The Worst Air America Station Award goes to......AM1260 DC area.

[oc2002]

If your in the DC area.

The reasons for this nomination:

1. Its owned by Clear Channel.
2. The signal is so poor that you can hear Hanity radio show through the same station!
3. They put only some of AA shows on, and cutoff Randy Rhodes show in the middle to air Wizards or Nationals games instead.
4. Ed Shultz from 3 to 6 instead of Randy Rhodes...I like Ed, but not as much as Randy.
5. Imus in the morning show? WTF?

Thanks.

[Botany]

1. Yes but does it have?

Stephanie :loveya: Miller

[oc2002]

4. yes, if you can get the weak signal.

Its probably the weakest signal of any AM station.

http://www.progressivetalk1260.com/main.html

[The Witch]

2. We have Air America in the district?

Kick-ass!

Time to get a new walkman so i can program it and c-span as my favorites....

[annabanana]

3. (speaking of C-Span)

The nuclear option bomb is being dropped today re Judicial Nominees...

[goodboy]

5. if you're pissed, get this, I was on hold for 1h09m waiting to talk to

springer yesterday.

[annabanana]

8. lol.. Hi goodboy

Are you going to try again today?

[goodboy]

23. check it out!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3518909
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1736568

[Bleacher Creature]

6. My thoughts exactly

I like Stephanie Miller, and now that it's a choice between her and Springer (rather than between her and Unfiltered) I way prefer 1260.

But IMUS?

[Botany]

7. Springer is a con man.

The man made his money exploiting the poor for years on his show and
now he is for the common person. Give me a break.

Stephanie :loveya: Miller is upfront comedy but w/ an edge.

[LTR]

9. Well, nobody was ever forced to go on his TV show

Not like anyone put a gun to these people's heads. They chose to go on and make asses of themselves.

Besides, much of that show is staged anyway. It's an act.

[Botany]

10. Sure but he used their poverty as a tool .....

.... to get 'em on his show. When you are poor $1,000.00, a plane ticket,
and a hotel seems like you have hit the big time.

[Norquist Nemesis]

11. Did you hear this morning's show?

I don't usually listen in the morning, but I woke at 5am CST and booted up the PC for lack of anything else to do, and put AAR on streaming.

They were talking about their show getting booted of one of the stations in California in lieu of some RW host. They said it's a deal between Clear Channel and one of the mucky-mucks at AAR.

It's like getting kicked in the teeth for liberals who had so much hope for a voice, frankly. Now that they're in bed with Clear Channel is like a kiss of death for a promising liberal talk radio voice with some umph to it.

AAR got kicked off the air and locked out of the station over a year ago here in Chicago. It was a weak signal, but I could still listen in my car over the airwaves of *cough* radio free America. Still, as of this date, no station. :grr: It's a major market with significant opportunities, dammit!!! Who, exactly, do they figure put Kerry over the top to win Illinois? (Hint: it wasn't the suburbs or downstate!)

I think I'm going to start working on getting Thom Hartmann out here in the DuPage area. It's getting to the point where my "freedom" to listen to whom I choose offers no options to choose from! Check that: it's already at that point! :argh:

[madinmaryland]

12. At least we have it here.

I've only listened during the day when Stephanie Miller and Al Franken are on. When I drive down to northern VA, the signal does cut out on the Beltway around the i-270 intersection for about 4 miles (?).

Have only listened once in the morning. Can't really take more than a few minutes of Imus and his rambling.

[oc2002]

13. yes! the worst reception is in the afternoon on the beltway between

River Road and the 270 spur..I get Hanity on that station!

[madinmaryland]

19. Yea, same here, though i did not know it was

Insanity. It just comes through garbled.

[solinvictus]

14. Our AM 1260 inn Birmingham, AL

is a right wing fundy talk station, so consider yourself lucky.

[Patiod]

15. No. Sorry. You are Wrong Wrong Wrong

The worst station is in Philadelphia

They broadcase exactly 6 hours of AAR each day (Al Franken and Randi Rhodes) and then on to 18 hours of African-American talk, including one excellent "Union Talk" show but also some Arabic-language Islamic stuff (don't know if it's talk or prayer or what).

The signal is marginal.

I'd be happy as pie if they cut off AAR for the Phils, but we don't actually get the Phillies on a clear station here (go figure).

Time to cough up for XM. Don't have cable TV, still have dial-up internet, but I'll pay for AAR and MLB.

[oc2002]

17. ..yeah. that does sound worse..

