Ahh, Persephone, Returned From The Depths To Us

Good news if you, as I, have been missing la belle Rhodes...

She's coming back! Back on The POJ mid-May.

And the nifty party?

She's being syndicated by Premier Radio Networks ... the same syndicator which runs the Unavuncular Carbuncular Creepy Uncle of America – Rush (we call him "Mr") Limbaugh.

She's gonna eat him alive. As big as he's gotten, she'll need a doggy bag.

But what doggy would have him?

I invite discussion on Preemptive Karma. Join me there.

Nova M/On Second Thought Refugee Update

From what we just heard on Malloy, they're going to have a remodeled web presence on or about the first week of April.

They're looking at at new podcast subscription service, so enjoy those free podcasts (via Ben Burch's White Rose Society) while you can. However, Mike is saying they're going to make the new podcast subscriptions more affordable than Nova M Founders Club was, so maybe more of us will be able to get on the bandwagon. I sure plan on it if I can afford that.

Actually, after checking Ben Burch's main page, I found the following bit of good news:

After the Mike Malloy show goes to
subscription service, probably at the beginning of April, the same
situation will apply as with Thom Hartmann's archives; They will be
podcast and archived for free, on a seven-day embargo.

Also,
I will be adding the archives of Stephanie Miller and possibly also
Bill Press on the same terms at some time in the near future. Details
to follow as I know them.

So pay to get it current or wait a week and get it for free. Seems fair to me. We liberal radio listeners owe a hell of a lot to Ben Burch. If my personal economy every improves, I plan on donating. If you, dear reader, have a few bucks, you should throw it his way.

This is great! My iPod (bought used FWIW) sounds great with Mike and Kathy coming out of its speakers.

Checking up on Randi Rhodes, we see that her website still has the complete text that she posted up there when the Nova M balloon went up. That could use a little bit of updating, since there's no Nova M anymore, they won't be making up with anyone anytime soon.

Nancy Skinner's still motorboatin' along, and is gaining my respect. Talk about making lemons out of lemonade. And she's like Randi without all the stuff a long of Randi-haters complain about, so she should have appeal enough to keep going.

The websites for On Second Thought and 1190 Nova M (KNUV, Phoenix) are, as Generalissimo Francisco Franco is, still dead. Rumor is that KNUV is back to broadcasting Spanish language programming, as it was before Nova M's flagship moved from KPHX to KNUV.

And so it goes.

Nova M ... On Second Thought ... 1190 KNUV ... Going, Going ...

This photo, nicked from the Phoenix New Times newspaper, shows the last known status of the station that was the flagship of the defunct Nova M Radio, then the flagship of the chimeral On Second Thought Radio, the successor to 1480 KPHX, Phoenix's 1190 KNUV:

Those are indeed the doors of KNUV, 1190 AM, Phoenix AZ, chained and locked. Read the Phoenix New Times article on the current state of affairs here. Eerily, though, despite the blank page that the OnSecondThought.net site (formerly NovaMRadio.com) and the 1190NovaM.com sites have become, the 1190 Nova M stream via iTunes is still available and eerily broadcasting as though nothing's changed.

No word on the status of Dr. Mike Newcomb and the others.

Mike Malloy is on self-syndication. At least we still get to hear him.

Ben Burch's The White Rose Society website maintains a Sphinx-like fundraising front page.

Randi Rhodes's website still displaying the brief message that was mounted when everything started to FDGB.

The POJ seems to be going as strong as ever.

If anyone can diagnose the situation, you're way ahead of me.

In The Absence Of Randi, NovaM Becomes "On Second Thought"

La Affaire Rhodes II continues to evolve, in new and decidedly odd ways. To someone like me, who's been listening to talk radio long enough that he doesn't remember what it was like to listen to it for pop music, it's pretty unprecedented.

In a business that is an inscrutable miasma to the vox pop, this kicks it up another notch (via RadioandRecords.com):

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.

I just with someone would have explained just what the name NovaM meant anyway. Now, we'll never know.

The new name, "On Second Thought" sounds so passive and nice. The evolution is going sloppily as well, the only thing replaced on the website being the top banner (which looks decidedly amateur) and Randi Rhodes information still on the thing.

Stay tuned to this space. If anyone can figure out what's going on here, I'd be thrilled to know too.

(To read the entire text of the article, go to http://radioandrecords.com and type "Randi Rhodes" in the search box. The article is not linkilicious.)

Randi Rhodes APPARENTLY Off NovaM! (Breaking) (Updated)

Read up http://therandirhodesshow.com today ...

Got a page, the top of which looks like this:



Say what you want, this is not looking good.

She is, as of this time, still atop the NovaM website however.

