Is Air America sufering from Real Networks Syndrome?

[Armstead]

This is a question, not a statement of fact.

The chairman of Piquant, LLC D/B/A Air America Radio is Rob Glaser, who is the founder and head honcho of the company behind Real Audio.

Glaser deserves a lot of credit as a longtime backer of progressive causes. One has to assume that he sincerely wants to make Air America a successful business that also spreads a progressive message in the media.

He also is a capable businessman, having built Real Networks from an obscure technology into a major media technology.

However, as anyone who has dealt with the reality of Real PLayer and itrs' services knows, it is a pain in the ass company. Full of spyware, devious promotional policies and other problems that make it needlessly cumbersome and untrustworthy. Trying to get the simplest thing done with the business is very convoluted -- especially if it involves trying to unsubscribe.

I've often thought that ReelPlayer and its services could be much better if they would just get rid of the needless BS, go back to basics, and trust that their product will appeal to consumers on its own merits.

My question then, is whether Air America's recent management problems might be partially the result of a heavy-handed style of the same variety that has afflicted RealAudio?

[tridim]

1. Here's what Malloy said RE: Air America files for bankruptcy

It's not because there's no audience; not because the on-air people are not dedicated; not because there are no advertisers; but, because AAR management - especially this new crop of right-wingers - was so incompetent, so ignorant, so unable to manange, there was no alternative but bankruptcy. How fucking sad . . .

Okay, right-wing pundits and media assholes: START YOUR LIES!

- Mike Malloy

I'll trust what Mike says. AAR's management sucks.

[KoKo]

2. You are maybe saying that "RA" sort of did a "bait and switch" after

they hooked so many of us up to their service..which in the beginning was great. And, that once the RA Founder got AAR the tinkering with it became what lead folks to ditch their "RA?" To much "add on muck" that corrupted the basic process?

BTW: I still have the "free RA" and it won't even work for the most recent downloads of even my CD's. I gave up Internet Explorer in 1999...and RA was ALWAYS my FRIEND...but it's corrupted my computer and always crashes me when I try to play certain videos or CD's. :-( I'd love to get rid of RA but refuse to use IE...because the bugs with that seemed worse.

[Armstead]

5. There are better players that can play REal Audio files

They're free and much easier on the computer.

Check out media Player Classic or jet Audio.

[KoKo]

6. Thanks for the alternatives.. will check out...n/t

[Beelzebud]

14. I use Xbox Media Center. A "hacker" app for modded xboxes.

I often wonder what people that run RA, and even white rose society think when they see an Xbox client on their stream servers. :D

[Webster Green]

3. Real Networks' scam is despicable..

On two separate occasions, I discovered that they were debiting my bank account for close to twenty bucks a month for services I never wanted or used. They managed to get me for $300 to $400 each time, before I noticed.

Both times, I called them and told them I wanted the money back, or I was going to file bank fraud charges against them. Last time, I talked to three different people, each time getting a promise of more of the money credited back to my account. Its a scam, and the phone reps know it, and if you persist, they will give you the money back.

Assholes!

[Armstead]

4. I haven;t had that kind of awful experience, but...

I briefly subscribed to one of the pass programs, and it was a mega pain to reach someone to cancel it. I couldn't do it online, and had to call instead and wait on hold for an eternity, and then the person tried to beat me up into keeping it.

I also found that otehr audio players worked without all of the clutter of Real Audio. I tried it recenbtly on a friend's computer, and it's gotten worse, with pop-up ads eating up ram everytime I switched to a new station.

If that's their business model and they're applying that kind of thinking to Air America, no wonder it's crashing.

[KharmaTrain]

7. Apples Can't Operate Oranges

Internet Radio and "Old" Radio are two different animals that are currently in conflict with one another...its two worlds that have a lot in common, yet work against one another. But that's not what happened to AAR. It's simple economics...AAR couldn't attract the advertising to pay the bills, had increasing expenses and had stagnated as far adding new stations. It was a stand-alone company in a medium dominated by large corporates who could subsidize one losing format or station with another...or had various sources of revenue that have buffered many of the right wing stations from a very bad advertising environment.

From Day One, AAR had to play a balaning act of meeting payroll and keeping the show going for another month. The advertising revenues never met projections and that hurt the network as there was no money to promote it or to get on bigger and better stations. What it had in spirit, it lacked in money that created a greater and greater squeeze in the past year.

