About that Vacuum on the Left Side of the Dial...

Tell us who you have in mind :-)

I'm vain.

This would be so cool I'm not sure I could handle so much goodness.

I must say though that I'm surprised you'd be pimping for David Sirota like this.  (cough)

It sounds like you have someone in mind - but who?

I started out with one YES!! but the more I thought about it, the more excited and hopeful I became. Field Hands and associates mounted a successful campaign to wrest back your Convention credential. We can do the same to promote your run for the Nova M spot.

There are astute and persuasive writers and advocates among us. Is Eric Reinert the contact person? If so, Field Hands and visitors, here's the info:

eric@novamradio.com

4041 N. Central Ave, Ste 1000
Phoenix, AZ 85012
Tel: 602-433-1190
Fax: 602-433-6226

Excelsior!

Maybe I jumped the gun. I guess we'd have to discuss strategy first! :-D

WOW!  This is Christmas & every other good holiday in February! Thanks Christine, oh, yeah, um, strategy?

Storm the barricades!

update: Just spoke to Jeff, & sent him to many of Al's writings ;-)

As to strategy:

Yes, we need to identify key decision-makers at Nova M and communicate with them.

Remember to consider the question of what's in it for Nova M?

Nova M has a Founder's Club at $9.99/mo or $100/year.   Subscribing would be one way to show support for Al.  Those who are already members can use their "insider status" to add additional weight to their recommendations.

Citing Al's history of successful fundraising for the Fund for Authentic Journalism is another.  Mentioning how much you have been personally motivated to contribute to the Fund to keep Al and his colleagues online, and how you would support Nova M will also carry some weight.

If, like me, you don't live in a Nova M market, mention how you would lobby a local station to carry their programming and/or subscribe to Sirius/XM to get it.

Other ideas?

OK, this is your June 08 "Fieldhand of the Month" checking in after being MIA for awhile...

We all know who was most prescient during the '08 Elections! We all know who has the experience, the moxey, the knowledge, the skill, the connections, and dare I say...the cajones to become a top voice on Progressive Talk Radio!

Since "cajones" is a Spanish word, we also know who can do all of the above in both Espanol y Ingles! (Take that...Rush!)

We even know that his initials are AG!!

So it's is up to us to make it happen! There's a vacuum in Talk Left Radio and we know who we want to fill that vacuum! We can do it!

Yes We Can!

At this time,

In this defining moment...

The Fieldhands can get help our leader to get the attention of Nova M Radio!

write Mr. Sheldon Drobny, the owner of Nova M Radio:

sdrobny@novamradio.com

As Prez O says: there is no time to waste!

Many thanks from me to you!

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

I think Sheldon and Anita Drobny are the owners - and Allan Brauer, ever brilliant, has an angle that would certainly be of interest to owners.

The email is: sdrobny@novamradio.com

An email using material from Al's bio, emphasizing his current work, and also highlights from his past (Boston Phoenix, Abbie Hoffman calling him best community organizer under age 30, etc) topped off with James Wolcott's phrase...and culminating with our being so committed to hearing him we're eager to join the Founders Club.

Yeah,  Pam - that confirms it - we have a strategy!

Thanks Pam and Christine for the contact information. I'll go set-up at facebook now.

Al, does this mean we could hear some good punk rock during the breaks?!

I have really missed my fellow Fieldhands!

I'm fired up again!

What Allan said...

What Suzy said...

Don't forget Al is bi-lingual and we Progressives want to hold on to and expand upon the gains we made this cycle...

plus, Al can smoke 10 cigarettes before RL even lights his cigar! (OK, maybe we can leave that part out...)

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

Would it be helpful to pick a time to all listen live and have them note the increase in net listening?

Of course, we have some radio-related examples of Al's work, beyond the great writing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FayGaaBM8yI

Perhaps the NovaM folks would like to see these?

for the all the lurkers (like me) out there:

radio has been my main news source for 25 years. NPR was so dissappointing the past 2 years, i stopped listening and now get my news from the internet - which is where i discovered Al Giordano and The Field.

(insert your personal acclamation)

i've only recently heard about Nova M Radio and was considering subscribing. let me assure you i certainly will if i have Al to listen to. and i will share that news with my formidable Obama 08 email list.

Al is a highly polished jewel, a voice we cannot do without. please, make my news day.

sincerely.

man this is what is needed. i think that leveraging the 538 and dKos connections is wise. could being south of the border be an advantage? i've been thinking a lot about border radio and the generative cultural work that came out of that cutura mixing.

