The Radio Equalizer and Tom Taylor are reporting that Sheldon Drobny, the man who tried to acquire Air America, and ultimately hired Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy for his NovaM network has given up the fight to bring quality progressive talk to radio.
Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and soon Thom Hartmann are syndicated by Dial Global (which acquired [mother] Jones radio recently). That would be a logical place for Randi Rhodes to show up, but she may just work for a local station in Florida.
Mike Malloy’s producer/wife indicates they have arranged for his program to continue somewhere, but no details yet.
Clear Channel is about the only reason there even was an Air America or NovaM. Most of the affiliates of those networks were Clear Channel Stations. The “conspiracy theories” that Clear Channel is a politically motivated right-wing conspiracy is seriously misguided. Having visited every Clear Channel web site on a regular basis, there is nothing about Clear Channel that says anything other than “We want to do things that make money”.
*** Updated ***
Mike Malloy and Nancy Skinner (Randi’s replacement) are now syndicated by On Second Thought Radio. Randi Rhodes is not part of the new lineup at On Second Thought. A few of the NovaM affiliates have not picked up Nancy Skinner, but most have – at least for now.