Air America Radio‘s Bay Area affiliate, 960 KQKE, has as of yesterday changed their programming schedule and applied a one-hour tape-delay to The Al Franken Show. Following is the letter I’m sending to Bob Agnew, Programming Director at KQKE.

Greetings:

In this age of streaming Internet audio and satellite radio, it is vital for traditional terrestrial broadcast radio to differentiate itself. I acknowledge and applaud your efforts to do so on 960 The Quake. However, I must take issue with your methods; specifically in applying a one-hour tape-delay to “The Al Franken Show”.

“The Al Franken Show” is a topical news/talk program which loses significant impact and relevance when replayed, whether in reruns or by tape-delay. It is meant to be heard live and suffers when not live.

I appreciate the need to provide local programming, to wit, “Keepin’ it Real with Will and Willie”. However, by delaying “The Al Franken Show”, 960 The Quake ceases at 9:00 AM to be useful and becomes merely annoying.

I strongly urge you to reconsider this broadcast schedule, and respectfully request that you restore “The Al Franken Show” to live broadcast.

The courtesy of a reply is requested.