From the New York Times:
And Sam Seder, a nighttime host on Air America Radio, the fledgling liberal talk-radio network, had a question about the clientèle of his guest, who identified herself as a dominatrix.
"More Republicans or more Democrats?" Mr. Seder asked.
"Seventy-30," Lady Olivia said.
Mr. Seder's broad grin suggested that that was precisely the answer he had hoped for. Sitting in a windowless studio 41 floors above Midtown Manhattan during a rehearsal on Thursday for the program, "The Majority Report," he shuffled through a sheaf of testimonials downloaded from Lady Olivia's Web site, operated under a different name. He soon inquired about the identities of those Republicans, displaying a particular interest in learning more about "Jon from Washington," who had written, "I enjoyed the corporal punishment more than I thought I would."
"Does his last name," Mr. Seder asked, "rhyme with Chriscroft?"
The exchange yielded no information about the attorney general of the United States. (Lady Olivia's response was little more than a coy laugh.) But it did provide some clues to how Air America, which makes its debut at noon today on five stations with Al Franken, the comedian and political satirist, at the microphone, intends to challenge the hegemony of conservatives on commercial talk radio.
"It needs to be entertaining, it needs to be compelling, it needs to be laugh-out-loud funny," said Jon Sinton, a veteran of radio who is a founder of Air America, a subsidiary of Progress Media. "It needs to foster water-cooler conversation. You need people to go to work and say, `Did you hear what Franken said yesterday?' "
"When people begin to say that," he added, "we will have arrived."
Competition is never a bad thing. I think its great that there's going to be more liberal voices in talk radio. To be honest, however, I don't think its going to last.
First of all, according to the article, Air America is buying broadcast time on stations. That contrasts with the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity who are paid to broadcast. Maybe this is just a starting-off point for Air America, but at some point their shows are going to have to be profitable. They're going to have to attract an audience and then attract advertisers who want to target that audience.
Depending on donations just isn't going to cut it.
I'm also not sure about the talent they've brought in. Al Franken, Janine Garofalo, Chuck D of Public Enemy and Lizz Winstead (creator of The Daily Show) are some of the names who are going to be sitting behind the microphone. These are all undeniably talented people, but they're famous for accomplishments outside of radio. There is no guarantee that they will be successful in radio. The heavyweights on the conservative side of talk radio started in talk radio and made a career in that medium. Trying to get big-names to translate their talents into radio success may be a bit awkward.
To be frank, there are a lot of questions about Air America that are yet to be answered.