Road To Air America: Breaking The Right Wing Stranglehold On Our Nation's Airwaves

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing, and a bit disturbing
Review: I long suspected it, but my suspicions were confirmed that the "liberal media" in America was vanishing after reading this book. A handful of major corporations with strong ties to Republican conservatives now owns the bulk of radio and TV stations, as well as strings of newspapers. Trying to overcome this stranglehold of corporate-owned media is a major part of the Air America story. It's an inspiring story about how one person -- admittedly one with a lot of financial means and people in high places -- can change a landscape if he or she doesn't give up. I listen to Air America from time to time, and while it's clearly a fledling network that's still got a ways to go, it's a refreshing change from the other right-wing AM stations who repeat the same misinformations all over the place. By the way, if you're interested in this title, you should really check out "Outfoxed," a documentary about Fox News and Rupert Murdoch. I watched it after finishing this book, and it echoes what is said in this book.

Rating:
Summary: interesting tale of Air America Radio's beginning
Review: I would give this book 3 stars for writing quality and 3.5 stars for content, but I was extremely interested in the story, so I'm rounding it up to 4 stars anyway. The author and his wife are venture capitalists who were convinced that corporate-owned media were unwilling to cover stories such as Prescott Bush's (W's grandfather) collaboration with the Nazis, and they were inspired to respond to the stranglehold of right-wing radio after Al Gore's "defeat" in the 2000 fiasco.

The story of the beginning of Air America Radio is quite compelling, though the book suffers from repetitiveness and a lack of detail. This is definitely the story from Drobny's point-of-view, and it lacks interesting information that he was either not privy to or chose not to share. For instance, I was interested to know how and why the station started, but when it came to learning about how they found and negotiated with on-air talent, we get only a little information about Al Franken and nothing about anybody else! Also, there was a bit of a fiasco with early financial dealing, but we get only sketchy details from Drobny.

As for content, while Mr. Drobny seems like a very nice fellow and an angel for the left, the book was unintentionally revealing regarding some of his weaknesses. On several occasions, we learn, the Drobnys were asked to give interviews to various networks about the new station, but they declined to do so, fearing that the story would get negative spin!! No wonder they had troube getting initial investors, when they were perpetually declining free publicity! Drobny spends a lot of time lamenting the difficulty in finding finanial backers, but it never seems to have occurred to him to have the station be a non-profit organization funded by contributors. I think a lot of people, myself included, would have donated generously to have a liberal radio station. Later, the management spent a fair amount of money having a PR firm decide on a name -- why not ask potential listeners to try their hand?

Despite the flaws of the people who started the station and the weaknesses of the book, I fully support AAR and bless the Drobnys for getting it on the air. It's a terrific radio alternative, and it has kept me sane through the mire that is politics today.

Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Drobny!