No bench at Air America Radio? Anyone else sick of reruns of old

[Nimrod2005]

Shows and interviews? I know Mark has been on live in the AM, but he is even running older interviews and best of from other shows too? WTF? Anyone else feel the same way?

I tune in to AAR to listen to HARD NEWS and commentary!!! Everyday and every show discussed the days issues and news...Now for 2 weeks, I have been getting crap from September and October and earlier. I hate it...

Yesterday, I changed it to something else, on one competing station, I heard Fat Rush's replacement really going after the Dems and NYT about the NSA spyGate...etc. I tuned him off fast, and on another station there was a backup for Neil something? another righty, also hammering away at war critics...etc.

I guess what I am saying is the right has a bench, business as usual using backups, and AAR has none, I am listening to reruns of comedy bits from 2004???????

Does activisim take a holiday break?

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :grr:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. yeah, I know

annoying, isn't it. I'm sure it has something to do with finances cause they are losing audience by doing it.

[Nimrod2005]

2. Why not make the 2nd string type people do the talking?

While important talent is on break? I would think that's easy to do....Sports stations, other talk shows do that all the time...

[Canuckistanian]

3. There are no ratings during the Xmas break

So, with no reason to attact listeners that they can meter, they go into shutdown.

Still, it must piss off the advertisers as well as us.

[otohara]

52. Bingo - This Is The Only Time of the Year - Arbitron Books

aren't out there. So it's only natural those in radio & TV would take off.

Besides, I think it's good for us to take a break from politics during the holidays. Not only are the broadcasters out, but so are the politicians. Not much to talk about.

Al Franken is in Iraq - he deserves a medal for going there to entertain people who most likely don't agree with him. Maybe he can change some soldier attitudes.

[GR]

4. Thom Hartmann Is Live, Mike Malloy Is Live,....

I agree that reruns are worthless but there's still plenty of live stuff...Malloy was filling in in the afternoon for Randi...Peter Werbe has been on live...

[yourout]

5. Big Al at least has the Tony Show to cover....

for him. The vacation weeks would be a great place to bring in up and coming voices/hosts.

[Nimrod2005]

7. Bingo...A bench!!

[earthside]

6. Franken's Days Numbered?

You've got to believe that Al Franken's show is on the way out.

It is a truism in talk radio that you cannot keep and/or build an audience for a current affairs show by running two or three weeks of "best ofs".

At least twice in the last year a major story/scandal broke about Bush and Franken was gone and they just re-ran old shows. (I was floored when the warrantless wiretap scandal broke and that Monday Air America ran Al's pre-Thanksgiving Day Show.)

For Air America to do this to Franken must mean that Al is going to bail on them soon.

On the other hand, Mike Malloy has been doing yoemans's work. I think he is getting better and better.

But ... I just don't even turn on the radio very often anymore when it's time for Franken's show ... and that is exactly what is going to doom Air America's premier show because there are probably thousands of listerners like me.

Oh, and I am excited about Maddow's new show -- she's great.

[NYCGirl]

9. Considering AAR just built Franken a new studio in Minneapolis, I'd bet

you're mistaken.

[erpowers]

16. New Studios-Senate Run

Why is AAR building new studios or letting people have show in different states? Does this mean that it is official that Franken will run of senate in his home state?

[NYCGirl]

18. He's still considering it, but he's said he will be a resident for at

least a year before he decides in 2007.

[earthside]

20. So what.

They can build him a studio in every state, but if they make bad programming decisions their ratings will tank.

Current affairs and/or political talk radio has to be fresh and relevant everyday to keep core listeners. Ed Schultz and his production company know this, that's why he is having a guest host almost everyday -- even during the 'unrated' Holiday Season.

I'm tellin' ya ... unless Air America runs guest hosts for Franken and revitalizes his show (it's pretty stale now), advertisers are going to see ratings tumble and that will be the end of Franken. It really is that simple.

[NYCGirl]

21. He still gets the highest ratings on the station. You don't screw with

success. People tune in to the Al Franken show to hear Al Franken.

[guidod]

57. That's not true,

Ed Schultz gets more than Franken. He's not a member of AAR but they air his program.

