Left of the Dial

This America Undercover documentary charts the long-anticipated rise, scandalous near-fall, and subsequent salvation of Air America Radio, a liberal radio network geared towards those whose opinions skew a bit more to the "Left of the Dial." Told through verite footage shot at the New York-based station over a nine-month period, the 90-minute film begins with a frenetic pace and never lets up from the network's evolution twelve days before and up to its March, 2004 launch, through a much-publicized scandal involving bounced checks that nearly ended the dream, it concludes with a disappointing 2004 election that spawned new resolve among the talent, staff and management of the station. The film provides revealing profiles of management and on-air talent, ranging from those with little or no past radio experience, to those with national fame (or notoriety). The latter includes noted TV satirist and author Al Franken, whose on-air inaugural words promise, "an end to the right-wing dominance of talk radio, a beginning of a battle for truth, a battle for justice, a battle indeed for America itself." Wishful thinking?

• documentary