UNTIL a few weeks ago, the biggest worry for executives at Air America was what to do about the liberal radio network's alarmingly low ratings. Launched amid much hype on March 31, 2004, Air America, with Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Randi Rhodes, and a host of other anti-Bush personalities at the microphone, has, with the exception of a few cities, had great difficulty finding an audience. Even in New York, where the network's true-blue message should be welcome, its daily average ratings are actually lower than those of the Caribbean talk-and-music station it replaced a year and a half ago.

That would be bad enough. But now Air America finds itself fielding questions not only about its ratings but about its connection to a Bronx-based children's charity known as the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. In early July, a little-noticed local online journal, the Gotham Gazette, reported that New York City's Department of Investigation (DOI) was looking into the diversion of "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from the Gloria Wise club to Air America. The first figure was around $450,000, but it now appears that $875,000 8was transferred from the taxpayer-and-contribution-supported Gloria Wise club to the struggling radio network.

It apparently happened during Air America's chaotic first few weeks of existence, when it was financed by an investor named Evan Cohen, who gained control of the network by saying he would invest enough money to keep Air America going for at least three years--when in fact he barely had enough to keep it going more than a few weeks. That became abundantly clear when, in Air America's second month of existence, its payroll checks bounced. Cohen had a connection to Gloria Wise and somehow convinced the charity to give Air America a desperately needed cash infusion. (The club's top officer has since left, and the club is now under investigation.)

Even with the money, the network almost went under; it was saved only when Cohen made a hasty departure and some of Air America's original investors, who had been forced out upon Cohen's arrival, returned to the project and brought money anew. Air America survived, and executives thought that they had weathered the Evan Cohen storm. But now it is back, in the form of the Gloria Wise probe.