http://www.rbr.com/radio/13356.html
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Air America Media (www.airamerica.com) has signed a multi-year deal with Montel Williams to host “Montel Across America,” debuting April 6. The program will air weekdays from 9am-12pm ET on radio stations across the country, and streamed live online.

“Montel is a multi-media star and a familiar name to millions of people across the country,” said Bennett Zier, Air America Media CEO. “The addition of Montel to our talent line-up is an important step for the continued growth of Air America, as we look to distribute Montel’s show across America.”

“After being on television for more than 17 years, I’m looking forward to engaging in lively conversations and interacting with the American public,” said Williams. “Air America is providing me with the perfect environment to do this every day from New York City, as well as reporting from cities around the world as a travelling correspondent.”

“Montel Across America” will originate from Air America’s studios in New York City. A new program, hosted by Lionel, who is currently heard in this timeslot, is currently in development.

Air America is clearly no longer a "liberal talk" syndicator. As noted before, they provide very little of KPOJ's daily content now - only two hours of "The Ron Reagan Show." All of Air America's original hosts from the 2004 launch are now gone; Rachel Maddow was the last one. Entirely different company, same name, that's all.

Wait, Ron Reagan is now hosting a show on Air America? Are you serious?

The same Ron Reagan that did CONSERVATIVE talk, that I was inundated with by my ex-roommate on conservative-talk KVI in Seattle?

Montel is probably more for instant name recognition than progressive talk.

I think you're thinking of Michael Reagan, Ronald Reagan's oldest son. He's been in the talk radio business for years. Ron Reagan, his youngest son, is pretty liberal.

You're right Tal ...

Maybe Sylvia Browne will be getting her own show on Air America.

The problem with Air America is some of the major hosts tended to run off and get elected U.S. Senator.

It would be nice if the EIB network host would do the same.

Rush's responce on suggestions to enter political life is he does not want a pay cut.

Rich people, are they such a horrible part of our humanity?

Being rich is not horrible. Being Rush....well.......

Rush couldn't stand the scrutiny of a life as a politician. He be back poppin’ pills in no time if he were expected to do more than bloviate. He lives in a gilded cocoon and speaks only to sheep that almost entirely agree with him all the time.

Actually, Ron Reagan's show is quite decent. I have listened to Michael Reagan's show in the past - quite different, obviously. (FWIW, Michael was adopted; Ron wasn't.) Ron sounds a lot like his dad. It's quite interesting to hear liberal viewpoints from a guy who sounds a lot like Ronald Reagan.

Is Air America stepping on the "lets tax marijuana" bandwagon? Montel Williams could bring that voice and or position to the radio waves. Isn't he pretty high on the Libertarian Party as well. And no this time NO Sylvia Browne!

I like the show too. It took me a few drives to get into it, but he's brings interesting subject matter into the discussion quite often.

Skinner is still horrible...

Why isn't Sedar on the air?

It will be interesting to see how Montel does on radio. I never cared for him on TV. Maybe now, after having aired his convictions, he will have more to say!

Again, I don't think Air America has an idealogy anymore. They are just another syndicator of content, with a bias to the left rather than an in-your-face "We are liberal talk, in your face conservative talkers." I don't think Williams's hiring means anything beyond the current AAR management thinks they can make money selling his show.

Agreed.

That's just a bummer too. The original set of voices was just great!

Nancy Skinner is really, really bad. I listened to her again for a good half hour on Thursday on a road trip. She had some former friend of hers on with her via phone as a side kick plus, and some college friend of hers called in too and half the show as about *HER*. WTF??? First of all, Nancy Skinner isn't interesting, and secondly, we don't CARE about her. Randi used to talk about herself too but it wasn't like she went a whole hour about herself - it didn't take long before she rolled back into some slam of Republicans or another wacky conspiracy theory. Maybe Randi is staying away a bit longer to let Skinner make her look good.

All I can say is: email KPOJ with your feedback.

When I think of Montel Williams on the radio, I think of Sally Jessy Raphael’s old radio program on NBC/TalkNet and ABC Radio. I must say though that Sally did a good job on the radio. But both she and Montel's television programs were both pretty bad.

Missing:

I believe Sam Sedar is on a weekend show on AAR. I could be wrong on that but he did have a (I think) Sunday show two or three hours long. The daily show took too much time away from his family. First time dads wanting to actually be there for the child.... pffft.

Sam Seder's weekend show has been gone for at least a year. I hadn't heard that it was his choice to end the weekday show; I thought Air America replaced him with Lionel instead. I too miss Seder on the radio.

