BREATH OF FRESH AIR

SAM SEDER & AIR AMERICA


On Monday, Air America Radio introduced a new lineup of programming, but there's one timeslot in particular that I'd like to talk about. When the network first went on air back in March of 2004 the 9am to noon slot featured Lizz Winstead (co-creator of The Daily Show) along with rapper Chuck D and Rachel Maddow as the straight "man". Chuck D was next to pointless. I guess he brought some amount of name recognition to the fledgling network but expecting keen political insight from him is like me giving a seminar on advanced calculus, and that ain't happenin' anytime soon. Still, the show had the very funny Lizz doing her thing and Ms. Maddow, who held it all together like the seasoned veteran she is. Over time, Rachel became the highlight of the show for me. Unfortunately, a year later the show was cancelled, which opened a slot for the syndicated Jerry Springer program to take its place.
Shorter Me: Springer's radio program was unlistenable. As I've stated in the past, the guy is so conciliatory and milquetoast that he makes Alan Colmes look like Michael Moore. But, for the last eighteen months, Springer has been the guy from 9am to noon and I have been the guy who had his radio tuned to another station; any other station.
Monday brought about another change at the slot as longtime Majority Report co-host Sam Seder took over. I wasn't able to hear the entire show, but what I did here was really solid. I rarely found myself driving while Majority Report was on so I didn't often catch the show and how Sam operated, so much of his stuff is "new" to me and i couldn't be happier. If nothing else, he's not Springer. And Al Franken, host of the show that follows Sam's, made an appearance on Sam's show today and seemed quite pleased with the change, mostly because Springer's show, given that it was synicated onto the Air America network, provided no sort of actual lead-in to Al's Show. Now that the 9-noon slot is back "in-house", something of a program synergy between the two should assist and propel both shows. You could tell that Al was trying to be diplomatic, but I believe that his true feelings for Springer and his show were pretty clear. Al seemed genuinely excited about the change, and I am right there with him.
I'm usually tuned into Howard Stern most mornings, but Seder's program could definitely get me to switch back over. At least now it's a possibility, unlike during Springer's tenure.