Air America shutting down

Air America shutting down

Starting at 6 p.m. ET Thursday, Air America will broadcast "encore programming" though Jan. 25 and then cease to air. Current employees will be paid through Thursday, and severance packages will be offered Friday to full-time employees with more than six months of tenure.

Formerly known as Air America Radio, the network launched in 2004 with personalities including Rachel Maddow and Al Franken, now a Democratic U.S. senator from Minnesota.

In October 2006, Air America Radio filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection but was able to stay on the air while it reorganized. Green Family Media bought the network in March 2007, and it eventually grew to 100 radio outlets nationwide.

The network called itself "the only full-time progressive voice in the mainstream broadcast media world" at the time of its launch, according to its statement Thursday. Air America presented dissenting views on issues like the Iraq War at a time when such statements "were often denounced as 'un-American,' " the statement continued.

But the changing media industry crippled the network's growth.

"With radio industry ad revenues down for 10 consecutive quarters, and reportedly off 21% in 2009, signs of improvement have consisted of hoping things will be less bad," the statement said.

Will Talk Radio Get the Wake Up Call?

Here's a good op-ed piece by conservative radio host Michael Medved. He does a good job stepping outside of himself and making what I think is a very fair assessment of the talk radio landscape.

Increasingly, interests of commercial talk radio in a fractured market diverge from the needs of a viable national movement. A radio show (locally or nationally) that draws just 5% of the available audience can achieve notable success in ratings and revenue, but a conservatism that connects with only a disgruntled, paranoid 5% of the public will wither and die.

This is why I think the Fairness Doctrine, while a good idea in theory, is ultimately a waste of time. Talk radio (either side) is little more than a positive feedback loop for the intellectually incurious, doing nothing to win converts, but only trying to hang on to their congregation. Liberals bitching about it are just spinning their wheels, thinking somehow you can inject any sort of real debate into a medium that offers "infotainment" at best. It's like having a discussion on the benefits of Title IX in sports during Monday Night RAW.

As stated in previous posts, I believe the real fairness doctrine of the 21st century is net neutrality. The idea of ANY information being censored or given priority by any entity in the public OR private sector is truly frightening.