Franken is on final approach

For months, Al Franken and his co-hosts at the new liberal radio network Air America have merely been talking about what they will talk about when they launch at noon on Wednesday.

But it’s in the doing, not the telling, that the network will succeed or fail, and amid the typical chaos of a start-up -- the unappealing lavender walls left over from previous tenants, the name-labeled Polaroids on the wall to guide new staffers, the “office” meetings on the entrance couch because there’s not enough space, and lining up a hair colorist to do an overworked staffer’s roots before the Tuesday launch party -- it’s time to deliver the goods.

On Friday, during an in-studio rehearsal for his new three-hour daily radio show, Franken got in digs at conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, Fox News Channel owner Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel radio and its programming policies, President Bush’s speech joking about not being able to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush’s National Guard service, and the Bush administration’s approach to nuclear nonproliferation, stem-cell research and global warming.

He put in a plug for Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry. He opined on why cutting taxes doesn’t create jobs, noting, “What we have now is a discrepancy between rich and poor that is greater than at any time since the Gilded Age.” It was the greatest hits of liberal anger topics, all in just 45 minutes.

Never mind that it took years for conservative talk radio to become the powerhouse that it is today; the new Air America shows must take shape around saturation-level media attention.

On Friday afternoon, staffers were being followed around by public radio program “On the Media” and a CNN crew, as well as cameras shooting a video news release. A crew helping make a cable documentary on the start-up zoomed in as Franken answered a question from a Los Angeles Times reporter.

Franken himself has been shadowed recently for a second documentary being produced by the team who made “The War Room,” about the Clinton presidential campaign. This week, NBC News will feature Air America on “Today,” “NBC Nightly News,” MSNBC and CNBC, according to an Air America publicist.

“I worked in TV for 20 years and never had more crews following me around than when I came back to radio,” said Shelley Lewis, Air America’s senior vice president of news programming. She’s wary of the hype preceding the launch but also said it shows “there’s a real interest in this, and we have a real shot.” But she added, “Is a soft launch better than a gigantic launch? Sure. But you called us.”

The anticipation with which the network is being greeted is out of proportion to its initial reach, a handful of radio stations, and satellite services XM Radio and TV’s Dish Network. AM stations in Los Angeles (KBLA, at 1580), New York and Chicago will have the programming Wednesday; stations in San Francisco and Portland will be on the air in coming days if not at launch. A deal with Inland Empire station KCAA-AM (1050) in Loma Linda was just struck as well.

Self-described friends of Franken’s were saying privately last week that the network needs more “critical mass” to make a go of it, and even Franken’s own website warns listeners to “remember that while critics will attempt to immediately dismiss the radio network, the network and most of its hosts are new to radio, and there will be a learning process.”

That may be hard news to hear for Democrats who are frustrated by what they say is a well-coordinated, often vicious conservative media machine, and are waiting with great expectation.

The guest lineup for the first week includes a wide range of voices from the left, from former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to TV’s Larry David, comedians Bill Maher and Dave Chappelle, Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, playwright Tony Kushner (“Angels in America”), feminist Gloria Steinem, filmmaker Spike Lee and folksinger Ani Di Franco. U.N. Iraq weapons inspector Hans Blix will be a guest. Franken’s first day will include filmmaker and author Michael Moore and former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), a passionate member of the commission currently investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But top network executives are less mission-oriented than driven by what they see as a solid business plan to exploit a void in the current radio programming spectrum. Although Franken has said he is bent on ousting Bush, Chief Executive Mark Walsh is quick to say he just wants the shows to be entertaining, not “regime-change radio.”

Addressing the question of whether too many hopes and dreams are being vested in the network, Chairman Evan Cohen, who put together the investor group, says: “If more days than not we provide great radio, then we’re going to make a lot of people happy. But we’re not going to be all things to all people; we can’t, and we’re not going to try to be.”