I just created a facebook group.  Here is the link.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?gid=54565447623#/group.php?gid=5...

I am accepting suggestions and photos (hint to Al) as this was hastily created with much interruption from three boys home for vacation week!

Tam

Al I laughed when I read your post as pretty much all the things you described in the person that's be looked for fit you to a tee! Although I don't think your a southpaw...Anywho howz about it? I know you've done radion before, any interest? Blessings!!

Regardless, I'd love to hear me some Al over the airwaves. Bring it on!

and completely down with it!

Will work with my fieldhands local and whatever else is needed. Best news of the day!!!!

gratitude

I think that we need a lot more than 538 & dKos.  Why not enlist the real organizers on BarackObama.com?  The email is still active and if it was organized with a consistent message to send to all state email lists, I think that it could be quite effective. 

There would need to be a good Al bio and example writings and links to audio etc as there could still be lots of people who aren't familiar with Al.

I am sure that there are organizers with a lot more experience than me that could come up with the best way to 'organize' this effort!

We should also organize to petition any local stations that used to carry Randi.  My local station carried Randi, even though it is just AM radio.  There must be an agreement between  XM & local stations that could also tempt XM to carry Al, if there was an indication that local stations were willing and able.

For those of you in Northern California Fieldhands, I have started a thread for commitments and brainstorming ideas. I will also follow what happens here on the main blog for what I can contribute.

gratitude

Sheriff Leon Lott apparently thought he was going to be nationally recognized as a man among men, a real stud, for taking down a celebrity.  Instead, he became a laughingstock.   Which is probably why (in addition to the big-ass lawsuit he'd likely be facing) he's suddenly decided not to press charges against Olympic record gold medalist Michael Phelps.

List of all Nova M Affilites

Albuquerque, NM	1350 AM KABQ	X
Anchorage, AK	1080 AM KUDO	X
Ann Arbor, MI	1290 AM WLBY	X
Asheville, NC	880 AM WPEK	X
Ashland, KY	1340 AM WCMI	X
Astoria, OR	1230 AM KKEE	X
Bellingham, WA	930 AM KBAI	X
Brattleboro, VT	1490 AM WKVT	X
Buffalo, NY	1520 AM WWKB	X
Chapel Hill, NC	1360 AM WCHL	X
Charlottesville, VA	1450 AM WVAX	X
Columbus, OH	1580 AM WVKO	X		X
Dallas, TX	1360 AM KMNY	X		X
Denver-Boulder, CO	760 AM KKZN	X
Eureka, CA	1480 AM KGOE			X
Huntington, WV	1340 AM WCMI	X
Ithaca, NY	1470 AM WNYY	X
Juneau, AK	1330 AM KXLJ	X
Key West, FL	1500 AM WKIZ	X
Los Angeles CA	1150 AM KTLK	X		X
Madison, WI	92.1 FM WXXM			X
Miami, FL	940 AM WINZ	X		X
Minneapolis, MN	950 AM KTNF			X
Monterey, CA	540 AM KRXA	X
Phoenix, AZ	1190 AM KNUV	X		X
Portland, OR	620 AM KPOJ	X		X
Reno, NV	1230 AM KJFK	X
San Francisco, CA	960 AM KKGN	X		X
San Luis Obispo, CA	1340 AM KYNS	X		X
Seattle, WA	1090 AM KPTK	X		X
Spokane, WA	1280 AM KPTQ	X
USA - Satellite Radio	Sirius Ch. 146			X
USA - Satellite Radio	XM Ch. 167	X		X
West Palm Beach, FL	1290 AM WJNO	X

I seem to recall an experienced radio host

who took over the Rush L slot when that said host

moved on to the next higher-powered AM station

in the Happy Valley...Great talk, good ratings.

"Everybody Knows" who this might be,

don't they?

Al, you and Mike Malloy would make a fine set of bookends on NovaM. 

BTW, Randi was on Sirius and XM. Mike is also on Sirius. 

As members of the Founder's Club, we'll send along the suggestion.

Sheldon's email address above didn't work for me. I sent my letter to Eric instead...

Would you continue with The Field - and do you feel that there could be a drop off on the amount of content that you currently provide?

Also, as a bit of a freshmen when it comes to the 'megaphone' side of things, do you feel that a radio show on Nova M would expand the amount of people you are able to reach compared to online?

I'm all for it either way - as long as your passing along your wisdom to as many people as humanly possible.