[NYCGirl]

58. But as you said, Ed Schultz is not part of Air America, so he's not

counted as part of their ratings. Franken is AAR's #1 by far, followed by Randi Rhodes (as reported in the NY Times a few weeks ago).

Edited to add: Schultz is on in more markets, BTW.

[guidod]

59. You're right.

If Air America doesn't change it's ways, best ofs and such, they won't be very effective.

[NYCGirl]

60. Wait until tomorrow. Everything will be back to normal.

These last two weeks of the year are so low in listenership, they don't even bother to take ratings.

[guidod]

62. I think you're absolutely right...

It really brings the spirits down when you hear nothing. Maybe I'm getting spoiled.

[Nimrod2005]

10. I love and miss Rachel...They should pay her more and have her

on all day...

Rachel, Melloy, and Randi are all I need.

[laststeamtrain]

8. I agree. I've been enjoying some AAR alternatives here:

http://www.krxa540.com/

[drthais]

13. thanks for this link...

I'll use it today rather than turn off the stream altogether
I depend on the blood-pumping left-wing talk during the day
and I cannot take one more rerun

I thought Malloy was going to be subbing for Randi
both weeks while she was off...
ands all of a sudden he drops off the face of the earth
did he go back to night?

[AntiCoup2K4]

27. Mike was back on his own show last night, but will be on Randi's today....

...and tomorrow, with Peter Werbe filling in for Mike's show. Since Randi has the highest rated show in most markets, it made perfect sense to keep that show live most of the time, and it's been great for us Truthseekers to hear Malloy during daylight hours, as it has been for those of you, for whatever reasons, can't listen to him at night.

So if the Franken reruns aren't keeping you awake, drink another cup of coffee and hold out for another 90 minutes..... Then Mike Malloy will make sure you stay awake :evilgrin:

[Mr Rabble]

28. He is. You can see his schedule @ mikemalloy.com

[laststeamtrain]

43. If you like the aggressive style of Malloy, try this guy sometime...

He's on KGO in SF 10pm-1am M-F, though at the moment on vacation until Jan. 3rd I think.
He's an interesting fellow, prepares a very good show and can really think on his feet. Here's a link to his bio at KGO from which you can hook up with the stream, etc.
I like him better than Malloy. My 'beef' with MM is he's sometimes not very prepared and relies on his 'agro' schtick too much. I can only take so much of that.
http://www.kgoam810.com/complexshowdj.asp?DJID=3284
Just saying...someone you might want to try sometime in the wee hours of the night.
I've heard him say AAR has never expressed the least interest in him for their network. That's how dumb I think they are. But I'm thankful for having any non-'snarling head' RW radio at all.
Best, LST

[benburch]

11. At White Rose we have FRESH shows for you to listen to!

http://www.WhiteRoseSociety.org

[Mr Rabble]

29. White Rose Rocks. Thank you Ben!

I gave you a plug last week on the Malloy show. You provide an invaluable service.

[benburch]

30. You are MOST welcome!

And thanks for the plug! That was you? Cool!

[sam sarrha]

12. probably have to take their vacation by 1/06 or lose it.. like my wife

and they told her she couldn't take it all.. and there is nothing to do at work now.. just screwing her for fun

[nashville_brook]

14. just b/c AAR is "progressive," doesn't make it good *radio*

all you AAR subscribers and terrestrial listeners need to lean on those lazy asses.

they've killed their best shows and alienated their founding Sirius supporters. i can't even listen to it anymore. it's a shame.

i'm glad the *voice* is out there but i've gone back to music (on my beautiful Sirius Tivoli) and our wonderful local public radio station WPLN. life's too short for shitty radio.

i'm like oddtodd and MCI on this one. i feel raped by AAR.

[Nimrod2005]

15. Tivoli? can this go in my car too?

[nashville_brook]

54. yeah, but it'd be unweildy

we keep it in the kitchen with it's sub woofer and cd aux. love it!

[erpowers]

17. Christmas/Holiday Break

Everybody has to take breaks every now and then. All the new show will come back in January. I am really excited and anticipating Rachel Maddow's new show.

