Air America Radio has signed actress and comedienne Janeane Garofalo, hip hop icon Chuck D, radio personality Randi Rhodes, and political humorist Sam Seder to join Al Franken at the network. Environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “The Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, and business-of-the-media analyst on the public radio program “Marketplace” Martin Kaplan will also join the network. Stay tuned!
Three words. “Crash and burn.”
Woo hoo! Man, will that ever be a breath of fresh air from all the neocon jackasses on the radio right now. There is literally nothing that I can stand to listen to. (Well except ‘Mr. KABC’, but he’s getting more and more conservative every day.) And that’s in CALIFORNIA! Liberal media, my ass.
Cautiously optimistic. Certainly that’s a promising lineup, and it’d be great to see radio-based political humor that has a shred of integrity to it.
Daniel
Something worries me about this. The market for openly partisan news media is expanding. I know many people who lack critical thinking skills say that objectivity in the media is already dead, and for the time being I’m comfortable dismissing them out of hand. But what if, in ten years, there’s no more plain old news, just “Liberal News” and “Conservative News”? We know how popular Fox News is, and we suppose it’s because people like to hear their own beliefs reinforced. So there’s no reason to think this new station will be any less popular, is there? I mean, I know I’ll be listening. Will there be any demand for good-old-fashioned agenda-less news once these new-fangled partisan media outlets find their footing in the market?
It will fail, of course. If there were a market for progressive daytime talk radio it would have appeared long ago.
Still, sounds like a lineup I’d listen to.
They’re not increasing their chances of survival by sending people a mental image of a ponderous Mel Gibson/ Robert Downey, Jr. flick.
Dig the sound of those programs, though. I just hope some of those stations have Net feeds.
More power to 'em. There is no doubt that they’ll piss me off about as much as the conservative pundits do but it will be refreshing to get annoyed by the other side for a change. Let the market decide! If they fail, they have no one to blame but themselves. If they succeed, yay for them.
Haj
It’s going to fail, just like all previous efforts at liberal talk radio.
The New yorker ran a piece on this topic a couple months ago. Their argument, which seems reasonable to me, is that there’s a fundamental difference in liberal and conservative mindsets. To conservatives, life exists for politics. To liberals, politics exists so that you can enjoy life.
Or to be more specific, many conservatives enjoy turning in hour after hour, day after day, week after week to hear the same hosts repeat the exact same arguments and the exact same ‘jokes’ and the exact same insults again and again and again and again. They find this to be entertaining, and they find that it makes their life fulfilling. Liberals, however, would not find it entertaining or fulfilling to listen to the same repetitive diatribes launched against conservatives time after time. And no matter how hard they try, there’s no way that a radio network can broadcast many hours of liberal-oriented programming every day without it growing stale and predictable.
For instance, just look at magaiznes. The most widely read liberal magazines, such as Salon and the New Republic, carry about equal parts politics and arts or entertainment content. In conservative magazines such as the National Review or the Weekly Standard, it’s all politics, and coverage of the arts exists only in as much as it furthers the politics, such as when they explore the hidden liberal conspiracies in Star Wars. (You think I’m joking, but I’m not. )
I’m actually getting a liberal talk show on XM radio, the Ed Schultz show. I’ve only been listening for a week or so, but it’s pretty good. XM 166 from 3-7 CST.
I don’t know about that. I’m a liberal, and I listen to conservative talk radio every now and then because it IS entertaining. Come on… Rush is funny, if only because he sounds like he sincerely believes his own shtick.
Plus, there is already liberal talk radio, but it usually doesn’t define itself in those terms. The Philips Phile here in Orlando, for example, is definitely a liberal show, in that I agree with most of what Jim Philips and Co. have to say, and as much as 50% of its content is politically charged. They don’t call themselves liberal talk radio, though; they think of themselves as sensible talk radio, which is as it should be.
On another note, Randi Rhodes was on CNN last night matched up with some bald fella who does conservative radio in Philly, and she’s a horrible debator. Couldn’t stay on topic, couldn’t shut up for more than three seconds when the other guy or the host (Paula Zahn, I think) were talking… she tried to turn the whole thing into a promo for Air America, basically.
Some would label NPR as such, I’m sure.
I’m sure they would, but when you actually listen to it, it’s really pretty balanced. I like NPR, but it’s awfully dry. That’s why I’m excited about this new project. There’s plenty of straight news on the radio, and hopefully it will stay that way, but it would be cool to have something that’s entertaining as well. I have no misconceptions about Air America being impartial, that’s for sure; it would just be nice to have something to balance the incessant conservative claptrap.
This is going to leave a crater you’ll be able to see from the moon. If there was a market for it, it would be happening on the local level all over the country. Franken and the like have a much higher opinion of the demand for their product than there actually is.
All of the above becomes moot when the FCC and the Bushies abolish free speech anyway. 
I’m curious to hear it, although I’m no fan of Franken. I have trouble putting up with his smug “too comfortable in his own skin” act when he’s a guest on other shows; a show with him as the host, moderator, lead voice, etc. really doesn’t appeal to me.
I’d be less worried about creating a mental association with a forgettable Gibson/Downey flick (or even a justly forgotten, unrelated short-lived Lorenzo Lamas TV series), than invoking the name of the shadey CIA run operation that film was (loosely) based on.
How commercially successful will it be? I have no idea really. Just for the hell of it, my WAG would be it won’t last, some of the better shows or hosts will wind up being produced by PRI for NPR stations eventually; and the Rushes, Hannitys, O’Reillys, G. Gordon Liddys, etc. will gloat that “America didn’t want Franken and Co. on the commercial national airwaves anyway.”
Promising, overall. Maron, Winstead, Chuck D and Franken can be quite entertaining; Maron was host of Comedy Central’s Short Attention Span Theatre some years back and does great stand-up. Here in the Twin Cities we’re familiar with the shrieky and screedy Katherine Lanpher and can only hope that Franken keeps her mic mute most of the time.
Not familiar with Rhodes or Kaplan and I’ll pass on Garofalo…yikes…