I could never find AA on any local radio, not that I would have listened, but that has to be a part of their problem - although the NPR point is a good one, too.

The whole concept was a socialistic top-down construct. Instead of letting the market demand what it needs, they decided what was needed and started on a "national" basis. Most successful talk shows began with local or regional audiences and grew through their popularity to be national forces.

"Why do we doubt that they'll trouble themselves to do that?"

Because they don't see it as not being "fair and balanced".

Jim: Excellent point about the origins of most successfull shows. In addition, I would add, that people like to be around folks like themselves and to listen to talk show hosts that have similar values to their own. The supper libs just don't get the fact that very few Americans in the "great flyover" don't buy into their idea of how to run a country. You can be free with the responsibilities that go with it, or you can rely on the government to provide, but you can't do both. In the restaurant business we say "you can have cheap food, or you can have good food, but you can't have both (at least not for long)".

And isn't it interesting that of the dozen or so listeners to Air America, most of them troll here at Wizbang?

Lucky us!

Explain to me why the truth is considered liberal?

Is there anything more ironic and hypocritical than Air America listing limousine firms in its list of unpaid creditors?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1013062airamerica1.html

Strange - you'll find that most artists and entertainers are liberals. You'll also find that most comedians are liberals, and you will rarely ever find a funny conservative. (Look what happened to Dennis Miller) Yet it still doesn't work in the media. Liberals have one talking head on TV for every 4 conservatives, and now, zero talk radio influence. Strange.

Gosh i thought that GEORGE SOROS was bailing them out it looks like AIRHEADS AMERICA was,nt left-wing enough for him

Strange - you'll find that most artists and entertainers are liberals.

Strange --- most people feel TV, movies, and music have been in a tailspin of quality for years now.

Apparently, becoming increasingly liberal correlates nicely with a decline in quality.
-=Mike

Three points...

Many Liberals, unlike most Conservatives, actually enjoy or are just curious to hear the Hate Radio morons. I'll confess. I do it too. We are actually curious to know what the "other side" thinks, does and says, and sometimes it's just fun to listen to the ranting and idiocy. Besides, it gets your blood up. It's like professional wrestling. Unfortunately, Liberal talk can just make you depressed. That's why the most popular Liberal talkers tend to do a lot less news and politics and just have fun - and it's they who get the bigger audiences. And so, as most Conservatives disdain listening to oppositional arguments, or trying anything new, or accepting anything at odds with there world view, it would stand to reason that Liberal talk radio will be at a loss for the broader audience of Conservative talk radio. This is common knowledge and common sense, and most liberals know it. Conservatives will tell you that the audience numbers are a measure of the message of Conservative talk radio, while it is the very lambaste and insanity of it that lures Liberal listeners.

It could just be that the demographics of AM radio listeners are such that there simply isn't enough audience for a big, national, Liberal talk/"news," commercial radio syndicate. Liberals, preferring a little more maturity and responsibility in our real news talk, have had Pacifica and NPR for years now, and they're doing just fine. They are not commercial, which we like, as most Liberals, and certainly myself included, really, really, really hate commercials. So yes, they won't make the money of their commercial competitors, but they're still far, far, far better as far as Liberals are concerned. Also, commercials obviously mean a quid pro quo as far as the content goes. Would you buy a car based on what a radio host tells you right after he's done playing a commercial for that car? This is why Liberals buy their cars after reading non-commercial Consumer Reports, and Conservatives go with the likes of Car & Driver. Righties will tell you that the lack of commercial success is a measure of the failure of Liberal fare, while it's the very commerciality of most talk radio that precludes Liberal talk and audiences.

But then, it may well be that Air America itself is the problem. Conservative talk radio has been around for a long time, slowly building its audiences, slowly developing its shtick. Air America toggled unto the cultural scene with a full-blown national network where none had been before and fared untested products into deeply entrenched demographics. Fox didn't become popular overnight. They lagged behind the Big Three for years before they finally built up a durable audience. And Fox had massive, international News Corporation, starring Rupert Murdoch, behind them. Air America was slapped together by a bunch of like-minded comedians and ex-pols. There are plenty of Liberal talk hosts out there in niche markets all over America. Some are popular over broader networks. John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are giants on the tube. And the country seems to be moving back to the Left these days anyway. Perhaps talk radio just can't sustain an Air America right now, or even ever. Conservatives will tell you that Liberal talk is wrong and so therefore it fails, while Conservatism itself utterly fails right before our very eyes.

We Liberals don't need to be told all this. We already know what to think for ourselves.

JMJ

"We liberals dont need to be told all this. We already know what to think for ourselves."

And its not very much!

"While conservatism itself utterly fails right before our very eyes."

Your a liberal not a conservative and that is how you know about failure, not to mention your radio heroes futile attempts to hold an audience with brainpower and not smoking mirrors , cute one liners and gimmicks designed to distract from rational thought.. Give it up, talk radio is beyond your ken..

And so, as most Conservatives disdain listening to oppositional arguments, or trying anything new, or accepting anything at odds with there world view, it would stand to reason that Liberal talk radio will be at a loss for the broader audience of Conservative talk radio. This is common knowledge and common sense, and most liberals know it.

So, the left is big on insipid stereotypes? Got it.

Conservatives, unlike libs, have to deal with opposing viewpoints all of the time. Lefties are HUGE on echo chambers. Conservatives have to face the opposing views.

Liberals, preferring a little more maturity and responsibility in our real news talk, have had Pacifica and NPR for years now, and they're doing just fine.

Except I have to help pay for NPR.

You don't have to help pay for conservative radio.

NPR, allegedly, is supposed to be non-partisan. Nice of you to admit that it is not.

They are not commercial, which we like, as most Liberals, and certainly myself included, really, really, really hate commercials.

You seem to prefer making all people pay for your preferences.

I don't.

Lefties, apparently, hate the free market and prefer gov't control.

This is why Liberals buy their cars after reading non-commercial Consumer Reports, and Conservatives go with the likes of Car & Driver.

Care to name the cars that lefties buy that conservatives don't --- or vice versa?

Or do you have nothing to back up this inane assumption?

Air America was slapped together by a bunch of like-minded comedians and ex-pols.

And obscenely rich libs. Don't forget them.

We Liberals don't need to be told all this. We already know what to think for ourselves.

Well, you do get your talking points and stick to them like grim death.
-=Mike