WLVP-AM Portland, Liberal Talk Radio

STILL FADING

In Another Lefty City, Libtalk Shown The Door







If you thought liberal talk radio was dead and gone, guess again: there are several stations out there that haven't yet cancelled its programming.

And with its slow and painful demise still ongoing, format changes are making headlines in the affected locales. In this case, Air America Radio is now out in a left- leaning city: Portland, Maine.

From WMTW-8:

PORTLAND, Maine -- Nationally- syndicated Air America Radio if off the air in Portland.

News 8 has learned that Nassau Broadcasting, which owns Air America affiliate WLVP-AM, has changed the station's format, effective Friday. The station will now carry ESPN Sports Radio.

The station, which broadcasts at 870 and 1470 AM, will now be known as "Maine's Sports Station."

In September 2004, Nassau announced that it was taking Air America off the air, but public outcry forced the company to reverse its decision.

And according to the Portland Press- Herald, the loss of Al Franken and other Air America lineup changes were a major factor:

PORTLAND — Air America Radio, the liberal talk network, has gone off the air in Portland.

WLVP (870 AM) dropped Air America at 6 a.m. Friday and replaced it with the national sports network ESPN Radio.

Nassau Broadcasting, owners of WLVP, decided to drop Air America because of significant changes at the network recently, said Patrick Collins, senior vice president for Nassau Broadcasting in Maine.

Collins said the changes, included the departure of Air America’s star personality, Al Franken. By Friday afternoon, Collins said he had gotten a couple dozen phone calls from people protesting the change.

Besides the national programming of ESPN Radio, Collins said 870 AM will also broadcast local high school sports, beginning with football in the fall.

Here's a question worth repeating: when was the last time a station actually signed on with liberal talk radio programming?


Meanwhile, it's increasingly clear that Air America Radio's continuing existence is an attempt at bringing credibility to Mark Green's faded political career. From Thursday's show, here's Rush Limbaugh's take on the situation:

RUSH: They kept teasing it, kept promoting this upcoming segment. Bush vs. Rush. Then last night, this is (MSNBC Hardball host Chris) Matthews and playing an audio sound bite from me.

MATTHEWS: Rush vs. Bush. Tuesday in Georgia this week, President Bush went on the attack to sell the immigration plan to his political right. I don't know. Some supporters, including Rush Limbaugh, didn't take kindly to the president's tone. Let's listen to him.

RUSH ARCHIVE: It's disappointing to me. I'm not going to hide that fact. That he may be attacking me doesn't bother me. What concerns me more about it -- you can't take this kind of stuff personally. He didn't mention my name and I'm not going to sit around here and start making assumptions. The thing that is most troublesome to me is that the words that he spoke yesterday were a criticism of the people who have stood by him through thick and thin when everyone's been trying to destroy him, be it on the National Guard story, take your pick, Rumsfeld, the entire war in Iraq, the whole weapons of mass destruction thing, people have stood by him, and because they trust him and believe him on those issues. They also did not want the Democrats to get away with taking him out.

RUSH: Now the interview portion of the program.

GREEN: Rush Limbaugh is really funny, and so is George Bush. Bush is probably scratching his head wondering why these opponents use such demagogic phrases as "amnesty." It's not literally amnesty, as you know, because you have to pay a fine. One last point on Rush Limbaugh, I know exactly who he is, enormously talented; he gets higher ratings than Air America; he has ten million people listening. He has five to eight percent of America listening. Good for ratings --

ROGERS: I sense jealousy.

GREEN: -- awful for politics. Eight percent doesn't win an election. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant to someone who doesn't care about winning Republican primaries.

ROGERS: If Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant, what is Air America?

RUSH: If I'm irrelevant, why was I the show last night? Why is this whole fake topic of Rush vs. Bush a big deal? First off, the voice you heard was Mark Green, who is the brother of the new owner of Dead Air America. He doesn't even know what he's talking about here. He said, "It's not literally amnesty, as you know, because you have to pay a fine." No, you don't have pay a fine. That's unless you want citizenship. If you don't want to have citizenship, you just want to become legal, you don't pay a fine, Mark. No fine whatsoever.

Also, my audience, 20 million, Mark, in a week, 12 million from beginning to end of each three-hour program, five million at any one time. I love these guys. They sit out there and they go on and on and on about how irrelevant I am, while at the same time making me relevant.

This is exactly right: why is Mark Green now relevant? Because his brother bought him a radio network?

Who is Green to downplay Limbaugh's political importance? Get some ratings for your remaining stations and then perhaps you'll someday be in a position to talk that way.


HELP us learn more about our readers: take this new blog survey and vote for your favorite sites and news shows! Aggregate data will soon be available, both for this site and the more than 1000 other bloggers also participating in this exciting research project.


Your Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, regardless of what you ultimately purchase, help to further this site's efforts.

Or, if you would prefer, please contribute at the Honor System box in the upper right corner. Thanks again!


Technorati tags: talk radio mark green air america portland air america maine air america radio rush limbaugh liberal talk radio