28 February 2006

Air America Phoenix has now disappeared into the ether

And general manager Bob Christy pens a farewell and thank you note to all the fans of Air America Phoenix, KXXT 1010 AM.
You helped take an unrated, unprofitable AM radio station and pushed it to a tie for 3rd place out of 25 AM stations in Phoenix. You took that same AM station and made it profitable in less than a year and even after the sale was announced you stood by Air America Phoenix and we kept on making money even when our future was in doubt and we didn't know when our "plug" was going to be pulled. In fact, the last month we were on the air was the 3rd best month we've had financially!

Air America Phoenix has now disappeared into the ether and Phoenix is left with multiple Christian formats, some in English and others in Spanish, several "brokered" time stations (you know the radio stations selling you vitamins, good bowel movements and financial advice) a bagful of right wing "Conservative Talk stations" featuring Rush, Sean, Laura, Bill Bennett, Savage, Medved and all of their local imitators, three "Sports Talk" stations that live off the largess of their sister stations in the big corporate clusters that dominate the dial in Phoenix. Is anyone enjoying Tony Snow on KTAR — did anyone ask for him? And there are 3 "nostalgia" stations on AM and another on the FM dial. (The inside radio joke on nostalgia is that listeners are "dying" for it!) CBS new "Free" FM is another station loaded with sophomoric chatter, but without the interruption of overplayed songs! Free FM is a continuous loop of bad FM morning show humor 24 hours a day! CBS should have stood by Howard Stern and they will regret the day they didn't!

As I've stated before, while I wasn't so enamored with most of the network Air America programming, I enjoyed listening to the Charles Goyette program, one of the few media outlets telling the truth on the illegal, immoral invasion of a sovereign nation that posed no threat to the United States, as well as some of the other local programming. The Al Franken show, when broadcast live, was also informative, but really not a caller talk show. Shows like Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz and others were just as bad as the neoconservative yakkers occupying the remainder of the radio dial.

How KXXT catapaulted from obscurity to money maker in a short period is a vivid illustration of how there is an unserved market that will go unserved again (as it was before AA came to Phoenix in 2004). Lots of folks will now tune out or set their dial to the corpo-federali NPR speak to get their talk radio fix. Otherwise, the remaining radio talk pickings are just dripping of brain dead neocon sycophants or infomercial hell. Reason #10798 to subscribe to satellite radio, I reckon.

And, BTW, Jess Spurgin is the new GM at KXXT 1010 AM.

posted by Naum at 22:40 | Radio

Comments

As I've said before, I had no prob with Air America, although you give Goyette way too much credit. His views don't mean sh** to good business, whether he's full of it, or not. It's talent that carries a show; he hadn't the voice, nor enthusiasm for radio.
In the valley, I'll say once again there was no real talent. Bruce is just bad; Newcomb sucked; Barry Young has the voice and the talent, he simply chooses to not make use of it.
Yadda Yadda Yadda....
#1 posted by Neocon_Yadda on 1 March 2006 at 7:02
Meanwhile, the Merely Heinous Barely Hung (http://tinyurl.com/evzmr) this morning acknowledged on-air KXXT's departure by claiming they sold the station because lib'ral talk radio wasn't making money or drawing Valley listeners.

Crow on, banty rooster. Goyette's turned up after a fall before, he just may do it again.

And Neocon ... with all due respect, Goyette not only has the voice and the enthusiasm, but he also has a rare independent mindset, and probably one of the deepest on-call guest lists in talk radio. Here's hoping he pops back up in the Valley ... hopefully, in national syndication.
#2 posted by Phrank in Foenix on 1 March 2006 at 8:54
It must just be me then Phrank. Goyette was boring and listless when he was a conservative blow hard before 9/11 (Naums early assessment); he still is.

The difference now (to me at least, being a Neocon)is that he loves the spotlight and the adoration poured on him by the angry crowd. Perhaps it's because I didn't listen enough to hear his "independent thought".

Sorry. I'm stuck on saying that no one in local radio has talent.
#3 posted by Neocon on 1 March 2006 at 11:35
I'm reading these comments while listening to Barry Young talk geopolitics. Quoting Bugs - "What a maroon".
#4 posted by Bob Azvote on 2 March 2006 at 9:27
Naum -

I'm curious: Why include the e-mail link to Jess Spurgin, Christian-KXXT's general manager? (I notice Bob Christy did the same below his farewell letter on AAP's site.) Spurgin's just the new guy working for the new owner of the station. I'd hate to think any of the more rabid, Mike Malloy-type AAP listeners would heap a bunch of e-invective on the guy over the sale of the station ...
#5 posted by Phrank in Foenix on 2 March 2006 at 15:47
Phrank, guess I figured that folks could sound off and complain. I would hope that that people would keep the message respectful and free from offensive language and general vitriol… …reckon that my vision is a bit naive, and acknowledge your point… :(
#6 posted by Naum on 3 March 2006 at 7:29
This sucks. Now were back to conservative, religious, and sports radio stations in the phoenix area.

