Goodbye, Marc Maron? Hello, Rachel Maddow?

The reason Air America has been playing contract hardball with "Morning Sedition" co-host Marc Maron comes into clearer focus after reading an article in this morning's New York Times. The piece focuses on Randi Rhodes and Rachel Maddow as the network's breakout stars. Randi gets her due as the second highest-rated host after Al Franken.

Rachel's inclusion is a little harder to understand. The angle of the article is "women on talk radio." Rachel, frankly, has a higher profile for her appearances on "The Situation with Tucker Carlson" than she does for her pre-dawn news show on Air America, a fact acknowleged in the article. But, the following passage indicates that Air America has bigger plans for her:

"Air America has to look beyond Franken and Garofalo," Mr. Harrison said, "and Rachel and Randi are turning out to be quite good, and quite successful for them."

The network is expected to announce imminently a move by Ms. Maddow into a more prominent morning drive-time role.

Well, there is only one morning drive-time. That would be the time slot currently occupied by "Morning Sedition" with Marc Maron and Mark Reilly. The only way to give Rachel Maddow a "prominent morning drive-time role" would be to dislodge one or more of the people already there.

Will Air America boot Maron and put Maddow on "Morning Sedition" with Reilly? Will they boot "Morning Sedition" altogether and replace it with a two-hour version of "The Rachel Maddow Show?" I wish Maddow nothing but the best, but Maron has grown into an excellent radio presence and I hope he gets to stay where he is. He has earned it, frankly, and it would be exceedingly shabby of Air America to shunt him aside. Maddow's show is fine for what it is, but "Morning Sedition" is extremely good radio, and extremely good radio does not happen by accident. It sounds easy, but it isn't. It takes a combination of discipline, production skill and talent. Talent is the x-factor. Marc Maron has a unique comedy voice that can't be duplicated. He and Reilly sound good together. Their comedy bits work. Anybody who thinks that comedy is easy, especially on the radio, is a fool.

None of this is meant to express any disrespect or disregard for Rachel Maddow, but there has to be a way to reward her without destroying "Morning Sedition." One way would be to get rid of Jerry Springer's wretched program. It is a waste of radio spectrum. "Morning Sedition" followed by "The Rachel Maddow Show" would make an excellent four-hour programming block. Let's hope that this is what the Air America honchos are planning.