Randi Rhodes on Larry King

Randi describes why she left Air America:



Richard Belzer will fill Randi Rhodes' 3pm-6pm time slot on Air America all next week. Belzer is also a stand-up comedian. . .ought-oh. . .

Randi Rhodes leaves Air America

Talker lands on her feet at Green 960:



John Scott, Program Director of Green960, speaks out:

"We have been very frustrated the past few days in our efforts to rectify the Randi Rhodes Situation (her suspension by her network, Air America Radio). It is our understanding that today (April 9th) she is no longer an employee of Air America. So we are bringing her back."

Monday, April 14th at 4pm... it will be our pleasure to announce the return of Randi Rhodes to the Green 960 family.


Watch the video below that chronicles the timeline of the circus, and our efforts to do what's right for the vast majority of Green960 listeners that support her.

The Facts

Comments made by Randi Rhodes were made during a Green 960 Event on March 22nd. Those in attendance were required to sign up through Green960.com and paid $5 to attend. Money raised went to Green960.

This event took place at Broadway Studios in San Francisco on Saturday, March 22nd.
Green960's event was posted on My.BarackObama.com's event listings by a listener of the station as a social meetup & is no way affiliated with Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The $5 collected was for Green960.

The entire video of the event was made available through Green960 to our listeners and Randi Rhodes fans on March 26th.

Randi Rhodes - Hillary's a "big f*cking whore"

To quote Dick Cheney: So?



The "Goddess of Radio" has been suspended from Air America:

Air America has suspended on-air host Randi Rhodes for making inappropriate statements about prominent figures, including Senator Hillary Clinton, at a recent public appearance on behalf of Air America in San Francisco which was sponsored by an Air America affiliate station.

"Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our Hosts," said chair Charlie Kireker.

Rhodes called both Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton "whores" in a recent appearance, seen below. Rhodes, who hosts a weekday radio show on Air America, said to the cheering crowd, "What a whore Geraldine Ferraro is! She's such a fucking whore!" She then proceeded to say, "Hillary is a big fucking whore, too" to a mixed audience reaction. "You know why she's a big fucking whore? Because her deal is always, 'Read the fine print, asshole!'"

Randi Rhodes at Peace Action 50th Anniversary

Randi Rhodes addressed The 50th Anniversary party of PEACE ACTION of Mich. nov 11 2007. Her speech " WE ... all BELIEVE " was received with standing ovation after standing ovation and her thoughts are shared throughout the peace now & forever community. I am very proud & honored to share her thoughts & words with the " thinking & principled" of the world.

Air America goes Green

Crain's New York Business - March 19, 2007

New York family will run network as business, will ratings improve?

- By Matthew Flamm

In the weeks since Air America Radio emerged from bankruptcy, the liberal radio network's new president, Mark Green, has met with reporters, talked with affiliates and, in keeping with his history as political pugilist, taunted Fox News in the blogosphere.But he has also done something that hasn't been done since Air America launched in spring 2004: hired a vice president of programming to work with the talent. ``He's a guy deeply versed in radio,'' Mr. Green says of veteran talk radio programmer David Bernstein, who starts at the network today.The new hire is one component of what Mr. Green describes as Air America 2.0, an iteration that began when the network was purchased by real estate investor Stephen Green, Mr. Green's older brother. Deep pockets, the manhattan-based company, will continue to be a home for left-leaning or ``progressive'' talkers and produce 19 hours a day of programming. But according to Mr. Green, the new Air America will be run as a business.``We can't be influential if we're not profitable,'' says the onetime New York City public advocate and frequent Air America guest host, who has lost races for U.S. senator, mayor and, most recently, attorney general.

Referring to his elder brother's deep pockets and how much money he is willing to invest, Mr. Green says, ``Steve will not be to Air America what [News Corp Chairman] Rupert Murdoch still is to the New York Post.''The newly constituted Green Family Media can't do much worse than prior owners Progress Media and Piquant, which lost a total of $42 million and were both plagued by fallout from a scandal involving an improper loan from a charity.Stephen Green, chairman of SL Green Realty Corp. and of Air America, bought it out of bankruptcy for a mere $4.25 million from his pocket; minority partners contributed another $3 million.The chairman will oversee the business side of the network. The younger brother will put his background in advocacy and liberal politics to use as its public face. He will also be in charge of content and digital strategies.

Another radio veteran, Scott Elberg, who has been with Air America for two years, was named chief operating officer.Thanks to the bankruptcy, contracts with hosts are being negotiated in line with market rates, in contrast to the $2 million a year that the network's biggest star--and radio novice--Al Franken was paid. He left last month to run for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota. And the workforce of 50 staffers is half the number of a year ago.The Greens are also benefiting from the millions of dollars that were spent building and promoting Air America.

Expensive model``there was a huge startup cost of going into barren terrain and establishing that there was an audience for this,'' says Danny Goldberg, a music industry professional who was the network's chief executive for a year. ``[Air America] may not be moving at 100 miles an hour, but it's moving.''But the company is still founded on an expensive and unwieldy network model: creating a daily lineup of original programming, rather than producing just one or two shows.``It's hard enough to have a successful show in this business, let alone a [full] lineup,'' says Michael Harrison, editor of the trade magazine Talkers. Air America's business troubles have taken a toll. The network is down to 70 affiliates from a peak of almost 90, and many of those listed on its Web site carry no more than one show. Most stations mix in talkers from other networks, like the popular progressive Ed Schultz, or carry their own content.

