First they fired Mike Malloy, then I'm hearing that they're firing Jerry Springer, and now they are about to
declare bankruptcy???
The news have been picked up by several news agencies and blogs, some of the latter of a very unsavory sort (gloating like their neighbor's cow dropped dead), but
Think Progress has the exclusive...
Air America Radio will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing, three independent sources have told ThinkProgress.
Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works.
Cannot say that I like the take of
Ana Marie Cox (or whatever fat guy with a beard is blogging that stuff now) on the event...
We've always thought that people who go around calling themselves liberals or conservatives were equally brainwashed, but shocking new developments today suggest that the lefties may be slightly less susceptible to jackasses screaming on the AM radio.
However, this is among the
nicer things being said about the supposed demise of Air America Radio in the blogosphere.
The "personnel changes" translate into sacking Jerry Springer and firing a yet-to-be-determined number of people. From the ThinkProgress announcement it also sounds like Air America may be hoping for some sort of eleventh-hour capital infusion to bail them out of bankruptcy.
I am totally befuddled by all these news, and several questions come to mind.
- Was Mike Malloy fired because of this "restructuring"? Just before that firing
Malloy had announced an impending multi-year deal for him to stay with Air America. The only announcement of his termination was a short statement on the homepage of Malloy's website, and it was not discussed on the
air, to the best of my recollection.
- Does this trouble have anything to do with
Air America's loss of its flagship station?
The WLIB Air America lease was supposed to
expire August 31, with Air America migrating to
WWRL (and if I recall correctly, WWRL has a much crappier
signal).
- HOW could Air America go belly-up with its ratings and market penetration growing? In many markets, Al
Franken beat the stuffing out of Rush Limburger (or whatever that stinker's name is...) in the most desirable
listener demographics.
- Could the bankruptcy be driven by some sort of concerted effort? I know that some companies actually bragged about not advertising on Air America, including, supposedly, GM (although if you do some source-checking on WHO this supposition comes from... you'd better hold your nose!)...
I also wonder if anything can be done (and if anything
should indeed be done) to bail out Air America Radio. To be truthful, I found some of their hosts a few counting boxes short of a full fractal dimension, but Air America programming was still way better than the jingoistic crap spewed out by ALL other AM radio stations in a rather extensive geographic area wherein I usually roam. Not to mention the preaching and the country music. So I hope they stay on the air.
The fascist gloating on various yucky blogs and "news" sites for the Kool-Aid drinkers is ALREADY reaching a hysterical level...
Wide Awakes (yaaaaawn) blog:
Air America's troubled past has finally caught up to them. Board shakeups, hosts leaving, and shady financing have all contributed to the demise of the station. Air America Radio has not returned calls for comment as of this writing.
Texas Rainmaker (a site so dumb it's actually funny).
They also kill babies, raise taxes, hate the military, side with terrorists. But that doesn't really help their failed venture either.
I didn't make this up, honest.
Note. This has also been diaried on Daily Kos and made the recommended list while I was still goofing around with my submission, and probably in a bunch of other Kos diaries by the time I hit "update" button...