It's really predictable. There's just no other word for it. And "predictable" is poison to creative radio.
While trying to find the Sharks game on a skip wave on my car radio tonight, I was bound to hit several dozen wingnut shows. Mike Gallagher didn't disappoint, and sure enough - there he was spreadin' a lie.
His topic was Air America, and he was pumping his fists in the air totally enjoying the fact that Air America was yanked off the air in L.A. and Chicago because...they ran out of money.
As we all know by now, that ain't true. But perpetuating lies and repeating the perception until it becomes accepted as truth is how these schnooks work.
Gallagher went one step further, talking about how Air America had to "resort" to buying air time on stations to get their unpopular point of view heard. Gallagher's no fool, but why is he acting like one on his show? He knows as well as anyone in the radio business that this practice is called an LMA - a limited marketing agreement.
Warning: Technical and really inside explanation here
In an LMA, a company strikes a deal with a radio station to essentially buy days or weeks of airtime, and in return, the company is free to sell commercial time and basically run the station as if it were their own. When ABC bought the L.A. radio station KMPC from the Autrys in 1994, for example, they struck an LMA for several months with Jackie Autry until the sale of the station became finalized. It's a way for a new owner to gain a foothold on a property with the blessing of the current owner. It's a smart business practice.
This is essentially the deal Air America had with MultiCultural, only without a sale pending.
AAR has not yet had the benefit of being a tested commodity. They especially need to get known at radio conventions, when programmers are pitched by syndicators to buy their shows. The LMA gives them some time to strut their stuff on the air a while, gain an audience and then sell the programming to stations looking for the next new thing. It's a business strategy by Air America, pure and simple. Not desperation. It's too early for that.
Now, back to Gallagher. Mike Gallagher's one of the lucky few who (like Limbaugh, Hannity, Imus and most all the others) was able to work out his chops on a local level before he got scooped up by a syndicator. Today, just about all talk radio is now syndicated, and anyone trying to get the same break that Gallagher was blessed with has a snowball's chance in hell in finding a local outlet.
The only way to wedge into the talk radio business is exactly what Air America's doing - the LMA.
Tonight, Gallagher joined the chorus of talk radio's right wing fatcats in laughing and pissing all over Air America's situation, pushing the bankruptcy lie and dancing on the imaginary grave of something still young and very much alive.
Guys, you're all spitting on the underdog. And it's really making you look really petty.
Instead of welcoming the healthy competition to keep them on their game, they'd rather squash it and just continue coasting - keeping the status quo.
Well, guess what? America thinks the status quo really sucks these days. The polls say it. The talk on the street says it. The numbers say it. And they know it.
Since Sean Hannity's national debut on Sept. 10, 2001, absolutely nothing new has broken through on the airwaves - left OR right. Three years is an eternity in the industry, but sadly for listeners that same industry is historically timid to try something new until some little guy tries it first.
In what was once a hugely competitive business, we now have dozens of shows on tons of radio stations in every major market all agreeing with each other - even going so far as to compliment each other.
Ecch. Please.
Air America is bursting the door wide open to a good old fashioned radio war. Here's to Air America's continued growth. Support them when they come to your town. Because healthy competition will never EVER hurt the radio business. It makes the entire dial more interesting, and no one - not Mike, not Rush, not Sean, nor all the rest - can dispute that.
