How many ways can the left wing liberals say, "because I said so".
Apparently not enough to keep liberal talk radio on the air. I just
hope they spend every last nickel they have.

Don't you just love the concluding quote from Al Franken at the end of
the following article: ""Imagine how we're going to do when we know
what we're doing". Well left wing liberals so seldom know what they
are doing about anything, why should talk radio be any different? How
they're running their feeble attempt at syndicated radio is exactly
how they run everything in their lives. Can you imagine these people
running the country? "It's a little fuzzy to me exactly who's in
charge.'' Yeh, right !!!!!!

Read on and enjoy, my fellow conservatives out there.

Office Politics Give Liberal Radio a Rocky Start
By JACQUES STEINBERG

ven by the chaotic standards of a new media company, Air America
Radio's first two months of broadcasting have been convulsive.

The fledgling talk-radio network has replaced five top executives,
been taken off the air in two of its top three markets and lost
several crucial producers. By late April, current and former
executives said last week, the company was perilously close to running
out of money. It has since received an infusion of cash, though it has
not disclosed how much or from whom.

The roiling in Air America's front office has undercut its continuing
assurances that it has the financing and leadership to survive past
the presidential election in November, in pursuit of its goal of
establishing a permanent liberal counterpart to Rush Limbaugh and his
radio cohort on the right.

In a sign that the privately held company's financial woes have not
fully abated, Al Franken, the network's best-known star, said in an
interview last week that he had agreed not to draw a salary, however
temporarily, making him "an involuntary investor.''

"We had some bad management,'' Mr. Franken said. "Then we got some
good management.''

Still, Mr. Franken, his tongue only partly in cheek, added, "It's a
little fuzzy to me exactly who's in charge.''

The turmoil has shed light on the network's corporate culture, laying
bare a mismatched collection of managers and investors, including
Democratic Party fund-raisers, Internet entrepreneurs and radio
veterans who, as it turned out, did not get along especially well.
Even as the network was finding an audience with its blend of humor
and commentary, many of the principals' business relationships were
dissolving in a flurry of charges and countercharges. The most serious
concerned how much money Air America actually had on hand when it went
on the air on March 31.

In early March, the network's chief executive, Mark Walsh, said that
the company had raised more than $20 million, enough to keep it
broadcasting for months, if not years, before making a profit. At the
time, Mr. Walsh said that the network's primary backers included Evan
M. Cohen, a venture capitalist who was the network's chairman, and Rex
Sorensen, a business partner of Mr. Cohen's who was the chairman of
Progress Media, the parent company of Air America.

But in an interview on Friday, Mr. Walsh said: "I was misled about
that number.'' Mr. Walsh refused to say who had misled him, but he
said that he had resigned in April because "the company wasn't
transparent'' and "I was unable to decipher how it was being
operated.''

Less than a month later, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Sorensen, who had
previously operated radio stations together in Guam and Saipan,
resigned under pressure from the company's other investors. David
Goodfriend, who served as general counsel and later as acting chief
operating officer of Air America, resigned about a week ago, having
done his best, he said, to hold the company together in the wake of
the departures of Mr. Cohen, Mr. Sorensen and Mr. Walsh. (Separately,
Dave Logan, executive vice president for programming, also left, in
late April.)

Jon Sinton, the president of Air America and one of the few top
executives who remains from the day it went on the air, underscored
Mr. Walsh's comments by saying, in a separate interview, that he, too,
had been misled about the company's resources and that a cash crunch
had ensued as a result.

"Financing wasn't as available for operational issues as we'd thought
it was,'' he said. Reached on Friday, Mr. Cohen declined to comment on
the state of the company's finances under his watch.

Despite the intrigue concerning its management - and the abrupt
pulling of its programming last month from stations in Chicago and Los
Angeles, in a contract dispute - there are early indications that,
where it can be heard, Air America is actually drawing listeners.
WLIB-AM in New York City, one of 13 stations that carry at least part
of Air America's 16 hours of original programming each day, even
appears to be holding its own with WABC-AM, the New York City station
and talk radio powerhouse that is Mr. Limbaugh's flagship.

