Portland Air America Station is owned by Clearchannel. Questiion for you.

I was wondering if you all think this is more than just a "ka-wink-e-dink". Portland Oregon is one of the only 5 places to listen to Air America programming all day.

The station, which played oldies until 9AM this morning, is owned by Clearchannel.

Now I'm not sure if you know this, however Portland is a fairly left town. The state may be hanging out on the right, however Portland pulls it's own and keeps the state from going completely crazy (think Utah). I don't know anyone in P-town who doesn't know the Clearchannel controversy.

My question is this. Do you think Clearchannel adopted Air America because:

1) they know that it is a smart business decision to adopt a left-wing, progressive programming in a town like Portland. Or. . .

2) they are trying to prevent the announcers and programming on Air America to criticize them too much?

What do you think?
~n

that America really does consist of more views that the drivel Rush, Bill and the rest of the bots parrot?

decision! Music, oldies or other wise, on AM radio is a dud.
Perhaps a good chance at avoiding the critics.
Clear Channel also announced today a Jessie Jackson Show on some of their stations. All in all, it comes down to business; bottom line.

You'd have to think that the oldie's format wasn't doing sweet FA for them at the bank, and it's also a way for them to claim to not be idealogically bent.

Even tho they are.

Whatever. May they make lots of money. I laughed my ass off when Randi Rhodes said she was going to 'Destroy' Lars Larson--and the comments about his lil' shooter. LOL

He does have a very small penis tho.

~n

CC will run ANYTHING that makes them money. Tossing Air America on some of their AMs is a smart idea. If it works, they my do that in other smaller markets.

... -benefit analysis (as invented by Ben Franklin).

If your assumption is correct and Clear Channel still does own the station, another, more likely explanation why they'd sign on to Air America is to keep a close watch on a nascent potential competitor.

The potential audience for Air America must be HUGE. After all, Al Gore won a MAJORITY of the popular vote in 2000. While right-wing radio must already have pretty much saturated Bush supporters, the majority has had no place to turn.

If Air America is successful, look for Clear Channel to try to buy it up quickly. After all, they're in the business of selling expanding audiences to advertisers at higher and higher advertising prices. WHAT they broadcast must be of secondary concern to the primary decisionmakers, as long as they're maximizing their listener base. Of course, there must be right-wing ideologues at Clear Channel who may have a different agenda.

liberal radio time was coming up....it's about money, ratings, and reaching a lot of people that have tuned out....CC was mentioned as one outfit that would do it if it made $$

They (CC) has Rush and Dr. Laura on KEX and Al, Ed and Randi on KPOJ. They got it goin' both ways. They'll deliver an audience to their advertisers. The actual programs are filling between the commercials...

They are throwing AA on a few token properties to make it look like the aren't biased in case Kerry wins. If Bush wins, AA will probably get yanked microseconds after Bush is declared the winner.

They make $$$$$$$, and when the "liberal" media tosses out that Clear Channel isn't exactly fair and balanced, they can say "but we carry Air America on 2 (out of 1000) stations, we are fair and balanced!"

Clear Chanel will broadcast a dog barking for an hour if it will get them more listeners and more money.

And they can't control Air America just by owning the Portland station.

And its true they own Randi's station as well. Do you remember when Fox News sued Fox for slander? Some of News Corp's foreign channels are quite liberal. It's a crazy world but money is still honey.

Simple as that. Sure there are enough local wingnuts to support Lars Larson, but there's obviously a big local market of liberals.

Glad somebody finally figured it out. Simple market economics IMHO.

I'm guessing the criticisms about them being too conservative are being taken to heart on a limited basis.

That's why they still have Randi on WJNO, because she's #1 in her market. They want bang for their buck, despite their Conservative bias.