Air America did well in the phoenix market, some would say to well... Hopefully they find another radio station to buy and convert back to air america. Until then I'm stuck with streaming from the internet and NPR on my way to/from work.
#7 posted by lame on 3 March 2006 at 12:19
KXXT with Air America never placed in the top 20 stations in Phoenix. With AA on life support and losing their New York station (WLIB), it's a long shot they'll return to Phoenix.
#8 posted by Bob Azvote on 4 March 2006 at 18:32
BOB AZVOTE -

As you can see from the segement of General Manager Bob Christy's "farewell" letter quoted bt Naum above, Christy says different. I no next to nothing about the radio business, and thus have no hard evidence to prove or disprove what he says. If you do have such evidence, please feel free to share it with us.

Be that as it may, I frankly don't lnow how some of the stations in the Valley stay afloat financially. After a noble effort of a year or so, All Comedy Radio finally abandoned 1480 AM ,which was taken over by a "Music of Your Life" station. Now how on earth can THEY be making money? Still, it would seem they're able to make a go of it where All Comeday failed.

Regardless of whether or not the Air America "brand" lands in Phoenix again, we desperately need to hear some talk radio from the center-to-left of the political spectrum. The lock on Valley talk by (so-called) conservatives is a sad, sad thing.

~ Phrank,
An anti-THIS-war evangelical conservative
#9 posted by Phrank in Foenix on 5 March 2006 at 23:29
Go to radioandrecords.com for radio ratings.
#10 posted by Bob Azvote on 6 March 2006 at 6:45
Idiots like Neocon are the reason why this country is in the shape it's in. Charles Goyette is the best radio talk show host I have ever listened to, bar none. To appreciate him though, you need a certain requisite knowledge of the world as well as a developed spiritual and compassion level. People like Neocon, who have none of the above, of course could not appreciate his talents.
#11 posted by Jeff Y on 11 March 2006 at 9:54
Gee, Jeff Y, I'm just giving my personal opinion about an individual.

I can't understand why a spiritually driven compassionate guy like yourself would take such humbrage.

For you at least, I'll hope for a swift return to Goyette and spirtual compassion to yourself. Until then, Jeff Y, have a nice day.
#12 posted by Neocon on 13 March 2006 at 11:07
Well, my hat's off to Trav rt al. Nature has determined that Wikipedia is fairly accurate as compared to Brittanica. Political subjects are no doubt slanted one way or the other, but as any one would say, what's new?

http://www.nature.com/news/...
#13 posted by Neocon on 16 March 2006 at 8:55
Well thanks neocon for the compliment. I haven't been here for a while, I have been on wikipedia (suprised?) actually I have kind of outgrown this site and the arguments here. (yes, Neocon, I am an egotistical bastard). I need to read and get ready for school.

Imagine if the US supreme court was taken over by terrorists, and the military blew the door open with a tank, killed the chief justice, and killed execution style several of the other justices. The military then burned the bodies fo the chief justice to cover up the evidence. Buried several of the bodies in mass graves, and killed and tortured any suspected terrorists "the disappeared". It happened in Colombia in 1985. I am doing several research papers on Colombia this semester for my international affairs classes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

I wrote a large portion of this site.

I won't go into Americas culpability in the mess in Colombia, because it will simply be dismissed out of hand, as always, by the more conservative elements here.

Again, unfortunately I have intellectually outgrown this web blog. It was very useful a year ago, but I am beyond the often peity, irrational debates now.(These debates are often punctuated with tedious circular reasoning)

I am sure I will be missed. ;-)

Thanks for the link Neocon. Heil Bush.
#14 posted by trav1bailey on 22 March 2006 at 7:45
Neocon,
You reek of sarcasm and false sincerity - which defines your whole character completely.
#15 posted by Jeff Y on 1 May 2006 at 11:39
Good morning, Jeff Y. Thanks for your compassionate and glib contribution to this site. Have a nice day.
#16 posted by Neocon on 1 May 2006 at 13:12
Glad to see they are gone. Scare America Radio was so Anti-American, I knew it would not survive in Phoenix. Now if we could only get King Hussein out of the Oval Office...the country might have a chance.
#17 posted by Bill Gillen on 26 May 2009 at 16:57

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