Don't Let The Door Bounce Your Boobies On Your Way Out

I was far far away from Leftblogistan last week. I was in Las BlahBlah, Nev., schmoozing and conventioneering for my day job. So. Did anything happen in radioland while I was gone? Artie Lange tried to kill his assistant? You don’t say.

Seriously. I am utterly proud of Randi Rhodes; I was last week and I am today as I anticipate her first Nova M broadcast (note in this updated entry that I had hoped she’d go to Nova M and give the stealth upstart network a shot in the arm).

Too often these days our media darlings, who make livings spending hours a day in front of live open microphones, say things that go against the grain and are expected immediately to repent or die. Too often, they repent, as if society at large has the pinkies in a thumb-lock. I am the last person in the world to defend Don Imus, for example, but I don’t think the man had to meet with Sharpton, I don’t think he needed to cry, I don’t think he needed to hire black people for his new show. I think every step Imus made after the NHH incident was only so much “I have lots of black friends.” I don’t think David Shuster needed to apologize. I don’t think broadcasters should have to apologize for accidentally saying “shit” into a mic they didn’t think was live. And I certainly don’t think Randi Rhodes owed anyone in the universe an apology for things she said on a stage before an audience in San Francisco that was * not for air *.

Air America Radio has really painted itself into a ceiling corner here. When AAR first started, it created, owned, and/or vigorously branded its programs. Now, it hardly owns anything it broadcasts. Lionel was its own show before AAR grabbed it, and half the listeners don’t like it anyways. The Thom Hartmann Show is owned and operated solely by the broadcaster. Randi had honed her craft for years in Florida, but AAR had branded her show, giving her the national syndication and prominence she wanted. AAR created TRMS, but the Doc has her eyes on a career in television.

So now today AAR will broadcast The Celebritard Hour with Det. Munch (shocked, I’m just shocked that the network doesn’t have a new program together and ready to go and/or that they don’t use the most obvious solution, to give the spot to Sammy Seder, about whom most AAR listeners are rabid and fiercely loyal), and the Nova M stream will get absolutely slammed at 3 p.m. The network’s Founders Club will grow by leaps and bounds, helping the network prosper and become downright competetive with the increasingly corporate and punchdrunk Air America Radio, which will continue to strip down its programming schedule until it’s just Richard Greene and his “Every Breath You Take” bumper music 12 hours a day. Greene will go mad and rip out his own eyes, but it will make very interesting radio for a minute.

I have figured out how to stream Nova M on my Treo, so I will be listening to Randi on Nova M today. I think it’s the beginning of something really great.

4:06 p.m. I have this to say for Nova M’s flagship: Their ad department is certainly on the ball; more on the ball than any AAR affiliate I’ve ever heard. They’ve clearly used enterprise and creativity to grab advertising dollars in their community, and they do it with an awareness in mind of their intended audience.

Editor’s Note: This entry was updated since April 10.

Potporry:

• I am glad to have been away and very busy last week because I still do not know what the hell Barack Obama said or why some people think it’s bad, and I do not care. The week has disconnected me from the presidential race, and for that I am thankful and wish to remain so for as long as is possible. I am so sick of it I could vomit. Screw it: Larry Craig for President!