Newsweek article on Air America

[Donna Halper]

At 09:03 PM 12/17/2006, Bob Nelson wrote:
>Newsweek has an article talking about the tumult at Air America. Not
>only were they
>building up huge amounts of debt, but there was no network "program 
>director" to
>handle clashing producers and hosts; just when they started to make headway,
>some of their most popular shows were cancelled, angering listeners,
>and they had
>no realistic business model.

These are all things I have said for 2 years.  Notice that the Jones 
Radio hosts are still on the air, still stable, no programming 
changes, and 2 of the 3 they syndicate are turning a profit, while 
the 3rd is too new and on too few stations to make any judgements at 
this point.  Ed Schultz is now being asked to be a pundit on MSNBC, 
Larry King Live, and elsewhere, and so is Stephanie Miller.  Sadly, 
several of AAR's hosts with radio experience were actually gaining 
some traction but the turmoil at the network really hurt them.

And I don't usually say this, but no kidding, I BEGGED AAR TO LET ME 
CONSULT THEM.  (So did several other experienced 
consultants.)  Consultants are not the magic answer, but hey, you 
know  me-- I could have helped them; I am not about ideology when I 
am working, and I've trained some outstanding conservative talkers 
over the years, as well as working with some liberals.  I don't care 
about the politics as long as the person is interesting and 
entertaining.  Btw, I am not one to beg for business; I can assure 
you, I make a living.  But in the case of AAR, I felt they were 
throwing away a good concept and missing a golden opportunity to 
attract an audience.  I even flew out to their group meetings last 
year at my own expense and made a pitch to work with them, but they 
said they were doing fine, thanks.    I've worked with several 
individual AAR affiliates very quietly, but nobody at AAR would even 
consider bringing in (gasp) radio people to give them some 
direction.  [picture of Donna throwing things at her computer screen 
in utter frustration...]