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 Media Bailout

The future of the newspaper and journalism continues to get darker and darker, especially with the bankruptcy of Affiliated Media, Inc. The debt ranges from $500 million to $1 billion. Affiliated Media, Inc. is the holding company of the second-largest newspaper publisher, the MediaNews Group. With that being said could newspapers be in even more trouble than before?

I believe that newspapers and journalism are both in some serious trouble. With a media company so large getting into this kind of trouble it really makes one think, "Is it reliable?" The best way to explain what I mean is to compare this to what happened to this nation's banks. People trusted banks, and put all of their savings into them. Then, what happened those banks needed a government bailout to survive. The same this is pretty much happening all over again but with media companies. How ironic is it, though, that now the banks are bailing Affiliated Media, Inc. out?

For 80 percent of ownership of Affiliated Media lenders, headed by the Bank of America, will take on $930 million of the debt. PRNewswire has an official Affiliated Media news release of this plan. To sum it up: by swapping the $930 million in debt for 80 percent of ownership Affiliated Media is able to restructure and fix its problems. The good news is that it is only Affiliated Media the holding company that will undergo restructuring. The newspapers and everyone working for them will come out unscathed. Now for the bad news, Chairman and CEO, William Dean Singleton, and President, Joseph J. Lodovic IV will not be going anywhere.

Does it make sense, to anybody, to let the men who were in charge and watched this debt accumulate, stay in charge?

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