News Intelligence Analysis
From the New York Times
November 6, 2006
Some Advertisers Shun Air America,
a Lonely Voice From Talk Radio’s Left
By MARIA ASPAN
When the liberal talk radio network Air America filed for bankruptcy
protection last month, some analysts blamed a lack of listener
interest in progressive talk radio. Now, it seems that a lack
of major advertising dollars are responsible.
In a memo dated Oct. 25, ABC Radio Networks instructed affiliated stations that broadcast syndicated programs from Air America to black out all ads from Hewlett-Packard, which had purchased advertising time on ABC but did “not wish to air on any Air America affiliates.” The memo listed almost 90 advertisers that it said were taking part in blackouts of Air America, including Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Visa, Exxon Mobil, Cingular, McDonald’s, the United States Postal Service and the Navy.
The memo was released by a progressive radio talk show host, Peter B. Collins, and is posted online at fair.org, the site of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a left-of-center media watchdog. Mr. Collins’s show, independently syndicated, is not affiliated with Air America.
Radio advertising blackouts, which are not unusual, gained wider use by major advertisers faced with “shock jock” programs like Howard Stern’s show in the years before he moved to satellite radio. But the advertisers’ avoidance of Air America’s liberal programming seems pointed when contrasted with the commercial success of right-wing talk radio programs like those of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
According to Mr. Collins, boycotting liberal programming makes little economic sense for companies buying ad time on networks like ABC. “If you really want to target your audience,” he said, “you don’t go to network radio, you buy individual stations or programs.” Companies that advertise on network radio, Mr. Collins said, “are trying to generate impressions across a very large audience, adding, “They’re the least discriminating.”
In an e-mail statement, ABC said advertisers’ requests to black out ads during specific programs were “not uncommon” and it makes its “best effort to comply” with such requests.
Hewlett-Packard said it did not comment on specific purchases, but avoids “inappropriate or controversial programming environments.” The Web site Spending Liberally, which monitors advertisers on the Fox News Channel, lists H-P, Wal-Mart, Visa, Microsoft and McDonald’s among sponsors of Fox talk shows, including Mr. Hannity’s and Bill O’Reilly’s.
Air America filed for Chapter 11 on Oct. 13 after having lost more than $40 million since it began in 2004. The network, which did not return voice-mail messages left on Friday, says it is carried on 92 affiliates nationwide and reaches 2.4 million listeners a week.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
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