For a longtime lefty talk radio addict like me, it promised to be the perfect product.
Once forced to endure a litany of right-wing blowhards to feed my talk radio jones, I found an alternative Wednesday in comic Al Franken's show as the liberal-oriented radio network Air America debuted.
Promising "a battle for truth, justice and America itself" on his weekday show, The O'Franken Factor, Franken began at noontime, amid a flurry of media attention and audience anticipation, as the first salvo in an ongoing war to take a chunk of talk radio from conservative voices.
Former Saturday Night Live veteran Franken, now developing a significant career as a fiercely Democratic pundit, started off with a talk radio trademark: a mission statement-style monologue.
But where conservative convert Dennis Miller seemed unfocused and out of his depth trying something similar on his new CNBC TV show, Franken rallied his radio troops like a passionate preacher with a focused goal of leveling the media playing field.
"Folks, you and I know that the radical right wing of the Republican Party has taken over not just the White House, the Congress and increasingly the courts, but even - and perhaps most insidiously - the airwaves," he said.
"We know that they are lying - lying without shame, lying with impunity, safe in the knowledge that there is no watchdog with a platform large enough to call them on their willful untruths. I will have to do."
It was tough to tell how big Franken's platform was. For now, Air America broadcasts on a handful of leased stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., along with a channel on XM Satellite Radio's service and streaming audio offered on the network's Web site, www.airamericaradio.com Gotta pause for a shout out to Mike Evans and the guys at Sound Advice on Tyrone Boulevard in St. Petersburg for allowing me to use their XM Radio display when Air America's Web site feed went down. Though one salesman unknowingly tried to change the channel midway through Franken's opening rant, saying, "That's too depressing."
Oddly enough, Franken's first two exchanges were with noted conservatives: former Watergate conspirator (and convicted felon) G. Gordon Liddy and former Nixon speechwriter-turned-actor Ben Stein. Both provided little more than glorified glad-handing among friends, with Liddy insisting "I'm not a thief; I'm a spy," and Stein joking "I wrote the line, "I am a crook' (for Nixon), but they changed it."
Elsewhere, Franken tapped radio legend Bob Elliot of the classic comedy team Bob and Ray, and Robert Smigel, voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, for a skit depicting an interview with a "stranded traveler" who sounded suspiciously like a Middle Eastern terrorist. Documentarian Michael Moore and former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey also stopped by.
Stealing his show name and "zero spin zone" motto from Fox News Channel blowhard Bill O'Reilly, Franken seemed hopeful that O'Reilly or his employer might be foolish enough to try suing him again. (When they did last year, after Franken included Fox News' "fair and balanced" motto in a book title, it pushed his Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them into bestseller status.)
But it turns out, Franken's best move was hiring co-host Katherine Lanpher, a former columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a Minnesota Public Radio veteran who proved a perfect foil while handling all the pro radio stuff, such as announcing commercial breaks and guest introductions.
Though Franken seemed more comfortable expressing his opinions than asking guests for theirs, Lanpher offered several well-focused questions. She asked 9/11 commission member Kerrey if the group cut a deal to secure national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's public appearance before the group, for example.
But for this longtime progressive, Franken's show wasn't quite the revolution it could have been. Focused mostly on election issues and Democrat vs. Republican back-and-forth, this Factor wasn't liberal enough for me, continuing the fiction that centrists such as Bill Clinton and Al Gore are the most liberal voices out there.
I also sympathize with those who note that though Air America's programming will take over much of black-oriented WLIB-AM in New York, just one well-known black voice, Public Enemy M.C. Chuck D., is among the network's talent roster.
(Perhaps that's why the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced Wednesday he's syndicating a radio show through behemoth station owner Clear Channel.)
Still, leftists' willingness to unite against President Bush and Republican leaders could keep Air America afloat well beyond November's elections, proving there's a place for liberal radio beyond the wilderness of public and nonprofit outlets. And maybe that's revolution enough.
