The good news is that it is true that the internet
blogosphere, news sites, community groups and activists are not only the
equivalent of the
conservative talk radio and cable combined, but
create, literally, the opportunity of a lifetime to
build a media megaphone for enlightened
Americanism and a money machine of enormous influence and profitability.
The bad news, is, yet again, as Democrats lag
behind Republicans in communicating message
and mobilizing opportunity, Air America has
neutered itself with the worst business plan
and execution since the cave men first traded
coconuts. My hope is to save Air America, not
bury it, but whether it is through Air America,
a progressive new competitor to Air America,
or other multi-media ventures this is the wave of the present and
future. It will happen, though sadly, without the magnitude of
influence it should have for the historic 2006 elections.
Can we agree on this? Air America in content
speaks to the aspirations of at least 40% of the
American people, and should galvanize the
attention of another 20% who are highly
disillusioned with the direction of the nation,
and very alienated by the mainstream media
and the "fear and smear" media megaphone
of the right. Yet with this potentially huge and
giant audience in waiting, Air America is lucky
to gain 1% audience in major markets that
include New York.
I am referring to management, not the talent,
which is disastrously served by management.
At a minimum, discussed below, probably 60%
of the shows on air should be able to double
or triple their audience share, and dramatically
enhance their megaphone power and their
profitability, within one to two quarters. If
Air America were a public company, there
would be clamors for radical management change, demands for serious
business plans,
and proxy fights that would have prevailed
and forced changes long ago.
Two brief examples from my own experience,
to set the stage, then the call to action, and
how it can be done.
Frank Sinatra was in my opinion the most
talented force in the history of humanity, and
equally interesting, he was backed by some
of the most creative and brilliant business
minds in the history of entertainment, who
I played a modest role in working with. To
understand modern entertainment marketing,
check out the Duet series of albums, where
Mr. Sinatra performed duets with artists such
as Luther Vandross, Bono, Julio Iglesias and
others who transcended all demographic,
gender and ethic audiences. As a cross-over
vehicle, each of the artists brought all of the
other artists to new audiences.
How about Air America building new and
powerful win-win alliances with not only
with progressive internet sites, but with
Hispanic and African American radio and television, mobilizing a huge
democracy project to register voters, organize them, get out the
vote, and respond aggressively and within
minutes to reports of irregularities on election
day?
Not only would this mutually empower all participants and make 2006 a
freedom fall
season, analogous to the freedom summers
that have been wisely suggested by others
here, but this would attract major program sponsors and advertisers who
feel comfortable paying to reach Rush's audience and owe loyalty to
their customers who support our freedom fall season. You get the idea.
Why not have a special series of programs
that would pair ten or twenty Afghanistan
and Iraq or other veteran candidates, with
one national Democrat per show including
Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards,
Wes Clark, Bill Richardson, Russ Feingold
paired with one vet candidate person. And
announced with a simple audience building
news release.
Another example. When I worked for Lloyd
Bentsen, one of his close friends and longtime
Democratic collaborators was Lew Wasserman,
who was to business what Frank Sinatra was
to talent. Several times when they met in
Washington, I was present to implement and
at times advice while the two great men
decided. Don't get me wrong, it was not
Lloyd, Lew and Brent, it was Senator Bentsen,
Mr. Wasserman and Brent and my modest
role was to take notes and execute. But man,
did I learn from those discussions!
What made Lew Wasserman so brilliantly
unique and incomparable is that he was always
ahead of the curve. Ahead structurally, moving
from booking nightclub acts to agenting to
running global conglomerates, and ahead in
the media and technologies of his time, moving
from saloons to radio, to motion pictures and
television. I cant prove this, but I absolutely
believe that if Mr. Wasserman were with us
today, both as a visionary entrepreneur and
a Democrat he would be putting huge money
behind the massive multi-million member
armies of the internet.
Had he gone to the Daily Kos convention wink> I believe Mr. Wasserman
would have been writing million dollar investment checks to
support and expand dozens of these sites, rather than serving the best
shrimp scampi in town.
Regarding Air America and other ventures
that would be far more powerful than Air
America: I've done much business in the
entertainment industry, and I have never seen
an entertainment company that refuses to put
out news releases and generate free media
coverage, that does virtually no external
advertising and marketing, and that as I
understand, leaves some of the talent to
find their own sponsors, which is absurd and unprecedented from my own
experience.
Why not champion causes such as homeless
veterans, who I call "homeless heroes" and
reach out to gigantic potential audiences of
religious groups and military families measured
in tens of millions? Why not a broad assault on
homelessness and hunger in America that
highlights and showcases the many progressive Catholic, Jewish and
Protestant leaders and brings their believers into the audience? Why
not remember that Bill Clinton actually won the evangelical Christian
vote, and reach out to them and go after major sponsor support for this
programming and create charitable, win-win e-commerce programs during the
Holiday Season?
I've suggested this before, why not create a
real investigative news capability through high
quality journalists currently on the internet,
break real news, achieve major publicity, and
dramatically expand the audience? And yes,
I hate to say this, but there are brilliant people
doing brilliant investigative work, and they
should be compensated for this work, in real
money, in real time, as a real investment in
a real business. Does Air America believe
there are no scandals or wrongs that should
be investigated today?
Why not do what conservatives do, treat their
media and megaphone as both a cause worthy
of support, and as entrepreneurial ventures
that yield high returns if properly supported.
Conservative money is far more aggressively
behind conservative media, conservative news,
conservative publishing and conservative think
tanks with echo chambers of mutual support,
mutual financing, and mutual empowerment
from cable television to talk radio, pushing their
books, ideas, personalities and politicians.
Yet with a far larger potential base, there is
virtually none of this from the progressive and
Democratic side, by comparison.
Flood the airwaves with representatives of the
twenty or thirty best blogs and news sites, who
will bring their audience to radio and television,
and, in reverse, expand their own audience by
the exposure. These are no-brainer win-win
propositions which are low cost, stratospheric
yield, idea generating, and politically and
financially empowering that clearly powerful
models in traditional entertainment, in classic
Silicon Valley venture and entrepreneurship,
and hugely successful conservative enterprises
with a smaller inherent base than we have.
So: it is a shame this will not have the power
and influence it should, prior to the elections,
but it will have enormous and lasting influence
measured in decades. There are initiatives in
the works not discussed publicly on the blogs
because they are proprietary, and we should
accelerate now our race against time for
November, and build our arsenal for democracy
with many tens of millions of Americans who
reject both mainstream media, and smear and
fear media, and await a place to bring their
eyeballs and make their stand.