If they can't make it in LA & Chicago
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| Wed, 04-14-2004 - 3:09pm |
From Drudge:
After just two weeks on the air, Air America Radio, the fledgling liberal talk-radio network featuring Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, appears to have encountered serious cash-flow problems.
The CHICAGO TRIBUNE is developing a story, insiders tell DRUDGE, on how the network was pulled off the air this morning in Chicago and Los Angeles, the network's second- and third-largest markets, because, the owner of both stations said, the network bounced a check and owes him more than $1 million! A charge the network strongly denies...
A Chicago source familiar with the situation said a Multicultural representative showed up at WNTD's offices Wednesday morning, kicked out Air America's lone staffer overseeing the network's feed to the station from New York, switched over to a Spanish-language feed, and changed the locks on the doors...
Air America filed a complaint Wednesday in New York state Supreme Court charging Multicultural with breaching their contract and seeking an injunction to force Multicultural to restore the Air America broadcast on both stations, the TRIBUNE has learned... Developing...

I have not been able to listen to the radio yet so I can't talk about the content of the show.
James
janderson_ny@yahoo.com
CL Ask A Guy
Nope. I live & Dallas & wasn't curious enough to search it out on the web. From what I heard & read, even from liberal critics, it was pretty dreadful and you characterized it pretty acurately.
Renee
Too bad the station is not going to be around long enough to show the ratings. I would say they were extremely poor at best.
Al Franken's "the O'Franken Factor" averaged 10 to 12 calls per three hour show. Pretty pathetic.
Callers are what make the programs a little more interesting as it opens up some different discussions.
Air America Radio Is Dropped From Stations in 2 Big Markets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/business/media/15radio.html
Just two weeks after its maiden broadcast, Air America Radio, the liberal talk-radio network, was suddenly taken off the air yesterday by two stations in two of the major markets where it leases broadcast time - Los Angeles and Chicago - as a result of a contractual dispute.
Evan Cohen, the chairman of Air America, said that Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, the owner of the network's affiliates in Los Angeles and Chicago, had replaced the network's shows with alternative programming just after 7 a.m. local time in each city.
Arthur Liu, the owner of Multicultural, which is based in New York, was quoted on the Web site of The Chicago Tribune yesterday afternoon as saying that he had taken the action after his company tried to cash a check from Air America and it bounced.
The Tribune quoted Mr. Liu as saying that Air America, which is majority-owned by Progress Media, owed Multicultural Radio more than $1 million.
Mr. Liu did not respond yesterday to several messages left at his office.
Mr. Cohen, however, said that Multicultural owed money to Air America. He said that Mr. Liu's company had recently deposited a check from Air America for $315,000, and that it had cleared. But Mr. Cohen said that Air America had stopped payment on a second check, for $156,000, after Air America discovered that Multicultural had leased air time on its Los Angeles station to another programmer in February and March, before Air America went on the air on March 31.
While not broadcasting during that time, Mr. Cohen said, Air America had already leased that time from Multicultural and was thus entitled to any fees collected.
The Air America programming could still be heard yesterday in nearly a dozen markets, including New York City. It said it was preparing last night to ask a judge in New York to order Multicultural to put the programming back on the air on its stations in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Next up and due to fail before it takes off will be Al Gore's liberal TV network. I thought we had a ton of them already *wink*