Air America Ratings: Growing or Shrinking?

[pdxmitch]

Stolen in its entirety from Daily Kos (as the disclaimer at the bottom encourages me to do):
<blockquote> I've found that most people who point out ratings for Air America are being highly selective, often comparing them to stations with much better signals or to previous formats with geriatric demos huddled under a 12+ blanket. 12+ means nothing to a station because it can't sell ads. In fact, the reason 12+ ratings are available for free online is because they can't be sold anywhere else. Radio is all about demos, and for talk, the target demo is 25-54. That's what determines the success of a station, that's what decides whether it succeeds or fails. But if there's any useful data to be divined from 12+, it should be the trend lines: which way the ratings are moving this quarter, compared to the same format last quarter.

So here is the direction of growth for every full-time progressive talk station that carries at least some Air America programming.

This compares data from Winter '05 and Spring '05, the two latest ratings periods. Stations that haven't been around that long or that don't meet the above criteria -- and that, believe it or not, is half of them -- are marked N/A. (There are probably some errors, so please let me know about them, but in anticipation of some responses, some stations are marked N/A because they or their markets aren't rated or listed, or their markets skip rating periods, or they carry mixed programming like Hannity or O'Reilly and you can't really tell what's moving the meter.)

Akron, OH - WARF-AM - N/A
Albany, OR - KTHH-AM - N/A
Albuquerque, NM - KABQ-AM - UP

Anchorage, AK - KUDO-AM - UP

Ann Arbor, MI - WLBY-AM - N/A
Asheville, NC - WPEK-AM - UP

Atlanta, GA - WWAA-AM - UP

Austin, TX - KOKE-AM - UP

Baton Rouge, LA - WYNK-AM - FLAT
Binghamton, NY - WYOS-AM - N/A
Boston, MA - WXKS-AM / WKOX-AM (Combined) - UP

Brainerd, MN - WWWI-AM - N/A
Brattleboro, VT - WKVT-AM - N/A
Burlington, VT - WTWK-AM - N/A
Chapel Hill, NC - WCHL-AM - N/A
Charleston, SC - WLTQ-AM - UP

Chicago, IL - WCPT-AM - UP

Cincinnati, OH - WCKY-AM - N/A
Cleveland, OH - WTAM-AM - N/A
Columbia, SC - WOIC-AM - UP

Columbus, OH - WTPG-AM - DOWN

Corpus Christi, TX - KCCT-AM - N/A
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX - KXEB-AM - UP

Davenport, IA - WKBF-AM - N/A
Denver, CO - KKZN-AM - UP

Detroit, MI - WDTW-AM - UP

Eugene, OR - KOPT-AM - UP

Fresno, CA - KFPT-AM - N/A
Honolulu, HI - KUMU-AM - N/A
Huntington, WV - WRVC-AM - UP

Ithaca, NY - WNYY-AM - N/A
Key West, FL - WKIZ-AM - N/A
Kihei, HI - KAOI-AM - N/A
Lafayette, LA - KEUN-AM - N/A
Lihue, HI - KQNG-AM - N/A
Los Angeles, CA - KTLK-AM - UP

Madison, WI - WXXM-FM - N/A
Memphis, TN - WWTQ-AM - N/A
Miami, FL - WINZ-AM - UP

Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN - KTNF-AM - UP

Missoula, MT - KKNS-FM - N/A
New Haven, CT - WAVZ-AM - N/A
New Orleans, LA - WSMB-AM - FLAT
New York, NY - WLIB-AM - DOWN

Petoskey, MI - WWKK-AM - N/A
Philadelphia, PA - WHAT-AM - N/A
Phoenix, AZ - KXXT-AM - UP

Portland, ME - WLVP-AM - N/A
Portland, OR - KPOJ-AM - UP

Providence, RI - WHJJ-AM - N/A
Reno, NV - KJFK-AM - UP

Riverside, CA - KCAA-AM - N/A
Rochester, NY - WROC-AM - DOWN

Sacramento, CA - KSAC-AM - N/A
San Antonio, TX - KRPT-FM - N/A
San Diego, CA - KLSD-AM - UP

San Francisco, CA - KQKE-AM - UP

San Luis Obispo, CA - KYNS-AM - N/A
Santa Barbara, CA - KIST-AM - UP

Santa Cruz - Monterey, CA - KOMY-AM - FLAT
Santa Fe, NM - KVSF-AM - UP

Sarasota-Bradenton, FL - WSRQ-AM - N/A
Seattle, WA - KPTK-AM - N/A
Spokane, WA - KPTQ-AM - UP

Springfield, MA - WHMP-AM - N/A
Victor Valley, CA - KSZL-AM - N/A
Washington, DC - WWRC-AM - UP

West Palm Beach, FL - WJNO-AM - N/A</blockquote>

 

[nate81]

> Cleveland, OH - WTAM-AM - N/A

WTAM, a traditional N/T, may not be happy to be on the list. But they bumped Glenn Beck for Ohio-bred Jerry Springer in early March - a few weeks before his AAR-distribution deal.

