From its very beginning, liberal radio network Air America faced a lot doubts: about its subject matter, its business model and most of all its viability. In a Media Life poll taken just before the network’s March 2004 launch, just 20 percent of respondents deemed the network a good idea. Another 20 percent predicted it would be “a big fat flop.” Indeed, after two years of financial troubles, distribution woes and executive musical chairs, Air America filed for bankruptcy last Friday. The network admitted to losing more than $40 million in its brief existence and still owes its biggest draw, comedian/host Al Franken, more than $300,000 in salary, according to court papers. The filing came just weeks after the network vehemently denied reports that it was going into Chapter 11. Air America claims 2.4 million weekly listeners and is carried on 92 stations nationwide, and it plans to continue broadcasting during the bankruptcy proceedings. The big questions, of course, are what went wrong for Air America and whether a liberal radio network is actually a viable idea in this country. Nancy Haynes, principal of Collins, Haynes & Lully Advertising in Charlotte, N.C., and Andrew Ettinger, media supervisor at EarthQuake Media in New York, talk to Media Life about why Air America failed.

What has been Air America's biggest problem over its brief two-plus-years existence?

Haynes: Air America has had an especially tough time growing its audience because its affiliates must take listeners almost entirely from other, more-established stations, and the most likely source for Air America to “steal” audience would be from NPR affiliates. Yet NPR's isteners are among radio's most loyal. That's bad news for Air America.

Bottom line: No additional listeners equals no increase in revenue.

Ettinger: Bad PR. Too many debacles and plenty of bad spin on each: The lawsuits, the station problems, the personnel changes.

Air America was never able to get out from the mainstream perception that it was in trouble. This, of course, leads to a lack of credibility as an advertising vehicle.

What was the bigger problem for Air America: A flawed business model or not enough appetite for the subject matter?
 
Haynes: It isn't that liberals don't have an appetite for the subject matter. It's that they don't have to hear someone on the radio parroting their beliefs in order to feel validated.

As for having a good business model, up until the current administration, Republicans have had a lock on that.

Ettinger: The business model was flawed. Big talk radio advertisers don't care about the content, they care about the audience numbers. Few advertisers buy based on political persuasion. Rather advertising, and radio specifically, is bought based on sales results.

Could a liberal radio network ever succeed? That is, is there a desire for a liberal radio network?

Haynes: A liberal network absolutely can succeed as long as the goal does not include 100 percent national penetration. When the goal includes having listenership in conservative geographical areas, failure is inevitable.

Ettinger: Yes, it can succeed. But to build a radio network you need to start from a solid base and then expand. Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Sean Hannity, etc. did not appear overnight as dominant radio personalities.

Rather, they build their following one station at a time, one market at a time. By doing so they grew from strength, not artificial station clearances.
 

What, if anything, can be learned from Air America's problems? Can the network recover?
 
Haynes: They're toast.

Ettinger: The lesson: Go slowly. Don't expand too quickly. Let the audience grow naturally and build sales around those organic numbers, not artificially inflated ones. Of course ratings will increase as stations and markets get added, but that is not truly organic growth.
 

Were the Air America people aggressive in selling the network to media people?
 
Haynes: Aggressive selling implies an organized, strategic effort. I could spend all day quoting Jon Stewart on the idea that Democrats don't have anything remotely like that.

Ettinger: I have not had the opportunity to buy time on Air America, so I can't comment on how aggressive their sales force is.
 

What was the general sense about the network within the media community?
 
Haynes: Apathy. And then more apathy. This is a shame because Air America's listeners, like NPR's, are loyal not only to the programming but to the network's advertisers. As an advertiser, I would rather have a couple of hot prospects than have a dozen tire-kickers.

Ettinger: I think it had good ideas but the actual “network” portion was weak. The stations were not solid. No real partnerships ever came about with corporate radio ownership groups.
 

What could Air America have done better to guard against its financial and identity problems?
 
Haynes: Didn't the financial problems actually cause most of the identity problems?

One thing for sure, is that Greenstone Media [the women-focused network recently launched by Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda] should use this as a roadmap for how not to launch a network.