RIP Air America...

There was a time when I listened to AAR all day. The early programming was that good, and with the exception of the grating Randi Rhodes who I sometimes couldn't take, it was my touchstone of sanity at a dark time in American politics. At some point I realized that I was keeping the radio on all day as I went through my schedule, often stopping to write things down and look them up, always feeling like there was some small ray of hope in what had become a real national nightmare.

For AAR, still considered fledgling, its been a rough go of investors and owners who wanted to see a profit in a business that is guaranteed to not show a profit for years. The lack of patience that each management team has shown was uniquely American, causing the loss of its best shows, tinkering all the time rather than allowing momentum to grow, and missing chances to build on the incredible well of talent that had been assembled from the beginning. Someone was sleeping in Broadcasting 101, unless this was just another corporate fuck, with the attitude of 'how much can we get out of this sucker?' and leave the drained carcass to die. The teams that came and went certainly talked a good game about AAR being more than just a station; yeah, really, "a movement!!" but the problem is bigger than just that; Americans want their profit and their big screen TV yesterday. We haven't yet lined up our Rupert Murdoch, willing to lose billions of dollars in service to a message. The visionary part of that for the neocon very rich is the long run, where an administration like Bushco actually pays them and their friends back tenfold in contracts and breaks. Im not so sure that the very rich liberals are that tied in to the military complex or visionary enough in the same sort of cut throat take over the world vision.

The day that Ronald Reagan did away with the fairness doctrine which protected our airwaves from the likes of the sort of big business machine that has come to rule them, was the day that this all began. The airwaves belong to the American people and the push of capitalism to take over and privatize everything is uniquely ...um...neocon. Privatization with regulations cut, and batty uncle Ronny saying "why do we need regulations? Old Mr Floyd from the hardware store down the street is perfectly willing to police himself...? Right?" Of course, the legacy of that deregulation has come to fruition now in the Supreme Court ruling that corporations have seemingly endless rights...forget it, we're fucked...

So long AAR; it went into reruns last Thursday and no one even noticed. The New York Times had a piece the other day about how liberal radio has to be more business-like and in these troubling financial times it was a bad business proposition, yada, yada, yada....
OK, was anyone gonna get rich on this? They were fools if they thought so. The new corporate model of a quick payout doesn't work in this medium, and trying to force that made the thing messy and embarrassing by the end, with the likes of the well hated, smarmy, Mark Green and his infomercials and continual failed bids at being a political player..."hey, wanna go on a cruise?"...yuck!

AAR was a mad experiment cast by the minds that brought us the likes of the Daily Show, it had a different tone, and it expected more of the audience than to just sit back and absorb the lies; the early Air America challenged us to think, reason, and take control of our lives using the tool of truth. The entire weekday lineup was challenging and at a time where the government was spewing lies at us, echoed by the main stream media news outlets, so, it followed that this programming would take all the more time to find its audience and create the foundation upon which to grow. We sounded like conspiracy theorists before AAR came along and we had Al Franken fact checking everything thoroughly...to the point that no matter what anyone said about him and how ne presented things, they coulldnt say that what he said wasnt true. This was a revelation for me; you could hate Al and his persona, you could say "youre gonna believe that guy?" but you couldnt ever say that his facts were incorrect.
It did find an audience, in that the numbers were growing with the kind of fans that are loyal and long-term. The problem was to maintain an already screwed up business situation and for that they brought in the wrong person.

