why does Air America use these horrible music loops...

[MnFats]

...at the top of the hour.....
they can't fill that air?
I can't imagine the number of listeners that hit the buttons after a couple minutes of that elevator music...

[Check12]

1. It's Wendy she's Hypmotizing us!

I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,I love Wendy,

[MnFats]

3. happened a few minutes ago with Majority Report....do you

love sam? do you love Sam? Do you love Sam? do you...oh....never mind.

[pdurod1]

2. I haven't listened to Air America for a while...

I tried and found out I have to download a fricken tree and my hd runs outa space. Haven't listened to AA for months.

[Gloria]

4. Does seem to be used more than in the past....weird....

eom

[jobycom]

5. I thought that was just my local station in Austin

This station has started playing Ed Schultz live and pushing everything from Randi on to tape. I barely listen any more. The music tracks are only part of it.

[jean]

6. I've heard the filler music during many AAR shows - what IS the deal?

[Nabia2004]

7. They should offer the time to undiscovered artists

I'm sure that there are plenty of artists that would appreciate a chance at air time. Imagine new music, anti-war and variety, and poetry, in that recorded loop.

[silverweb]

8. I asked a friend that recently....

He listens to AAR all the time and I can't listen as much as I'd like. Anyway, I asked about that and here's what he e-mailed back:

It's the new Air America policy, and it's happening on ALL shows--Malloy's, Randi's, Laura's, Sam and Janeane's, etc. There is the regular bumper music, as well as the interlude music. Has something to do with advertising. For commercials not intended for a national market, Air America fills in the time with the interlude music--and the interludes are not such that they have to pay royalties. I would suggest contacting Air America for further info.

[Todd B]

9. I'll take music over that awful grinding teeth commercial anyday!

I have to turn off the radio when they play it - could they come up with a worse commercial then that? I get what they're trying to do, but it's not really an effective commercial when I have to turn it off after two seconds and don't even know what the product is!

[silverweb]

10. LOL

I haven't heard that one... fortunately!

:D

[caledesi]

11. Randi Rhodes explained it.

She said that they don't make money with commercials on Internet streaming, so they fill it with "muzak."

Go figure.

[choie]

12. Who runs AAR, Bialystock and Bloom?

I love 'em to death, but I swear, sometimes I wonder if they're actually trying to lose listeners. They dump Marc Maron, let Mike Malloy get taken off the air in NYC, screw around with their online feeds, and apparently don't care how freakin' annoying it is to listen to several minutes of craptastic music.

Honestly, when I listen to the Majority Report, it seems like for every ten minutes of Sam, there's an equal amount of mindless guitar wah-wahing in between the segments. How do they think it sounds to people tuning in for the first time, who probably have more than a 40%% chance of hearing these dumbass loops instead of talk? After listening for some interminable length of time expecting a talkshow but getting muzak, wouldn't you eventually give up?

Ugh. And I just cringe when I think of how it might seem to the world that AAR can't fill their commercial spots anymore. I certainly understand the rationale for not letting commercials air online without getting paid extra -- but there's GOTTA be a better solution than this. How about funny or powerful clips from past AAR shows? More commentaries from liberal viewpoints, like "Mother Jones Minute" and Jim Hightower? Snippets of classic political speeches? Get creative here!

C'mon, AAR -- you've been a godsend for the past two years. Stop making decisions that cut off your nose to spite your face!

[caledesi]

13. I share your frustration C. I have a strange feeling that something

is very wrong at AAR.

You are so right about the advertisement thing. Hey, who knows if Randi was truthful? But, she had to do it. She said it nothing to do with procuring advertisersYeah, right. She is ALWAYS making fun of AAR.

Now with this Mike Malloy thing. He said he ratings were great. So why are they pulling him in NY and supposedly trying to find another station in NY for him? It doesn't make sense and to make matters worse, the other night MM was talking about how he will continue reading 1984 unless A,B, & C. B being "unless I am NO LONGER with AAR." I almost fell out of my chair.