Air America's finances -- WSJ article

For those of you who follow the progressives' favorite soap opera that is Air America, there's an interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal that purports to explain some of the in-fighting.  Did you know Franken gets a million a year?

•  "Interesting" is right

  There are elements of smear in this article, although I dunno. It just seems like they're getting a lot of listeners, and as such, they're getting a lot of advertiser dough, right?

  by KumarP on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 12:39:54 PM PDT

  •  Early ratings

    And no mention of the fact that the April Arbitron extrapolation gave Al Franken's show a higher share than LimBah in New York City for the important 25-50-something demographic.  But real ratings come out quarterly so it is early to say yet.  These "extrapolated" ratings are not highly regarded in the industry.

    And no mention of the 2 MILLION online listeners they have.  I believe that is the most simultaneous non-news listeners for any online radio service.  Let's see; 2 million times 16 kb/s is 32 gigabits/sec.  That's some serious server somewhere.  (They buy time on RealNetworks' server.)

    by NHliberal on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 01:16:02 PM PDT

•  air america

  I hope they're getting a lot of Ad $, but I hear an awful lot of PSAa whenever I listen.

  by danielj on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 12:42:16 PM PDT

  •  Not so many PSAs

    I don't hear that many, but I'd sure like to smack that kid who asks his mom to take him to Supercuts.

    by Passing Shot on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 12:45:38 PM PDT

  •  Where are you listening?

    I'm hearing a lot fewer PSAs in Oregon. Hell, I'm hearing ads from Ford Motor Company.

    by maxomai on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 01:12:02 PM PDT

  •  About a month ago, yes.

    I learned a lot about what not to feed a wildfire.

    These days it's: "Because my training is in psychology: Imagine this..."

    by Preston on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 01:32:15 PM PDT

  •  PSAs ...

    In New York, the heavy advertisers are Supercuts, Flonase (Ask your doctor about Flonase!), Ford, Dell Computer, Computer Associates, Lending Tree, etc.  Thank God Dr. Scholls is no longer advertising (Sellin' and gellin' ... Sellin' and GELLIN!).  Seems a bit higher quality of advertisers than you get on a lot of pop music FM stations.

    by Aaron Gillies on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 02:00:59 PM PDT

    •  Another

      I also heard some by Home Depot.

      by MattK D1 on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 02:03:00 PM PDT

•  Speaking of radio

  billmon is "on the air" today...

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  Airtimes: Daily at 9:00 am, 1:00 and 5:00 pm
  The blogger known as Billmon joins Carl for an hour of free-thinking on George Bush's attempt to wrap himself in the mantle of the late Ronald Reagan. And how he will fail miserably.

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  by jillian on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 12:44:12 PM PDT

•  Air America Radio

  Why these people don't just put up a PayPal button on their web site and ASK for money is completely beyond me. True, they'd have to pay income taxes if the network ever became profitable, but so what? I'd gladly give them $25 a month, and I don't even listen very often.

  How long do you think it would take us to raise $25 million if they managed to put an AM station somewhere in escrow and asked us to pay for it?

  Come on, people, buy a vowel (and ask us to pay for it--we will!)
  

  by precinct1233 on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 01:27:26 PM PDT

  •  Let's wait until after the election.

    But then I might be willing to spare my self from endless ads for vocabulary-boosting audiotapes.

    by Preston on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 01:34:30 PM PDT

•  They may be in big trouble at Air America

  Fraud is going on there big time.

   link to an article:

  http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2004/06/air_america_the.html

  by a UCLA Law Professor.

  by Great Balls of Fire on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 03:00:25 PM PDT

  •  Bainbridge

    appears to be a right wing shill. Scroll down and read the titles of his other posts. Tip off #1: No Comments, ala Insta Hack. Furthermore, Although he is entitled to his legal reasoning, I feel like his arguments are not substantive in the least, particularly his assertion that an entity whose ad revenue and market share are growing rapidly, is de facto insolvent. Wishful thinking on his part won't make it so.

    by red87 on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 04:48:01 PM PDT

    •  Its also

      on DRUDGE

      http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2004/06/21/20040621_162004_flash8.htm

      Something is going on if folks are not paid.

      by Great Balls of Fire on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 06:26:13 PM PDT

      •  Also

        Drudge is noted for his left leaning tendencies as well. I agree, if people are not being paid maybe something is up. However "if" is an awfully big word in this context and it seems that whenever I've heard such rumors in the past they have turned out to be exactly that, rumors. When the story becomes they will be off the air Monday, and Monday they are not on the air I will believe it.. Until then it is just useless rumor mongering, being waged primarily because with the switch to syndication, a lot of right wing hacks stand to lose an awful lot of money as all of Air America's shows are winning the ratings currently. If the right wing publicity doesn't drive them out with vicious rumors, they will be forced to compete, and current evidence is they will lose rather badly.

        by red87 on Mon Jun 21, 2004 at 08:26:40 PM PDT