Air America

Because I live hundreds of miles from the closest broadcast point for the new network, I've only been able to catch a bit of it via online stream.

I'm not going to attempt any real critique of it here, because a) so many others are already critiquing and b) because I don't think the test of time is last week or this week, but closer to the election and then beyond. Everyone needs time to settle in and see how the format gets changed as time passes.

Yet, as glad as I am that Air America is here, it also grieves me that you can't trust most media outlets to offer a real balance on their own. I can't turn on AM radio anymore, because it's either all the same music or all the same angry voices. In fact, here in Vermont, I'm down to listening to the occasional NPR program (and then, only in the car where I have no other choice), Congressman Bernie Sanders' program on WDEV (Mondays at 1 PM ET), and a local community radio station, WGDR, that is filled with progressive voices and which broadcasts Democracy Now twice a day. Everything else is just too crappy to bear.

But I'll also freely admit I'm a snob. I don't like 99.8% of the commercial music produced today, while I adore that little stations like WGDR in Plainfield (VT) and WPKN in Bridgeport, CT - both available over the net via stream - not only provide some alternative voices, they also give me a real range of music from all over the world, in all genres. Hail community radio!