Air America (was Re: Nassau Flipped Today)

[Mark Laurence]

On Wednesday, April 14, 2004, at 07:23  PM, Dan Billings wrote:

> Air America is on in Portland, but gone in LA and Chicago due to a 
> dispute
> about payments with the station owner.  Not a good sign for a new 
> concern.
>
> http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

Randi Rhodes (PM drive host on Air America) interviewed one of the Air 
America managers this afternoon about the situation.  I don't remember 
his name, sorry.  Their story is that the stations' owner, 
Multicultural Broadcasting, was "double dipping," as they put it.  It 
sounds like their claim is that Air America is being charged for time 
already sold to previous broadcasters.  Air America claims there's no 
funding problem with their payments, but they stopped payment when they 
learned of Multicultural's dealings.  The manager stated on the air 
that Multicultural was "stealing" from Air America.

The Chicago Tribune website quotes both sides in the developing legal 
dispute, but doesn't back either side with independent verification.

I don't claim to know who's correct, but I wouldn't accept Drudge's 
story without question.  Doesn't the payment in dispute seem way too 
big considering that Air America has really only used a week or so of 
broadcast time on two AM stations without ratings?

Meanwhile, Al Franken had an interesting guest today: Walter Cronkite 
was in the studio for an hour, in which he talked about being a 
Deadhead and his friendship with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

Mark