By RAY ROUTHIER, Portland Press Herald Writer
Supporters of Air America have won their battle to keep the liberal talk radio network on the air in Maine.
Officials at Nassau Broadcasting reversed their decision to drop Air America from Portland station WLVP (870 AM) after about 150 people showed up at a public event Thursday evening.
Nassau's CEO, Louis Mercantanti, arranged the meeting at the station to address the more than 500 protests the company received after announcing on Sept. 20 that it would drop Air America. Station officials had planned to replace it this fall with the nationally syndicated ESPN Radio sports network.
Patrick Collins, general manager of Nassau's Maine stations, said that before Thursday, Mercantanti did not know what he would do. But once Mercantanti saw how many people showed up, and how passionate they are about the network, he decided the Air America network should stay on WLVP, Collins said.
Collins said previously that Nassau officials felt ESPN had the potential to produce more advertising revenue than Air America. That's why Nassau wanted to drop Air America, after airing it for only six months.
Collins said he and Mercantanti now feel differently.
"It starts with passion. If listeners don't have passion for your programming, they won't have passion for your advertisers," said Collins. "The passion these people have for Air America, that's priceless."
Collins said that Air America listeners who protested offered many ideas for increasing ad revenues on the station. One of those, which Collins said Nassau will probably adopt, is to sell sponsorships similar to those on public radio stations, instead of the individual ad spots heard on most commercial stations.
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http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/041002airamerica.shtml
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