For example, among listeners from 25 and 54, whom advertisers covet,
the network estimates it drew an average listener share (roughly a
percentage of listeners) of 3.4 on WLIB in April, from 10 a.m. and 3
p.m. on weekdays, according to the company's extrapolation of figures
provided by Arbitron for the three months ended in April. (Arbitron,
which does not provide ratings in monthly increments, said the
network's methodology appeared sound, although such figures were too
raw to translate to numbers of listeners.)

By contrast, according to Air America's figures, WABC-AM drew an
average share of 3.2 during the same period in April for the same age
group. That time period includes the three hours in which Mr. Limbaugh
was pitted head to head against Mr. Franken.

Phil Boyce, the program director of WABC , cautioned against drawing
conclusions from preliminary data. "If they end up doing that well
when the final number is out, which is two more months, I'll give them
a congratulations," Mr. Boyce said.

While the network is awaiting the release of similar figures from
Arbitron for other cities, KPOJ-AM, the Clear Channel station that
carries its programming in Portland, Ore., informed Air America
executives by an e-mail message in late April that its ratings
appeared to have tripled last month, according to the station's
informal survey. (A station executive, Mary Lou Gunn, did not return a
telephone message left at her office on Friday.)

The network, which is also carried on the satellite radio providers XM
and Sirius, has found an audience on the Internet. In its first week,
listeners clicked on the audio programming on the Air America Web site
more than two million times, according to RealNetworks, the digital
media provider.

"It's clear the audience is there,'' Mr. Franken said.

The conventional wisdom in the radio industry had been that, unlike
the conservatives who dominate commercial talk radio, liberals could
not entice and hold listeners.

"This shows there's an appetite out there,'' said Tom Taylor, editor
of Inside Radio, an industry newsletter whose publisher is owned by
Clear Channel. "There's a good chance they'll right the ship
businesswise and keep going forward.''

In addition to Mr. Franken, the Air America lineup includes Janeane
Garofalo, an actress and comedian, and Lizz Winstead, a former head
writer of "The Daily Show'' on Comedy Central.

Air America's stumble outside the studio in its early weeks was partly
a function of the ambitious task it had assigned itself. While Mr.
Limbaugh quickly found a niche on AM radio beginning in the late
1980's - he is now heard on more than 600 stations - he began
syndicating his program at a time when AM radio was thought to be
dying, thus presenting him little competition.

Now, in an era of media consolidation, AM and FM stations alike are
thriving. Few are for sale (Air America had initially hoped to buy
five, but has yet to buy one), and few have enough air time available
for lease or barter to accommodate Air America's block of programming.

But interviews with more than a dozen people currently or formerly
affiliated with Air America made clear that the network had been
hobbled by the failure of its early principals - some of whom had been
drawn to the venture by ideology, others for business reasons - to
forge common ground.

The idea for a liberal talk-radio network was first hatched by Sheldon
and Anita Drobny, venture capitalists from the Chicago area who had a
lot of experience raising money for the Democratic Party but no real
radio expertise. They were led to Mr. Sinton, who has 30 years
experience in the radio business, and Mr. Franken, who has made a
cottage industry of writing best-selling books that skewer the right.

In Air America's current incarnation, Mr. Sinton, the president,
reports to the network's new chief executive, Doug Kreeger, an early
investor whose entrepreneurial efforts have included founding a chain
of outerwear stores (Kreeger & Sons) and investing in a New York
restaurant (City Bakery).

For chief operating officer, the company has selected Carl Ginsburg, a
former news producer at NBC and CBS. Ms. Drobny is its chairwoman, Mr.
Sinton said.

Mr. Sinton said that the company was seeking to expand the number of
stations carrying its programming - which includes Burlington, Vt.;
West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Sacramento - to new markets in Colorado
Springs, Santa Cruz, Calif., and Reno, Nev. It is also seeking new
outlets in Chicago and Los Angeles, having settled its contractual
dispute with the owner of the stations where it had first leased air
time.

Mr. Sinton and Mr. Franken refused to say how much money the network
had now, but said they had received assurances that the network would
have no problem staying on the air through November, and beyond.

"No one is promising things they can't promise,'' Mr. Franken said.
"But it appears to me that from the other people that are stepping up,
the financing will be in place.'' He added: "Imagine how we're going
to do when we know what we're doing.''

How many ways can the left wing liberals say, "because I said so".
Apparently not enough to keep liberal talk radio on the air. I just
hope they spend every last nickel they have.

How many ways can the left wing liberals say, "because I said so".