RBR-TVBR analysis: Why Air America failed

In the wake of Air America Media shutting down, there has been much gnashing of teeth over the loss of a “progressive” counter to the allegedly entrenched “right-wing” control of talk radio. But the real reason Air America failed has nothing to do with politics - at least not with politics as content.

Quite simply, Air America failed in the radio BUSINESS because it was never run by radio people. From the very beginning the venture was run by liberal ideologues who were on a quest to rescue America from Rush Limbaugh and prevent a return to Reaganism. Oddly enough, Ronald Reagan Jr. actually ended up being on their side and was one of the hosts who lost his job in the shutdown.

We angered the original founders in 2004 by declaring that their business plan was flawed and couldn’t work. As it turned out, it was even more flawed than we realized, since the actual cash committed to the project was a tiny fraction of what had been publicly claimed.

Over the years, Air America has careened from financial crisis to financial crisis, from owner to owner and even one Chapter 11 bankruptcy before the current Chapter 7 liquidation. Through it all one thing was consistent – the political ideologues were running the show and the broadcasters involved were merely hired hands.

The whole idea of launching a full-schedule radio network to counter right-wing radio was stupid, since there is no right-wing network to counter-program. Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks may have the strongest lineup of conservative talkers, but no top-performing major market Talk station carries only Premiere shows. The individual hosts have perfected their craft themselves and built their audiences on the strength of their own personalities and personal appeal to listeners.

We would also note that Premiere launched only one of its big three talk hosts into national syndication – Glenn Beck. The shows of the others, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, were acquired after they’d already achieved success. Why on earth would a would-be lefty talk programmer think it could find talent to fill an entire network when even the “evil empire” of Clear Channel Radio couldn’t do so on the right?

Whether it’s Neil Boortz, the dean of current talkers, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Laura Ingraham or any other successful host on the conservative side, listeners do not listen to them because of the network that carries them. Heck, lots of people believe that Limbaugh’s EIB, “Excellence In Broadcasting Network,” actually exists.

Eddie McLaughlin, who discovered Rush after his own retirement as President of ABC Radio and launched Limbaugh into syndication, has never made much public comment about his own political leanings, but we understand they are nowhere near in line with Limbaugh. The veteran broadcast executive saw a rare talent and knew how to turn Limbaugh into a valuable franchise.

By contrast, the best radio host ever to work at Air America was clearly Randi Rhodes. (Far better than Al Franken, although the former TV comic eventually warmed to radio and that no doubt helped him learn how to relate to voters, as show by his current position in the US Senate.) Randi Rhodes was fired in an ideological battle between left-wing factions. And while her former employer is bankrupt, Rhodes still has a show in syndication. Likewise, Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller are successful with left-leaning syndicated shows not tied to Air America.

That’s the way conservative talk radio was built. That’s the way liberal talk radio can succeed as a business. Just keep the political folks out of running the business.

Tweet