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Thousands celebrate Air America Radio anniversary
Across the U.S., thousands of Air America Radio fans, well-wishers, progressives, liberals, and others joined together today in a massive display of collective and joyous celebration to wish AAR a magnificent third birthday.
It was an unbelievable three years ago that Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes and others began their righteous struggle for progressive radio. In Los Angeles alone, hundreds clogged "beautiful downtown Burbank" to wish them the best, and our reporter was there with this shot of the party in front of KTLK headquarters:
(Note: our cameraman asked all the celebrants to cross to the other side of the street, that's why you can't see anyone)
The thronging multitudes then presented AAR executives with copies of the Official Third Anniversay Flyer, together with a donut with three candles:
(Note: the executives from AAR are on the other side of the locked gate, and as they explained they would have come out to meet us except the guy with the key had gone out for lattes.)
And, here's the Official Flyer:
Posted in Satire at 11:37 AM
Partay down with Stephanie Miller and Sheldon Drobny (Phoenix, April 15)
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! April 15th, April 15th, Tax Day, Tax Day! KPHX! KPHX! Join Sheldon Drobny, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy, Bill Press, and Thom Hartmann in Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Scottsdale!
Nova M, Nova MMMMmmmm! Sheldon! Stephanie! Thom! Mike! Bill! Live music! Drinks! Lots and lots of drinks! Liberals!
Join Sheldon at the Birkenstock refurbishing booth! Stephanie Miller will be greeting her fans! See if you can get her into the same condition in which Randi Rhodes was alleged to have been at one time or another! Volvos! Liberals! Progressives! Pinkos!
Reservations are recommended. No guarantee of talking to hosts is given. All hosts are scheduled to appear but their appearance, coherency, and/or stand-up-ability cannot be guaranteed. Watch out for the purple acid.
Posted in Meta at 12:55 PM
March 31: Air America Third Anniversary Celebration and Respectful Protest
I just spotted this event on upcoming.org. It looks like a group of Air America Radio fans is going to be holding a "celebration of Air America Radio's Third Anniversary" on Saturday, March 31 outside the headquarters of KTLK-AM in Burbank, California. Does anyone know anything about this? It sounds interesting, so if anyone has an account at DailyKos or something please spread the word.
Posted in Meta at 09:30 AM
Air America PD thinks AAR might be "already giving people exactly what they want"
David Bernstein is the new Program Director of Air America Radio, and in a wide-ranging and nearly content-free interview, he had this to say:
"I'm familiar with Air America the way I'm familiar with most other radio, because I listen... But as a product, it's too early to say if we're going in the right direction... I want to get feedback not only from people around here, but from programmers and listeners around the country, because the real question is what your listeners want and are you giving it to them... It may be that in the end, we're already giving people exactly what they want. That's what I'll be looking at... Like anything in radio, it grows, changes and matures... It's much different than it was in May of '04, say. But one of the things about Air America is that it's a known brand. People have definite opinions on it, for and against."
It may also be that "Dr. Crunched Glass' Magical Castor Oil-Flavored Ice Cream With Bits O' Gravel" is giving their customer exactly what he wants too, but I highly doubt it.
Posted in Meta at 11:37 PM
BoreAmerica/Air America Third Anniversary Meetup Los Angeles: March 31
This year, we'll be helping celebrate Air America's Third Anniversary - and the same event for this site this year in Los Angeles.
This will most likely take place on Saturday, March 31, but that's open to change.
The exact location is also open. Perhaps we'll picket AAR's Burbank headquarters, demanding that they give Noam Chomsky or Ramsey Clark their own show.
Or, perhaps it will be at one of the local socialist bookstores, such as one near Alvarado and Sunset.
Other locations are possible; perhaps one of the local housing projects, or Florence and Normandy. Or, perhaps I could encourage their listeners to help make booster antennae for the poor so that the Great Unwashed may learn from those who so stridently seek to help them. Perhaps we could all get together and make tote bags for the starving citizens of Guatemala.
Leave your suggestions in the comments.
Posted in Blog at 11:36 PM
President Mark Green email includes Al Franken begging for dollars
Welcome to the new Mark Green category, a special place to hold the entries related to the thoughts of President Mark, the brother of the guy who actually owns Air America (version 2.0a).
An email I just received from him offers "[c]ongratulations", and says "[i]t's been a great first week", with the news that "[c]overage of the new ownership and management here has been generous and serious." What exactly did he expect after the endless string of articles promoting his network in the past? Widespread condemnation?
Almost half of the email consists of a pitch from Al Franken, including demands that spammees visit his website, donate money to his campaign, and "buy me some lawn signs".
Now, I'm sure Franken paid some money for the ad space in some way or other, and I'm sure it will be on his campaign's finance disclosure filings, and I'm sure I'll get around to looking at them at some point in time, because I'm just as sure that no one from the MSM will.
Posted in Mark Green at 11:47 PM
Gloria Wise execs escape prison, pay fine
Two former executives of the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club - the group from which Air America Radio got one of its first "loans" - yesterday avoided being sentenced to prison and instead paid what for them are probably small fines, the NYT says.Charles Rosen, former executive director, will pay $38,575 in restitution, and Jeffrey Aulenbach will pay up $32,363. They each will also pay a $5,000 fine and won't be able to work for a non-profit for three years. There's probably some sort of a loophole in the latter.