Investors, he said, saw “a huge opportunity,” while the talent -- Franken and others -- “might say, ‘I really have something to say.’ ” The network will be a success if “our business goals and the host and creators of content are aligned.”

For the all-day network to succeed, it needs more than just Franken. Rehearsals for the evening show hosted by Janeane Garofalo were closed to the press, as was a morning show hosted by Lizz Winstead, Laura Flanders and rap artist Chuck D. He has been heavily involved in booking and planning but hasn’t yet been to an in-studio rehearsal.

On Friday, Winstead, who also oversees the comedy programming, emerged from closed doors to a barrage of staffers needing time. As if the network didn’t have enough pre-launch chaos, the big party needed attention. “Tina” had e-mailed that she was coming. The personal shopper needed to know what style and price range for Winstead’s party dress (“Nothing that makes me look like an old lady or like I’m dressing up like a Hilton sister. Not black -- everybody wears black -- white, nude or peach.... Not a lot of fringe.”)

Finally, a burger in one hand, blue scripts in the other, Winstead sat on the couch to edit some of the 500 or so pre-taped comedy bits that hosts can drop into their shows, including profiles such as the one describing Vice President Dick Cheney as having “never forgotten that ultimately he works for the people -- the people who run the energy companies.”

A staffer walked past, concerned: “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?” Winstead should have been heading across town to tape CNN’s media show, “Reliable Sources.” But, she said, “I’m not a reliable source. I’m going to be late.”

In the 41st-floor studio, Franken and co-host Katherine Lanpher smoothly chatted with Nation writer John Nichols, who caused chuckles from the control room when he said, “I’m using the word ‘honest’ in the way the Bush administration does.... Even when they’re lying, they’re sincere about it.”

Other guests included a past colleague of former White House terror expert Richard Clarke. Franken turned a glancing reference to Mankato, Minn., into an opportunity to bash Bush, noting that he remembered friends from wrestling camp there many years ago, unlike many who served with the president in the National Guard. Lanpher played the foil who kept the discussion on track and set up odd comedy bits from Franken, including an impersonation of a BBC reporter watching Britain’s Queen Elizabeth play a drum solo, which had no discernible connection to anything political whatsoever.

The rehearsal wasn’t glitch-free. The studio turned out not to be soundproof. The co-hosts mixed up their hand signals, resulting in some awkward chatter. Franken was peeved when a call-in guest from Minnesota wasn’t available because the booker didn’t make clear that he was needed at 1:30 Eastern time, not Central time.

Lanpher, a seasoned public-radio host from Minnesota, remained unruffled, noting, “That’s OK....This is a great lesson for the fledgling bookers to learn.”

One topic Franken conspicuously skirted was the nexus of politics and entertainment and media that is a key reason why the network itself has come together. A caller referenced the Radio-TV Correspondents Assn. dinner in Washington last week, and Franken, who was there, told an anecdote. But guest Nichols deferentially differed, noting that the insider event, where politicians and journalists from all sides of the spectrum joke together, “is why people hate the media.” Franken just chuckled.

The dinner may have given one clue, however, to how Franken is approaching his new gig. In the past, he has been a confrontational presence, physically subduing a heckler at a Howard Dean rally in New Hampshire, and berating Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly last June at a booksellers convention. That led to a lawsuit from O’Reilly; Franken, meanwhile, is still baiting the Fox host, by naming his show “The O’Franken Factor.”

But at the Wednesday dinner, Franken was prowling the packed room when Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) called out, “Al, Al,” and tried to wave him over to her table, where she was sitting next to businessman and NBC star Donald Trump. Franken started to approach, then abruptly stopped, awkwardly chatting and waving from several feet away. Sitting stony-faced on Trump’s left was O’Reilly.

“I’ve finally internalized my wife’s advice to me to just stay away from people like that,” Franken said Friday, recalling the moment. “It was really a Bob Hope back-out moment of the highest order.” He mugged for the ever-present documentary camera.