Air America Filing for Bankruptcy

Air America Radio shut down unexpectedly Thursday January, 21 due to bankruptcy. Air America the liberal version of conservative talk radio. Air America had programs that featured talk show topics trying to establish a leftwing voice in the radio business but has been unstable financially since its outset. The company was bought in 2007 out of bankruptcy by Green Family Media headed by Stephen L. Green and Mark J. Green and has been under their financial control until filing for bankruptcy on Thursday.

A few of the major programs that are lost by the bankruptcy are shows hosted by Al Franken and Rachel Maddow. Franken became a senator for Minnesota and Maddow now has her own show on MSNBC. The company also featured shows hosted by Ron Regan, former president Ronald Regan's son, Jack Rice, Jon Elliott, and Richard Greene. Air America stopped airing new shows Thursday and will now run reruns of old programs until the company is liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Others are feeling the effects of the bankruptcy as well seeing as Air America has around 100 radio outlets in the United States stretching from west coast to east coast. Director of KPTK-AM 1090 in Seattle Cary Curelop said, "The was a needed outlet for the left on the air." She accredited Air America as being the forced that helped her outlet get going.

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The Web of Tomorrow

The way people use the Web is changing. According to Mashable's Co-Editor, Ben Parr, there are four trends emerging in Internet usage:

• The Web will be accessible anywhere


• Web access will not focus on the computer


• The Web will be media-centric


• Social Media will be the largest component of the Web

Thanks to the introduction of wireless connection and smartphones with 3G and 4G networks, people can easily connect to the Internet anywhere. With the advent of smartphones, people can access the Internet from their phones. People are shifting from using that clunky box that sits on their desks to portable hand-held devices with a three-inch screen. In a column on CNN, analysts found that most people are using laptops, but there is an emerging trend in using smartphones. Parr predicts by the end of this decade, computers will only be a small portion of how people access the Internet. The way people interact with the Web will change as well. Parr says our dependence on sites such as YouTube and Hulu will increase rapidly. Voice-to-text technology will replace the keyboard and touchscreens will replace the mouse. Social media plays a major role in the way we access the Internet. In a study conducted by Nielsen, social media usage has increased by 82 percent in the last year. One of the main reasons people get online is for the social interactions provided by social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Parr says the number one reason we will use the Internet is to connect with friends.

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