Additionally, Air America is saddled in some markets with underperforming stations. Flagship WWRL-AM in New York, where the network moved last year after losing its lease at WLIB-AM, posted a paltry 0.8 share in the fall, according to Arbitron.``They've got an uphill battle,'' says Mark Lefkowitz, media director at Furman Roth Advertising, who stopped placing ads on Air America after it left WLIB.Messrs. Green and Elberg counter that they're rebuilding a New York presence on WWRL. They also insist that the network model can work because Air America has established itself as a brand. ``The name gives us leverage,'' Mr. Green says.

Some critics concede that Air America has been making improvements, in particular by moving popular host Thom Hartman into Mr. Franken's former noon-to-3 p.m. slot. What's more, well-run stations, notably in Portland, Ore., and Seattle, have maintained solid ratings.Some radio experts say that getting a network launched at all is an accomplishment that should not be underestimated.``[Air America] is in top markets with top programming and getting an audience,'' says Robert Unmacht of media consulting firm iN3 Partners. ``Now we just have to see if the new folks can run a solid business and keep the product worth listening to.''

Air America 2.0

AIR AMERICA 2.0 BEGINS TODAY

A message from Mark Green - President of Air America Radio:

Today my family formally purchased and took over Air America Radio. Why? Because if progressive values were a stock, now is the time to buy.

This hasn't always been true, as the cycle of politics demonstrates. In recent decades, politics seems to have been governed by physics for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction. William F. Buckley Jr. started The National Review in the 1950s to rebut what he saw as the dominance of liberalism in the academy and opinion journals like The Nation and The New Republic. From 1970-72, Public Citizen, Common Cause and the NRDC were all created in reaction to Nixon's depredations. Similarly, People For the American Way grew out of the rise of the Religious Right under Reagan in the mid-80s.

New progressive think tanks over the past 10 years, most recently and prominently the Center for American Progress, were created to counter AEI and Heritage. And of course, the Huffington Post and Air America were born in reaction to the electronic propaganda of Drudge and Limbaugh et. al.

Air America was a large, smart idea to counter the near-monopoly on talk radio by the far (f)right. But like most start-ups, the business plan collided with reality. Six CEOs over its first three years and various missteps and misspending sent it into Chapter 11.

It's now ready to go from The Perils of Pauline to The Little Engine that Could. How? First, by focusing on the radio fundamentals of making a strong line-up even stronger; second, by connecting to other major progressive organizations to be mutually fortifying; and third, by being a multi-media content company involving other information platforms mobile, video, broadband, blogs, websites. It's time to think outside the (radio) box.

The twin goals are to make it profitable and influential. One without the other won't work. If it's not a business, it'll go out of business.

But it'll be a business with a sharp point of view. The era of on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand liberalism is over -- or as Robert Frost once wrote, "a liberal man is too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel." For all those who worry about messianic misleaders governing on a right wing and a prayer, Air America 2.0 will be an answer. For all those fearful of plutocracy and theocracy, the pro-democracy hosts of AAR's programs are the answer. If the conservative media continue to spout propaganda and call it news, we are the alternative of truth, justice and the Air American way.

It's no longer enough just to hope that The New York Times will cover a rally or press release. The relatively new combination of The Huffington Post, Alternet, MoveOn, Center for American Progress and Campaign for America's Future, The Nation and The American Prospect, DailyKos and Talking Points Memo and so many labor unions means that Air America will be part of a larger progressive infrastructure heard by a widening audience. For if we can't now grow and prosper as Democrats -- given the 110th Congress, given the unmitigated disaster that's Iraq, given a slew of top-quality presidential aspirants -- when will we?

So Air America will aggressively cover national politics and policies in ways that will be informative, opinionated and entertaining. All three. We'll be full of news and views. Two views especially. First, America should stop attacking Muslim countries in ways that multiply terrorism. Second, instead of only talking about exporting democracy, Washington should begin practicing it here at home, for example by making sure elections aren't auctions, which means the public funding of public elections.

Speaking personally, my brother and I are excited by this important challenge and look forward to working with the Air America professionals in front of the mic and behind it who have held this dream together. Steve Green has been a very successful businessman accustomed to making money -- and he doesn't intend for AAR to be an exception. I've been an author, public interest lawyer and the NYC Public Advocate; for me this feels like a continuation of so much I've done for the progressive movement over three decades. Air America is like a public advocate for the country, exposing problems and offering solutions.

So we're both optimists in the spirit of Walt Whitman, who wrote that "America is always becoming." Well, Air America too is always becoming.

But that requires a conversation called democracy. In the spirit that dialogue beats monologue, I am today contacting the New Hampshire Republican Party and the New York Post editorial page. Since the Democratic Party of Nevada actually invited Fox News to host that state's Democratic debate, I asked if Air America could host the first Republican debate in New Hampshire, assuring them that we too can be fair and balanced.

And to Bob McManus, editorial page editor of The New York Post, I proposed that he come on Air America to discuss his views and that Air America commentators would in turn once-a-month write an op-ed on his pages, because it's better to exchange ideas than insults. His 720,000 readers should hear from us and our 2 million+ audience should hear from him.

We have many fresh ideas for programming, for technology, for partnerships with sister organizations. But it's this conversation called democracy that's the cornerstone of Air America 2.0. We intend to listen to our listeners; to increase our listeners ; and hope they will join our journey to a better network, better programming, and a better country. To tell them that it's your America, and your Air America.

Originally Released on The Huffington Post (March 6, 2007)