Brilliant Bite

Excerpts below from 4/11 post by Jill http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com  about Air America, entitled: Why I miss Air America, and why this week just makes it worse. I really could not say this any better myself. Check out the entire post at her blog!

I miss the original Air America. Creative, smart, enthusiastic, experimental, funny, edgy, real…

Again, support the idea of a 5 day a week show for Sam Seder by writing to Air America:  pcollins@airamerica.com

 

“… what Air America has meant to me, and to people like me, over the past four years, is something that I don’t think the parade of ants in suits who have marched through its offices during that time have ever really understood.     

…In those early days, Air America had a kind of “Hey, kids, let’s put on a radio network!” feel to it as the various shows fumbled their way towards some kind of cohesiveness. 

…With an on-air stable of talent that included few people with any actual radio experience, we were able to listen to their on-the-job training. This was not everyone’s cup of tea, as it often resulted in things like listening to Janeane Garofalo screeching or playing out her issues with her conservative father Carmine on our time. But it was new, and it was fresh, and it was different, and damn it, it finally spoke to US — after a decade that saw mindless grinning mouthbreathers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz and Mark Levin suck up all the AM frequencies.

…Because Arbitron never takes into account web streaming and podcasting, it’s impossible to know how many people were actually listening, but it was a lot more than the conventional meme of “Progressive Radio Fails Because No One Wants It” would have you believe.

…Air America has been plagued by bad management since day one, and it’s the company’s employees, the on-air talent, and the audience that have paid the price. What far too few of the incarnations of Air America management have understood is what a life preserver the network has been to those of us who have had our eyes open through the horror that has been the Bush years. I realize that for the suits in the executive suite, it’s about delivering eardrums to advertisers, but these nimrods that have marched through this company over the past four years, stuck in an era when it’s all about the AM ears, have never realized that Air America’s audience has been just as much about streaming and podcasts as AM radio. They have never understood that the audience was not only far larger than they realized, but also ferociously loyal; but loyal not to “the corporation” but to the bigger concept of progressive talk radio, and to the on-air talent that brought the news, the perspective, and the funny to our ears.

… it’s rare that radio personalities make themselves as accessible to listeners as these two men [Marc Maron and Sam Seder] have. 

… Sam Seder is another story entirely. …Seder worked hard, improved his delivery, did his homework, and created his own style and his own following via his web site. No one can ever say that Sam Seder hasn’t played well with others. When they cancelled The Majority Report, he moved seamlessly to the morning slot. [when they replaced his morning show with Lionel] Seder kept his mouth shut, moved to his Sunday wasteland, and took his community with him.

…Over the last year, SamSederShow.com has become an online community in its own right, and on Tuesdays Seder and Marc Maron do a VODcast that provides a single hour of sanity for those of us who wake up every goddamn day wishing the old Air America was still around. Sam Seder is a good and decent man who has done nothing but bleed Air America blue for the last four years. He fills in when he’s asked to, often at a moment’s notice. He hasn’t once complained. When he had to find out via Instant Messenger that his employer had once again kicked him in the teeth by choosing someone else to keep the 3-6 PM slot warm next week, you never heard him complain on the air. 

…None of these guys [the corporate suits] get that progressive talk radio cannot simply be about getting people to buy John Cammuta’s latest get rich quick scheme or some cream to make your dick bigger or some other cream that’s guaranteed to get rid of the bags under your eyes if you just give them your credit card number so they can charge you every month. 

…No, it’s about the community. It’s about the unique bond that these radio novices created with those who listen to them.

… It’s not about money, it’s about people. It’s about sustaining a community in an alienated world. 

… Morning Sedition has been gone for over two years, and I miss it every single day. Sam Seder’s show often doesn’t make it to the podcast till two days later. Now Randi is gone, and if there’s any justice in the world, Rachel Maddow will take over for David Gregory in the MSNBC 6 PM slot. And then everyone who made Air America something exciting and special will be gone.”  

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