Produced for HBO, "Left of the Dial" tracks the growing pains behind the nation's first liberal radio network. Longtime Michael Moore associates Patrick Farrelly and Kate O'Callaghan ("The Awful Truth") take a "fair and balanced" fly-on-the-wall look at the major players behind and in front of the mic at Air America, established to "challenge the right wing dominance of talk radio." (Moore, surprisingly, turns out to be one of the venture’s harshest critics.) The filmmakers began shooting 12 days prior to the March 2004 launch and kept going for the next few months. They start by aiming their cameras at Evan Cohen, the chairman, and David Goodfriend, the general counsel. Like the duo depicted in "Startup.com", theirs isn’t a partnership built to last. Other subjects include hosts Randi Rhodes, Marc Maron, Chuck D, Janeane Garofalo, and Al Franken. Most hadn't worked in radio before and things quickly begin to unravel: Rhodes feels left out of the press coverage, while Maron feels the staff is incompetent. Then Ralph Nader hangs up on Rhodes and there's a scandal regarding airtime payments. What do their competitors think? Sean Hannity (FOX News) opines, "These people are not bright...they really are dull." Fortunately, enough listeners felt otherwise that Air America eventually found their footing and grew out of that awkward stage. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"