Airhead America on Fire in LA--UpdatedOr so this post would
have us believe:
In Los Angeles, KFI, the station carrying Rush Limbaugh lost nearly 15% of its market share, dropping from a 4.6 to a 3.9. KABC, another conservative talk station continuing the pattern for right-wing radio, fell from a 2.3 to a 2.1. Air America’s brand-new affiliate KTLK, 1150 AM, gained in the first quarter of its existence, going from a 0.3 to a 0.8, an increase of more than 140%. Most in the radio business say that it takes 18 months for a new station to establish a consistent ratings pattern, but if early indications mean anything, AAR is in for tremendous success in the nations #2 radio market.I do suspect that right-wing talk radio probably suffered a big decline in audience during the first quarter of this year, as compared to the last quarter of 2004. I suspect once the Super Bowl is over, nobody tunes in to sports talk radio until the basketball playoffs roll around. Well, the presidential election is the Super Bowl of talk radio and so naturally the political talkers took a drop. Heck, the political bloggers took a big drop as well--right and left.
And I'm very suspicious of this "data":
In the fourth quarter of 2004 Al Franken's ratings in New York were 44% of Rush Limbaugh's. In just 3 months that ratio rose to 60%; that is bad news, but not for Air America. In the same New York Winter 2005 ratings, Air America's Randi Rhodes on in the crucial afternoon drive-time, went up 33%, while the conservative talk shows in same time slot on WABC and WOR each went down 33%. Air America's evening show, “The Majority Report” starring Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder went up 100%; while the WOR show in that time slot was flat and the WABC show went down 33%. In total audience, “The Majority Report” was the number one talk show in New York City in its time slot.The New York Arbitron ratings show WLIB (Airhead America's NY affiliate) in 24th position with an average 1.2 rating, while WABC, Rush Limbaugh's home averaged a 3.5. I doubt very strongly that the three shows noted could be charging ahead at the rates indicated while at the same time, the overall ratings were flat at 1.2.
Update: Those were the first quarter numbers; the
Leather Penguin notes that they're down to 1.0 since then.
