Air America

[Pontiuth Pilate]

I heard a rumour that the people in charge of the new liberal radio station wanted to kick off broadcasts with the famous first 4 notes of Beethoven's 5th, just like the Brit radio stations that broadcast the same "victory" radio signal [the notes equal the letter V in Morse] to Occupied Europe during WWII but apparently they called it off. Too bad!

Anyway, are any of you tuning in? What's your opinion? Especially of the recent ass-on-a-platter-handing that Ralph Nader got from Randi Rhodes on day one. Does anyone have a transcript?

 

[SeleucusNicator]

It is broadcasting in Chicago somewhere, but I have no plans to listen to it. My objections to it have been made in the last thread on the matter.

I would however, be interested in seeing this transcript.

 

[mazzz]

i was listening to it, lol ralph hung up on her

 

[aaminion00]

does this have a website so that I can listen to it somewhere?

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

Randi is on right now. They have live audio on the net.

Seleucus is miffed because they're further left than even I am.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Originally posted by Pontiuth Pilate

Seleucus is miffed because they're further left than even I am.

Well, if they indeed attacked Nader, there may still be hope, but I nonetheless think the idea of starting a radio network for the express purpose of "being liberal" is a bit immature. The conservative media sources at least feign impartiality. It's the "deviousness gap" at work again.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

pretending you are unbiased when you clearly are, is dishonest.

 

[mazzz]

we need something like this to balance out foxnews

 

[EmpireofVirtue]

That story of liberal radio will be just another failed attempt to spread out propaganda in our free country. No one will listen to it.

 

[Archer 007]

Originally posted by Sobieski II
pretending you are unbiased when you clearly are, is dishonest.

Its what wins elections, however.

 

[Hygro]

I've been listening to it online since its not yet in my area.

Except for Randi's O'Reily style rudeness to Nader, I have quite enjoyed it. I especially enjoy The Majority Report.

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

That story of liberal radio will be just another failed attempt to spread out propaganda in our free country. No one will listen to it.

Apparently Air America should pick up their marbles and go home; how can they possibly succeed without the approval of a conservative commentator?

Believe it or not, Americans lap up propaganda. Some of it left, most of it right, but all of it propaganda. I love what Randi said in a Buzzflash interview a year ago:

Ask yourself, why does ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) advertise? Do they want to sell you a soybean? Why does Boeing advertise? Are you gonna buy aircraft? Aircraft parts? GE, the largest defense contractor, wants to sell you a light bulb and/or a missile? And then there's BASF -- they don't make anything! They just make it better. Uh huh. They're buying CONTENT. Millions and millions of advertising dollars DO affect the message you get. It controls the news that is reported and the news that is NOT.

 

[Hygro]

Yeah, I thought that was great of what she said

oh, and what do you think my sig links to?

 

[mazzz]

I get it in my area, but it notice the one online is like 5 minutes ahead of what play on the radio... whats up with this?

 

[Double Barrel]

I haven't heard it yet, but I look forward to checking it out...except for Al Franken. Dude just gets on my nerves for some reason.

Pacifica has some good, serious stories. Democracy Now and Flashpoints are fantastic left-of-center news coverage outlets.

Will Air America be doing any reporting like that? Or is it just talk radio format only?

 

[h4ppy]

Air America

And they accuse Bush of hijacking America/American values/patriotic BS. Oh well, I will be there laughing when they go bankrupt.

 

[Toasty]

I really like Randi Rhodes. Franken still needs to get his radio legs. I haven't gotten a chance to listening to Garofalo, and the morning shows I can't listen to because they haven't put a station in Detroit yet.

Still, I'm very pleased with it. It's a nice relaxer, in comparison to other political news, which usually gets me spitting with anger.

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

except for Al Franken. Dude just gets on my nerves for some reason.

Second that. Al Franken is like an adolescent Mike Moore with an underdeveloped sense of humor. Excepting his political views, he talks like an O'Reilly guest.

You know, I think the show is overloaded with celebrities, I think they need to dump Al Franken and stick in one of the famous bloggers that rallied the left for the primaries. How about Kos or Atrios? Both of them have political histories that date back to Clinton and they have large followings. Granted, they may not be radio personalities. And Tom Tomorrow, who is, is definitely far too left for this show.

Little known fact, Rush's ratings are somewhere around 20 or 21 in every market he participates in. Before she hit AA Randi did a talk show in Florida that was consistently #1. Hers was the most frequently accessed site in the entire Clear Channel conglomerate. Food for thought. Rush is kept alive by advertisements, not by any groundswell of support for his druggie rants.

And yes, I hope they do real news, not just retaliation to Republican spin. Again there's this inferiority complex, that we need to "one-up" them. We need to get off those training wheels; the Democratic view of America is independent, it doesn't need anything to fight. We should put the Republicans on the defensive for once!

 

[Hygro]

So many people want this to fail.

 

[Achinz]

A station that's adopted the "fate" motif of Beethoven's 5th is already half-way there in my view