I can say this: the station, which airs virtually no local issue-oriented talk whatsoever, is still ranked #1 - buoyed by the Indians and sports-and-gambling-focused shock jock Mike Trivisonno. But Jerry in the 9a-11:30a slot saw its' ratings slashed by two-thirds. (Note that in his last WTAM book, Glenn had achieved double digits!)

Oh, and the station Glenn landed at? CC sister station WHLO/640- Akron, a non-factor in the Cleveland market? It made the books in Cleveland in that time period for the first time EVER.

- nate81<P ID="signature">______________
Nathan Obral
University Partership Representative: LCCC Student Senate, Elyria, Ohio

The Morning Love with Mark and Sarah - Fridays 9AM EDT on Duck Radio!</P>

 

[pdxmitch]

> > Cleveland, OH - WTAM-AM - N/A
>
> WTAM, a traditional N/T, may not be happy to be on the list.
> But they bumped Glenn Beck for Ohio-bred Jerry Springer in
> early March - a few weeks before his AAR-distribution deal.
>
> I can say this: the station, which airs virtually no local
> issue-oriented talk whatsoever, is still ranked #1 - buoyed
> by the Indians and sports-and-gambling-focused shock jock
> Mike Trivisonno. But Jerry in the 9a-11:30a slot saw its'
> ratings slashed by two-thirds. (Note that in his last WTAM
> book, Glenn had achieved double digits!)
>
> Oh, and the station Glenn landed at? CC sister station
> WHLO/640- Akron, a non-factor in the Cleveland market? It
> made the books in Cleveland in that time period for the
> first time EVER.
>
> - nate81

I'm not really ready to take on editing this list myself. Maybe you can take it up with the Daily Kos guy. But WTAM is listed on Air America's site, and it is listed as N/A, which may be because it's not full-time progressive talk. I know Air America came about because people realized liberal talk was destined to fail if it was bracketed by totally different programs.

 

[mwebster]

Progressive Talk may not do all the well in the money demos

Life is not fair. If you consider progressive talk stations to be in competition with traditional talk stations, then they are generally in competition with stations with much better signals. Conservative talk got their first and grabbed most of the prime real estate.

Air America's so-called "affiliate list" is misleading. It includes stations which carry only one program from AAR; others that carry only two or three programs. Also misleading, the Cleveland station (as pointed out below) does not take Jerry Springer from AAR. In any case, the overall 12+ numbers on the list are a weighted average of AQH shares for the entire broadcast week, including dayparts in which the station takes programming from other sources or broadcasts programs that are not progressive talk.

Many of the stations on the list are shown as NA (not available). In the case of Philadelphia's WDAS, the station dropped off the listed 12+ ratings in the Spring book. Since it did have fractional numbers in the previous book, this would seem to be a drop. WDAS only carries two programs from Air America Radio (Franken and Rhodes) and does Urban (Black) Talk in the morning and gospel music and religious broadcasts in the evening.

I really wanted to believe that progressive talk was doing better in the money demos than traditional talk. Now I am starting to wonder. Clear Channel has put a series of press releases on its website crowing that "Rush Leads The Race" in various markets. They list AQH shares for the "money demos" (25 to 54) for Rush and his competitors in various markets (Franken, Springer, Schultz, Hannity, etc).

I won't cite the 25 to 54 Arbitron numbers here. I invite you to review them for yourself. But my review of these press releases suggests progressive talk shows also tend to skew old.
<a href="http://www.premiereradio.com/pressrel.html#">Clear Channel Press Releases</a>

I also say it is entirely appropriate to compare a station's numbers with a new format to its performance under the prior format. But ratings generally go down after a flip, so most broadcast managers give a new format at least one full ratings cycle before they start drawing conclusions (with the second complete book).

Daily Kos says people are "selective" in citing AAR ratings. So is he. Other select numbers to support their position and so does he.

PS to Mitch: WTAM picked up the Jerry Springer show during the winter rating period. It was not aired in Cleveland during the entire time the winter survey was being taken. IMHO: AAR is stretching things to list stations which take Springer direct (not through AAR) and take no other programming from them on their website.

