DescentBB

Air America, the liberal radio network that's been on the air only a few weeks, may be collapsing under the weight of bad management. The Chicago Tribune reports that the network was bounced off the air in two of America's three biggest cities yesterday:

Arthur Liu, owner of Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, which owns Air America affiliates WNTD-950 AM in Chicago and KBLA-1580 AM in Los Angeles, said Air America bounced a check and owes him more than $1 million.

Air America and Multicultural had entered into a time brokerage agreement in which the network was essentially renting Multicultural's airtime, Liu said.

"They bounced a check today," Liu said. "It's a default. They have paid only a very small portion of what they owe us." Liu declined to say how much Multicultural is owed, but did say he is holding $1 million in checks that Air America has asked the company not to cash.

This leaves Air America broadcasting in only six markets--New York, Minneapolis, Riverside, Calif.; West Palm Beach and Key West, Fla.; and Plattsburgh, N.Y.--as well as on the XM and Sirius satellite radio networks.

Air America's chairman, Evan Cohen, calls Liu's account "an outright lie," and the network has filed a lawsuit--reproduced by The Smoking Gun--against Multicultural. And things get weirder. The Air America Web site features a statement titled "The Sludge Report"--a satire of the Drudge Report, which featured the story yesterday--that is bizarrely juvenile in tone:

Normally we'd let this go because "habitual liars" like Drudge are laughable, and ridicule is our business.

But Arthur Liu--not funny. He lied to us, he ripped us off and now we're chasing him down with a pipe wrench. It's a metaphor.

Here's what really happened:

This Liu-ser was ripping off our boss Evan Cohen big time (he can't do that, that's our job). Evan found out about it and he stopped payment on a check to keep Liu-cifer from ripping him off even more. You can touch Evan for the occasional meal or drinks but a million bucks is crossing the line. And if we ever get low on cash, we can always call Barbra Streisand. Or any of the Baldwins. Except Stephen.

So we got screwed, Liu'd, and tattooed. How Liu can you get? In Liu of payment. Liu'd and lascivious behavior. These write themselves. What we're getting at is that we hate him.

So now everyone's saying we're going down the dumper in Chicago and Los Angeles, but what they don't tell you is that we're still on in Portland. And we OWN Portland. And let's not forget Riverside and Plattsburgh. And New York. And streaming on the internet. And XM. And Sirius. Actually we're fine.

The statement also urges people to phone Liu and supplies a New York phone number. On his Web site, Neal Boortz, a conservative radio host (last item of today's report, which should eventually be archived here), raises some questions about Air America's business practices (ellipses in original):

What in the hell is Air America doing paying radio stations to air their programming? We don't. Rush doesn't, neither does Hannity. Is the liberal message so vapid and unappealing that these people actually have to pay stations to put it on the air?

Here's a little more information for you.

Jim Watkins is the program director for my affiliates in Naples and Ft. Meyers [sic], Florida (WINK-AM and WNOG-AM). Several weeks ago he contacted the people at Air America to inquire about putting Al Franken somewhere on his radio station. Watkins remembered Al Franken from his Saturday Night Live days and felt that he might be entertaining and could draw an audience.

So ... Watkins gets an official from Air America on the phone. The Air America official asks Jim what other programs they carry. Jim starts rattling off the names. Boortz, Limbaugh, Savage .... At that point the Air America official says "Stop." He then informs Watkins that they won't allow their programming to air on WINK and WNOG. And why not? Because "We don't want our programming stained by being on a station that carries Rush Limbaugh."

Air America apparently doesn't object to all right-wing talk shows. KCAA, the Riverside, Calif.-area station that carries Franken's "The O'Franken Factor," also broadcasts Watergate personage G. Gordon Liddy's show in the early afternoon. Refusing to share a station with Limbaugh would seem a foolish strategy; Limbaugh's long and successful track record makes it unlikely that many stations would drop him in favor of Franken and friends, so the sole effect of this policy is to make it harder to get Air America shows on the air. No wonder the network has to resort to buying air time.

If Air America fails, it will be in part because of bad management. One also has to wonder if the network's entire premise--that talk radio is dominated by the right, and there's a demand for a left-wing answer to Limbaugh, Hannity, et al.--is faulty. After all, it's not as if the rest of the media aren't already saturated with liberal-left viewpoints.