Danny Goldberg, CEO/investor/good friend of Don Imus, and a music industry "big shot", seemed to think that with Don's input he could program a radio station like he was rearranging the songs on a record or the members of a band. Coming into a situation midstream must have been difficult for him, and the pressure of the board and stockholders was an issue but really, what was needed was a firm hand in assuring everyone that tinkering too much would dislodge the invaluable hardcore fans in the service of passing numbers. According to Goldberg, he turned himself inside out fighting The Man, saving Rachel Maddow from obscurity, and if not for the stockholders and capitalism in general, he was going to save radio from itself.
This guy thought that his gut could somehow turn AAR into a profitable business, way ahead of schedule, and on top of that he would tinker with a lineup with steadily growing numbers to try to create a magic that he knew nothing about. If he thought he could show a profit at that point and presented himself in that light, he was full of shit. No programming, much less a new station which is building an audience could be profitable in that amount of time. In a way it was folly to put a non-radio guy in that job in the first place, but perhaps that was the only way that the investors could hear what they wanted to; that this thing wasn't going to hemorrhage money for 4 or 5 years at least. Goldberg quickly ushered in the beginning of the end of AAR and as much as I understand that he viewed this as production pre-release, he was unprepared for what would happen when he messed with what was a good lineup. His claims that he was hired to raise money fall on deaf ears here, because he clearly was rearranging the lineup more than he was out raising money. This was not the job for him.

Yesterday Goldberg wrote what I'm sure he thinks is the definitive obit of AAR at Down With Tyranny , (and then much more in comments,) alot of pap about how he struggled under the finger of the money people, and how they stopped him from raising funds because of their feelings of asking for funds being unseemly...huh?...He said that maybe he was an asshole sometimes...he had such a hard time...etc...feel sorry for him?...No! He walked out of there with a big payout at a time when the station was foundering, and was one person who did OK in the situation; he didn't take a bath the way others did and he took his payout while others, like talent who didnt come into this rich, were owed money. Its not our problem that he accepted a job for less money than he normally makes; he did OK for doing not much that was helpful and alot that was destructive.

What I know from the inside and as the spawn of a radio family, is that you don't treat people, much less the working talent, like shit, especially in their last weeks. Goldberg might have made the mistake of his life by trying to "save AAR" instead of staying in the music business "where he belongs," but during his time at AAR he certainly tried to cut a bold swath of change, relegating the same Maddow that he supposedly saved from obscurity, FROM the 9AM-noon slot in the fantastic Unfiltered show, TO the dead 5AM slot. He then set about deconstructing Morning Sedition, which was one of the best shows on radio, period. He didn't like Maron and he didn't get the comedy. He didn't make a secret of that either, and to say that it was purely a business decision forced on him by the stockholders and other bosses is disingenuous at best.

Goldberg knows the truth, and regardless of the depths of his depression, which may have had him playing solitaire on his computer for hours on end in his office, rather than raising funds or whatever it was that he was supposed to be doing, he isn't going to be able to escape what happened and his part in it. Tying himself to the coat tails of Maddow is not going to change history either; sorry. The advice of Don Imus was wrong; Goldberg had no talent in programming and tinkering, and every move he made was to render the programming into a more and more dumbed down,happy, format. It did what AAR had never done, which was to pander to the audience. By the time he had alienated the base, what was left?

The Mark Riley Show was what Goldberg wanted, and it was junk....totally junk. It reminded me of the Whoopie Goldberg Feel Good Show, which was not what the base was tuning in for. Riley was a pawn in all of that, and his show was painful to listen to. What could he follow up that sort of brilliance with? The Riley Show was what Goldberg thought was good radio. Regardless of the corporate structure or the financial situation, this guy came into a tanking situation and instead of trying to shore up what was there and growing he decided to scramble it all up and put the best talent either out of a job or in the boondocks. Even with star power, had any been there beyond those with a strong following, it would have been starting over. I have alot of trouble with Goldbergs's line about firing Maron to save Maddow. I just don't think that's true at all...and I am sure that Rachel is not thanking Goldberg for her great career.

Rachel had star power when she started Unfiltered, and continued to be herself on the same intense level straight through to Olbermann regardless of and in spite of Goldberg. The first thing he did was to cancel her show!! Those who got put at 5AM or on Sundays were those with contracts still in effect as opposed to those who's contracts were up.

