BOB GARFIELD: This is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. One year ago this week, a motley assortment of standup comedians, political activists and millionaire investors came together on Park Avenue in New York City to create an angry, in your face talk radio network. On March 31st, 2004, with Democratic drum-beater Al Franken behind the microphone, the openly abrasive, unabashedly liberal Air America was born.

AL FRANKEN: From an underground bunker, 3500 feet below Dick Cheney's bunker, [CHEERING] Air America Radio is on the air. [CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The network was advertised as the antidote to just about everything else on the AM dial, which has for years been a stronghold of conservative opinion. And so, with the midwife still lingering in the room, predictions of a great demise for Air America came gleefully from the right, including this assessment by Republican talk show host Sean Hannity.

SEAN HANNITY: Here's a hint: these people are not bright. Here's a hint: they really are dull.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Air America is, at times, sophomoric and dull, but it can also be witty and scathing, one reason it has survived its first turbulent year of staff shakeups and near economic collapse, all captured on hundreds of hours of tape and distilled into the new HBO documentary Left of the Dial. Filmmaker Patrick Farrelly joins me here in our studio. Welcome to On the Media.

PATRICK FARRELLY: Thanks.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So, Patrick, there have been scores of media startups every year, and you chose to follow Air America. In your mind, did the inherent riskiness of this venture guarantee that there'd be a dramatic story to tell?

PATRICK FARRELLY: To be quite honest, it really didn't, and I - we had nothing like that in mind as I'm sure the people who were involved in Air America had no idea what was going to happen. The reason we were interested in it was the political year of last year, which was very energetic and very divided country, hot political debates, and the fact that people were trying to launch the first commercial liberal progressive radio network in that context was what actually interested us.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So you were drawn by the political venture, rather than the business venture.

PATRICK FARRELLY: Yeah, we were drawn by the politics of it, but also we were interested in how you actually launch a radio network, which is, you know, as anyone can tell you, is not an easy business. And we were also interested to see whether it was possible for these people to essentially achieve what they were setting out to do, which was sort of change the national conversation.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And the way that you depict those early weeks - there were technical glitches, there were quickly and occasionally hysterical hosts, frequently unprepared hosts, logistical problems, and then a monumental cash shortfall. What happened?

PATRICK FARRELLY: In essence, what happened is that the rug was pulled from under them just as they kind of were beginning to hit their stride. The real mover behind this, this incredibly energetic guy, a fellow by the name of Evan Cohen, who was the chairman of the board of Air America Radio, and allegedly its chief investor. There came a certain point when, literally, as they say, after one month on the air, they lost their Chicago station, they lost their L.A. affiliate, and they only had four affiliates at that point.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Right.

PATRICK FARRELLY: So this was a huge, huge blow. The company that owned those two affiliates said that they in fact had bounced the checks - the money that was needed to pay for the lease. Air America energetically denied that. But as it turned out, they in fact had bounced the checks.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And not just those checks. Also paychecks, and you had lapsed health insurance. You had general panic ensuing. And I guess the problem was that Evan Cohen had apparently misled the staff about how much startup cash he actually had in hand. Is that a fair read?

PATRICK FARRELLY: I think that's a fair read of the situation. I mean I think that in essence, I mean Evan Cohen to me is a kind of - almost a quintessential American character. Without him, Air America Radio could never have happened, cause he was the guy who actually dragged the whole thing together. You know, I think he was giving people the impression that he had personally put millions of dollars into the company and that he was able to draw on millions of dollars, and it turned out that, one month after the launch, there was no money left.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And when the money ran out, Cohen jumped ship, and we have some tape from your film where he cast himself as a victim of sorts.

EVAN COHEN: Well, obviously, Jesus, I pumped millions of dollars into it. I, you know, did everything I could to - you know - but hey, early on when it was, when it was beautiful and everybody got what they wanted and they were hiring their friends and, you know, there were all sorts of great things, you know, people were happy, but you know - hit a glitch; quickly - how quickly good will rolls away.

PATRICK FARRELLY: I think at that point, Evan Cohen was in denial. I mean ultimately, the guy is a salesman. He's never going to say that, in fact, you know, that he sold people a bill of goods. Among the staff, there was just intense sense of betrayal. In fact, that in the movie you see, for example, Evan Cohen arrived late at night to sign over the company so they can actually bring in new investors, it's because that if he arrived during the day, he would have run into a very, very hostile staff and a very, very difficult situation. And he basically, you know, he just disappeared off the scene.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And after Cohen left, new investors weren't exactly lining up. Did that surprise you?