And This Just In:

Green960 AM, San Francisco, PD John Scott has posted the following, credited to Randi:

NOVA
M RADIO HAS NOT YET CORRECTED THE PROBLEM THAT HAS KEPT ME OFF THE AIR DESPITE MY STRONG DESIRE AND READINESS TO BROADCAST MY SHOW.  RESPECTING THE EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP THAT HAS EXISTED BETWEEN NOVA M AND ME, AND EXPECTING THE SOLUTION TO BE QUICKLY ACHIEVED,
DETALIS OF THE DISABLING EVENT WERE WITHHELD IN GOOD FAITH.  BUT I CAN TELL YOU THIS MUCH: YOU SHOULD NOT BELIEVE ANY STATEMENT IMPLICATING ME AS BEING IN ANY WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISRUPTION IN THE RANDI RHODES SHOW.   THERE IS NO TRUTH TO ANY SUCH MESSAGE.  IN FACT, I DID
EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO HELP NOVA M MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO RETURN. 

IN LIGHT OF MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, MY SHOW WILL BE SEEKING A NEW HOME.  I WOULD ASK FOR YOUR CONTINUED PATIENCE AND INDULGENCE IN RESPECTING MY RIGHTS DURING THIS TIME.  YOUR
UNWAVERING SUPPORT IS CHERISHED.  THANK YOU.
 
RANDI RHODES

Yeah, it's gotten weird again.

Wonder why this is all coming through Green960 though (a question designed to illustrate my utter ignorance of how broadcasting works, and in no way meant to cast aspersions or suspicions on anyone anyhow)

Updated, 1829 on Feb 16th: The above text is now the complete content of therandirhodesshow.com. Not only that, I'm listening to Malloy via NovaM stream right now, and he is (as expected) not giving any information out (though it's possible he hasn't much, if any at all, information), though, notably, he's nodded his head toward the imbroglio by calling his syndicator the "I Don't Know What It's Called" Network.

Bigger problems that just Randi leaving, I wonder?

That'd be damned sad.

Randi Rhodes:Back Monday. Maybe? Maybe Not? Who Knows?

This memo-to-the-listeners from the PD of San Francisco's (#4 Media Market) counterpart to The POJ, "Green 960" (formerly KQKE, "The Quake") seems to tell us something, but we are inclined to be a bit jaundiced toward anything that begins with the tired old "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you".

But he seems to be saying that there maybe be a return by Monday.

But it's hard to read, these broadcast types.

We have our fingers crossed.

L'Affaire Rhodes II: The Sequel

Something like a year ago, AirAmerica Radio attempted to consume its own young by forcing Randi Rhodes to accept a diminished contract. We all know how that went.

Since then, Randi's moved to the upstart Nova M syndicated network, where her show is, quite seriously, back and better than ever.

Over the last week, though, Randi's been missing. Nancy Skinner's been doing the yeoman's job of filling in. As the week's worn on, though, it's gone wierd, culminating in the following word from one of the Nova M powers, Anita Drobny (who helped found AirAmerica) which essentially answers nothing really:

To all of Randi's listeners

You are all correct - I have not had the option to disclose what has been happening between Randi and Nova M... You see, it's in her contract that she has total control, but, after Wednesday night, I want you all to know that Nova M has done everything we can to get her back on the air. All this is her choice; if she wants to tell you all what the issue is, then I hope she does, but I can't according to her contract rules. But I can tell you this I have wanted her back on the air. She's an amazing talent and needs to be heard. Thank you all for all of your support. Randi now has to make her decisions as to what she must do with her career...

Anita Drobny
Co-Founder, Nova M Radio

Sigh. I'm trying not to read what I think is the handwriting on the wall here, but instead of despair, let me try a different tack.

The world of radio broadcasting is bright and shiny out front and this horrid miasma out back. Hosts are allowed to build fan bases only to have their "on-air" friend yanked from them because of some business decision that has little or nothing to do with the listenership.

We Democrats are better people. We should expect and demand from those who carry our combined message forward that they do business in a different way. That means, when the chips go down (like they may or may not be doing here) be as adult to us as our favorite hosts are when things aren't so emotional.

Be clear with us, be direct. If the current model won't support that, then change the model. We hold ourselves, as Democrats and liberals, as a group with a devotion to the actual truth (not Republican-brand Truth™) and as much transparency as possible.

Be straight with us as to why Randi is off the air and why she isn't back yet. Randi, I've listened to your program on The POJ from the beginning, when you taunted Teh Lars about the fact that you kicked his ass in the Portland market. If it's under your control to be clear, then be clear.

We're Democrats, and we're liberals. We are obliged to be behave better. If we don't, what's the point?