A New Station in Life
Al Franken, Ed Schultz and other commentators are taking on right-wing radio blather with intelligence and humor. Listeners love it.
By Joyce Winslow
Rush Limbaugh, watch out. There's strong talk nowadays on the AM radio dial, and it's challenging the 15-year stranglehold that political conservatives have had on the airwaves. Called "Air America Radio," the network is progressive in its point of view, privately funded and high tech. It airs independently produced shows by Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz (see profile) and popular, homegrown talent like comedian Al Franken. It boasts 87 affiliate stations, and of those, 30 are in top markets broadcasting Air America programming as much as 18 hours a day, seven days a week.
"Our mission is to create balance in what has been a terribly one-sided conversation for too long," says Air America Exec. Vice Pres. Tom Athans. "Air America talks about current issues in a truthful way to bring a perspective that is missing on conservative radio and TV shows."
That's not an easy task. Citing a Benchmark Media study, Athans demonstrates what Air America is up against. "If you multiply the number of conservative radio talk shows times the number of stations that carry them over the course of a week, you get 44,000 hours of right-wing viewpoint and only 3,300 hours of a liberal one," he explains.
"Yet only 40 percent of conservative radio listeners called themselves conservatives. Another 40 percent said they were independents, and 20 percent said they were liberals who liked to drive themselves crazy! So we figured we had an audience out there."
'YELLING IDIOTS.' Indeed, millions of people now listen to Air America, whose most popular program is "The Franken Factor." Franken, famous for his work on TV's "Saturday Night Live," stages such comic bits as his mock interview of the "author" of Yelling Idiots: How the Left Tries to Drown Out the Right by Never Shutting Up.
Last October, Air America became the only progressive radio network when Athans, then-president of progressive Democracy Radio, merged his rival venture into Air America rather than compete with it and splinter the audience. Democracy Radio originally packaged "The Ed Schultz Show" and "The Stephanie Miller Show." They are now independently produced and broadcast over many Air America outlets.
In just its first two years, Air America programming has reached 3.5 million people in 61 percent of the country, according to CEO Danny Goldberg. But with most affiliate stations located in "blue" coastal states, is his network preaching to the choir? "Partly," Goldberg admits, "but it's important to teach the choir what to sing. We arm our listeners with arguments so they can influence other people."
Goldberg notes that the Fairness Doctrine, which required balanced programming on all radio waves governed by the Federal Communications Commission, was suspended in 1987. "Within months, the Rush Limbaugh show emerged, along with unfiltered messages supported by right-wing think tanks. In a quarter of the U.S. radio market, their talk and news shows comprise 90 percent of all 'news' sources. We are starting something absolutely historic. We're the country's first multi-media progressive network. Despite rumors the far right spreads of our imminent demise, we're here to stay, grow and profit."
NAMES & BRAINS. Most of Air America's talent is its own, including comedian Franken, pundit and TV celebrity Jerry Springer (who was once mayor of Cincinnati), actress Janeane Garofalo, activist-journalist Laura Flanders and New York City news veteran Mark Riley. Rachel Maddow's doctorate in politics from Oxford University informs her biting sense of humor. Another comedian, Randi Rhodes, simply bites, attacking the Bush administration.
Air America does more than spout views. It also exhorts listeners to take action. Rev. Welton Gaddy, host of the new "State of Belief" show and head of the Interfaith Alliance, works with AFSCME to lobby against faith-based initiatives that he says "use taxpayer money to rob people of jobs and the freedom of religious integrity. We live in a divided nation. Religion is one source of reconciliation; but it, too, has been divided by the far right along political fault lines. It is by respecting our differences that we come together as a democracy."
"Progressive politics means you have a pro-union position," adds CEO Goldberg. "We're the station that promoted Robert Greenwald's film that exposes Wal-Mart's worst practices. We're committed to finding more ways to frame the union message."
Progressive Voices
Visit these web sites to find a radio station and program listings in your area.
Air America
Original and syndicated broadcasts on 87 AM stations and XM Satellite Radio. Talk, news, political analysis, interfaith perspectives, humor, music. Features personalities Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Stephanie Miller and others.
In mid-April, the network will launch "Workin' It," a weekly show that — according to Air America executives — "will mix hard facts with humor to create an entertaining and thought-provoking platform to highlight issues of work and workers' rights."
The Ed Schultz Show
Talk and news analysis, weekdays from 3-6 p.m. EST by the popular Fargo, N.D., conservative-turned-liberal. Syndicated to 100 AM stations.
The Stephanie Miller Show
Talk laced with sharp wit, carried by affiliates in major markets plus Sirius Satellite Radio.
Workers Independent News Services (WINS)
Daily news, interviews, talk on workers' issues from a union perspective. Carried by 40 AM stations.
