Arnie's Last Stand: Updated

Arnie Arnesen says she sympathizes with the predicament of her boss, Great Eastern Radio LLC's Jeffrey Shapiro.

Yesterday, Shapiro told Arnesen that advertisers on Great Eastern's WTPL-FM were growing anxious about advertising on her show. Arnesen thinks the culprits are auto dealers, the staple of revenue for smaller stations.

For a year and a half, Arnesen has criticized the profusion of SUVs -- "gas guzzlers" -- which she jocularly labels "FU-Vs."

Arnesen is one year into a contract with the station. Shapiro can opt out, and Arnesen said he told her yesterday he can no longer afford to keep her.

"We have not had strong commercial support from the business community for the program," Shapiro said in an interview. "We are tired of carrying that costs without the support of advertisers in the business community."

Shapiro said he runs a small business and did not believe Arnesen's salary justified the revenue the station was generating, especially now that the company now shoulders the full burden of her contract. In November, two other radio stations carrying Arnesen's show dropped the program. How many listeners Arnesen attracts daily is unknown; it's hard to measure radio audiences in the state.

"It's not a politically motivated decision at all," Shapiro said.

"Jeff is doing what he needs to do," Arnesen said, "because he has to address the bottom line. If it is perceived by ad buyers that I am controversial, he needs to look at the reality."

"But that is why it is so difficult doing what I do."

What she has done is become "Arnie" -- a word with instant meaning across the state.

Arnesen, the Dem nominee for governor 1992, has hosted the state's most popular political talk show on-and-off since the late 1980s. A self-described "progressive" Dem, she's tipped the spear as NH has slowly turned blue (but remained the bastion of the Basses, Sununus and the Greggs.)

Her guests range from Ds to Rs, presidential candidates, lobbyists, local officials, company executives and activists. She palled around with ex-Rep. John Kasich during his brief presidential run. She's close to the Clintons but thinks New Hampshire would be Clinton's toughest presidential primary state.

Arnesen says her brand of talk is rare.

If you're liberal, she says, "You're either on an Air America, where you're talking to the converted. Or you're on Clear Channel which for the most part doesn't have anything like me. Or you're doing what I'm doing in a state New Hampshire where it's crucial."

If she's fired, Arnesen says, "it comes at the worst possible time."

For politics, she means: "There's another free-for-all on the horizon," referring to the 2008 presidential race.

As for her, "I'm like a yo-yo. They roll me out and they roll me back. And I just need to find a place to land."

Arnesen can still be seen nightly on WNDS-TV, which reaches most of NH and Mass.

Shapiro said he'd prefer to keep Arnie on the air. "I would like to see someone and belly up to the bar and provide some type of a stipend to Arnie to do the show."

But, he said: "If nobody is willing to do that, that tells me a lot too."[MARC AMBINDER]