Saturday, January 23, 2010

Air America Grounded

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Liberal talk radio network Air America is planning to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the company said Thursday.

Well, that's what the free market is all about. It's Darwinian: provide people with goods and services - in this case, ideas - that they want, and survive. Misjudge the demand for your product, and fail. To wit:

"Air America gave listeners what 'they' (meaning the management of the company) wanted to hear, not what their listeners had tuned in to experience—and that's why they failed." (Air America, Why It Failed)
That is, of course, a somewhat simplistic eulogy. While there is validity in the 'there's no talk radio market for liberal ideas,' I happen to agree with Nathan Harden's analysis that the underlying reasons that statement is valid are (1) demographics (radio is an 'old folks' technology, while young 'uns, who tend to be more liberal, are moving away from traditional radio towards satellite radio and MP3 devices), and (2) liberals who listen to traditional radio already had NPR - there weren't enough liberal radio listeners to support two outlets.

In any event, liberals still have most of the print and television outlets.

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