The liberal radio network Air America launches Wednesday in New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Portland, Minneapolis, and XM Satellite Radio channel 167.

The main attraction of the various shows on the network is comedian Al Franken's show the O'Franken Factor. It will be interesting to see how the network does. In the past, skeptics have panned the idea of liberal radio citing that liberals are too nice, too open minded on issues, and not entertaining enough to make it on radio. The Air America network will be a big test to disputing that idea.

From my perspective, there's a huge market not being served here. In the past, I've asked myself just how many more Rush-clones do we need before some investor takes a stab at something new? While the network doesn't have a Milwaukee affiliate, it is on Chicago's WNTD (950 AM), and will be available via streaming audio at Air America's website.