Ron Reagan had a television talk show circa 1992-1993. I thought that he was pretty incompetent as a host. He was trying to be like Jerry Springer or Geraldo, but he could not maintain control of his guests and the studio audience. Many episodes of the show would turn into unintelligible shouting matches between rowdy people on and off the stage, and he couldn't get a word in edgewise. I remember that on one particularly rowdy episode of the show, coming out of a commercial break, Ron faced the camera, with an empty audience section behind him. He announced to the television viewers that his stage crew had cleared out the audience so that he could finish his interview of the guests.

I hope that Ron has improved in his hosting skills since those rough early days.

Well, Alfredo, as others here have alluded to, hosting a taped TV show and a live radio talk show are two entirely different things, requiring different skill sets. Some successful radio hosts (Limbaugh, "Doctor" Laura) fail miserably on TV, and some successful TV hosts (Bill O'Reily, Jerry Springer) fail on the radio. I never saw his TV show, but I'd say Reagan's radio show on Air America is fairly well done.

Broadway wrote:
Rich people, are they such a horrible part of our humanity?

They are when they screw everyone else to get rich. Kind of like CEOs who make the "hard" decisions when it comes to layoffs so they can collect THEIR compensation package. It's happened for years, how is this the Christian way?

Broadway, thumb on over to Matthew 19:24 and get back to us.

I definitely agree that Ron Reagan is a good radio host. He has also succeeded as a guest on MSNBC and a pundit on CNN. To measure his skills by a lousy television talk show -- since it debuted in an era when poo flinging primates were taking over big media -- is a bit unfair. His reasoned and quiet approach could serve him well in the long term.

I also agree that the numbers for balding bloviating bigots and blonde bulimic blowhards were pretty hot there for awhile. Static and shouting took over. Blind rage was all the rage. Now, the pendulum is swinging back to the center. Yes, rationalized stupidity will always have a following, but it will stop being big business. If hosts continue to resort to libelous distortion, flirt with overt sedition and stoop to inciting violence to gain their numbers, strapped advertisers will flee. They will sponsor something safe and centrist rather than risk losing more of an already tenuous market share to partisan bed wetting and bloodletting.

Demographic shifts are slowly moving us into an era of grownup conversations and accountability. Hysteria, hyperbole, hate and hooey is a played out formula. For both economic and social reasons, mass media is being forced to evolve beyond a simpleminded echo chamber in order to survive. The recent spate of ginned up "look at me" controversies are a sure sign of a desperate industry with an ever shrinking fringe audience. The largest generation of willfully ignorant selfish young Americans has become the largest generation of willfully ignorant selfish elderly Americans. Soon, the horseshit will be out in the pasture where it belongs.

As for Montel, I wish him luck. He shed his integrity years ago to shill for industry.

Matthew 19:23,24...As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God's kingdom? Let me tell you, it's easier to gallop a camel through a needle's eye than for the rich to enter God's kingdom." (The Message version)
I think most "rich" people are hard working Americans who own small businesses who want to be fairminded people. Those that "collect THEIR compensation package" even as recently as this weekend are a travesty to all Americans by taking their tax dollars for bonus's...not right.

I'll have to listen to the new Ron Reagan show tonight at 6 PM. I can accept that the TV show might not have been the type of program that Reagan wanted to do, but management and industry pressures forced him into that position. It seems that all of the broadcast industry has a "follow the leader" mentality where being a copycat is seen as a "safe" way to ride on the coattails of something that is already working out. For a few years in the 1990s, it seemed that TV executives got the idea that a Jerry Springer-like show built around anybody with a recognizable name would likely translate to ratings success. Thus, Ron Reagan, Carnie Wilson, and others got shows where, for the most part, narcissistic people were invited to air out their dirty laundry to a national audience. I think that the intended appeal of these shows was to people who wanted to experience the type of drama found in soap operas, but the twist here was that the characters were real, rather than the romanticized characters of the soap operas. Largely, the TV executives were wrong, and few of Springer clone shows were the ratings success that they had hoped for (Carnie Wilson's show, for instance, lasted only one year before it was cancelled for poor ratings).

Although these shows were hardly ever worth watching, in my opinion, sometimes something interesting would pop up. I remember that Carnie did one episode about indie rockers, and either Carnie or somebody else did a show about "Club Kids," a youth subculture that I had not heard of before or since then. At the time, I was surprised and somewhat impressed that any youth subculture would get airtime on national TV, with its members being given the better part of an hour to explain what it meant to them.

Alfredo, somebody retracted their posts, so it reads strangely, but I was agreeing with you. You made some really great points. Heck, great points were made by virtually everyone.

Here is a classic show from the infancy of trash television: Morton Downey Jr. takes on Rock & Roll. This has to be one of the stranger hours of Joey Ramone's life.

maybe they next should get Judge Judy??

Why is she on Larry King an inordinate amount of time?

Look under the table the next time.