A statement at the Air America website blamed the economy for collapse. The distributor is “ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon,” the statement said.

The most immediate casualty that will be apparent on KTNF is ”The Ron Reagan Show,” which aired from 7–8 p.m. on weekdays. “Ring of Fire” is one several weekend Air America shows heard locally.

Robert said she was making calls to try to keep “Ring of Fire.” But that is the only Air America she is pursuing, she said, and she expressed doubt that most Air America programs would find new distributors.

AM 950′s locally- produced shows on the weekday schedule include “The Mark Heaney Show” and “Quick on the UpTake,” with others airing on weekends. The remainder of the station’s programming comes from Air America rival Dial Global, Robert said.

Robert said she was sorry to hear the news. “There are a lot of really nice people there,” she said. “We’re really grateful to them for having launched 24-hour progressive talk radio.”

The independently owned local station began broadcasting on a different signal in 2003 but on March 31, 2004 began carrying much of Air America’s 24-hour program schedule, including Al Franken’s program. The main exception was “The Ed Schultz Show,” distributed by Dial Global.

Over the years, AM 950 got more and more of its programs from Dial Global as popular programs left Air America for its rival distributor. Along the way, Air America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reorganizing under new investors.

Weekday mainstays that will continue to air as usual include shows hosted by Schultz, Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann and Mike Malloy.

Chris Steller appears weekly as a guest on “Quick on the UpTake.”

Image via Media Matters

Al Franken returns this weekend to Air America, the politically progressive national network on which he hosted a radio program before launching his campaign for U.S. Senate, in an interview with Air America president Mark Green on the show “7 Days in America.” It won’t air locally however. It airs Sunday at 6 p.m., and he’ll also be on KSTP-TV’s “At Issue” program on Sunday.

In the Air America interview, Franken expresses confidence he’ll be a senator soon and predicts that if another Air America personality were to join that august body, it would be Rachel Maddow. American involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan “is going to be a long, long deal,” he says.

Hear the interview and read the full transcript here or after the jump.

It’s being billed as Franken’s first national media interview since November. But that doesn’t seem to be so, at least on radio: As recently as Tuesday, the first hour of the Jones Network’s widely-heard “The Ed Schultz Show” was set aside for conversation with Franken. The Voice of Minnesota, AM 950 KTNF carries “7 Days” on Sundays at 6 p.m., along with other only two Air America programs such as Ron Reagan’s and Thom Hartman’s (also carried by Jones, another politically progressive network).

INTERVIEW BY MARK GREEN OF AL FRANKEN, FEBRUARY 20, 2009

GREEN: Okay, can you now finally admit that you miss your 12–3 p.m. Air America time slot and regret leaving for a Senate bid?

FRANKEN: Well, no, I don’t. I’m really looking forward to getting into the Senate, and it looks like it’s going to happen, and I hope it happens soon. So no, I don’t. If I had lost, I might regret it, but I don’t think I did that.

GREEN: We talked before air about an election night a few years back when I spent two hours in an emotional deep freeze not knowing whether I had won or lost a close and big race. So how have you handled a three-month — and counting — emotional deep freeze?

FRANKEN: Well, Frannie and I Iook at each other at night, usually right before we go to bed, and go like: “How long is this gonna go on?” But, it really looks now that it’s going to get resolved in my favor, and soon, and so I’m actually excited to get there. So that sort of overcomes the frustration of: “How long can this go on?”

GREEN: What’s the hold-up? Haven’t you been certified the winner by the secretary of state of Minnesota?

FRANKEN: Well, I’ve been certified as the winner of the recount. So I just want to be fair to everybody. When I was certified by the state canvassing board as the winner of the recount, Coleman, as is his right, filed a legal contest contesting the outcome of the recount. And that was January 6^th, the day that I could’ve been seated as the winner of the recount. Then we went to trial January 26^th, and this is the fourth week. At the end of this past week, the judges issued a ruling, which we think is a great ruling, which narrowed the standards and scope of the absentee ballots that have been previously rejected … then the Coleman people kind of did a 180. They had not wanted these ballots included at all, but now that they’re behind, they wanted them all included.  The narrowing of the universe of these absentee ballots that could be counted is such that we really believe we’re going to win, and we’re going to win soon.

