April 15, 2005

Houston Voice

Two ‘L’ Words Air America host adds ‘lesbian’ to ‘liberal’ radio’s success by Dyana Bagby

BUSTLING ALONG NEW YORK’S Sixth Avenue on her way to the Air America Radio office on a recent afternoon, Rachel Maddow explains during a cell phone interview that what she does as co-host on the nation’s newest liberal network morning show “Unfiltered” is not activism. “It’s radio,” Maddow says. “We do political talk. You could call it part of a movement, but not activism. Activism to me is designing a winnable campaign and implementing it.” As a lesbian, Maddow knows about activism. At 31, she’s already a veteran activist for gay rights and for AIDS causes. “As a queer kid growing up in San Francisco with AIDS exploding in my neighborhood, I knew I had to do something,” she says. At 17, Maddow was volunteering with AIDS service organizations before moving into prevention. “AIDS is the defining thing in my life,” Maddow says. “It makes me understand the world and my place in it.” While involved with ACT UP! as a teenager, Maddow became involved with a subcommittee on prisoner’s rights. “They were a bunch of old lefties who were the most interesting people I ever met,” she says. “And the battle was real clear — it was about saving people’s lives who were in state custody.” Maddow took her political interests with her into an academic career that included a Rhodes scholarship. She went to Oxford and earned a Ph.D. in politics. But her career took a sharp turn while taking time to write her thesis: She tried out for a radio show on Massachusetts station WRNX. “I was crashing with friends in Massachusetts, working odd jobs, when they told me to try out. And they hired me on the spot. Radio came to me, I didn’t come to it,” she says. Maddow never hides her sexual orientation and has always been out on the air. “I don’t make apologies for who I am,” she says. “I don’t hold back.” But she says that she still hears complaints from some listeners if she mentions being a lesbian. “I’m as open about my life as any other host but still hear complaints. [But] I’m talking about torture memos, not sodomy — unless there’s a Supreme Court decision,” she says. Laura Flanders, another lesbian commentator on Air America Radio, hosts her own weekend show from 7 to 10 p.m. on the network. She appeals more to a 20-something crowd. Maddow and “Unfiltered” co-hosts Lizz Winstead, a co-creator of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and Public Enemy rapper Chuck D are making a career of railing against the Bush administration, the war in Iraq and Republicans in general. But they also know their job is to make sure more people continue to tune in. Air America serves as a beacon for socially progressive listeners, but the network faces tough competition from talk radio’s current entrenchment in a largely conservative landscape of on-air personalities including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. A June study from Washington, D.C-based Democracy Radio, another liberal radio network featuring Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, reported that national and local conservative programming totaled nearly 42,000 hours every week, with progressive, or liberal, programming clocking in just 3,042 hours. “We’re not just waging a battle,” Maddow says. “We’re competing for ratings.” And the competition they offer is stiffer than some critics initially imagined. Coming up on its first year of business, Air America Radio is now in 46 markets nationwide — up from a beginning of only five markets. Its programming also boasts continuous play on XM and Sirius satellite radio as well as 3.5 million Internet listeners a month. Air America Radio began airing in metropolitan Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20. The Al Franken Show is on each weekday from noon to 3 p.m.; the Randy Rhodes Show airs from 6 to 8 p.m. “Unfiltered” is not yet on the schedule, though Air America officials said early last month that it would be in the rotation. Officials at WWRC-AM in Washington did not return calls from the Blade for comment. The network’s ability to appeal to listeners across the country is a far cry from its early months, when several bumps in the road made it appear Air America might fall flat. The hype surrounding the network’s launch was unprecedented, including star commentator Franken publicly proclaiming his mission on the station was to defeat George W. Bush. But Air America quickly ran out of money and was kicked off the air in Los Angeles and Chicago, two of its three largest markets. Numerous management changes came in the first six months, and there was even a week the network didn’t make payroll. And with Bush’s re-election, critics doubted the network could survive. Even libertarian Neal Boortz, whose talk show is syndicated around the country, predicted on the air that Air America was destined to crash. But he recently backpedaled a bit when he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he now welcomes the competition of the network’s rising success. “I didn’t think it was going to succeed. I’m pleased that it [might],” Boortz told the newspaper in December. “I’m rooting for them.” Interestingly, the current conservative political climate may only work to infuse the network with more support, including raising $19 million in private funding to cover costs. “It is successful in terms of getting a lot of attention, it has grown and has some ratings to speak of,” says Michael Harrison founder and editor of Talkers magazine, a trade publication. “And it has definitely raised awareness in the industry that there is a market for different political views,” he adds. Franken, who recently signed a multi-year contract, actually beat out Rush Limbaugh’s ratings in the heavily desired 25-to-54-year-old demographic in New York City in the month of December. Clear Channel Communications Inc., considered by many to be a conservative Republican bastion, is even jumping on the Air America success wagon. On Jan. 19, the media giant announced it converted three stations in Washington, D.C., Detroit and Cincinnati with talkers from Air America, according to Reuters. And on President Bush’s inauguration day, the Wall Street Journal ran an extensive piece about Air America’s rising success. “What happened on Nov. 2 may have been bad for America, but it sure was good for Air America,” Rob Glaser, chair of Air America, told the newspaper. For radio expert Harrison, who says he is still unsure about Air America’s long-term success, watching Clear Channel pick up Air America in some markets is not surprising. “[Air America] is a viable player,” he says. “The biggest myth about radio is that it wants to promote an agenda. The truth is that the goal of radio is to make money.” And that’s where Harrison says he is concerned about Air America’s future. “Where they have yet to prove how long they can continue on an upward projectory is to make the transition from raising money to making money,” Harrison says. AS A CO-HOST of one of the network’s weekday shows, Maddow says her job is not only to deliver news and viewpoints less represented on mainstream media outlets, but entertaining listeners as well. “We work really hard all the time and take it very seriously,” she says. “Going in the studio is like going into surgery. Once those studio doors close and the red light goes on, there’s no turning back. I feel like the way we do the show is baking, not cooking. You put in all the ingredients, but you don’t know really what you have until it’s over. Until the timer goes off, we’re live.” Preparing for a daily show is like cramming for a tough exam every day, Maddow adds. Her schedule includes waking up at 5 a.m., getting to the office by 6 a.m. and spending the next three hours going over breaking news and researching topics from environmental concerns raised by three-legged frogs to declassified “torture” memos written by President Bush’s nominee for U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. “It’s all very spontaneous what we do,” she says. “If anything, this show makes me more superstitious. There’s a lot of luck when you’re on the fly.”

RACHEL MADDOW Age: 31 Occupation: Co-host of Air America Radio’s ‘Unfiltered,’ which airs in certain markets nationwide, though not in Washington, D.C. Relationship status: Long-term partner, artist Susan Mikula Home: West Cummington, Mass., and New York City Education: Graduated from Stanford University in 1994; obtained her doctorate in politics at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar Activism: AIDS Legal Referral Panel, ACT UP, Empty the Shelters, and the Women’s AIDS Network in the Bay Area. In Britain, general manager of the AIDS Treatment Project, the UK’s first community-based HIV/AIDS treatment advocacy organization. Air America Radio 3 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016 646-274-4900 www.airamericaradio.com KOKE-AM 1600 in Austin, TX KCCT-AM 1150 in Corpus Christi, TX KXEB-AM 910 in Dallas, TX XM Satellite Radio - Channel 167 Sirius Satellite Radio - Channel 144

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