Trees Falling in the Forest and the final death of Air America
If a tree fell in the forest and nobody was around to hear it, did it make a sound?
The answer is “yes”, and with that I breeze right past an old chestnut of a Zen riddle.
The analogious question concerns the news that broke yesterday. Air America Radio is now dead. So it is every conservative talk radio host will get in one last dig, and other than that nobody noticed. The quote-in-quote “Progressive” talk radio format, such as that is, long moved past “Air America”. The most viable hosts on that channel long moved past Air America. Al Franken is in the Senate, Rachel Maddcow is on the television, Thom Hartman has a different syndicate, Randi Rhodes is with Clear Channel, and Mike Malloy self-syndicates. Today’s KPOJ programmer faces the daunting task of replacing programming for the hours of 6-8 pm and 11 pm -3 am. I imagine the 6 to 8 slot will be filled in with something temporarily, in the expectation that Ron Reagan will be picked up by someone shortly — similar to what they did with Randi Rhodes.
As for 11 pm to 3 am… whatever moves the meter. Hey! They have Alan Colmes!
The weekend schedule is where they face a task… and you know, for what that’s worth. Its broadcast of “Air America” programming seem as much a dumping ground as anything else. I imagine that they’ll slot in Stephanie Miller broadcasts for Sunday, as they currently do on Saturday. Er… Alan Colmes on Saturday, as they currently do on Sunday. After that, I have no idea. They have to find something to replace Lionel. Lionel, I never understood. He was with WOR and syndicated from there, then he made this weird career move and signed with Air America. That career move never made much sense to me, and maybe it doesn’t any more for him either.
Maybe they can put on a new local show with host Heidi Tauber.