Air America Radio

Although talk radio began in the early part of the 20th century with programs like President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chats, it is considered a form of “new media”—media that are not regulated by the traditional media guideline of objectivity but, instead, function to entertain, inform, and persuade listeners to one side versus another. Gallup polls reveal that talk radio grew increasingly more popular with the public during the late part of the 20th century; more radio stations were airing talk radio programming and more listeners were tuning in and contributing to, by and large, extremely conservative discourse. Debuting on March 31, 2004, on five stations, Air America Radio (AAR)—a subsidiary of Progress Media—aimed to offer an alternative to the conservative political talk radio that dominated the airwaves by being the first commercial network to be openly liberal in its outlook.

One of the goals of some of the AAR architects was to offer “formatic purity,” which involved producing an entire lineup of shows, not just a program or two, that resonated with nonconservative audiences; audiences that desired programs with the political flavor, but not the staleness, of National Public Radio (NPR); audiences who wanted the entertainment value, but not the right-wing discourse, of popular conservative talk shows like those hosted by Rush [Page 62]Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. Former Saturday Night Live writer and regular Al Franken, hired to host a daily 3-hour show, was AAR's biggest name in their lineup. Another former Saturday Night Live comedienne and actress, Janeane Garofalo, hosted another show, as did the co-creator of The Daily Show, Lizz Winstead, who shared the microphone with rapper Chuck D. Along with these new radio personalities, AAR hired veteran radio personalities Katherine Lanpher of NPR and Randi Rhodes, perhaps the most caustic of all AAR hosts.

Not long after AAR's debut, stories about the network described it as struggling. After only 5 weeks on the air, five of its executives had left. Robert McChesney, known for his critiques of mainstream media, had written—even before the introduction of AAR—that capitalists would not be willing to invest in liberal talk radio programming. In fact, some commentators contended that the network was in disarray because the business of politics, rather than the business of radio, undergirded all of AAR's decisions. To be sure, AAR creators did believe radio could be a vehicle for change in the political landscape and were vocal about their hope that AAR could reinforce Democratic Party efforts to unseat President George W. Bush in the 2004 election.

Of course, AAR did not disrupt George W. Bush's return to the presidency. Some researchers who study the consequences of talk radio would not be surprised, as the effects of talk radio are ambiguous, making it difficult to successfully undermine a campaign via the medium of radio. What talk radio can do, however, is ensure that those who want to talk, laugh, or rant about the political sphere have the outlet to do so.