During the past several months, thousands of Co-op City residents signed petitions and wrote letters to the judge in the case, Justice John N. Byrne, requesting that he impose jail sentences on the two men despite the plea agreements. Dozens of Co-op City residents showed up in Justice Byrne’s courtroom for each of the four sentencing dates, three of which were postponed while the judge reviewed documents and considered his legal options...As I type, reporters throughout the land are converging on Minnesota to look into Al Franken's foreknowledge of the "loan". No really, they're on the way there. I saw the tickets. It's true, I swear. No, really.
..."I just think it was a travesty of justice, but that's the way it goes here in New York," [Gloria Wise's sister Juanita Garrido] said. "I guess it's who you know and not what you do."
The Rev. Robert A. Smith Jr., pastor of the Church of the Savior and president of the Coalition of African American Churches and Community Organizations in Co-op City, said the group was considering filing a civil lawsuit against Mr. Rosen.
"This case is not finished," he said. "Either way, justice is going to prevail."
Posted in Meta at 09:16 PM
Desperate Mark Green cries: hold a presidential debate here!
In a desperate bid to get some publicity - any publicity at all - new Air America Radio brother-of-owner Mark Green has thrown down the velvet gauntlet to the Republican contenders for president: hold a debate on Air America!
...it would allow Republicans to differentiate themselves from Democrats – embracing a debate hosted by a progressive media outlet after Nevada Democrats canceled a debate scheduled to be hosted by the conservative Fox Cable News Channel. The MoveOn organization spurred 265,000 people to complain about the original plan, calling Fox a "mouthpiece for the Republican Party." In reply, Fox's Mort Kondracke called the Nevada Democratic Party's rejection of Fox a "Stalinist" violation of "free speech and free debate." So should you accept Air America's offer, Republicans would both embrace free debate and stick it to Stalin at the same time... We would be honored not only to co-host such an event; but also to broadcast it live without commercial interruption on the day that you choose.
The first problem is that, outside of a few cows fifty miles outside San Antonio and Chicago, no one would be able to hear the debate. They might as well hold it in a school auditorium in Minot, South Dakota. And, on a serious note, most of the questions will be smears: remember that AAR and/or the Young Turks briefly employed Mike Stark. Do we really want to hear him or Randi Rhodes screechingly ask someone when they stopped beating their wife? Those questions that aren't smears won't be tough questions that could reveal logical gaps in the candidates' thinking (on immigration matters, for instance).
Posted in Meta at 10:26 AM
Air America's Mark Green: "unmitigated disaster that's Iraq" helps Democrats
The brother of Air America's new owner, Mark Green, sent me an email earlier today announcing that the Revolution Had Come: the day when the Green Brothers "formally purchased and took over Air America Radio". Only at the end did I read "Originally Released on The Huffington Post (March 6, 2007)"; apparently he posted it there instead of at airamericaradio.com because he actually wanted people to see it.
It's described here as a collection of cliches, but my fellow VRWC member seems to have missed what might be Marc Green's first big mistake:
For if we can't now grow and prosper as Democrats -- given the 110th Congress, given the unmitigated disaster that's Iraq, given a slew of top-quality presidential aspirants -- when will we?
I'll leave it to the spin-meisters to decide, but isn't Green saying that the Democrats should profit from the Iraq war? Isn't he saying by extension that the worse the situation in Iraq becomes, the more the Democrats will profit from the situation?
On a infantalistic note, he says:
It's now ready to go from The Perils of Pauline to The Little Engine that Could.
Then, we get the news that they're going to "think outside the (radio) box" by expanding into other media types that no one will pay any attention to. And, AAR will fight "plutocracy and theocracy" with their "pro-democracy hosts". Then, he goes even further around the bend:
we are the alternative of truth, justice and the Air American way... it's this conversation called democracy that's the cornerstone of Air America 2.0... join our journey to a better network, better programming, and a better country. To tell them that it's your America, and your Air America.
Posted in Meta at 11:14 PM
KTLK soviet announces Air America purge
The Los Angeles Times continues their hard-news reporting with the news that KTLK AM 1150's soviet ("advisory council") is purging various Air America shows from their lineup. Here's the new version:
Stephanie Miller: 6-9am
Thom Hartmann: 9am-noon
Randi Rhodes: noon - 3pm (live)
Marc Germain: 3-7pm (live and local!)
Ed Schultz: 7-10pm
Rachel Maddow: 10pm-12am
Alan Colmes 12-3am
Bill Press: 3-6am (live)
Only Hartmann, Rhodes, and Maddow are AAR "stars". Although Germain is probably not known anywhere else, some in L.A. know him as "Mr. KABC" or "Mr. KFI".
The AAR shows KTLK is dropping include "Politically Direct," "Mark Riley" and "The Young Turks". It's dropping the syndicated "Lionel" and the local show "Harrison on the Edge"; apparently even the L.A. City Beat couldn't save the latter.
Posted in Meta at 10:09 PM
