Recommended Reading

[Donna Halper]

Dan B wrote--

>Air America is promoted as an alternative to traditional talk stations, 
>but by providing hosts all from one spectrum it is significantly different 
>from most traditional talk stations.  There is nothing wrong with that but 
>it is a point that seems to be missing from coverage of Air America.

If you ever read that old classic of marketing, "Positioning:  The Battle 
for your Mind" by Ries and Trout, it stresses the importance of being first 
to own a particular niche.  Rightly or wrongly, Air America feels there is 
a market for "progressive talk" and positioned itself to own that 
niche.  Interestingly, each of its hosts has varying views, based on what 
I've heard, and ther are many degrees of liberalism. Some AA hosts even 
disagree with each other on certain issues, which is a good thing.  It's 
boring when a host (either right wing or left wing) is just so predictable 
that you already know what they are going to say.  Also, many AA stations 
carry some Democracy Radio (Jones syndicates it) hosts-- Ed Schultz comes 
to mind, and he is a centrist on many issues and a moderate on others, but 
still identifies as a "leftie".