Air America makes way to Bay Area (Thursday at Midnight) [View All]

Air America makes way to Bay Area

By Casey Mills

CONTRA COSTA TIMES


It's always been a bit of a head-scratcher. In the Bay Area, one of the most liberal regions in the country, AM talk radio is dominated by conservative shows. Meanwhile, Air America, the high-profile syndicated liberal radio program, has failed to find a home here.

However, Bay Area liberals can now rejoice -- Air America is about to arrive. At midnight on Thursday, its 24-hour-a-day stream of leftist discussions, rants and news will begin airing on a newly renamed KQKE-AM 960. KQKE replaces KABL and its format of American pop classics from Frank Sinatra to Dionne Warwick to Ray Charles, which will move to 92.1 FM.

The nationwide Air America network began broadcasting this year, hoping to counterbalance what they perceived as conservatives' dominance of talk radio. With shows featuring comedians such as Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, the network's programming attempts to bring listeners in with humorous political discussion as well as meat-and-potatoes news from a left-wing perspective.

The network ran into trouble soon after its launch, including the departure of five top executives, internal disputes concerning funding and getting dropped from the airwaves in Los Angeles and Chicago. In the Bay Area, announcements that the station would begin airing here in April never materialized.

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