Tom Athans, a veteran of the United States Air Force and former staffer for U.S. Representative Dale Kildee, founded Democracy Radio in 2002.
[1] A 2003 New York Times story quoted Athans: "We're going to go out and identify talent and help them to create programming and actually connect them with local stations.
"[2] Late in January 2003, Democracy Radio gathered over 30 progressive talk show hosts to Capitol Hill to provide coverage of the 2003 State of the Union Address.
[citation needed] In September 2004, Democracy Radio debuted The Stephanie Miller Show in conjunction with Ron Hartenbaum's WYD Media.
[8] In November 2005, Democracy Radio closed after Athans joined the management team of Air America.