Goldberg Lands At Air America

Danny Goldberg, who stepped down as chairman of Artemis Records in January, has landed in the cockpit at Air America Radio as the upstart network’s third CEO in less than a year. The longtime music industry exec was named to the new post February 24th.

Goldberg’s career includes stints heading up Mercury Records Group, Atlantic Records and Warner Bros. Records. He’s also been a longtime activist for liberal causes: In addition to sitting on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union, he wrote a book in 2003 called “Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit.”

“This change for me has been taking my avocation and some of my business skills and turning it into my vocation,” Goldberg said.

He takes over for acting CEO Doug Kreeger, who stepped down in December but remains an Air America adviser and board member.

Goldberg’s naming signals that the liberal talk network is gaining its bearings after a rocky start in March 2004 – including management turmoil and legal disputes with radio station owners that kept it off the air briefly in Chicago and Los Angeles.

His immediate goals include getting the network carried on more stations and making a bigger push to market the network and its programming.

Air America programming is carried on 48 stations and is in 15 of the top 20 markets in the country. Goldberg aims to make the network available to 80 percent of the U.S. population by the end of the year, up from the current level of 50 percent.

Goldberg acknowledged that the company was not yet profitable, but he declined to disclose more specific details about its finances. He said he thought the company would be profitable in the “next couple of years.”