PATRICK FARRELLY: That kind of surprised me, because you know there really wasn't all that big liberal money out there. When people talk about the media in this country and all the liberals and so on and so forth, I mean at that point, it wouldn't have taken an enormous amount of money to actually keep Air America Radio on the road, and you would have thought that, particularly at a time when we're talking about last May and June, when, you know, the political season is really hotting up, there's an awful lot of stuff at stake politically - that people would be coming in to bail them out.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: It seems that part of the mismanagement of Air America, if there was mismanagement, involves the way it promoted its star talent. Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo were in every single article. The sole person on the on air staff who had real radio experience and a proven track record for drawing audience, even outdrawing Rush Limbaugh in Florida, was Randi Rhodes.

RANDI RHODES: But Scott McClellan today, who replaced Ari Fleischer, who replaced Karen Hughes - because how many days can you go to work and lie your ass off for a living? - he said, (quote) "You know, every step of the way in Iraq there have been pessimists and handwringers who say it can't be done." It turns out that there is a reason for that, Scott. [SHOUTING] It can't be done! That's the reason!

PATRICK FARRELLY: I think it was a big mistake not actually promoting Randi with whatever resources they had, because she's a very magnetic character, very, very provocative. When their first Arbitron ratings come in, as you know, these happen over a three month period, particularly Randi did very, very well. And that was all as Dell Krieger, who was acting CEO at the time, said it was all in spite of bad publicity, because whenever you read about Air America, it was "Air America Radio" - comma - "the financially-strapped, crisis-ridden- [LAUGHTER] et cetera." So, I think in terms of how they actually managed to stay alive, I think was a pretty extraordinary achievement in and of itself.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And where does Air America stand now?

PATRICK FARRELLY: Well, you know, one year after they were launched, they now have 50 affiliates. They're covering something like 60 percent of the country. And I think that, you know, in an odd way, the person who's responsible for that surging growth is George W. Bush. [LAUGHTER] The fact of George Bush being re-elected is probably the best prescription in terms of a business plan for Air America Radio for the next four years, because you still have a bitterly divided country, you still have a large section of the population who is quite happy to sit down and listen to every bad thing you can think of to say about George W. Bush and the Bush administration.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Patrick Farrelly, thank you very much.

PATRICK FARRELLY: Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Patrick Farrelly is the director and producer with Kate O'Callaghan of the documentary Left of the Dial, which premieres on HBO on March 31st. Danny Goldberg, a music industry veteran and founder of Artemis Records, took over as CEO of the network just a few weeks ago. He joins us now from his noisy office in Manhattan. Welcome to the show.

DANNY GOLDBERG: Oh, thanks for having me on.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Danny, I've got to tell you, the head of Air America seems to fulfill the same function historically as the drummer in Spinal Tap - constantly blowing up.

DANNY GOLDBERG: Well, I think it's a startup company. It's only the one-year anniversary March 31st, and it's a miracle that it's still in business. It had two false starts - not because of who the CEO's were but because there were two people that said they were putting up money that didn't put it up.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Air America started on four stations; then there was briefly two stations. Now they're hovering around 50 or so. Where do you see the network heading over the next coming year, and, and how do you make your predictions?

DANNY GOLDBERG: Well, as of April 1st, we'll be on in 17 of the top 20 markets, reaching about 55 percent of the population of the United States. And the goal is by the fall to be up around 80 percent, which I think is very realistic, based on the ratings and the attractiveness of the programming, to under-performing radio stations, mostly AM radio stations around the country where their owners prefer to have us on, because they can do better business wise. To really be a credible network, I think we need to get to that 80 percent mark as soon as possible, and my guess is it'll be around the beginning of the fall that we'll get there.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Some have criticized Air America for not putting enough muscle behind the promotion of Randi Rhodes.

DANNY GOLDBERG: I don't know if people listening realize how limited the staff has been of Air America. Up until now, there has been no in-house promotion department of any kind. There's been virtually no paid advertising, although we do currently have a campaign in New York that includes all of our on air talent, including Randi Rhodes. It sort of happened by itself through word of mouth and through what the press chose to cover. Al did get a disproportionate amount of attention cause he had a celebrity in the general culture. Randi is a superstar within the radio culture, which, you're right, for a radio network is every bit as much important if not more so.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Air America was supposed to produce the liberal Rush Limbaugh. There is a particular way that Limbaugh connects with his audience. Has Air America produced anybody like that?

DANNY GOLDBERG: Well, I think both Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, all of our people are connecting with an audience, an impassioned minority that exists all over the country, and there's a yearning all over the country for an alternative voice.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: You come from the music industry. You started a record label. Do you think that you have the tools to manage a big radio company?

DANNY GOLDBERG: I'm not sure that anyone would have the background for Air America Radio, because it's a hybrid between a conventional radio network and a cultural brand like an MTV or Rolling Stone, so I - I've got either the foolishness or the guts to try to do it, and yeah, I don't think there's any one person that would have all the different tools. Hopefully I've got enough of them not to screw it up. [LAUGHTER]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Danny Goldberg, thank you very much.

DANNY GOLDBERG: Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Danny Goldberg is the CEO of Air America.