I'm Al, Fly Me

Air America takes to the air today...don't miss it if you can.

O'Franken Factor? Hoo-boy, a real knee slapper, that Al...he's a stitch ain't he?

Chance are they aren't on the airwaves in your market, having only five stations lined up to date...but never fear, you may catch the brilliant riffs of Franken, Garafalo and talk show host Randi Rhodes on Air America's web broadcast. (BYO Air sickness bags.)

Seems they ground looped while taxi-ing to the launch pad in the Bay Area.

"The O'Franken Factor" -- comedian Al Franken's answer to talk radio conservatives like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh -- hits the airwaves today in several major markets, but it won't be on the dial in the Bay Area for two more weeks.

Air America Radio, a national liberal talk radio network, has pushed back its San Francisco premiere to April 15. The company says it will announce the station on April 7.

Evan Cohen, the New York venture capitalist who chairs Air America's board, said the deal in the Bay Area was signed, but not all employees at the station know about the change in format, causing the delay.

"We wanted to make sure the employees currently working at the station were aware" of the change in formats, Cohen said.

Air America announced earlier this month that it would start today in the top four U.S. markets, including the Bay Area. Now that the date is here, the network will hit the airwaves in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the top three markets, as well as in Portland, Ore., and in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Cohen, the network's chairman, said the Bay Area start will be accompanied by a billboard, television and Internet advertising blitz. "We'll be in San Francisco soon," he said. "We think it's a perfect market for us."

The top talk radio stations in the SF Bay Area?

Even in the politically liberal Bay Area, two conservative talk stations -- KSFO, owned by the Walt Disney Corp., and KNEW, owned by Clear Channel Communications -- are slugging it out with little overt liberal competition.

Don Imus also has a huge Bay Area audience in the morning drive-time slot of 5-9 AM , as does Tom Likas in the afternoon drive slot, both carried on Infinity Broadcasting's KYCY-AM 1550 (no web site).

A few years ago KGO's, the long-time top-rated radio station and the ABC TV/radio affiliate, popular morning host, Ronn Owens decided he was the liberal messiah and went to LA to launch his blitz against Rush...he tanked badly and and returned to his comfy niche on KGO.

The Bay Area has a captive audience in the loony Left enclaves such as Santa Cruz and Berkeley for Pacifica Radio and NPR, but the mass-market audience, especially in the 4 hour drive time slots in the morning and afternoon listens to man-talk, sports or right-wing talk radio. Go figure.

LIVE UPDATE: Oooo...ironic Rock & Roll intercut with emotionally-weighted Liberal Pol soundbites...are they kidding? Maybe it's just me but cutting Livid Color's "Cult of Personality" with clips of JFK's inauguration speech is actually dissing JFK...isn't it?

Franken says Bush is going DOWN. Yeah, okay Al. Whatever.

Their streaming server can't keep up with the load...these guys aren't very well prepared for the massive funding that they claim went into this effort. They didn't even manage to get a website up...Jees. Other's with a radio feed will have to pick up the commentary...I'm bailing before RealPlayer dumps my Windows session.

EVENING UPDATE: Dale Franks offers Air America Roundup, a page of quotes and opinion from the blogosphere. I liked the original Air America sky pilots hangin' at Kadena's Flame Room a whole lot better.

Posted by feste at March 31, 2004 07:12 AM | TrackBack