[catabryna]

19. This gal...

is never going to begrudge anyone taking their vacations or enjoying the holidays. We should all be able to do that. We have just become too used to everyone in our country being there for us right when we need them. AAR is their job and as we all know, breaks are needed from the in and outs of daily living. Personally, I'd rather see them at home spending time with their families and loved ones and put up with reruns for a couple of weeks. We all need refreshment to be at our best.

I've been visiting White Rose, just as I did in the days before AAR.

[ginnyinWI]

22. I agree!

This is exactly the time they should be putting on great programming, when high schoolers and college kids are home and/or less busy with school. We need to get those kids involved in politics.

[kentuck]

23. This is a problem...

I'm listening to Al the other day and he's laughing and joking about JAG officers and the show being in its last season, etc... Not very interesting, so I turn over to right-wing radio to see if they at least were talking about something "topical". Some replacement for Limbaugh was talking about the spying by Bush and the NSA and how Bush was just doing his job to protect us. For three hours they hammered that message to their listeners. Which do you think people are going to listen to?

[NYCGirl]

24. They're going to listen to those views which mirror their own.

Because you found Limbaugh talking about the NSA does that mean you're going to listen to him from now on?

[kentuck]

25. That is true but political junkies like to listen to political junk...

Not some jokes about a cancelled TV show. It is for politics that people listen to talk radio.

[NYCGirl]

26. I wouldn't listen to Limbaugh or Hannity or Savage if they were the last

radio shows left on Earth!

[Doctor_J]

35. Umm, you listen to hate radio all day long, kentuck

you're incessantly posting the latest RW talking points fron Limpballs, Hannity, Weiner, O'Really, and so on. So I don't think that just because YOU listen to it means that EVERYONE does. You're sort of a hate radio junkie, kentuck.

[kentuck]

37. No, you are wrong...

I seldom listen to radio but when I'm in the car, I will listen to what interests me. To be honest, sometimes AAR has topics that aren't very interesting and I will listen to the right-wing wackos if the topics are more interesting. Do you never listen to anything except AAR?

[Nimrod2005]

31. Is Mike Melloy on live today? 12/29?

[AntiCoup2K4]

32. Yes, on Randi's show

And same time tomorrow....

Then everything back "to normal" on Monday, including the fact that XM listeners no longer have to wait for that wuss Alan Colmes.

[melissinha]

33. AAR has a bench

Laura Flanders has subbed for lots of people, Rachel subbed before (she gets Isaac or the Turks to sub for her), Mike, Thom Hartman and Sam have subbed for Randi, Sam Seder subbed for Jerry and now it seems Jerry's perfect sub is Jay Marvin who justs does his own show in Colorado and has it beamed through AAR (I love JAY)...


I think they have a good bench but then the bench needs a bench and they can't do it the whole time.... a lot of the two people shows can manage with one host whilst the other is on vacation.

But yes it does suck when they run out of subs...Its not like there isn't sufficient talent out there...

My beef is that my terrestrial station has Big Eddie and then moves everyone after him to tape delay, I hate delay.... just run a last hour of Randi (we listen streaming her at work anyways) and leave Sam and Janeane followed by Mike live....

[Doctor_J]

36. My terrestrial station goes off the air at night

and that slot gets hate radio from Denver until sun-up :-(. And since I got Sirius instead of XM a year ago, I'm SOL.

[kentuck]

39. I'm in the Springs and Boulder AAR station fades out at night...

so I have no choice other than just leave radio off, which I do frequently.

[Nimrod2005]

49. Colorado? Springs?

[kentuck]

38. I did listen to Rachel quite a bit....

I found her opinions quite interesting.

[Duer 157099]

34. Could not agree more

Especially at a time when people are off, or on long road trips and have the time to listen, as I did. I was looking forward to it, and was so utterly disgusted and disappointed to find so many "best of" shows on AAR!! I even got an XM radio specifically for the trip, and will not renew the subscription because of this poor judgement in programming.

When I tune to AAR, I EXPECT to hear discussion of THAT DAY'S political events, period. I ended up spending more time at the CNN and MSNBC stations and it was like eating crumbs instead of the feast I had hoped for.

