Even NY Times Recognizes Air Americas Failings

Ah, liberalism. While trying to find a counterpoint on the radio to conservatives, Air America is living up to everything that liberalism espouses. Idealism vs Reality, Government Intervention as opposed to Tough Decisions. Even the New York Times can not gloss over the mess that is Air America. They tried hard enough, but this is such a mess that even the Times can not put lipstick on it completely.

Lets look at the Finances of Air America:

Some people at Air America assert that, under Mr. Glaser and the team he put in place, the network was top-heavy with management, inept at selling ads, unwilling to make program compromises that veered from the liberal message and overstaffed with more than 100 employees when two dozen would have sufficed.
“What they did for $45 million they could have done for $10 million,” said Sheldon Drobny, an investor with a contentious relationship with the network. Mr. Drobny and his wife, Anita, longtime Democratic activists, are credited with the idea for Air America. via New York Times.

Hmmm… This is not surprising. Now lets look at the bankruptcy. Instead of a buyer saving the company and putting cash into it, the board members wanted the cash to go to them and let the company flounder. What a surprise.

Late in September, the Drobnys tried to buy Air America for $2.5 million, but the deal fell apart because, Mr. Drobny says, the terms were changed. He said he would have had to put the money into Piquant’s operating account, where it could have been tapped by creditors, instead of into a shielded holding company.

In an e-mail message to the board, Mr. Drobny wrote that “one or more of the board members and attorneys have intentionally taken steps to put the company into Chapter 11 and have taken actions that are intentionally to the detriment of the current members and their creditors.”

And for those willing to wade through the whole article, and I will save you the anguish, the truth comes out in the final paragraph:

He disputes the idea that Air America “was a vanity project,” but acknowledged that things may be done differently in the future. “I have come to understand very clearly that the radio component of this requires a radio professional,” he said.