Mike Malloy Fired, Air America Radio, New York City Ratings

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Malloy Fired, New Questions Emerge





Hot- headed extremist Mike Malloy says he's been unexpectedly fired by Air America Radio, according to his website and a posting by his producer / wife Kathy at the Democratic Underground. Apparently, he's already done his last show for the network (hat tip to Boston's "Raccoon Radio" Bob).

So far, AAR hasn't updated its program schedule, but that's no surprise: it also still lists Janeane Garofalo, who left some time ago.

Since recent indications were that Malloy would survive the liberal talk radio network's dramatic downsizing, this news further sheds light on the turmoil that has enveloped the floundering operation. Mike, who uses an ancient photo of himself on his website, was expected to move with Air America to its new and smaller flagship station in New York, WWRL- AM. So what is going on now?


Though Malloy and wife Kathy weren't being paid much by Air America, very little of its programming schedule outside of Franken, Rhodes and a couple of others now appears to be avoiding the chopping block.

Malloy's angry style and rhetoric have mostly been ignored by the media, with the exception of a couple of particularly extreme moments. One occurred when he lashed out at a conservative group that politely invited him to broadcast from their convention, calling them "neo- nazis".

And earlier this year, Malloy's idea of being a "team player" was to threaten our inside sources at the network.


And as for numbers, Malloy wasn't generating any: in the spring 2006 Arbitron survey, his combined (adults 25-54) ratings stood at a pathetic 0.5 share in New York City, compared to a 2.1 for rival Lionel on WOR 710 AM and 2.2 for the just- cancelled John Batchelor on WABC. For Malloy, that represented a drop of 29% over the previous ratings period.

What Mike did have, however, was a hard- core cult following by some of Air America's most politically extreme listeners. Apparently, the network felt that wasn't a demographic worth maintaining.


The bigger question, of course, is why the inner turmoil at the network continues unabated. Programming decisions seem to change by the day, with a scorecard needed to keep track of them.

With so many internal managers having recently departed from AAR's New York headquarters, who is now calling the shots, other than Jim Wiggett in San Francisco and Rob Glaser in Seattle?


UPDATE: a reader emails this:

Brian,

Great job on your blog- I never miss it.

Regarding Mike Mallory's firing, maybe it's coincidence, but pretty much at the beginning of subbing for Randi Rhodes Tuesday, Malloy was ripping on "the suits" at Air America and their move to the new station in New York.

As I was listening, I was thinking, "wow, he could really p*ss off the bosses with his rant". I'm guessing he did. hehe

Again, just my two bits based on what I heard.

Keep up the great work.

E F

E F, this might explain why Malloy was ripped right out of the middle of a fill- in stint for Randi Rhodes. Another host abruptly replaced him mid- week.


UPDATE: the ratings information above is at best misleading, as WLIB began airing ABC Radio's Satellite Sisters in Malloy's timeslot earlier this year. The crappy numbers mentioned belong to them, not to Malloy. Beyond New York, it's hard to tell just how many stations were running his show. He did well in Portland, Oregon, (over a 6 share in the evenings on KPOJ) but not in Los Angeles, where his late night slot generated only a 0.1 share (adults 25-54).

In addition, the Radio Equalizer has heard that at least some of Malloy's stations were caught off guard by his firing, having not received the customary notice of his show's cancellation. At least one affiliate was scrambling Wednesday to make other plans at the last minute.

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Old Picture, Like Rats: David A Lunde for the Radio Equalizer