Getting Used to Air America Radio

After 3 1/2 days of lotsa listening to Air America (AM 1240 in Sacamento, find a station near you here), better known as that new liberal Al Franken radio network, I really love it. But it takes a little getting used to.

Normally I only listen to rabid talk radio when it’s 2am and I’m on the interstate outsida Gary, Indiana trying to get to Buffalo by dinner time–that is to say, almost never.

And there’s a big fat reason for that (his initials are R.L.). Al Franken of course wants to be the leftwing answer to Rush–after listening a while, I can tell you he’s not. He’s too laidback and generally sweet to pull that off.

Oh, he is funny. And they’ve wisely paired him with a Minnesota public radio pro who knows more about staying funny on the air all morning.

But the real anti-Rush is the afternoon host, Randi Rhodes. A hilarious, obnoxious, fast-talking Brooklynite who puts (even suspected) Republican callers right in their place and randomly switches from what she read in The New Yorker to how’s she not getting laid to her problems getting the Pottery Barn to deliver her new couch (and “why don’t they selling any f***ing pottery?”). This show is to die for.