April 06, 2004
AM 1580
4/6/04
If you want the definition of "preaching to the choir," look no further than me in my car listening to Air America Radio. The station can be heard in the biggest cities in America (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and bizarrely, Minneapolis) but, because those places are progressive-minded, it can do nothing more than to work already-angry liberals into a furious froth. What I'd like to see is a battery of Air America stations blanketing swing states like Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida, Ohio and Michigan – and then a few desperate "Tokyo Rose"-like transmitters stuck in Moncks Corner, SC, Huntsville, AL and Crawford, TX.
Air America has the usual problems emblematic of an AM station: the sound is pretty terrible, you lose entire sentences when you pass under a bridge, and at night, you can suddenly be listening to a St. Louis Cardinals game because of the atmospheric skip. Also, I appreciate that such an unproven venture has advertisers (thank god) - but around the top of the hour, it can get out of hand. It'll go from 12:55 to 1:06 without a bit of original programming besides the news, which is a long time if you're stuck in traffic.
But the content is superb. Chuck D. rocks. Randi Rhodes hasn't lost a beat, graduating from her digs in South Florida (where she had been #1 for years) to a national audience while still maintaining her raspy chick-from-Brooklyn cred. Al Franken is going to need a few weeks to get his moorings; it seems like he's pacing himself, but he's got to realize that pulling out all the stops each day makes the next day easier (a lesson I learned early on with this blog).
If you're not living in one of the leftist big cities mentioned above, you can always get an XM Satellite Radio, which are so cheap now that it can almost be an afterthought. They're promoting the new lineup by offering an America Left and an America Right channel, best exemplified by this picture:
I mean, Michael Savage looks like a homespun, tobacco-chawin' MORON to me, but everyone has their bizarre tastes. Personally, I don't know why XM felt the need to have an "America Right" channel when they already have Fox News, ABC Talk, three Christian Rock stations and NASCAR, but at least somebody thought it was important to get Air America out there.
And that's really what this is all about for me: after 9/11 and during the lead-up to the Iraq War, I began to believe we were utterly alone. Tessa and I felt adrift on the Ice Floe of Freaks, being the only people (besides our close friends) who thought this country was veering dangerously off-course. It made me write stuff like this and this. Now I can take comfort in a station that will be some small beacon of light in the overwhelming darkness. I don't feel as alone anymore, and sometimes the choir needs to hear the preacher just to keep from losing their religion.
Been reading about Air America Radio and living where I am, the XM Satellite will most likely be required. Strangly enough this (me) techno illiterate got my first lesson in XM Satellite radio this past weekend. A friend of mine received one for her birthday and she is a happy camper. I didn't have a clue what it was all about. know I feel all "in the know". Balance is a good thing and the shows will not only balance out the fanatical right, they'll make us laugh... actually the fanatical right makes me laugh too.
Air America is also available on line...
As is WSUI (http://wsui.uiowa.edu) which is our cool-rockin local NPR affiliate, home of Jazz With Jim and Live From Prairie Lights.
Kent is right about WSUI, the best npr station on the planet and one of the things (if it weren't for the weather) on my list of "why I could live in Iowa." I have both WSUI and KQED (San Francisco) npr on my computer so I can listen on line anywhere. I've been sending a pittance to KQED for years, and I guess I'm going to have to do the same for WSUI. They are part of what makes ME feel as if I'm not drifting on an ice floe.
Internet radio and XM Sat radio make me glad I've lived long enough to enjoy them, and now that Air America Radio has hit the sattelite, it makes me feel a lot better about my upcoming drive from NY to the West Coast and back again.
I said to some friends months ago, Air America would not last. Look at all the left wing entities that are failing now ie,ABC, NBC, CBS, NY Times, CNN, the list goes on. PBS only survives thanks to tax payer dollars and support from left wing interests. People as a whole are slowly but surely waking up and refusing to be spoon fed by the mainstream media and its showing in viewership and circulation. A recent example in which after a relentless attack by Dems aimed at President Bush, he finally defends himself from the bully pulpit. CNN radio news headline "Bush Starts war of words", Fox radio, "Bush responds to his critics". This is no extraordinary example, rather it is quite typical. The last thing I heard was that Air America is not doing well financially. I wonder why.