Air America

[Steve West]

Donna asked:

>Can Air America be the voice of that 49% and be successful, or as in the 
>past, do you expect so-called liberal talk shows to fail?

Excellent question.  Unfortunately, IMHO, the dynamics are quite 
complicated.  First off, the one company which could allow for AA's growth, 
Clear Channel, might have only carried AA prior to the election in order to 
create the appearance of fairness.  Otoh, it may be a good move for them in 
liberal markets where their own brand of talk radio is being carried on a 
station held by a competitor.  This is certainly true in Boston, where the 
main talk station is owned by Entercom, and then we have Infinity's WBZ.... 
their news all day and nighttime talk beats out anything WRKO could think of 
airing.  So in Boston, AA is likely a very good move considering the highly 
liberal makeup of the city, EXCEPT that AA is on a pair of very poor 
nighttime signals.  So it does well during the day, but stinky at night.  
But, maybe CC is throwing the towell in at night knowing they don't have a 
ghost of a chance against Brudnoy.  Thoughts?

The short answer is, I think AA will survive, even thrive in some markets, 
while it will end in failure in others, in places like the south which are 
heavilly Conservative Christian.  AA will likely survive in Boston, Chicago, 
San Francisco (is there an outlet there?) and the usual liberal places.

Course, aside from popularity and ratings, etc, it will all depend on the 
ability of the format to be sold.  If it isn't well received in the 
community, the whole experiment is dead.  Again, I see no problem in places 
like Boston.  Here in Memphis, it would have a chance because, believe it or 
not, because of demographics, the home of Graceland is extremely liberal... 
at least within city limits. (Tennessee, as a whole is conservative.  I feel 
like I live on an island)  That said, it would likely fail miserably in 
Nashville.

Sorry for the long answer but you asked the $64 question.

-West