Air America, the new progressive radio network, launches March 31. One member of the station's starting lineup,
Randi Rhodes (who beat Rush's ratings daily on
1290 WJNO West Palm Beach as the #1 show on local radio), temporarily posted a list of stations the network will start on that is more complete than what Air America has so far revealed:
WLIB-AM 1190 New York...
WNTD-AM 950 Chicago
KBLA-AM 1580 Los Angeles
WNMA-AM 1210 Miami
Phildelphia (Station TBA)
Boston (Station TBA)
San Francisco (Station TBA)
WLIB is Carribean music, WNTD and WNMA are Spanish talk, and KBLA is Korean. These aren't high-ratings stations, so Air America is going to need a lot of promotion to get listeners. Tell your friends about Air America. It will also be streaming online for all those not fortunate enough to have a local station.
Here's the weekday lineup:
UPRISING (6-9am)
News, interviews, opinion, analysis, wit, satire. Hosted by standup comic, actor and writer Marc Maron; co-hosted by Brit ex-pat in SoCal Sue Ellicott, who co-panels an NPR weekend news satire game show called "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!" and is a former TV news correspondent; and Mark Riley, talk host on member station WLIB New York.
UNFILTERED (9-Noon)
Fresh new voices and conversation about the political and cultural state of the union.
Hosted by political hip-hop icon and Public Enemy frontman Chuck D; Daily Show co-creator/former head writer and TV news commentator Lizz Winstead; and Laura Flanders, who hosts "Your Call" on 91.7 KALW San Francisco and wrote "Bushwomen," about the women of President Bush's cabinet.
THE O'FRANKEN FACTOR (Noon-3pm)
Satire, barbs, sketches, interviews.
Hosted by Al Franken, who needs no introduction; veteran print reporter and columnist Katherine Lanpher, who formerly hosted "Midmorning" on Minnesota Public Radio; and produced by Billy Kimball, who produced "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn" and "Lateline," a Nightline parody that aired on NBC and Showtime starring Mr. O'Franken.
THE RANDI RHODES SHOW (3-7pm)
Live interview, call-in, commentary.
Hosted by the aforementioned Randi Rhodes.
SO WHAT ELSE IS NEWS? (7-8pm)
Hosted by Martin Kaplan, who anchors the entertainment desk of NPR's "Marketplace," and is associate dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. His past hats include White House speechwriter, Washington journalist, deputy presidential campaign manager, Disney studio executive, and motion picture and television producer and screenwriter.
THE MAJORITY REPORT (8-11pm)
Hosted by Janeane Garofalo, and co-hosted by Sam Seder, who directed Comedy Central's "I'm with Busey" and is a voiceover for Oxygen/BET's "Hey Monie!"