Music and talk formats came and went so quickly in 2004 that the motto of the Chicago radio industry could have been: "Now You Hear Us, Now You Don't."

Here are just a few of the high-profile formats that vanished from the airwaves in the past 12 months:

*If Air America were an airline, it would have crashed and burned on takeoff. As a liberal talk network, Air America Radio suffered roughly the same fate in Chicago: After little more than two weeks on the air, it skidded off the runway in a squabble over payments to the time-brokered station that carried it.

Hailed as an election-year antidote to conservative talk radio and graced with such entertaining hosts as Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, Air America Radio benefitted by an enormous public relations buildup and generally favorable reviews. But the undercapitalized company was revealed to have a seriously flawed business plan and unfit top management.

At year's end, it claimed 40 outlets (including 11 affiliates in the top 20 markets) as well as carriage on Sirius and XM satellite networks and online at airamericaradio.com. But Chicago remained an embarrassing hole in the network's flight plan.

*In March 2001, Salem Broadcasting debuted a contemporary Christian format called "The Fish" with "40 days and 40 nights" of commercial-free music on WZFS-FM (106.7). But biblically speaking, the rainbow never followed.

Signal problems, budget constraints and low ratings forced Salem to unhook "The Fish" and trade the station to Univision Radio.

*As long as WTMX-FM (101.9) is a cash cow for Bonneville International, it's unlikely the company ever would let its "Hits of the '80s and '90s" format on WNND-FM (100.3) become too successful. (Radio Rule No. 1: Protect the Mother Ship.) So the old "Windy 100" languished for most of its seven years as an adult-contemporary also- ran to Clear Channel Radio's WLIT-FM (93.9).

Bonneville finally bailed on the ill-defined format and opted for an extreme makeover of WNND.

*Under Univision ownership, WIND-AM (560) spent its last year as "Radio Exitos," featuring a Spanish-language oldies-based music format. When Univision swapped the frequency with Salem for WZFS, "Exitos" exited.

Here are some of the promising formats that premiered in 2004:

*Imagine a radio station that claims "We Play Anything" -- and delivers. And imagine a talent lineup that includes such veteran Chicago rock jocks as Sky Daniels, Johnny Mars and Mitch Michaels.