Frankengone
Air America Radio, sewn together out of various obscure little AM radio stations, needed whatever star power Al Franken brought to the table in order for the bankrupt enterprise to find a buyer. Brian Maloney reports that won't be happening. Franken is leaving the financial ruin of "progressive" talk radio.
Is this the end for Stuart Smalley on the airwaves?
We're hearing that Al Franken is leaving Air America and giving up on talk radio, most likely for good.
His last day on the air will apparently be December 8. Already, a few libtalk stations have begun to leak word of Franken's impending exit.
One is KQKE Radio in San Francisco, which recently cancelled Franken and replaced him with Thom Hartmann, a more obscure "progressive" who airs in the same time slot. A check of Franken's site Thursday evening did not turn up any mention of a departure and the company itself has as of yet said nothing.
This confirms rumors we'd been hearing for weeks from industry sources and Air America listeners that are now backed up by these on- air announcements. What A Mockery, a liberal blog site, captured the audio of KQKE Radio's announcement here. Its main page is found here.
All that's missing is villagers with pitchforks and torches.
By TC@LeatherPenguin, Friday, 17 November , 2006 @ 9:05 am
Franken’s bailing out because Clear Channel is about to go private and they’re going to sell off a boatload of small market stations in the process, many of whose airwaves Air Idiot is currently broadcasting on. He knows their ain’t no more invester dollars showing up to prop their little netlet up so he’s bailing out before the final nail gets driven into AAR’s coffin.
By mokus, Friday, 17 November , 2006 @ 1:39 pm
The midterm elections are over, there’s no reason to keep throwing good money after bad. Dems will pull the plug, put the best face on the debacle they can, and let the whole sorry enterprise slide down the memory hole with as little publicity as possible.
Franken and Rhodes are embarrassing reminders of a lunatic phase in Dem politics they want behind them as quickly as possible. Out of sight, out of mind.