What became of those talented players? Check out Maron's fantastic WTF Podcast and of course the Rachel Maddow show, which is a must watch every night of the week on MSNBC. I am assuming that Maddow's radio show is no longer available anywhere.
For background on that one particularly brilliant show and its comedy bits, check out Sedition Radio for which we owe PJ Sauter a huge debt of gratitude. The rest is out there if you look for it: Unfiltered, Sam Seder, Janeane Garafolo, even Al and Randi who had their ups and downs, but still are sorely missed around here... Lizz Winstead deserves a shout for putting alot of it together; Its over for good.

AAR as it was in the beginning, brought me laughter, joy, relief, and a kind of deep misery at its loss, that I couldn't have expected. I always though that this was so much more than a radio station and should be funded by a Rupert Murdoch type of deep pocket investor, but for whatever reasons it was set up wrong, by the wrong business folks and that doomed it from the start. Its all about the money in the end, and the money wasn't there...but it should have been, considering how much money is out there in liberal land. Showing a growing audience of loyal listeners and tapping those listeners for funding would surely have gone further towards interesting investors than dismantling what they had back to zero.

What of the Fairness Doctrine? These are our airwaves and just because Rush Limbaugh is a huge corporate force barreling through all sense and reason, doesn't mean that this outlet shouldn't be regulated by the government so that one corporation can exert too much influence on people because of money...um...oh yeah...never mind; corporations are now individuals with rights. As it stands our free airwaves are being used to misinform the people of this country, leaving the Fairness Doctrine as perhaps the most important political issue to address because of the way it touches all other issues; voting on issues that you have been lied to about comes to mind.

It was an idea and a dream, and much like Obama not being a corporatist or Edwards telling even the most basic truth, its all gone now. Rush and O'Reilly can breathe a sign of relief because there is really only Sirius Left, for those who have the subscription money; Internet radio shows for those who can afford the Internet...the rabble will never hear a bit of truth. Maybe its when things are really bad and there is no hope left, that some sort of movement will begin that will rise up and again give voice to the progressive agenda. Heaven knows we're out here in Internet-land shouting into the black hole and hoping someone hears. But there is too much noise, and we need more than just one Rachel Maddow to move this thing forward.

Its kind of sad to let those dreams go. But somewhere out there in podcasts or blogtalkradio format the message still lives, and in that there is hope, even if its sketchy....
godspeed to our kids, that's all I can say...this is a very different country than any of us could have imagined.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Marc Maron and Sam Seder to Begin Experimental Vid-cast...The Funny Returns and We Get to Talk Politics Too!

Maron & Seder: everyone's favorite liberal talk radio talk hosts who clawed their way to fame on Air America Radio by delivering the truth and the funny, are launching a new experiment in daring-do, anger, and magic, to bring their very own independent broadcast show, and their actual faces, into your homes and onto your players, via a new video-cast technology that Sam Seder has been playing around with on his much embattled and shuffled around, yet still beloved, Sam Seder Show/Seder on Sundays.


What started as the nicknamed SammyCam, was probably due more to Sam's love of tech and film making, and him trying things out than any grand plan to take over the world. But, it quickly turned into a fun and interesting glimpse into the inner workings of the technical side of broadcasting and also a live back and forth conversation with listeners during the breaks, with the audience on Sam's blog and instant messenger, with Sam making technical adjustments as he got feedback as to the video quality and streaming of the show, and also still talking politics. It seemed to me like it was only a matter of time before it took off, because Sam was running around Yearly Kos2 with a mission, trying it out during his audio interviews, (and Yes I did beg to sit in the corner of that room and watch, but he actually said...er...NO!...damn him!...not even for Joe Conason...)

I can only imagine how quickly this thing would have come together if Mark Green, the terrible new owner of AAR, hadn't taken Sam's daily slot away to give it to his buddy, who I wont even mention here because he makes me nauseous. But considering that he only had Sundays and a few odd trials, he has got it down pretty nicely.




















