Jerry Springer, Young Turks, Air America Lineup

ANOTHER NEW LINEUP

Air America Releases Schedule, Will It Matter?






Air America Radio has released yet another version of its new lineup, this time a "final" one, according to several publications today. Given the unbelievable number of changes made over the last month, however, we're surprised by the lack of media scepticism here.

After all, even previously announced changes have disappeared and reappeared over the past two months, without explanation.

Key to the new schedule is the loss of Jerry Springer, news that was first broken here in August. In the weeks since, however, there was a tremendous effort by Jerry's representatives to keep him in the lineup. Clearly, his people cooked up another plan when that didn't work out.

Even now, the fate of his program isn't entirely clear: one report says that Air America will syndicate him to other stations, but our own information indicates that Clear Channel has its own plans for the show, which could include competing against Air America's offerings in some markets.

Beyond that, mornings will now feature the Young Turks, an Internet and satellite- based talk show hosted by a group of partisan activists. How many stations will pick up the program isn't clear, a good guess would be between two and three dozen.

We'd go over the rest of the new schedule, but it's not clear whether that really matters anymore. With the network broke, in disarray and its remaining lefty audience base angry over the botched firing of host Mike Malloy, these moves do nothing to address the lack of revenues and huge talent expenses.


Meanwhile, a Today Show appearance by Jane Fonda has led to a Radio Equalizer traffic surge, as Google searchers look for more information on the feminist talk radio network she discussed on the program.

So far, the only Internet mention of the appearance has occurred at the New York Radio Message Board:

Posted by Ellis Bromberg on September 12, 2006 at 11:22:33:

This morning on the Today Show, Jane Fonda discussed the new women's-oriented radio talk network she and Gloria Steinem have organized, GreenStone Media.

She had some interesting things to say about research that appeared to indicate women were listening less to terrestrial radio than in the past. She blamed it on station managers who are mostly men and do not understand or care what women listeners want to hear on the radio.

She mentioned that the network was starting on AM, then going to move to FM in the future. Matt Lauer asked her why they aren't on satellite radio. Fonda said that most of the listeners they're trying to reach do not have satellite, that radio was where the audience was.

We've previously covered GreenStone's plans here and here.

Wish we had a clip of her Today Show appearance, while we search for it, enjoy a 1968 Barbarella preview:




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