A disagreement over network versus syndicating was one of the reasons for the birth of Air America's progressive talk competitor, Democracy Radio, based in Washington. "The founders of Democracy Radio and the founders of Air America all originally started as one organization back in the fall of 2002," explains Tom Athans, that organization's executive director.

Democracy Radio, which for the nonce has only two nationally syndicated programs, broadcasting a combined six hours a week, is on about twice as many stations as Air America. It also has associated with it a bundle of people with much experience in radio, including Frank Mankiewicz, the father of NPR news. "Syndication is the way of the future. The network is the way of the past," says Mankiewicz, who explains that syndicators have a built-in advantage: It's a lot easier to sell a station one or two programs than nineteen straight hours of programming.

The two groups fell out over differences in "approach," which included more than the business plan. While saying that both have the same progressive point of view, Athans explains that Air America was "very big on creating a splash with celebrities, and our belief was celebrities in the long run don't make as big a splash as real broadcasters do. If you want to be successful in broadcasting, use experienced broadcasters."

Another point of difference is that Democracy Radio is not banking on coming up with a liberal Limbaugh, a national personality so vivid and so well-known that even the millions who do not listen to talk-radio are at least vaguely familiar with the person's name, as they are with Limbaugh's. So Athans's organization is finding and placing liberal talkers in various cities. They are expected to build up a fierce following in their locales. The first such is Nancy Skinner, an experienced talker who was brought back to her native Michigan from WLS in Chicago and installed at Detroit's WDTW to do a morning drive-time show. There are supposed to be a score more like Skinner dropped into major markets soon. Since the rule of thumb is that it takes about three years for a talk personality to start turning a profit, this is going to cost nonprofit Democracy Radio a ton of seed money, but Athans insists there are checkbooks out and ready, although he will not say whose.

A few talkers--maybe it's only one--are carrying the liberal torch in deepest Boondockia without benefit of network, syndicator or checkbook. Louie Free, whose voice can be heard every weekday morning across the Mahoning Valley on WASN, Youngstown, Ohio, is, with his faithful, Sancho Panza-like producer, Bun-E, a discordant progressive voice in a state where the word of God is said to drown out all others. But not that of the uncompromising Free, who has been fired from several stations in the area for his opposition to former Congressman James Traficant Jr., presently residing in a federal home for wayward politicians near Ray Brook, New York.

The problematic Jerry Springer and Louie Free aside, two men are vying for the lead in liberal AM yak-yak: Democracy Radio's Ed Schultz, a side o' beef radio personality out of Fargo, North Dakota, and Air America's Franken. Schultz is a boomer, a fast-talking, ham-fisted, quick-paced table banger with years of radio experience and a perfected technique. Franken is an accomplished comedian, a famous writer and liberal headliner who puts on a friendly, slow, NPR-paced radio performance that stamps him as someone who has either not yet learned to be an AM talker or has decided to succeed by being a different kind of talker.

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