With all the other huge news stories this past week, from the devastation in Haiti to Scott Brown’s election, it could have been easy to miss one other item on the news feed. Air America, announced in 2004 as the liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh, closed its doors once and for all and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. For all the sound and fury surround the launch, not to mention the huge amounts of money – both real and imaginary – which swirled in a tempest around the enterprise, the end came not with a bang, but a whimper. But how did it happen? What caused it all to go so horribly wrong? There are a host of reasons, ranging from their choices of on air talent to plain, old bad business decisions. I take a look at a few of them this weekend in my new column at Pajamas Media.
Take a look and share your thoughts with us here as well. Did you listen regularly? Or ever? What were some of the good points about Air America’s programming and why do you think they went under? And perhaps you can offer your views on what may be the bigger, meta-question surrounding this debacle… is there a place in the market for a liberal talk radio network? Or were they just doomed from the start?