What is it with the crappy ads on Air America?

[spinbaby]

I'd certainly like to support Thom Hartmann's sponsors, but lately they've all been scams like this:

Here’s a fake supplement that prevents memory loss by growing new brain cells!

Can’t move because of the real-estate market? Take out a home loan and buy lots of crap at Direct Buy.

Do you want to be a millionaire? Start an Internet business that practically runs itself.

Credit cards getting you down? Give us money and we’ll fix them. Or maybe we'll just take your money.

[Breeze54]

1. I listen to Tom Hartmann on NovaMRadio.com

They have better ads and better hosts! ;)

[spinbaby]

3. I'll try that

I'm so put off by the creepy scam ads.

[Breeze54]

5. Since AAR changed their website, I can't stream them anyway...

but no big loss. I get most of their shows on http://www.novamradio.com/live/stream.php

[Greyhound]

21. The Clear Channel-Windoze media player requires ActiveX to work.

Unacceptable to those of us that know the potential for misuse.

[Breeze54]

23. I figured it was my browser blocking them and I won't use IE.

:scared:

:P

Thanks!! :hi:

[valerief]

2. I switch to Real Jazz on satellite when ANY ads come on. nt

[Liberal Veteran]

4. You should take out a loan with that Lifelock guy's ssn and buy some airtime.

:D

[Captain Angry]

6. The station sells ad time to those who will pay.

If the only companies willing to buy airtime are the ones you've listed, that says something about the show being sponsored. It means that it's not expected to draw in enough of an audience to make a larger firm pay to advertise.

I watch hockey and when ESPN had their NHL2Night show on, the only ads we ever got were beef jerky, join the Army, and debt-consolidation. No real companies were interested in the viewers of a hockey highlight show.

On the opposite side, look at the Super Bowl, companies will bid into the millions per second to get a teeny tiny bit of airtime during that show.

It sucks, but it's how it works.

[ihavenobias]

9. Hartmann has around 3 million listeners from what I understand

There is a pack mentality in the radio industry and WRT advertisers. Liberal radio is relatively new and small and advertisers are terrified of taking chances.

So in this case I actually don't think it says much about the showing being sponsored, at least not the quality of it.

And as others have pointed out, just about all talk radio is like that.

[Captain Angry]

10. 3 million country wide. How many in your region?

I'll bet listeners in California get better ads on average than listeners in Nebraska. :-)

But, as you said, talk radio has its own issues.

[CreekDog]

19. you mean like "Rosetta Stone" language lessons?

"My friends all laughed at me, but when the waiter came I simply said, "Je voudrais le poulet et la fritte" :rant:

they laughed at him because he went to a fancy french restaurant and ordered chicken and potato. :eyes:

possibly the most annoying commercial on AAR ever.

[Captain Angry]

20. Glad I don't listen to talk radio.

If I had to hear crappy ads on a regular basis, I'd live up to my forum name. :-)

[Lorentz]

7. They know their audience?

[Ian David]

8. That's typical of just about ALL of talk radio.

Don't YOU want to live in a wealth cycle and stay there?

[newmajority]

11. Worst of all, the local affiliate here runs ads with CHIMPY himself!

The purpose of the ads is supposedly to encourage volunteerism, but the "celebrities" doing the ads are usually right wingers. And at the end, that horrible voice comes in "This is pResident George DUH-bya Bush....".

I'm sure it's more the doing of CBS Radio than the affiliate itself, but it's still annoying to have that fucking piece of shit coming through my speakers when I'm listening to programs that are supposed to be an "oasis" in the desert of right wing media stupidity.

[librechik]

12. theres' a blacklist--a huge number of companies simply won't buy ads on AAR

using the excuse that the programming is "too controversial." AAR has to take whatever ads it can get, and they're all scams and crap, apparently.

[spinbaby]

15. You'd think it would be a gold mine for the right kind of company

Whole Foods, for instance. Same demographic as Air America listeners.

[librechik]

16. yes, it doesn't make any business sense to avoid advertising in liberal venues

There's lots of money to be made. That's why we know the blacklist exists, and the decision not to advertise is political, not economic.

[OnyxCollie]

22. Here's a thread about the blacklist.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2527944

[DailyGrind51]

13. Thank you!

I have written management at WCPT, a Chicago affiliate, about questionable sponsors, including two "no money down" real estate hucksters and a health insurance company slammed for non-payment of claims on David Brancacio's NOW on PBS. I know radio stations are hard-up for cash but geesh, can't they keep stations within reasonable ethical boundaries?

[tjwash]

14. Before they got rid of AA here in San Diego...

...they were running sleazy "buy foreclosed on houses and get rich" ads.

[KharmaTrain]

17. Sign Of The Times...

Radio's revenues have been in the dumpers for years. AAR is a bottom feeder that relies on selling whatever they can to whomever they can and be glad if the check doesn't bounce. Part of the problem is the network's poor performance and small number of affiliates. The other is that larger advertisers tend not to want to advertise in or around controversial programming. In its best days, AAR barely was on the advertising radar, today they're in their death throes and any money is welcome.

This isn't just an AAR problem, I was reading about the big financial problems faced by right wing Salem Media...the company that just shitcanned Laura Ingraham and has been trying to cut budget and sell stations to keep their hate network afloat.

If you want to support Hartmann, support the local station...those are the advertisers that matter the most.

[azmouse]

18. I turn the radio off during the commercials.

They always last about the same amount of time so I know when to turn the radio back on again and I don't miss any of the show.