Experts: Air America finances questioned

Dimitri Vassilaros, as I've said before, is a complete idiot when it comes to biking, but he has at least been looking into Air America's financial condition.

From "Stylin', but empty, totes":

..."[AAR] held fundraisers in Washington, in senators' living rooms," said radio consultant Holland Cooke, news/talk specialist at McVay Media of Cleveland. The radio consultancy claims to be the largest in the industry, foreign or domestic.

"Al Franken has spoken at industry conferences," Mr. Cooke said. "He jokes what a woefully run business Air America has been, that the folks pulling the levers are more zealots than capitalists."

The [AAR] Web site overflows with information about hosts, issues and at least eight pictures of stylin' tote bags. Yet it has no sales information for potential advertisers.

My calls to the sales department and the network's spokeswoman were not returned.

"The ownership group denies they are having financial problems, but it appears they might be," speculated talk radio expert John Mainelli of Mainelli Consulting in New York City.

Mr. Mainelli bases his theory on the request for donations and because the network now is selling blocks of airtime on weekends to so-called non-agenda shows paid for by whomever.

"They will not reveal what their financial status is," said Mainelli, who also writes about the media for the New York Post and trade publications. "I also asked how much they hoped to raise but they have been tight-lipped about finances in general."

Maybe the HuffPost, current.tv, and Air America could all join together in one big "liberal" support group.

Posted in Meta at October 7, 2005 06:05 AM

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