Get your tissues! Air America is filing for bankruptcy. They haven’t even paid Al Franken in quite a while.
You might ask, “But Pook, there are conservative talk radio in America. Why not liberal talk radio?”
Talk radio is a disruptive media. It is set to disrupt as an alternative to ‘mainstream’ media. I don’t think liberals desire an alternative to mainstream media apart from blogging. There is no liberal discontent at the New York Times or ABC News as there is conservative discontent.
But I think a big element of it is entertainment. Much of the conservative talk radio, especially Limbaugh, is reportedly having an audience of 40% liberals. Why is half the audience of conservative talk radio being liberals? Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democrat leader (he got voted out!) was stunned by this. Talk Radio such as Limbaugh succeed in not because they are ideological but because they are entertaining. They have a 40% liberal audience because that audience is still entertained…even though they hate the hosts!
What was entertaining about Air America? People are also attracted to optimism, not pessimism. When looking back at electoral results, Reagan somehow won 49 states’ electoral votes in the election of 1984. If you look at that campaign, you’ll find rich sunny optimism and humor. This is the same reason why people flock to listen to Limbaugh or other talk radio. Was Air America filled with sunny optimism…or doom and gloom? Was it filled with humor…or anger? You can be a liberal and have optimism and humor…just look at JFK. But no one wants to listen to doom and gloom all day long. No one wants to listen to people who take themselves too seriously.
But as Air America files for bankruptcy, we have Feminist Radio! Yes, friends, Chick Radio founded by the great feminists of our era: Steinem and Fonda.
Steinem said the network, which is run by women, aims to provide an alternative to current radio talk, which she describes as “very argumentative, quite hostile, and very much male-dominated.”
This network “has a different spirit. It has more community. It’s more about information, about humor, about respect for different points of view and not constant arguing,” Steinem told Reuters in an interview.
Talk radio is male dominated? Since when? And I thought its focus was always community, humor, and information?
But here is the fun quote:
Steinem pointed out that the idea of an all-women network stemmed from a company survey showing an 18 percent decrease in female listeners over the past seven years.
“Women are really fleeing from AM talk radio and now FM music because people get their music in different ways. So there’s an enormous window of opportunity, and we’re diving in,” she said.
This is interesting. Why are female listeners declining? Perhaps they are all moving to the television?
And Chick Radio will fail as well. Notice how neither feminist mentioned its focus to be on entertainment? It is always so ‘political cause’ or ‘social goal.’ People want entertainment, not nonsense.
