Whats the status of Air America Radio?

[undeterred]

[mistertrickster]

1. Yeah, I want to know too. Who knows the answer? It's still not

available in my town, although we've got every reich winger ever born, I swear . . .

[undeterred]

2. We are losing it here in Madison at the end of the year

I thought there were negotiations going on this week for someone to buy it, but I haven't heard anything announced.

[stonecoldsober]

6. Looks like Nova M may become the new AAR.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the AAR people end up there. Malloy is already there, thank goodness!

[Eric J in MN]

3. They need to find a buyer within a week...

...or they may shut down.

[Kira]

4. Do you listen to Sam Seder

What will he do? I haven't heard him say. I'll miss hearing him a lot.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Yes. I haven't heard him say what he'll do if AAR shuts down, but...

...when talking about the precarious situation of AAR, he sounds upbeat.

I'm guessing that is because Sam Seder could make more money starring in a sitcom/drama then he's making now.

I'm expecting Sam Seder to continue in show business, but not necessarily doing a political show.

[XOKCowboy]

7. Which also begs the question what will XM Radio do?

OK I know that a lot of you are not fans of XM but I am. I've got a 2 yr subscription and I spend probably 75% of my time listening to AAR. I'd hate to see them go.

[undeterred]

8. Yeah, it doesn't seem right.

[rude boy]

11. Al Franken will go to Iraq on a USO tour

and December 8th will be his last day on the air and he doesn't know whether he will return to a job at AAR. He hasn't been paid in a while and they owe him over $350,000. He says all he cares about is doing his show so I don't think he will quit over the money. There are supposedly a couple of potential buyers but I'm guessing we won't know until we know. Stay tuned! Even if AAR goes under there's nothing to stop an investor from starting another company using the same business model. AAR has proven there is a market for progressive radio, however, there is a war being waged against ARR by right wing death star networks and even in some cases Christian groups who buy up bandwidth to force them off the air. AAR's problems have less to do with it's popularity than with the nasty cutthroat nature of the radio business. It's a testament to AAR's terrific on-air talent that they ever survived the first few months considering that the guy who originally put the investment deal together was an RNC operative and a con man who ran a major scam on everyone involved.

[B Calm]

9. I'm sure they will pick up Nova M

[LTR]

13. Nova M is really not much of a network yet

They really only have one show so far (nobody's gonna pick up Mike Newcomb, unless they go to a 24/7 delivery and AAR goes kaput). And they still need to line up a satellite to deliver it, though they're close to getting a deal with Westwood One.

Currently, Malloy only has one outside affiliate (KQKE in San Francisco), but I assume it's being delivered via ISDN, which is complicated. Other stations and possibly a satellite service (Sirius?) will be able to carry him once their satellite issue is taken care of.

As for Nova M a full 24/7 rival of AAR, that may take awhile, if that is their intention.

[B Calm]

14. With Malloy on board, it soon will be!

[KharmaTrain]

10. Media Week Article

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/tvstations/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003410426

Doesn't sound good kids...maybe something lucky will happen where some rich mogul with deep pockets enough to bail out the networks from lots of debt and then throw more money to keep things running. So far no one appears to be stepping forward. Thus, sadly, we may hear next week of the demise of AAR and that it will be out of biz by year's end.

Several alternatives will come along. Jones Radio network that produces the Ed Schultz Show is about to announce their network plans and, as others have mentioned NovaM will offer some programming.

This deal gets further complicated as the pending Clear Channel "re-organization" leaves the status of many AAR affiliates up for grabs depending on how that deal shapes up in the weeks to come. While the Bain Group announced a big bail out, there are some rumors now that this may fall apart. CC had written into its "agreement" that it could renegotiate with other parties until January 7th...that sure doesn't sound like a solid deal to me.

I suspect we'll hear more information next week, and, unfortunately, I don't expect it to be good. I hope I'm wrong.

[LTR]

12. I wouldn't be surprised if they found a buyer

Even with all the baggage, Air America is a company name that has gotten a lot of publicity. And in many respects, even bad publicity is good publicity (unless you're Enron or ValuJet). Plus, if they offer a fair asking price (Shel Drobny of Nova M offered $2.5 million and assumption of all debts, which was turned down prior to the bankruptcy filing), it really doesn't sound outrageous for what they are, which is basically a radio network with almost a hundred affiliates.

I guess we'll see what will happen come early next week. The main thing that will kill this network is the egos of the people currently running it. Or the various syndicators holding off and looking to sweep up its remains.

As for the affiliates, there's enough product out there by various syndicators to field a non-AAR schedule, and some stations already carry non-AAR liberal talk formats (like KRXA in Monterey, CA, KSAC in Sacramento, WWKB in Buffalo and others). Ownership groups like Clear Channel have upped their offerings of non-AAR product, and some have vowed to go further in this direction if AAR crashes.

As for the shows, who knows? Thom Hartmann has said that he owns his show, and will be completely unaffected if AAR shuts down. He'll just go back to Jones Network satellites and self-syndicate. Randi Rhodes is established enough to get her own deal. Other syndicators may even get involved.