Hot Air America? Mega-Financing Issues Revealed

On March 30, the night before Air America went on the air, the liberal radio network threw itself a $70,000 party at Manhattan's hip Maritime Hotel. More than 1,000 guests, including Yoko Ono and Tim Robbins, drank red, white and blue vodka cocktails as they toasted the network's bid to challenge the dominance of conservative talk radio.

But behind the scenes, Air America was running out of money. Today several employees say they still haven't been reimbursed for the costs of attending the New York launch. "It was a fun party, until I knew I was paying for it," says Bob Visotcky, Air America's former Los Angeles market manager, who hasn't been reimbursed for his hotel room and flight.

Mr. Visotcky wasn't the only insider in the dark about the company's problems. Many of Air America's investors and executives say they thought the network had raised more than $30 million, based on assurances from its owners, Guam-based entrepreneurs Evan M. Cohen and Rex Sorensen. In fact, Air America had raised only $6 million, Mr. Cohen concedes. Within six weeks of the launch, those funds had been spent and the company owed creditors more than $2 million.

As the network tried to repair the damage, it was also fighting with Mr. Franken over how his salary was paid. As the network's star, Mr. Franken had negotiated a pay package valued at more than $1 million a year, according to a copy of the contract viewed by The Wall Street Journal. On the evening of April 26, Mr. Goodfriend says he was asked by Mr. Cohen to show Mr. Franken a deposit slip that would prove he'd been paid a portion of his salary. Mr. Cohen says he only asked Mr. Goodfriend to negotiate with Mr. Franken.

The next day, Mr. Goodfriend went to Mr. Franken's Manhattan apartment to meet Mr. Franken's wife, who manages her husband's finances. Over the Frankens' kitchen table, the two tore open an envelope sent over by Mr. Cohen that they thought was going to contain proof of the payment. All they found was a stack of irrelevant documents.

Scuderiaferrari said:
what do you expect from the wall street journal? they are a notorious mouthpiece of the right.

Scuderiaferrari said:
i don't care. i don't believe it

Scuderiaferrari said:
they still cite the WSJ as their source

Scuderiaferrari said:
i don't think it's manufactured. i'm sure there is truth behind this. but the WSJ is subjective and biased. i'll take it as half truth, at best. and i'm not worried; AAR is going nowhere. remember the shitstorm a few months ago when AAR 'closed their sales offices in chicago and los angeles'? yeah. still didn't go anyplace.

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE MARCH 23, 2005 20:32:45 ET XXXXX

HBO MOVIE SHOWS RADIO 'AIR AMERICA' CHAOS

**Exclusive**

HBO is set to air a behind the scenes look at the launching of liberal radio network AIR AMERICA.

The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a director's cut of LEFT OF THE DIAL, a grossly entertaining docu-drama of life on the other side of the AIR AMERICA microphone.

The doubts. The lies. The bounced checks. The heartbreak.

The viewer is taken upclose to witness the ugly business of media ambition.

The main character, Evan Cohen, founding chairman and main investor, is depicted as a complete fraud.

The documentary shows Cohen arriving in the middle of night at AIR AMERICA offices to sign over the company and disappear again, but not before lying about how many ads have been sold and how much money is the bank [zero].

Dead Air.

It shows how AIR AMERICA executives lied and lied again about not bouncing checks to their Chicago and Los Angeles affiliate owners. [The network was quickly thrown off the stations.]

The film captures AIR AMERICA staff first learning about the Chicago and LA nightmare by reading a DRUDGE REPORT exclusive on their computers.

It shows midday host Al Franken at a staff meeting being told there is no money left, hilariously, just moments after ranting about George Bush's ethics.

The HBO crew is told to shut down their cameras -- but they don't -- and the 'We're Broke!' meeting is filmed raw.

LEFT OF THE DIAL shows an angry meeting of the writing staff being told how money was deducted from their checks to pay for health care -- but the money was never paid to the HMO and they were never covered!

Host Janeane Garofalo looks suicidal in nearly ever scene which she appears.

"What am I going to do, just ramble on and on," panics stand-up-comic-morning-drive-host Marc Maron, as he deals with the reality of becoming a talkshow host.

But every drama must have a hero: Enter Randi Rhodes.

Highlight. The camera captures pm drive Rhodes in her classic PMS mood, but this time at home, in her newly rented NYC apartment.

Wearing a leopard-spotted robe, bra-less, smoking and crying "I'm so f**ckign lost," the relocated Floridian steals the show.

Talking to herself in the bedroom mirror, Rhodes whispers "You can do this."

She bemoans throughout how she is not being featured in any AIR AMERICA press. "No CNN. No USATODAY. No YAHOO wire story." How she is the only one hired at AIR AMERICA that's even been on radio before.

When she attempts to introduce herself to director Michael Moore [rushing out of a Franken Radio interview], Rhodes quickly realizes he does not even know who she is.

The heartbreaking scene is easily a frontrunner for this year's EMMYs.

The HBO film is set for air March 31.

BillHaverchuck said:
You do realize the station is on good footing now, right?

stockula said:
Is it? The station that carries AA here begs for donations to keep it on the air, they mostly play PSAs for commercial breaks.

reprobate said:

Maybe thats because you live at the frozen, ass end of the goddamn planet, Stock.

stockula said:

More likely it's because businesses don't want to waste their ad budgets on a station no one listens to.

stockula said:
Different strokes, man. I wouldn't want to live in LA.

reprobate said:

Hey, you like Alaska, its all yours, all 571,000 permafrosted square miles of it. The fact remains that you have more caribou than people and your little corner of the world isn't known for attracting gregarious urban sophisticates

stockula said:

You say that like it's a bad thing, elitist snob.


[Edited on Mar 22, 2005 by stockula]

stockula said:

You say that like it's a bad thing, elitist snob. One of the most unapplealling features of Liberals is their condescending, disparaging attitudes towards people who don't agree with them.

"You unsophisticated hicks, don't you understand we know what's best for you? Why wouldn't everyone want to live in a congested, polluted, crime-ridden city like we live in?"

Ironically, as the media exploits this latest fiasco, the on-air hosts find their groove. Rhodes is thrilled to get her own cover story in the Washington Post Magazine and a billboard in Times Square. Maron has worked through his anxieties, as have Garofalo and Seder. The New York ratings are unexpectedly high - Franken beats Rush Limbaugh, and Rhodes outpaces right-wing rival Sean Hannity. Encouraged, management is able to attract additional investors long enough to keep the venture afloat through November.

In December 2004, a new round of investors brings Air America a measure of financial stability. With 40 affiliates and counting, the voices of the left are now being heard, loud and clear, from coast to coast.