From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's on the media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

Air America has been reincarnated so often it ought to be pretty far along the path to enlightenment. Yet it seems to be on the verge of yet another rebirth. Before we consider its next life, let's quickly review the past ones. It started back in 2003 when investor Sheldon Drobney and his wife Anita decided to launch a

liberal talk radio network. Before the year was out, they'd sold their new company to Evan

Cohen and Mark Walsh. Finally, on March 31st, 2004, Air America launched. Al Franken was at the helm.

Today is both an ending and a beginning.

An end to the right-wing dominance of talk radio.

The beginning of a battle for truth, a battle for justice,

a battle indeed for America itself, not to be grandiose.

Mark Walsh was the CEO of Progress Media, Air America's parent company. In 2004, we asked him if

Air America would lose its raison debt if John Kerry won the presidential election.

If John Kerry wins in 2004, I think our business is even better. Why? Because

Tom DeLay ain't going away. Nino Scalia ain't going away. Dennis Hastert and Trent Lott and Bill

Frist are not going away. Actually, everyone he listed but Anthony Scalia has more or less gone away.

But so did Mark Walsh four weeks after Air America's debut.

So did Air America's VP for programming.

And after that, Chairman Evan Cohen left, along with Vice Chairman Rex Sorensen.

In October 2004, we got an update from the Washington Post's Paula Spann.

Things looked grim.

For a couple of weeks, people didn't know if they were going to be on the air the next day or not.

They got some new investors.

...