While the jury is
still out regarding Air America's connection to Black radio, it's
important to realize that the all-important element of Black talk
radio, is that it traditionally has fought the Limbaughs, Savages, and
O'Reillys just by existing. They don't have to talk about them, simply
being a voice and urging dialogue within the inner city is a problem
for consevatives by default.
Some African Americans who own their own radio stations
continue to not know to do with themselves. Many station formats border
too much on extremes, there's either too much rap or too much religion
and too little dialogue. First there was a purging of local news
staffs, now some stations that have the right dialogue are under
invasion, from the likes of Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, and Lizz
Winstead. It's not just Air America alone that is guilty, many felt the White
liberal program wouldn't last after the presidential election, but here
they are, still showing signs of life roughly a month later. The major
life support systems that power conservative talk radio; Clear Channel,
TRN (Talk Radio Network), or Salem Broadcasting wasn't about to sign
them on. This left various local AM outlets open to integrating Air
America into their airwaves. Funded heavily by liberal investor George
Soros, Air America's first target was none other than New York's famed
former Black activist driven radio station AM1190 WLIB; "The Voice of
Radio Revolution." This was on 3/31/04, the strange thing about the
merger was it was done under some protest, but Air America went to WLIB
under the pretext of "African Americans had just stopped listening to
WLIB." Of course this doesn't mean people are listening to WLIB now. [more]
Tom Joyner's Reach Media sells 51% stake to Radio One for $56.1 million [more]
