This isn't going to be a long diary, and I need to say at the outset that I don't blame anyone for this: I totally understood the choices that were made and why they were made. While I respect those choices, I also have to sound a note of sadness over them
The story, to be specific, is this: Rachel Maddow's Air America Radio Show is effectively dead now. It's been replaced (strangely enough, with no real announcement) with a morning rebroadcast of the previous night's tv show, combined with a very small amount of new content, repeated three times over a 3-hour period.
Don't get me wrong: I like the TV show. But I loved the radio show. And I will miss it.
I've been listening to Rachel's show since before The Rachel Maddow show existed. I used to listen to her on the River, an independent music station out of Northampton, MA, before she left for Air America to join Liz Winstead and Chuck D. for "Unfiltered." I listened to her show when it was part of "Air America Mornings" and when it eventually became "The Rachel Maddow Show."
When Hurricane Katrina hit, she was filling in for Al Franken, doing a 3-hour afternoon show. We were camping in Maine at the time and made a point of downloading her show from an internet cafe so we could keep up with what was going on, because she was actually covering the events in a real and vivid fashion.
The thing I loved most about Rachel's radio show, however, is that the interviews could be long and substantive. One of the best interviews I've ever heard anyone give on radio was Rachel's interview with Tony Kushner (if anyone has a link to the transcript or the audio, please post it in the comments: I will update this diary to reflect that), which was just amazing, and incredibly long, long enough for her to cut it for the first airing and rebroadcast in full later on. She does not do these interviews on the TV. The format really doesn't allow it. Even her interview with Barack Obama didn't get the time that she gave Tony Kushner.
So I guess I just want to say: I'm happy for Rachel's success on the TV, and I wish her all the best, but that does not change the fact that simply I mourn the passing of her radio show, and wish things could be another way.
I never thought I'd be close to tears over the end of a radio show, but there you have it. Guess I'm more of a sap than I realized.
And Rachel, if you read this: please don't feel bad. You're awesome, if for no other reason than bringing Kent Jones back to us. Good luck, and I'll still be watching.