GREEN: I can’t think of precedents for you — an over three-month counting delay in seating a senator … and also a comedian moving on to the Senate. Are there any?

FRANKEN: Comedy to the Senate? Well, there certainly hasn’t been a satirist or a political satirist who’s done that. So, that really was uncharted territory during the campaign. But I think it’s a good thing. Some people thought that it was an odd career arc, but to me it made absolute sense. I had always been obviously interested in politics; DFL politics in Minnesota was when I was a teenager. And the reason I wrote political satire was because I thought it — politics — was important … that public policy was important. Then I transitioned into books, then into radio. So it all, actually, made total sense to me, as puzzled as many people were and continue to be.

GREEN: Was there a moment where you thought — yeah, I can be the first to go from satire to Senate, I can actually run and win and serve?

FRANKEN: I don’t know about the moment when I first considered running, but I remember the moment where I pulled the trigger, where I said: “I’m gonna do this.” I was in Iraq. And I had been sort of toying with the idea. I mean, more than toying — really actively considering it.

GREEN: What year was this?

FRANKEN: This is right before I announced in December 2006. I’m weighing this, and I’m thinking, like: “Oh, what a tremendous burden on my family. This is going to be a couple years of me not having any income.” Then there’s a risk to it, and my reputation. And I’m in Iraq with all these guys and women who’re there for their third tour, and their families are half a world away and totally anxious every day. These men and women are working their butts off and are in danger. And I’m thinking, like: “What am I talking about? What am I thinking about?”  So, I said I’m going to do this. I figured that at least it would be over by Nov. 4, 2008, and I wasn’t right.  The point is that I’ve always been more of a policy wonk than people probably think a comedian would be.  Before I even decided I was going to run, I would go around and campaign for DFL’ers in Minnesota and just talk to people and hear their stories about kids not getting any health care, and the educational system not being what it used to be when I was growing up. The middle-class squeeze, all the issues that we know are salient now in this country. I felt like I could do something, so here I am.

GREEN: Who do you predict might be the next U.S. senator with an Air America pedigree? Reagan because of his somewhat recognizable last name or Bender, because he has the chops and the good looks?

FRANKEN: Yeah, Bender lost a lot of weight, huh? Is that what you’re talking about?  Well, I think Rachel. So, I think when you’re talking about the next Air America senator, it would be Rachel Maddow.

GREEN: When you were campaigning, was your association with Air America a net plus or minus?

FRANKEN: It was a net plus, there’s no doubt about it. It was a net plus for a number of reasons. One, people in Minnesota who listened to Air America could testify that I was someone who was serious, someone who cared about people, someone who got his facts right , someone who worked hard, so that was good. Secondly, I had a national audience, so that helped, frankly, in terms of fund-raising and other kinds of things. The only downside was, you know, the Republican talking point that I was a communist or a socialist or something like that on Air America, that I was the same as Rush Limbaugh. I would answer: “No, I’m the opposite of Rush Limbaugh.” I’m not the mirror image, I’m the opposite.

GREEN: Given your famous spats with Limbaugh and O’Reilly, what have they been saying about your success, or do you now tune them out?

FRANKEN: Well, you know what? I’ve already been doing that. I don’t know what they’ve been saying. I really don’t. I haven’t been paying any attention. That is the great thing about doing this. You really stop paying attention to that. On Air America, part of the three hours a day is debunking the right and that kind of thing. But, when you’re faced with actually trying to help folks, you know, the past couple of days I’ve been going around talking to mayors in Duluth and Two Harbors, Minn., the mayor of Champlain, the mayor of St. Paul, the mayor of Rochester, county commissioners, etc., trying to figure out how they can get access to the stimulus package and what they need. That seems much more productive than trying to listen to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly and hear what they think about me. Actually, that was one of the nicest things that happened to me once I left the radio show — I stopped paying attention to them.

GREEN: Now that you’re paying more attention to Obama than Limbaugh, what do you think about the stimulus law and the proposed new bailout proposal?

