NO LONGER UP IN THE AIR, AMERICA

On the strength of his strong personality, deep knowledge of things political, and radio-audience savvy, Rush Limbaugh has garnered a listenership of twenty million people.

Preceded by Glenn Beck and followed by Sean Hannity, Limbaugh has an ideal position and time slot.

Add all of this up and no matter what you think of his politics or personality, you have to admit that he is very successful at his chosen profession.

He got where he is through hard work and an understanding of what his potential audience is and how best to touch the nerves of his listeners in such a was as to captivate them.

In an effort to reach the more liberal element of our society, Air America was born in 2004.

You know Air America, of course.

What? You never listened to an Air America program?

Neither did anybody else.

In fact, with nothing but whiny, nasty, vile-languaged hosts, listeners stayed away in massive droves.

Al Frankin, one of the self-enamored but stupidist people in congress, once graced the airwaves from Air America.

As he spewed his vicious form of liberalism, the audience fell.

Even that lovable Rachael Maddow could not gain a significant following.

They filed bankruptcy in 2006, and changed management in an attempt to revitalize itself.

Now, Air America has announced that it will cease operations on Monday.

"The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year has seen a `perfect storm' in the media industry generally," the company said in a statement on its Web site.

Balder-ever-lovin'-blue-eyed dash!

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck operate in THE VERY SAME ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT, and they are doing VERY well, thank you very much.

What has made the difference?

Understanding the pulse of the radio audience.

In media, audience is everything (except for PBS, which uses your tax dollars to subsidize its operations, thus does not care one whit about whether it has any audience at all). If you have the audience, you succeed. If you don't have the audience, you don't succeed.

It's really that simple.

Argue with me if you will, I know whereof I speak.

I have worked in radio for over 27 years.

When our station was taken over by a person who thought he knew what he wanted, people stopped listening in Air America styled droves and the station rushed to the very bottom of the audience barrel in just a few years.

In radio, you just absolutely have to give the people what they want to hear or you are dead in the water.

So it was with Air America.

Weasels for hosts, stupid format, constant dumb statements, political spin that left listeners heads twisting the the Air America air, and failing to meet the needs and wants of its audience did them in.

Nobody listened.

Can't make money that way.

Can't make money, can't exist.

And now they don't.

Good riddance.