Air America Santa Cruz still can't sell air time

In Santa Cruz? Yes, in Santa Cruz. In a situation that's been going on for months, AAR's affiliate in that most liberal town is unable to find advertisers:

[KOMY owner Michael Zwerling's] task with selling not just KOMY’s afternoon slot, but any time at all on the station has proven difficult—so far KOMY hasn't been able to sell one spot to a local business. Air America sells a percentage of time per hour for itself and Zwerling does not pay the network, nor does the network pay him to air the shows.

And, Janeane doesn't appear to be favored:

KOMY carries three Air America programs, including the Al Franken Show (9am to noon), Randi Rhodes (1 to 4pm) and the Majority Report (4-7pm) featuring Jeanine Garofalo, but Zwerling says he's only airing the Majority Report until he can find someone to buy the time slot and produce his or her own local show.

As for that "buying":

Known in the radio industry as "brokered time," the practice of selling blocks of time to hosts to produce their own shows is not "what a station that's concerned about ratings and building audience size does," Zwerling says. "But it pays the bills."

Maybe he could find someone who wants to "consider" over and over whether to run for public office, then find shadowy investors to support that candidate's show. I wonder, would that work?

Posted in Meta at March 2, 2006 09:00 AM

Comments

Well, if they can't sell commericals maybe they should sell crack.

Posted by: GregD at March 3, 2006 08:48 PM

Very interesting. I am visiting Phx at the moment.
Perhaps they should let Teddy Kennedy drive for them?

Posted by: travelling watcher at March 7, 2006 07:55 AM