Liberal Radio Goes Dark

AlterNet gives the scoop on the new liberal radio network Air America's loss of signal last week in Los Angeles and Chicago:

Air America contends that it intentionally withheld payments to KBLA, because KBLA was illegally reselling airtime already paid for by Air America. The disputed airtime rolled by in February and March, before Air America began broadcasting. To fill the time, MultiCultural slotted in Spanish talk and apparently earned revenues by doing so. These revenues should have gone to Air America, said Air America general counsel David Goodfriend, because his network owned that time, even if it wasn't yet using the time for its own programming.

"We sent a letter to them Monday," said Goodfriend. "We said, you've violated our agreement in Los Angeles, and you owe us money. We will negotiate some settlement with you, but we're not happy." Goodfriend said these negotiations were under way the next day, Tuesday, in New York City. "We were engaged in what appeared to be settlement negotiations, and then we find that we're taken off the air in Chicago and Los Angeles. We were all paid up in Chicago, under a separate contract, and they take us off the air anyway."

So, for those L.A. listeners who tuned in this morning, the sudden format change – to Spanish – was not, in fact, a calculated attempt to get Latinos to vote Democratic.

MultiCultural's representative declined to go into as much detail, but said it was a case of no pay, no play. What happened "is not unusual in our type of radio," said Dave Sweeney, executive vice president of MultiCultural's West Coast operations. "We sell block time to many different people. If they can't or don't pay their bill, or bounce checks, we take them off. It's just a matter of paying your bills. We're in the business to sell airtime, not in the business of taking it away from people." He added, "As a general rule, there's plenty of time given to people who fall into default."

Click here for the rest.

Thanks to Brian, Matt, Michael, et al for the tip.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$