NT

[Kaylee]

16. Hey now...

Do you know how long we had to wait to get even this?! At least now I can listen to Stephanie Miller, Al Franken and Ed Shultz if I stay inside the Beltway and north of Maryland Rt 50... and it is sunny out...and I don't go under a power line....and the earth is rotated just the right way... ;-)

[11 Bravo]

18. Damn, that's the truth!

I live just outside of D. C. (Vienna in Northern VA). I just bought a new car, and instead of a tuning knob, it only has a "seek" feature. The signal was so weak that my radio wouldn't even recognize it. In order to set 1260 on one of my buttons, I had to drive into town in order to find a signal strong enough that the "seek" function would stop at it, allowing me to set the station as one of my favorites. They really need to boost their signal.

[EstimatedProphet]

20. Nah, the DC station is great in comparison to AM1570

in "Youngstown", OH, which is actually broadcast from Warren-10 miles away-AND CAN'T EVEN BE PICKED UP IN YOUNGSTOWN! And, it replaces Al Franken with a local show about what's going on in NE Ohio!
I was in DC in January for the coronation, and I was able to get 1260 from DC all the way to Dulles. I thought the receptiion was great.

[KharmaTrain]

21. Radio Geek Thoughts...

First, be glad you have any sort of Progressive Talk...I'm in Chicago and we're still waiting for Fred Eychanner or Cheap Channel to get AAR back on here.

Next, Washington is a crappy AM radio market. There's few good signals and the circular nature of the area doesn't work well with the directional signals of most of the stations. WTOP cranks out 50,000 watts, but try hearing it west of Montgommery County at night. The best signal is WMAL...but that's owned by Cheap Channel's rival ABC/Disney and makes lots of money from running Rushbo and Hannity.

The important thing now is for folks in cities with AAR stations to help them grow. The first, and best way, is to support any local advertisers you hear on the station. Even if you don't need vinyl siding, call the folks and say "hey I heard your commercial on W*** and wanted to thank you for supporting the station"...or stop by. Any and all response gets to the station faster than ratings do.

Also, these stations need to hear from listeners to know we're there and to push for more local rather than national programming. To really meet the hate radio spin head-on, we need lots of voices on stations around the country reaching out on local and regional levels to bring the out the truth and confront the lies.

Cheers

[deutsey]

22. I agree. Having Imus on is particularly disgusting.

I also hate that they have Schultz on instead of Randi R. during drivetime.

I may be wrong, but it just seems to me that the local TV and radio market in the DC area is so bland because they don't want to air anything truly progressive or anything that questions the prevailing orthodoxy and offend the center/right political establishment in the city. That would explain why they have someone like Imus on in the morning (if he's on the progressive end of the spectrum, then I guess that makes me a bomb-tossing anarchist) and Schultz on in the afternoon (a recent article says he's a "Red State radio talker" trying to "center" the Democrats http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6959815/site/newsweek/). Stephanie Miller is ok, but she's no where near the same caliber as Randi and Mike Malloy (Randi is aired in the evening and Malloy isn't even in the lineup).

I don't know...I'm glad at least an AAR outlet exists in DC, but it's lame.

[LSK]

24. no, i nominate the one in Chicago

Oh wait, we dont have one!!!

[AnneD]

25. We get NO Air America

in Houston Tx, one of the largest markets in the country. Sokay, I learned to stream from New York. Yeh WLIB.......

[Zinfandel]

26. Something needs to be done about DC-And AAR needs a Chicago affiliate now

[youthere]

27. 1270 AM Davenport

cuts off Randy Rhodes for baseball too, and airs Ed. Pisses me off bigtime. We get Stephanie Miller in the morning though.I shouldn't complain though. It is the ONLY liberal talk in Iowa (that I know of).

[coyotespaw]

30. not just baseball...

Really really bad baseball, plus the station fades out about once an hour. 'Course it's a Clear Channel station as well, so go figure.

[derby378]

28. One correction - it's RANDI Rhodes

Randy Rhodes played guitar for Ozzy Osbourne in the 80s.

[MsTryska]

29. well....talk it up, help it make some money

and maybe within a year you'll get a stronger signal.

[LaPera]

31. And...buy something! ( from AAR's "Gear" ) it will help advertising AAR

and it's good quality stuff...We've got to do everything we can from our end...Liberal Progressive Radio, AAR....that's all we have.

www.airamericaradio.com

[Stinky The Clown]

32. Akshully .... I think they're Jones Communications, not (nu)Clear Channel

I'm Howard County ... about 25-30 miles north of DC. I can get 'em here, but weak. I get 'em Baltimore, too. Weak .... but there.

I like Stephanie Miller and listen to her onna 'net stream when I'm in my office (where the signal don't go).