FRANKEN:  Well, the stimulus and the bailout are apples and oranges to me. You do hear some Republicans now say: “We’ll favor a stimulus package, but not this one.” That is, I have to admit, something I said about the bailout. I really didn’t like the [original] bailout because it didn’t have oversight, it didn’t have transparency, and also it didn’t seem to do anything about the foreclosure crisis. There were just all kinds of different reasons why I didn’t like it. I think I was kind of right about all of that. But, nevertheless, the stimulus package is something that I definitely would’ve supported and voted for. We need this. We need to jump-start the economy. We’re in a classic, deep recession where the government, in a very Keynsesian way, has to be the spender of last resort. I think that if I had been there, there would’ve been a different dynamic [because he would have been another Democratic vote for it].

GREEN: Should Obama in your view be playing the bipartisan card as hard as he is — or should he be more partisan and legislate based on his Democratic majority?

FRANKEN: Well, I think there are two things going on. One, obviously, the votes were very partisan. But I think, at least, the rancor isn’t  as bad as I’ve seen. And I think that as long as this president continues to reach out – I think the American public pays attention – maybe there wasn’t bipartisanship in the Congress, I think there is in the American people. I think there’s some bipartisanship among Republican governors. I don’t know how long these Republicans in Congress can continue to do this. I think the president is right to do this. I mean, I think that there are going to be bills that are harder to pass than this one, and we may need to work across party lines to get their votes. Now, if every Republican in the House is going to vote against everything and then throw a party afterwards, then I don’t know what to do about that. Certainly the Senate is a different thing, a different kind of body. My intention when I go there, and Mark, you know, I’m in this recount because I only got 42 percent of the vote. So did Norm Coleman, and then there was an independent who got 15 percent of the vote. I’m going to have to work on behalf of everybody in Minnesota. My plan is to try to solve problems and help the people of Minnesota, so I’m going to be working across party lines.

GREEN: The president this week said that he’s sending another 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. Is that something that you would  favor? You were an early supporter of the invasion of Iraq, but then became a vociferous, eloquent critic of the war. What about Afghanistan?

FRANKEN: Well, first of all, as far as an early supporter of the Iraq war, I was really on the fence in a way where I neither spoke out for or against it, which I regret. I wish I had been one of the wise people who had spoken out fiercely against it. But as soon as it became evident that there were no [weapons of mass destruction] and then as we were conducting the war and the boneheaded way we were doing it, I was, as you say, a daily fierce critic on Air America of the way the war was being done, that it was a horrible mistake, and that we were essentially lied into this war. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, part of the damage from Iraq was that we took the focus off Afghanistan, and obviously, that is where the attacks on 9/11 came from. Afghanistan-Pakistan is now an incredibly difficult problem. We’re changing our policy there. It looks like we’re putting less stock in [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai and taking a different approach there which has to do with paying more attention to the tribes and hopefully doing some kind of Afghan version of counterinsurgency doctrine that we adopted during the surge in Iraq. I support putting more troops in there, but this is not going to be solved very soon, and this is very difficult. I’m glad we have [the State Department's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C.] Holbrooke there. We obviously have to combine Afghanistan with Pakistan. This is going to be a long, long deal.

Listen to the WORT segment here and download the Ron Kuby show here.

My Tuesday adventures began with my shoulder and Mike Huckabee’s shoulder touching — though he didn’t seem to notice.

It ended in front of Babani’s Kurdish Restaurant with a column of riot police who, after firing multiple exploding tear gas canisters a half hour earlier, said “thank you” and “we really appreciate it” in their final effort to disperse the remnants of a particularly dynamic march.

A tour through the multi-level media center at the Xcel was like walking into your television set. Look to your left — it’s Mike Huckabee (“make room, let the governor through!”). Look to your right and it’s former UN ambassador John Bolton (and John Bolton’s mustache) gearing up for an interview at the Fox News radio booth — which, by the way, is set up facing the Air America booth. I never once saw them look up at one another across the 15-foot walkway.

