On Monday and yesterday, Randi spent at least an hour on AAR's bankruptcy. She took several cat swipes at TeamGlaser for allowing the network to file (and she claimed she had an inkling in the last two weeks based on a flurry of activity from suits in the building) in the first place. Here are her main points, and some interesting insider stuff:
1) That AAR has lost money for two years pales in comparison to the stunning losses Fox News and MSNBC had to deal with for 5+ years after they started operation. The former lost more than $80 million and had to buy their way on most cable systems, who had no interest in the network at the outset. MSNBC had the financial power of GE and Microsoft to sustain its losses. That AAR would lose money on a full service network startup is not unexpected. Allowing the network to go Chapter 11 because of a takeover power play by Glaser and his high paid lawyer is.
2) She despises Glaser's high paid lawyer, repeating the Drobny's own assertions (and attacks) on him for grabbing $200,000 for himself in just the last few weeks in legal fees. The bankruptcy was orchestrated by Glaser, but she also lays blame at AAR management for their own decisions. We are now also starting to hear her disdain for "people who play radio and don't know what they are doing," and in context with the rest of her discussion, she is attacking AAR management for stupidity in running the company, and the overpriced "star talent" AAR hired in the first place who don't know a thing about how to run a radio show. This is classic Randi. She has made side-swipes at Franken and the other "stars" who got bigger pay while delivering fewer listeners before, but never with this much clarity and attention.
3) Randi Rhodes is building a studio in her home in W Palm Beach, a very clear indication she is not going to hang around NYC much longer. She wasn't on the air Friday in part to get her contracting work organized to get the studio built, so it's clearly a priority for her.
4) She approves of Nova M and took another opportunity to slash AAR management for firing Mike Malloy. She is even promoting the return of Mike Malloy to radio at the expense of AAR's own late night offering, the invisible Peter Werbe. This is a clear indication she is far more in the Drobny's corner than in Glaser's.
5) She is personally calling affiliates and even some agencies and supporters who came in because of her show to reassure them that she is not going off the air. She attacked AAR for not coming out first with the story of the bankruptcy instead of allowing it to leak to the media earlier in the day and then not talking about it on the air before everyone else did.
Randi Rhodes is telegraphing to her listeners and fans that she is the master of her own domain, and she's demanded and won the same kinds of concessions Franken got when he moved his show to Minnesota and she wants to get back to Florida. She's also made it clear she reserves the right to attack AAR management anytime she pleases, and if they don't like it, too bad. She'll take her show elsewhere if necessary because she feels she has earned enough clout to not have to sit around and listen to people who don't have the first clue how to run a radio outfit. She's told them to shut up and stay out of her way.
She is still extremely pissed about AAR caving in on Malloy, and she suggested it was not because of a money issue, but rather the protestations of a sponsor or an affiliate (which may have had an angry sponsor).
And, most impressively of all, her salary has been paid in full and she is not owed any salary money in the recent bankruptcy. She read the tea leaves during the last contract renegotiation. Evidently if she's paid late even once, she can walk tomorrow. Smart woman.