According to Sam himself, Marc Maron will be joining him on the unnamed-as-of-yet, experimental show that, though still in the planning stages, looks to be a must see/must subscribe to!
The duo will be trying out the format next Tuesday, September 25th, at 11AM EST, as they did this past Tuesday (Check Seder's page for an audio link to the rough first time trial... it will be posted soon,) with a dual screen, dual host, dual coast show, that will, when all the kinks get ironed out, offer a live version with viewer interaction, downloadable video on demand, guests, and who knows what else when you get those two together, working for themselves in a rather unregulated format. Expect politics and expect the funny...expect to feel better about the world in general. This thing will be available on a subscription basis, and I am so there, first on line, for it!
The details, such as cost and how subscriptions will be handled are still in their infancy....But I plan on supporting this no matter what cockamamie scheme they come up with.
Reached for comment for this piece on location in Vancouver, where he is performing at a comedy festival till the 22nd, Marc Maron said something to the effect of..."...its me and Sam on the screen talking about shit."...Which is code for Get ready for the Funny, People!!
More to come from the other coast as soon as he gets some ideas!!
Look for Marc at the UCB Theatre in LA on Oct. 5th and in NYC at Comix Oct 12th and 13th!
Check his page for details and additions!


I am just thrilled that out of the ashes of AAR we are going to see another interesting experiment...and who knows? Old Green might just figure it out somehow...I dunno...but miracles sometimes happen...right?


For a long time I've thought that this sorta streaming wireless content was going to be the wave of the future. I just finished listening to David Pogue's NY Times Circuits Podcast from August 17th, where he discusses radios that have WiFi chips on board. These chips make it possible to tune into any of thousands of streaming Internet radio stations or the Internet streams of terrestrial radio, not to mention podcasts, in pretty sterling clarity, depending on your WiFi setup or the public WiFi available.
I used to covet these very expensive and rare pieces of equipment, which were available at Dell for a while or on the Internet, but in short order, Air America Radio got killed by one Danny Goldberg and another Mark Green scavenging the wreckage, so I put it off until the prices came down.
Still, anyone who knows me knows that this is a big theme around here: Soon all phones will have these chips, all radios, even cheap ones, and the startup streaming content sites will wrestle the cream to the top. To that end Ive been working towards starting up something myself with content produced by my grandfather. That is still in the air, and its very possible that the technology has already gone beyond that old time audio in that, here come Vid-casts for the YouTube generation. Its still going to be all about content and the quality of the content; the talent of the players.
The adoption of this technology will happen passively and be as successful with non-technical people as the tech designers are at integrating a search/scan, and save option into even the smallest transistor radio.
I believe that the future world will have cities and towns with fully free wireless, with America likely lagging behind in our struggle to re-regulate big business and get back to a population that knows whats going on. As more places like Cosi pop up, with their free WiFi and good coffee/better food/comfortable atmosphere and couches, its going to become more and more silly to pay a corporation via Starbucks $10 to get online for a day.
And I do believe, as does my friend from YK2, (who I imagine might be a blogger secretly, as he has a sensitive job but alot to say,) who has been struggling to bring WiFi to another large city, that it is possible. My exasperation with the city of Stamford is that their "free" WiFi that stretches through downtown, past UBS Warburg and on to the train station where the masters of the universe converge with their handhelds on their way to run with the bulls, runs just to the edge of the poor part of town, where too many people cant afford even cable TV much less a cable modem or even a dial up. Add to that the news that the library's hours have been cut back due to budget shortfalls that have hit the schools and public services pretty hard, and here we are.
So, with the understanding that things have to change and my sure feeling that they will first gradually and then all of a sudden, I've been keenly aware of what can be done with the emerging technology and how much of an investment it is in the future to try some of it out.

The other thing that is crystal clear is that the screen is here to stay, and that these shows do great if offered in audio or video versions. When the iPod Nano suddenly has a nice screen and the iPod itself has jumped generations by getting rid of that silly phone part and keeping the touch interface, I am positive that Sam and Marc are investing in the right area of this tech curve. Whats the worst that can happen? Wasted time? Streaming content for their own site? ...not so bad...and besides the fact that we need those intelligent and funny voices in the public discourse,
The obvious is to see the popularity of some of the shows out there like Ricky Gervais in audio, and Diggnation in audio or video (big or small....very cool!) You bring some people and sponsorship follows... or your subscriptions grow and you can offer more content.

