I'm sure Air America would do much better in Beijing China! - LOL

"MnMikew" wrote in message
...
The latest radio ratings are in, and they show continued bad news for Air
America, the liberal talk radio network featuring Al Franken, Randi
Rhodes,
Janeane Garofolo, and others.


While it is difficult to pinpoint Air America's ratings nationally - it is
on the air in about 50 stations across the country, and has been on some
of
them for just the last few months - it is possible to measure the
network's
performance in the nation's number one market, New York City. And in the
new
ratings, Air America hits an all-time low in a key demographic
measurement.

The new Arbitron figures for Winter 2005, which covers January, February,
and March, show that WLIB, the station which carries Air America in New
York, won a 1.2-percent share of all listeners 12 years and older. That is
down one tenth of one point from the station's 1.3 rating in Winter 2004,
the last period when it aired its old format of Caribbean music and talk.

Air America debuted on March 31, 2004. In the network's first quarter on
the
air, Spring of 2004, which covered April, May, and June, Air America won a
1.3 percent share of the market audience. That number rose slightly to 1.4
percent in the Summer 2004 July/August/September period, and fell back to
1.2 percent in the Fall 2004 October/November/December period, where it
remains today.

Those numbers are, again, for all listeners 12 years and older. Air
America
executives, however, often point to the network's performance among
listeners 25 to 54 years of age, the preferred demographic target for
radio
advertisers. But in that area, too, Air America is struggling.

Between the hours of 10 A.M. and 3 P.M., for example, the daypart that
includes Al Franken's program, Air America drew a 1.4-percent share of the
New York audience aged 25 to 54 in Winter 2005. That number is the latest
in
a nearly year-long decline. In Spring of 2004, Air America's first quarter
on the air, it drew a 2.2-percent share of the audience. That rose to 2.3
percent in the Summer of 2004, then fell to 1.6 percent in the Fall of
2004,
and is now 1.4 percent - Air America's lowest-ever quarterly rating in
that
time and demographic slot.

The numbers are just as striking when narrowed to the specific period from
noon to 3 P.M., when Franken's program airs on WLIB opposite Rush Limbaugh
on WABC. Even though Franken once claimed to be beating the conservative
host in New York, in the Winter 2005 figures, his program attracted a
1.9-percent share of the audience to Limbaugh's 3.2 percent.

Franken's performance against Limbaugh in the most recent ratings is
significantly lower than in Air America's first months. In Spring 2004,
Air
America's first quarter on the air, Franken scored a 2.6-percent share to
Limbaugh's 3.2-percent share. In Summer 2004, he scored a 2.8-percent
share
to Limbaugh's 3.2 percent. But in Fall 2004, Franken dropped to a 1.8
percent share to Limbaugh's 4.1-percent share.

That last number surprised some observers because it showed Air America
faltering in October and November 2004, the period when the presidential
election was reaching its finish and political passions were presumably at
their highest. But even then, Air America's decline continued.