Hmmm, south of the border we're not so happy about the potential brain drain!

I would love to see Al's take on things receive wider distribution, especially at a time when less thoughtful commentators are doing their best to hijack the discourse with attention-grabbing histrionics.

Chicken Little Pox is going to keep spreading until vaccinations are widely available: That's just the nature of an epidemic. If Al is willing to answer the call -- it's understandable why he might want to get out of the business -- I want to do my part of what it takes to support him.

The first thing that occurs to me is that the unlikely story which unfolded over the last year and a half has not only produced a "prophet," but also a "media star." They both provided coolheaded and prescient commentary during a political season while many in the traditional media relied on a tired and contrived horserace narrative. At least once, they addressed the same forum on what's next for the Obama movement. And just recently, they voiced similar concerns about the direction of the conversation on the left.

With utmost respect, and without taking anybody for granted, I'd like to make a plea for the assistance of one of our compadres who has the attention of the perhaps overcautious souls who flip the switches and pull the levers at the big media companies. If it takes hauling a searchlight up to the top of a building in Chicago and projecting the shape of a chile pepper onto the clouds, so be it. But first I thought I'd try this.

Damn, I missed out the m!

Here's the correct email - as Pam posted -

sdrobny@novamradio.com

Please post copies of the letters you've written here, and on Fieldhands. It's inspiring to see what is written - and would probably encourage more people to write.

Does this remind anyone of Al's "Children's Table" post?

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=8DDB064668FEAB44995F1A5C...

Sort of pathetic, huh.  I guess that the children's table attack got under his skin if he is recycling the rhetoric, albeit in bastardized form.

And as soon as I figure out who you're talking about, I'll get on board :-)

This by the way is a great chance for the Field Hands group to get involved.  A major campaign on Facebook could get a chunk of attention ... "Dean for HHS" got in the WashPo with only 4000 members, and this is a different twist.  With 650 people on the ning and all of the other readers of this blog and NarcoNews, there's a good chance to blow past that.  Radio stations in general are struggling with how to appeal to "the Facebook crowd"; showing that Al's got significant support there can only help.

jon

think you have a pretty good shot of getting that radio slot, but assuming that doesn't work out what do you think of using a web 2.0 type website that puts the top rated audio segments on a radio stream?

That would probably be a fairly easy task to create.  But its one of those things where you need a community to make it successful and you have a community.

I don't normaly do this, but I'm going to reveal myself in this video clip.  It shows me reading Sirota's latest, yet another in a long, long line of catfights with fellow Liberals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWLeWqPOFpU

It's not to say don't ever respond to critics, but they just go on and on.  It's like reading a DailyKos comments section, but only on the front pages, where people just keep talking past each other, and notice, most importantly, that there's no "action item" at all in Sirota's screed, which is the case the majority of time (unless you count the "If we (he and Nate Silver) were in bar, we'd be taking it outside" bluster).  Hopefully Al's coaching Nate on how to handle this nonsense.

Can't help imagine what would be accomplished if just a fraction of the time and energy many Liberal boggers spend in pissing contests, would be spent in more productive pursuits, such as organizing.

When Obama was a Senator, he even reached out to Sirota and invited Dave to spend a day with him in order to clarify some of his stances.  Ended up being a waste of time for Obama.  The O-man also posted a great Dkos entry as Senator, explaining in detail how he approaches politics and why, yet the majority of response I've seen from the Children's Table is complaint about how he didn't spend time in the comments section, or come back to Dkos (he did), or "attacked" (one of their favorite words) them.  It's a great read by the way, where he spells out his approach that we saw him use to win...both here:

http://barack-obama.dailykos.com/

This is our President.  Amazing.  It's up to us not to squander this moment.  For Sirota and others:  It's not about you!

87 on Facebook, 8:01 EST.

Remember the Petition - this is more fun!  Anybody wanna bet on when the MSM picks it up??

What about someone writing a diary on dailykos about the facebook group - with a bio of Al.
With dKos's readership if it got rec'd it would send a large group of people toward the facebook group.
Would follow nicely on ben masel's diary of the other diary that was rec'd about buying up radio stations.
Someone who is a better writer than me.

I would truly love Al's voice on radio - I am Sooo tired of NPR - especially Mar Eliason (bad sp.?) and Juan williams.

KD

97 on Facebook, 9:24 EST.

Any bets on when we hit 1,000?

