Why It Wasn't Radio That Made RealNetworks' Rob Glaser a Billionaire

Readers of paidContent are most familiar with Rob Glaser as head honcho of RealNetworks, but his interests have long gone beyond chasing Microsoft and Apple for digital-media market share. Those old enough to remember the mid-’90s know that his company began life with the name Progressive Media and a goal of spreading progressive political values. The company went in another direction, but Glaser personally became a major contributor to various Democratic and left-of-center causes. One of those causes has been the Air America Radio network, which hasn’t been anywhere as successful as RealNetworks: Air America recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
In a longish profile that describes Glaser as “Seattle’s biggest-spending liberal benefactor,” the alt-weekly Seattle Weekly walks through Glaser’s history as a political donor what happened at Air America: bounced paychecks, a questionable “loan,” and an on-air acknowledgment of a funding scandal by Al Franken, who is owed $360,000 by the company. Those new to Glaser or the current radio business will find the piece a useful, albeit overheated, primer — and a reminder of how hard it can be to carve out a new niche in an existing — and, frankly, saturated — traditional media format.
The apparent financial failure of Air America may have been its attempt to present right-wing radio techniques to a left-wing audience that for years has preferred the more sober sounds of public radio to any leftie version of what Rush Limbaugh and his ilk offer. Air America didn’t take off — even in strong blue markets like Boston — because its potential audience was comfortable getting its news and entertainment elsewhere. A left-of-center radio commercial network that challenged NPR might deliver some provocative programming, but it’s unclear whether there would be any money there. The leftie elites, after all, hardly ever click on the AM side of their radios.

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