This is one show that I will be watching develop.

Another Air America Misstep...Is This Goodbye to Sam Seder?

I love Dan Pashman, (son of Lewis and Linda Pashman.) I got familiar with him as a producer and on air personality on Air America Radio. His work with Brendan McDonald during the Katrina disaster was stellar. They were a couple of, probably not so innocent, producers covering a vacation week for the hosts of late lamented Morning Sedition, when the dam burst and they were in the driver's seat. They did such a great job and their banter on various talk shows that they have produced since then, and particularly with Marc Maron, has been great.
I guess that also, the Dan Pashman laugh has been something that signals to fans of a certain type of comedy that we are all on the same planet.
So, I was sorta thrilled to hear Dan take over for Sam Seder's departing temporary producer, Joel from Al Franken's show. Are you following me?
I shoulda realized, though, that the Pashman laugh is not a sign of comedy anymore....Its a sign of the endtimes!
So, after a pretty straightforward Seder show today, Pashman was heard to say, on the Sammy-cam that had been inadvertently left on, they had to tape the promos for next week and that, after the holidays, Thursday and Friday of next week are their last shows. Pashman himself is moving to Laura Flanders show, which is probably, I'm guessing, moving to a daily slot where maybe we might have seen Maron at some point.
I wrote to the new director of programming, hired on just a a week or so ago, by the Green brothers, David Bernstein ,in my usual style, which is pretty intense and wordy (see my post from the last time they canceled Maron...was that almost a year ago?) and I was very happy to get a response pretty quickly.
The thing is that the response, while kind, thoughtful, and thorough, sort of goes against what I'm pretty sure is happening. Unless there are some last minute talks going on, the reply I got was either a bit of a snow job, or the words of someone who isn't fully into the job and up on whats happening yet.

So, while my own ears, and the ears of many of my fellow bloggers heard one thing come out of Pashman, David Bernstein claims that he will listen to listeners and station managers around the country in order to make a decision....a decison that I think has already been made.

I'm upset, but not as upset as I guess I have been in the past. I think I may be writing Air America off. It was a voice of reason in the darkness 3 years ago, and a grand experiment that was new and very real in a sea of crazy lies. Now, its become another hack network that needs to scramble to meet revenue requirements. I should add that those requirements are arbitrary and set by some business plan that shouldn't exist at all, considering what we're dealing with here.

If there is to be no fairness doctrine, and the FCC has moved again and again to allow conglomeration of media outlets, and then the liberal voice has been silenced methodically by the big bucks of the right, who have created a strong foundation over many years, and using bluster, lies, fear, and hate...and drama...to spin a story and a following that puts them not only in the black but in the driver's seat as far as the information getting out to the American people, then the American people have been robbed of their right to know....Is this not the Pony Express or the Guy riding into town shouting "The British are coming, the British are coming!"
Are Americans expected to live in a world of propaganda with an educational system that is hell bent on dumbing down the masses? Don't we have a RIGHT to hear both sides?...or is that up to the president and Karl Rove to decide?

Air America is as important to the American people as the assurance of a free flow of information and ideas. An assurance that has been stifled in a campaign by the right to ensure that the masses don't find out the truth. The lies that pass for "news" coming out of the likes of the Limbaugh's and O'Reilly's out there would be laughable of they weren't so tragically accepted as the gospel truth.
The fair exchange if ideas should be subsidized by the government if the marketplace does not allow for a balance.

Beyond that, whoever takes on Air America is not taking on an entity that is anywhere near to being profitable...and thats not the point....Just like funding failed campaign after failed campaign is about ideas, this project should also be looked at as a campaign. The return is not going to be something to put in the bank right away, but the social return will be great...and in funding this venture, the Greens will ensure themselves a great place in history as the Pony Express when the right would have cut off the news and the mail. Air America will surely become more important as the country turns more and more blue. So its a little troubling to me to have the programming manager email to me:

It is a business as well as a platform. Air America had a horrible financial showing and ended up in bankruptcy.
New owners have a mission of reviving the brand name Air America and making it a financial success, or else there will be no liberal talk radio at all.