As a talk radio vet, I feel compelled to underscore the need for turning out a lot of people in support of Al.Radio is all about numbers. So if you haven't written to Nova-M yet, please do so now. If you have already written, please influence others to follow suit.

So get out there and organize others to help make a noise loud enough to be heard in Phoenix.

Thanks,

Barry

Tuesday, February 17th 2009

Dear Mr. Sheldon Drobny,

It has come to my attention that your program, the East Coast Afternoon Drive on Nova M Radio, is or may soon be in need of a new on-air host. I respectfully submit the name of Mr. Al Giordano for that position. Mr. Giordano is a veteran voice of the progressive movement, a groundbreaking journalist, and community organizer. His influential blog "The Field" was one of the leading websites during the recent 2-year Presidential election for rational, accurate, long-range political prediction and analysis. "The Field" continues to lead the charge into the new "Obama era."

I was personally drawn to Mr. Giordano's work because of his ability to read between the lines of the day-to-day media cycle and extrapolate the deeper political currents working beneath it. His intellectual rigor, plus his signature rebellious and humorous style, make him one of the best political analysts out there.

I truly believe Mr. Giordano would be a fantastic addition to Nova M Radio. I urge you to consider him for the East Coast Afternoon Drive slot, and any other openings that may appear.

Wow!  We now have 124 members with about 850 invites that haven't yet replied.  Fantastic everyone!  I am asking folks to report back when they get responses from NovaM.

We should probably start phoning and calling the novam affiliates from the list "TB in Chi" provided. I'll add the list to the facebook group.

Thank you everyone!

I just wanted to say that I wrote Mr. Sheldon Drobny in support of Al. My take was that an organizer on the radio might actually help Nova M expand into more markets.  It still has a limited reach that could be expanded with the addition of Al. I would actually love to see Al and Randi Rhodes go back to back.  Too bad she left.  A progressive national radio reach needs much work; I can only hope that internecine fighting and incoherent identity (Air America) are growing pains for the left hand side of the dial. 

The idea of an Organizers' Radio format is really attractive. I would listen on line, until it broke through into Terre Haute.

Now that everybody has gotten into writing, here's another very important person to contact.  He also needs to learn about Al's good work.

General Manager Eric Reinert -

eric@novamradio.com

Hey all, I just received this response from Eric Reinert. Not exactly sure what it means. Perhaps emails should be directed to On Second Thought?

"Yes, I am familiar with Al. We actually have several people clammering for that time slot. Right now it’s Nancy Skinner. We’ll see what the future holds. Nova M is no longer running the station. It is now being operated by On Second Thought, LLC.

Sincerely,

Eric Reinert"

If " On Second Thought" is now the new owner---That's Dr. Mike Newcomb.  He was part of the beginning of Nova M---had some sort of drama dropped out and has recently returned. He's a Phoenix local and as far as I'm concerned not very knowledgeable.  So introduce yourself and get on the air.  You'd be a great addition to this market.  

This story is getting more and more interesting... due to how their website is formatted I can't post a direct link to the story, so you'll have to find it under Headlines and click through.

By Mike Stern

The finger pointing between host Randi Rhodes and her network Nova M is over, and so is Nova M. Network GM Eric Reinert tells R&R that Nova M is no longer an entity and that a new company called On Second Thought LLC has been formed and is moving forward. Both Reinart and Rhodes' lawyer Robert V. Gaulin confirm that Rhodes is no longer associated with the group.

Gaulin tells R&R that Nova M's legal team is advising the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that Rhodes would not hear anymore from Nova M until after the bankruptcy proceedings began.

Gaulin says he has advised the network that their contract with Rhodes is considered terminated due to breach of agreement on their part. He declined to comment on the exact contract breaches but says, "No on-air personality would ever go on air with a talk show under the circumstances that existed that we found out about two or three weeks ago."

Gaulin also says that the current hospitalization of Nova M co-founder Sheldon Drobny is due to an attempted suicide saying he and Rhodes are, "Most sadded by the tragic news." Reinert declined to comment on the situation.

Reinart also declined to comment on a lawsuit recently filed by former network CEO John Manzo. The 16-page complaint alleges, among other things, that the syndicator breached Manzo's contract, failed to pay state and federal taxes on his behalf, defamed his character and cast him in a false light.

Reinart says the new network will continue to offer host Mike Malloy along with new shows from hosts Nancy Skinner, who has been filling in for Randi Rhodes during the recent contract dispute, and Mike Newcomb, a popular local host in the Phoenix area.

Perhaps this may not be the best gig for you right now, Al...