Air America

From the Capital Times
By Doug Moe

March 23, 2004

David Goodfriend, a West High grad and former staffer for U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, is one of the prime movers behind Air America, the fledgling liberal radio network that will begin airing in four cities - New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco - next week.

Conspicuous in its absence from that list, of course, is Madison - a liberal republic, in the words of Rush Limbaugh and Rush wannabes. Goodfriend was saying Monday he would like nothing better than to see the network get air time in his old hometown.

"It's a matter of pride, if nothing else, to be on in Madison," he said.

Goodfriend was in New York Monday preparing for the network launch on March 31. According to a New York Times Magazine piece Sunday on Al Franken, Air America's most prominent host, the idea of a liberal radio network was getting nowhere fast until Goodfriend stepped to the plate: "It languished for months until David Goodfriend, a former Clinton White House staff member, and Evan Cohen, an entrepreneur who at the time was developing a pan-Asian radio network, saw an opportunity and pulled together a group of investors to resuscitate the project."

Goodfriend told me Monday that one of the investors is from Madison, though he declined to name the investor without permission.

Marv emailed me earlier this week and said that he'd listened to Air America so they must be streaming on the Net somewhere.

Ah, there's their home page. Yep - streaming in Real Audio. Hey! Janeane Garofalo hosts a show. Not only is she beautiful but I've also been pretty impressed with her in interviews I've read and seen with her. Several years ago, she was on the Dennis Miller Show or something similar and went off on how much she hates the music of Hootie and the Blowfish. Since I felt the same way, she instantly endeared herself to me. And ChuckD is on a show too! I like Public Enemy and I remember some of his statements from a few years ago when he got involved in the Napster hoopla.

........

So far, it's pretty good but I obviously need to listen to a lot more before I'll be able to make a reasoned opinion. The big difference I hear is a general lack of histrionics - Clinton is not to blame for all the ills in the world, feminazis aren't leading American into a moral abyss, etc.

If you can, give it a listen and lemme know what you think. In addition to their web page, they can also be found here:

New York - WLIB 1190 AM

Los Angeles - KBLA 1580 AM

Chicago - WNTD 950 AM

Portland, OR- KPOJ 620 AM

Inland Empire, CA- KCAA 1050 AM

XM Satellite Radio - Channel 167

San Francisco- To Be Announced

San Jose - To Be Announced