Inside the convention hall, with its enormous LCD screen projecting an also-enormous flag flapping in the digital wind, I stumble upon Xcel security staff in the midst of a briefing.

A man stands before them and speaks clear and loud:

“Remember, Elevator Four is for V.I.P. only. And everybody did a great job with credentials last night — we’re just gonna step it up today. The red credentials are the delegates — matches the carpet!”

Below members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars rehearse their appearance in the evening’s proceedings. Triumphant music is playing.

“Forward!” says one man. “March!” The men begin to march away from their positions in front of the podium.

“Hang on!” yells a man wearing large headphones with a microphone attached. He nudges them back into position. “Let me mark some spots,” he says, laying small strips of green tape at their feet.

A man runs a dust broom across the gloss-black stage and a woman stands at the podium to test the microphone and prompter. She’s reading from the main prompter, the one every speaker uses. It’s huge. She stumbles twice, smiles, and walks away. “Please welcome jazz musish … jazz musiksh …”

I’m sitting in an aisle just behind a special seating area covered in blue velour. Two Secret Service agents walk past. One stops and touches the fabric.

AGENT ONE: Pretty blue velour…

AGENT TWO: Huh?

AGENT ONE: Pretty blue velour…

AGENT TWO: (ignoring Agent One and speaking into his communication device) Sandy? Nick and I are heading out. Where are you?

In the hallway just outside the convention space, a television news anchor records her evening news teaser. The camera rolls and she walks slowly towards it, speaking intensely.

“It’s a good thing the Republican base is pro-life, because Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant” — pregnant pause –”and she’s keeping her baby.”

The woman records the tease three times.

On the television screens scattered throughout the hallway, a C-Span interview with Ron Paul is playing. A man calls in: “My son is a Ron Paul fanatic — to the exclusion of girls and everything.” Paul chuckles.

On the delegate floor, as jazz musician Al Williams and his band rehearses (it is the smoothest of jazz), a woman shouts into her phone: “Can you hear the entertainment?! We’re on the convention floor!” She’s standing right next to the assigned seats for the Minnesota delegation:

Suddenly my phone lights up with a text message. The first in a burst of Twitter messages about protests and police movements outside.

I’m standing just behind Wolf Blitzer, who surfs the Internet from his broadcast seat. His teleprompter is paused and ready for his next live shot: “With the race in a dead heat, our latest CNN poll…”

The first text message goes like this: “40-60 riot cops reported at 7th and Sibley.”

I tell myself I’m going to stay at the convention.

A man next to me is carrying a spiral-bound notebook with an image of an old newspaper headline on it: “Goldwater wins first ballot!”

A tan hulk of a television news reporter talks into a camera about Sarah Palin: “Virtually everybody says ‘I love her’ — I cannot find a delegate who is not saying, ‘Brilliant pick.’ They love her and they can’t wait to hear from her.”

Another text message, from a concert on the Capitol lawn: “Riot cops at Ripple Effect have rubber bullets, gas canisters, and concussion grenades ready.”

Miss Alaska — not Sarah Palin but the Miss Alaska — poses for a picture in front of the stage. It’s still hours before anybody will take the podium.

A cameraman runs up to a colleague: “I just got Giuliani!”

Another text message about “blocks and blocks of riot cops” and I decide to leave the Xcel. Blitzer’s got it covered, I tell myself.

I walk outside and search for whatever gate will spit me out of the security zone the closest to the State Capitol.

All photos by Jeff Severns Guntzel. Contact him at jsguntzel at gmail dot com.

The move comes after Monday’s announcement that comedian and possible Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken will be leaving the network as of February 14.

Air America Minnesota will move Thom Hartmann into Franken’s 2-5 PM slot, and will run Maddow’s show, which is available through the national Air America network, from 7-9 PM.  Minnesota Matters, hosted by Mark Heaney, will expand to fill the 5-7 PM slot.

Air America Minnesota broadcasts on AM 950.  It is a local affiliate of Air America Radio.  The national network has gone through a series of financial problems, but it appears it will be purchased by Steven Green, the brother of former New York City mayoral candidate Mark Green.