He then went on to say that he was still going to talk to listeners and program managers around the country and then because "majority rules," he will make his decision.
This is a decision that seems to already have been made and I don't think that majority rules...usually in these parts, bullshit rules.

So, as much as I want to think that the new Air America owners get it, I expect that we are looking at more of the same. There will be a business plan that is not profitable and is reworked every quarter in the futile effort to try to wring something out of this mess, and the money brother will sink just as much money into a format that will resemble NPR and still not be profitable....The same amount of money risked on exciting and edgy talkers would at least make history and a statement.
Unfortunately, it looks to me that this thing is going to go out with a small fizzle rather than a bang....and the sad thing is that it doesn't have to go out at all.

Hopefully I'm wrong...hopefully they will pull a Maron/Seder show out of their butts, but I'm not counting my joy before its hatched.
I'm expecting a Mark Green Show, that will have poor ratings but will never be canceled, and more of the Thom Hartmann sort of somnambulists intelligencia shows.
What do these people have against comedy?? Why do liberals have to be so freakin' serious? A huge part of our inability to get anything done is that we take ourselves too seriously...as Maron put it "..progressive utopians with no sense of humor..."



Sam Seder is one of the best talkers on liberal radio right now, and he is funny and cool too...The Greens are fools if they let him go...lets hope they come to their senses, but I am sort of doubting it....In the meantime: Buy Sam's great book FUBAR. I have the book and the audio book and they are both great and make great gifts! Look for it in soft cover in the coming months too!




In bird news, the Parrot store is bulging with babies of all sizes and they are CUTE!! They even have EGGS in the incubator! I will have to get more pictures pronto.The baby bunnies are hopping around in their mini perfection (thats gonna end in a second as soon as they start to get big enough to become the poop factories that rabbits are.)
I know that Todd wasn't thinking about cuteness last night when he was up every 3 hours feeding pink squirmy birds, but hell, Will spent a few months waking every hour and didn't sleep through the night till...well, recently...(and then, welcome to the teen years, aka, you think you had it bad before this!...)
Todd says that every time he sees one of the little pinkys he thinks of buffalo wings! Now, of course, he is a bird lover, and is only kidding (so PETA folk, don't bother with the hate mail,) But they are so cute when they are naked and helpless...and then when they get their fuzz and pin feathers. I could be very happy with a job at the bird store as my final career move.
In the meantime, and while i work out the nasty details of my little life here, my breeding baby parrotlets are doing well (cute,) but they wont breed till next year. the beautiful breeding pair of Yellow Side Conures are comfortably ensconced in their new home, which I refer to as the den of sexual iniquity, complete with private nest box that I am thinking of outfitting with a night vision webcam for when and if I get babies...we'll see. Someone need to be getting some around here, so I hope they are getting busy!
For birds that have been breeding stock for the past 3 years, they are very nice, and only bite a little. They have an incredible interest in being part of the household and interacting....so I'm working towards taming them (which might hurt their breeding potential, but oh well...I think that every bird should have the opportunity to know what its like to be part of a family, if they can't be in the wild or in a huge aviary.)




Thats all I have. I could get in bed and just stay there for the entire weekend, but I think I'm going to try to go to a bird show tomorrow and then I have to go to the city on Sunday to bring the boys to the Origami USA club at the Museum of Natural History (where I am still hoping to have time to get to the evolution exhibit when it doesn't have a freakin' cocktail party going on,) see grandpa and do some stuff there, and hopefully head downtown to walk around SoHo with mom a bit. She found a great new store that I have to go to...today she brought me some of those Chinese articulated fish charms and a silver skull charm....and I need more STUFF...right???

Lets hope for some good news in the world, from Air America, and from whatever lucky media outlet(s) is/are gonna get Marc and Sam...

And maybe we need to think a little bit more about our rights, and the need to have as much information from both sides as is possible under law.