||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Progressive News & Views (since 1982) |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(go here for links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_America_Radio) Early start-up difficulties Air America was the initial idea of Sheldon Drobny and Anita Drobny, who wanted to start a progressive radio talk network to compete with conservative talk radio. Air America was started as part of Progress Media, which said it had amassed $30 million in venture capital prior to its debut, a claim which later turned out to be untrue (only $6 million was initially collected). Two individuals from Guam, Rex Sorensen and Evan Montvel Cohen, were involved in raising the capital but denied any wrongdoing. [4] Cohen had an unusual background for someone in his position within a progressive radio network since he was a Republican political operative in Guam and former chief of staff for Republican Governor Tommy Tanaka. [5] Cohen dismissed concerns by saying he was a committed "progressive" and that Republicans in Guam "are left of Paul Wellstone." Two weeks after its debut, Air America Radio was pulled off the air by the owner of two stations that the network had licensed in Chicago and Santa Monica, California. This was due to a contract dispute between Air America and the stations' owner, Multicultural Radio Broadcasting. Air America alleges Multicultural Radio may have sold time on their Los Angeles station to them and another party, and stopped payment on checks to them while they investigated. Multicultural Radio alleges that Air America bounced a check and owes $1 million. Air America Radio filed a complaint in New York Supreme Court, charging breach of contract and was granted an injunction to restore the network on WNTD-AM in Chicago. On April 20, the network announced the dispute had been settled, and Air America's last day of broadcast on WNTD was April 30. The New York Supreme Court ultimately concluded that the injunction was improvidently entered and that Air America Radio's court action was without merit, dismissing Air America's complaint and awarding over $250,000 in damages and attorneys' fees to Multicultural. [6] According to a subsequent lawsuit filed by Multicultural, Air America Radio never paid the sums ordered by the court. [7] Four weeks after Air America's debut, the CEO, Mark Walsh, and Dave Logan, its executive vice president for programming, left the network. One week after those departures, the chairman and vice chairman, Evan Cohen and his investment partner Rex Sorensen, also left. Some attributed Cohen's departure to investor unhappiness with how he handled the dispute with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting. Columnist Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News quoted a marketing communications manager from General Motors, declaring "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates." However, GM OnStar commercials have been appearing on the Internet stream since the fall of 2004. As part of a reorganization, investors in Progress Media bought the assets of that company, creating its current owner, Piquant LLC. An important change which accompanied the reorganization was a decision to stop trying to buy radio stations and lease air time, or insist that stations carry all of the network's programming. On February 28, 2005, a new CEO, Danny Goldberg, was named. Goldberg set a goal of getting the network in 90% of the country as soon as possible. Expansions early in his tenure included Austin and Dallas, Texas in March 2005, and a return to Chicago in May 2005. At a media conference in July 2005, Goldberg stated that Air America Radio would be on 75 stations as of August, and that Air America News would be relaunched in September as a much more expansive operation to "provide news for our stations and beyond." In April of 2005, Gary Krantz was named President of the network. Krantz, a veteran of Clear Channel, AMFM, and MJI Broadccasting was brough in to oversee Sales, Programming, Affiliate Relations, New York;s Flagship station, AM 1190 WLIB, and Air America' s Interactive division. Together with Goldberg, and the existing executive team of Carl Ginsburg (COO), and Jon Sinton (President/Programming), and new CFO Robert , the newly established management team has gotten the company on track to consistent growth in 2006 Notable new additions to the Network's management team are Scott Elberg, VP/GM of WLIB New York. Elberg has a proven track record in NY radio, having managed Clear Channel's WKTU-FM, and held several senior sales management posts at WHTZ, WNEW-FM, and Univision Radio. In August of 2005, Russ Gilbert was named VP/Interactive. Gilbert oversees the web division of the company and has recently launched Premium subscription services for the network. In September, Tamara Karcev was named Director/Affiliate Relations, overseeing the continued growth of the network to it's current affiliate base of 87 stations, including 8 out of the top 10 markets, and 18 out of the top 20 markets A documentary on the network's rocky start and ultimate resurgence, Left of the Dial, premiered March 31, 2005 on HBO. In April 2005, the studio of an AAR affiliate in Warren, Ohio, WANR-AM, was briefly occupied by a group that changed the locks and began broadcasting Christian programming until the police forced them to leave. [8] A few weeks later, the group seeking to switch the station's format to Christian programming was able to purchase the station, and the Air America programming was discontinued. [9] On July 28th 2005, Sinohe Terrero, AAR's VP of Finance, issued a memo to employees advising that payroll direct deposits would be delayed by one working day and not post on Friday July 29th as expected. The memo stated "We have been advised by ADP that Direct Deposit will probably not post until Monday. [August 1st]" ----- / o o \ ====OO=====OO========================= Hank Roth's Place - http://pnews.org/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] (on the InterNUT since 1982) ============================================ Fightback - notification news and views list Subscribe/Unsub at: http://pnews.org/dada/ ================================================ Fightback - (pnews "progressive news and views") OPEN discussion - subscribe or unsubscribe in subject line: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================