[AntiCoup2K4]

40. Radio hosts have families too, and they celebrate holidays.

This just happens to be an anomaly time of the year where a lot of people in whatever jobs take time off to visit family members and friends in other places. Evaluating an XM subscription over something that happens one or two weeks out of the year and is out of their control entirely (XM doesn't schedule AAR's air personalities) really isn't a fair judgment, but that's your call. At the very least you would have had uninterrupted music on the road.

With the holiday schedules over with on Monday, you can expect Randi Rhodes and the Majority report to jump back into all the shit that's taken place in the last two week. They aren't about to let this illegal spying shit go under the bridge without a mention. In that respect, it might actually be a blessing in disguise that they were off the air over the holidays, because even if other shows have dropped the subject matter by then, they would probably STILL address it.

Chimpco probably figured that allowing this news to break over the holidays would ensure it disappeared quickly from the airwaves. But no such luck for the Half Assed Monkey Boy this time. Under the circumstances, I'd say AAR has done very well, with Mike Malloy carrying the story along with help from the "bench" team Thom Hartmann, Peter Werbe, Jay Marvin, and whoever else has been on the air. Other stations, like the local one I usually wake up to have just been running old tapes. If I hadn't woke up to my XM feed, I probably wouldn't know about Spygate at all.

[melissinha]

41. but when Randi returns

She'll go into her annoying habit of talking about her trip on the airplane etc...go into a related rant.... she did this the last few times she was away..... Meanwhile we're all hanging on waiting for the shoe to drop.... Gotta love her, but let me call it... she will spend 30 mins to an hour talking about something that should take 10 mins max.

[patrioticliberal]

45. You're right meliss...she will!

Absolutely right. Just wait. :)

[AntiCoup2K4]

46. But even if she does, that still leaves her three hours on Monday.

One of the advantages of a 4 hour time slot, I guess.

[patrioticliberal]

51. She finds ways to bring itup again later. Serioulsy

Sad. Makes me turn to Schultz, then I realize what a Rush Limbaugh clone he is and I switch back or off.

[Duer 157099]

42. Everyone has families, and yet when I turned on CNN...

I noted they were covering the day's events, live. Imagine that.

I didn't expect (although hoped) to hear the usual hosts, and was delighted that I was able to hear Mike subbing for Randi for a few days. There are subs who would give up anything for the chance at a live AAR mic -- put those guys on instead of repeats, is all I'm saying.

As for the XM subscription, I purchased it for a very specific use, and it failed to satisfy. Don't care who is responsible, I will not renew.

[NYCGirl]

44. CNN is a news station. AAR is not a news station. CNN has been on the air

for over 20 years and has lots of money. AAR has been on a little over a year and a half and doesn't have the funds CNN (Time Warner) has. Your comparison doesn't add up.

[Nimrod2005]

47. I got my news from AAR - filtered the way I like it...

[Nimrod2005]

50. Then put all of these guys on all day, live...

If Franken, Randi, and Rachel are all gone at once, Jerry Springer is gone too...Then you are running thin, and that's not good.

[Nimrod2005]

48. Keep the XM, it is worth it....I will be getting my SIRI tomorrow

[tinfoilinfor2005]

53. Yes, I'm having withdrawel symptoms.

AAR repeats, Daily Show had repeats but now not even on, Imus on vacation (yes, he is a butthead, but he has interesting guests). And frankly, DU has been pretty boring these past two weeks, because there is not much going on to discuss, what with DC being shut down. I've actually been able to enjoy a life outside of politics. :)

[patrioticliberal]

55. im bored too..lol

[mwb970]

56. I'll be so glad to get back to normal.

The last week of the year is the worst. It's not just the AAR reruns, it's the endless "retrospectives" and "The Year In Review" time-wasters run by every lazy TV/radio station and publication that wants to take a vacation from doing their jobs.

The world doesn't stop just because it's the end of the year. And why look back anyway? We just lived through all that crap, for God's sake.

[XOKCowboy]

61. Did you email or write to AAR telling them this?? nt

[patrioticliberal]

63. And they give a shit, why?

[melissinha]

64. so did Randi start with a rant?

I missed yesterday as I was off and don't have streaming at home...