Air America – Oy!!
For the past thirty minutes I have been listening to “Air America,” the Liberal Talk Network. Janeane Garafolo and her co-host Sam Seder have been interviewing Dave Chappelle, the comedian.
Ms. Garafolo asked Mr. Chappelle a barely coherent question about whether terms like “partial birth abortion” and “death taxes,” which according to Ms. Garafolo, are innacurate and are employed by the members of the VRWC soley to inflame conservative “crackers,” bother Mr. Chappelle as much as they bother intellectuals like her.
Mr. Chappelle responded by telling an even more incoherent story about being hassled at an airport for not following the rules. Huh?
Now Playing…Ben Cohen, of “Ben and Jerry’s” fame, who made about as much sense as the average eight-year old.
I suppose that it is logically possible to be stupid as the day is long but still be entertaining. However, Janeane et al. are long on stupid and not the least bit entertaining. If the rest of Air America’s lineup is this dismal, it will go down in flames.
A network based on the sole premise of being anti-conservative (which is different, in my mind, from pro-liberal), isn’t going to last long.
Al Franken has proven time and time again that his stuff won’t stand on its own — he has to attach someone else’s name to it for anyone to notice.
I mean, “The O’Franken Factor?” That’s the best you can do, Al? The title alone kinda gives away the premise of the show, doesn’t it?
Plus, I read somewhere else that Air America is essentially dictating what lineup affiliate stations will run. It’s not like other stations where you might have Limbaugh, Hannity and Reagan and another one might run Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and Mike Gallagher. They’re making you take all the programming or none at all.
Which is what you might expect from that crowd. After all — they know what’s best for you.
(Sorry to take so much of your comment space. Now I have to get back to the books: Parol Evidence! Anticipatory Repudiation!)
Comment by mtpolitics — April 1, 2004 @ 7:23 am
Al Franken hasn’t been interesting since he stopped doing the Stuart Smalley character.
Comment by Rita — April 1, 2004 @ 7:44 am
I’m actually glad to see them get their chance, finally. They’ve whined about rightwing dominance of radio long enough. OK Left, dazzle us! But Craig’s nailed this one: derivative-as-hell, one-joke, Franken and argument-free bulging-neck-veined guests spurting “They’re just evil!” over and over won’t be enough to grow ad revenue and attract market share. When the end comes, I predict much handwringing, and then fingerpointing in the general direction of the VRWC. Meeting adjourned.
Comment by topdawg — April 1, 2004 @ 7:48 am
Ms. Garafola and punk-of-the-year Al Franken have as much relevance as Chevy Chase and Father Guido Sarducci. Their smug 5 minutes of fame is up. Confine them in a room, and pipe in Hillary’s screaming diatribes until they morph into Barney Frank and fat Teddy Kennedy.
What makes morons like this grab the soap box in an attempt to educate us ? Drop Al Franken off at Broad and Market Streets in Newark and see how he does.
Comment by cousin gary — April 1, 2004 @ 1:33 pm
Wonder if they’ll even make a ripple in the Arbitron ratings ?
Comment by MommaBear — April 1, 2004 @ 9:20 pm
I can’t STAND Dave Chappelle. He gives me the total creeps. It comes as no surprise to me that he’s part of the Barking Moonbat Society.
Let ’em eat cake.
Comment by emma — April 1, 2004 @ 9:49 pm
These comments are totally unoriginal and so banal. They betray such boring, mindless bias. Lame.
Comment by Rick — April 25, 2004 @ 6:30 pm
Was looking for O’Liely, oh, I’m mean O’Franken Factor website when I came across this conservative think tank. And sorry to get you down, but Air America, despite its problems with
insolvency(we cant all afford the luxury of clearchannel,sinclair b’casting, or Rubert Murdoch subsidizing the network),is a resounding success! It’s The biggest debut of a radio network in the history of radio! To go from an 0.1 share in feb. to a 2.0 in April in the arbitron ratings. Beating Rush “oxycottin” Limbo in major markets N.Y.C and Chicago.
We had it in L.A. till disputes with contractual problems occured, so they pulled it.
Its a great show, not as biased as you’d like to think, and completely FACT based, something lacking in the overemotive, rhetoric shows that are shills for their party.
They just didn’t make a ripple, they made a tidal wave!
Franken factors in younger listeners
Air America radio network does well among group that advertisers covet
By John Cook
Chicago Tribune
Published May 27, 2004
Despite ongoing financial woes, Air America Radio appears to have garnered a significant audience during its first month on the air, particularly among the younger listeners sought by advertisers.
An analysis of recently released figures from Arbitron, the radio ratings service, showed that in New York Air America beat Rush Limbaugh’s station among 25-to-54-year-olds during the period that Limbaugh and Al Franken, the host of the flagship show “The O’Franken Factor,” go head-to-head.
In Chicago, even though the network was available for only 28 days in April, Air America increased the average share of 25-to-54-year-old listeners on WNTD-950 AM from a 0.1 percent share in February to a 2 percent share in April.
Air America was pulled off WNTD-950 AM due to a billing dispute. The network is seeking a new home in Chicago.
“We’re actually doing very well despite everything we’ve managed to do to ourselves,” Franken said on Saturday in an address to the Talkers Magazine New Media Seminar in New York.
He was referring to the network’s failure to meet payroll earlier this month and the departure of no fewer than six key executives in its first eight weeks on the air.
“If this is how we’re doing now, imagine what things will be like when we actually know what we’re doing,” Franken said.
The April audience estimates, which are the first data indicating whether or not Air America’s brand of liberal talk radio can find an audience, come from a third-party analysis of Arbitron data, called “extrapolations.”
“They’re like a second-inning score in a baseball game,” said Tom Taylor, the editor of Inside Radio, a trade publication. “But you have to say that the visitors are on the scoreboard.”
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., a period that includes Franken’s show, WNTD pulled in 3 percent of 25-to-54-year-old listeners in Chicago. That number puts the fledgling network in the same league as WGN-720 AM, which scored a 2.1 percent share of the same demographic, according to the extrapolation of April figures. WLS-890 AM, which airs Rush Limbaugh during the same period, beat WNTD with a 4.8 share.
But in New York, where Air America still broadcasts over WLIB-1190 AM, the network beat Limbaugh’s station, Disney-owned WABC, among both 25-to-54-year-olds and 18-to-34-year-olds during the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. period. In the 25-to-54 demographic, WLIB garnered a 3.4 share to WABC’s 3.1; among 18-to-34-year-olds, WLIB won sevenfold with a 2.9 share to WABC’s 0.4.
Comment by liberal Jesus — June 5, 2004 @ 10:00 am