I don't see how Real has anything to do with the AAR situation. Glaser came in after Evan Cohen, who founded AAR bailed out and left the company with lots of unpaid bills...it's a credit to him that the network survived those crucial days.

[KittyWampus]

9. KharmaTrain, as always, thanks for your input. For some reason this topic

drives me crazy when so many people chime in with opinions that don't seem to have any basis in fact or knowledge of radio as an actual business.

[KharmaTrain]

10. It's OK...No One Listens To Me Anyway...LOL

Thank you so much for your kind words. This place makes it easy for people to become instant authorities on lots of topics...but in many cases, that's what gives this place it's life.

I understand the passions involved here as proof of the power of the medium, just that I see it being mis-directed and, unfortunately, these people are left grasping for explanations when something like this happens.

Fortunately I'm retired from these wars now and have the unique ability to look both inside and outside and try to share those thoughts here for those who care.

Thank you for caring...

[Armstead]

11. Thanks for the response -- but I do know about theradio biz

I used to work in radio, and am still involved in media work. I'm not an expert on the radioo biz, but I'm not a babe in the woods either.

Anyway, my question had more to do with quality of management, not the inherent challenges facing a new network like AAR.

Yes, AAR is a concept that has been swimming against the tide in a monopolistic media environment and has been breaking the mold of Right-Wing Talk Radio. And it was obviously hobbled by the shysters that misled them in the beginning, and the current management can't be blamed for that. However, I was looking more at how they have handled things since then.

IMO Real Networks has always been a great idea that has been hobbled by the way it has choisen to do business. Granted, the Internet has been a new and uncharted territory. But even given that fact, there are ways and ways of figuring out how to deal with those challenges.

Without getting into to many details, as an example, they have always had a choice between offering a clean and straightforward and user-friendly player software or something that is bloated and that pokes and prods and tries to inflict itself on your computer at every turn. They chose to do the latter.

My question, then, was whteher that same approach has been taken by AAR to address the acknoweldged challenges that face any new media venture. Have they made too many wrong decisions that have made a difficult challenge much harder?

[KharmaTrain]

12. How Was AAR Instrusive Or Propreitory?

You lost me there. I'm familiar with Real and Internet Radio...I have had interests in this area for nearly a decade...and initially was a supporter of Real Networks but moved away from it around 2000 when other platforms became available and easier to use. But I don't see how this ties into the AAR situation.

If there's a finger to point for failure it Evan Cohen...who founded the network and then left it in a hole Glaser and others had to dig it out of. I suggest viewing "Left Of The Dial" that gives a great view into those early days and the albatross this guy put around the network they were never able to shag.

Radio is at a crossroads...unlike television, there's no clear path to its digital future. Is it Internet Radio? Is it HD Radio? Is it Satellite? The field is muddled and full of conflicting interests that have hampered radio's transition and cheapened its value. Internet radio needs to get untethered...and it will...and IMHO it will be the ultimate winner in the ditigal game, but in the meantime, there's some tough days ahead.

From my vantage point, I see lots of opportunities ahead...it's just gonna take a while for things to shake out.

Cheers...

[Armstead]

13. I'm just wonderin' about it

I appreciate your input and insight.

My basic question -- and it was a question, not an assumption -- is whether some or many of AAR's problems may stem from current shooting-in-the-foot that reflects poor management and/or arrogence rather than inherent flaws or complexities of the basic concept of progressive radio.

While the lingering effects of its' start-up mistakes do make it difficult, myu question had more to do with how the overall network is being handled now. For example, whatever one thinks of Mike Malloy, the way he was mishandled seemed callous and caused needless friction and alienation and controversies among people who otherwise want to support AAR.

There is an obvious connection with Real Networks in the upper reaches, so the question of possible parallels with some of Real networks practices is relevant.

I recognize that Internet Radio -- and the whole Media Muddle these days -- requires a lot of innovative thinking, etc. But at base, certain fundamentals still apply. Good business practices are good business practices. Bad or incompetant business practices are bad or incompetant business practices. That old-fashioned principle is still alive and well.

[LTR]

8. Too many egos in the front office

I really think there are too many cooks there stirring the pot. And it seems like nobody wants to relinquish control to anyone else.

Sheldon Drobny offered to buy the company, but they turned him down and decided to go the reorganization route. Drobny responded by announcing his own syndication effort, which will include Mike Malloy.

I've maintained for a while that they really need to refocus into a real radio venture, stop trying to make politics the primary focus, and step aside and hire saavy radio people to run the network. They also need to focus on making money.