By JOHN MAINELLI
New York Post
August 3, 2006
THE liberal Air America radio network is going to be harder to hear in New York.
Next month, it is switching stations - to a weaker AM station, WWRL (1600 AM).
Al Franken and his lefty colleagues are leaving WLIB (1190 AM) apparently because they couldn't come up with enough cash for the owners, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, Pierre.
Starting Sept. 1, Air America will be on WWRL, at the top of the dial where AM signals are weakest - especially at night, when greater FCC restrictions apply.
As The Post reported last March, the ratings-challenged liberal network failed to renew its two-year lease with the Suttons.
Relations between the Suttons and the network's execs were rocky from the start and only got worse after the network's shaky finances became known and a scandal broke out involving loans to Air America from a Bronx charity.
WLIB's future after Sept. 1 is not known, although radio industry heavyweight Randy Michaels - the builder of 1,200-station Clear Channel - has expressed interest in leasing the station as a base for a new talk-radio network.
Michaels declined comment yesterday and the Suttons didn't return calls.
New York Post
August 3, 2006
THE liberal Air America radio network is going to be harder to hear in New York.
Next month, it is switching stations - to a weaker AM station, WWRL (1600 AM).
Al Franken and his lefty colleagues are leaving WLIB (1190 AM) apparently because they couldn't come up with enough cash for the owners, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, Pierre.
Starting Sept. 1, Air America will be on WWRL, at the top of the dial where AM signals are weakest - especially at night, when greater FCC restrictions apply.
As The Post reported last March, the ratings-challenged liberal network failed to renew its two-year lease with the Suttons.
Relations between the Suttons and the network's execs were rocky from the start and only got worse after the network's shaky finances became known and a scandal broke out involving loans to Air America from a Bronx charity.
WLIB's future after Sept. 1 is not known, although radio industry heavyweight Randy Michaels - the builder of 1,200-station Clear Channel - has expressed interest in leasing the station as a base for a new talk-radio network.
Michaels declined comment yesterday and the Suttons didn't return calls.