There is a strong stereotype out there that Progressive talk radio will only fall and burn and has no chance of being a success while Conservative talk radio is immensely successful and will always succeed.
The rise and fall of one company (Air America) can not predict an industry or format as successful or not. There were several missteps including lack of proper funding and failure to own stations (they rented stations at too high of a price).
Fox News took on losses and low ratings for nearly a decade before becoming one of the most profitable cable channels with the highest rating in cable news.
Conservative talk radio launched when there was a big hole in what is considered Conservative media. At the time the Main Stream Media didn't have a strong Conservative voice as they do today.
Media Matters recently pointed out that Rush Limbaugh has seen his ratings fall off a cliff in California. Clear Channel (now called iHeart Media) bumped him from stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco to lower powered stations. The speculation is that the move was due to a mass exodus of advertisers after his infamous Sandra Fluke comments.
In Los Angeles KEIB-AM is down to a 0.6 rating (I haven't seen an Progressive talk radio stations with ratings that low). They have a total of 269,600 Cume (total weekly listeners).
In San Francisco KNEW-AM is down even lower to a 0.4 rating with a Cume of 97,300.
Now look at Progressive talk radio's ratings:
Madison Wisconsin's The Mic 2.3 rating.
WZON in Bangor, ME is up to a 1.5 rating (from a 0.9).
KABQ in Albuquerque, NM is at a steady 1 rating.
WPEK in Asheville, NC has grown from a 0.6 rating to a 1 rating.
Just as AM radio was about to die when Conservative talk radio revived it, Progressive talk has a prime opportunity to revive it and expand our Progressive values.
With stations in top markets below a million dollars (some for a couple hundred thousand dollars), now is the time for Progressives to own the media instead of hoping corporate Conservatives properly voice our opinion equally with theirs, good luck to that.
With Thom Hartmann receiving 1.75m+ weekly listeners and Stephanie Miller receiving 750,000+ weekly listeners, imaging what they could do if they had more than a hand full of stations they were broadcasting on?