> I've found that most people who point out ratings for Air
> America are being highly selective, often comparing them to
> stations with much better signals or to previous formats
> with geriatric demos huddled under a 12+ blanket. 12+ means
> nothing to a station because it can't sell ads. In fact,
> the reason 12+ ratings are available for free online is
> because they can't be sold anywhere else. Radio is all
> about demos, and for talk, the target demo is 25-54. That's
> what determines the success of a station, that's what
> decides whether it succeeds or fails. But if there's any
> useful data to be divined from 12+, it should be the trend
> lines: which way the ratings are moving this quarter,
> compared to the same format last quarter.
> <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by mwebster on 08/11/05 05:16 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[pdxmitch]

Re: Progressive Talk may not do all the well in the money demos

> Air America's so-called "affiliate list" is misleading. It
> includes stations which carry only one program from AAR;
> others that carry only two or three programs. Also
> misleading, the Cleveland station (as pointed out below)
> does not take Jerry Springer from AAR. In any case, the
> overall 12+ numbers on the list are a weighted average of
> AQH shares for the entire broadcast week, including dayparts
> in which the station takes programming from other sources or
> broadcasts programs that are not progressive talk.
>
> Many of the stations on the list are shown as NA (not
> available). In the case of Philadelphia's WDAS, the station
> dropped off the listed 12+ ratings in the Spring book.
> Since it did have fractional numbers in the previous book,
> this would seem to be a drop. WDAS only carries two
> programs from Air America Radio (Franken and Rhodes) and
> does Urban (Black) Talk in the morning and gospel music and
> religious broadcasts in the evening.

Like I say downthread, I'm not going to edit this thing, but I thought AAR was on WHAT in Philly? That's what their station list says, anyway. (Also, AAR doesn't call the stations on their list "affiliates.")

> I really wanted to believe that progressive talk was doing
> better in the money demos than traditional talk. Now I am
> starting to wonder. Clear Channel has put a series of press
> releases on its website crowing that "Rush Leads The Race"
> in various markets. They list AQH shares for the "money
> demos" (25 to 54) for Rush and his competitors in various
> markets (Franken, Springer, Schultz, Hannity, etc).

All I have data for are my market, Portland, and the #1 market, New York, and AAR's station does better in 25-54 than in 12+ in those. They may very well be outside the normal pattern, though.

> I won't cite the 25 to 54 Arbitron numbers here. I invite
> you to review them for yourself. But my review of these
> press releases suggests progressive talk shows also tend to
> skew old.
> Clear Channel Press Releases
>
> I also say it is entirely appropriate to compare a station's
> numbers with a new format to its performance under the prior
> format. But ratings generally go down after a flip, so most
> broadcast managers give a new format at least one full
> ratings cycle before they start drawing conclusions (with
> the second complete book).

Given what the post says about comparing AAR to previous formats loaded with "geriatric demos hiding under a 12+ blanket," I think they're concerned with making a previous oldies format loaded with a bunch of oldie demos look deceptively attractive. Or something. I don't know.

> Daily Kos says people are "selective" in citing AAR ratings.
> So is he. Other select numbers to support their position
> and so does he.

Just to be fair to Mr. Kos, this looks like it was posted by an ordinary reader of the site.

> PS to Mitch: WTAM picked up the Jerry Springer show during
> the winter rating period. It was not aired in Cleveland
> during the entire time the winter survey was being taken.
> IMHO: AAR is stretching things to list stations which take
> Springer direct (not through AAR) and take no other
> programming from them on their website.

I think the station list is more for listeners than for us. If listeners want to find something with AAR on it, they're probably not even aware of what's distributed by whom.

 

[OldAkronite]

> I'm not really ready to take on editing this list myself.
> Maybe you can take it up with the Daily Kos guy. But WTAM
> is listed on Air America's site, and it is listed as N/A,
> which may be because it's not full-time progressive talk.

Air America listing WTAM on its site is a MISTAKE.

WTAM does not get the Springer show through AAR. It was one of his pre-AAR affiliates, and gets the show directly from Clear Channel. AAR does not own Jerry's show...Clear Channel does. AAR is solely a "nationwide affiliate" for Jerry's show.

KRPT/92.5 in the San Antonio market is in the same boat.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>

 

[OldAkronite]

One thought:

AAR is just one entity (albeit the most "known" single entity) in the libtalk sweepstakes.

For one, there's Jones Radio, which sells P1's Ed Schultz and Democracy Radio's Stephanie Miller. (Ed started with Democracy Radio, and his program was recently bought by the company owned by former Clear Channel Radio head Randy Michaels.)

Schultz seems to be doing pretty well in some of his markets...he's basically given Miami's WINZ/940 its only decent afternoon drive ratings in years, if what I've heard is correct.

And Stephanie Miller's site is chock full of press releases on how she's had three and four digit percentage increases on her affiliates.

Now, all of this comes with a big caveat - it's easy to grow 300% on a station that wasn't showing up at all before.

There's also the new syndication effort by Bill Press, who "practiced", as it were, right here on our new local libtalker in Akron. But he's only got three over-air affiliates right now...and just started his national run a month and a half ago.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>

 

[Wilkins_Micawber]

Re: Progressive Talk may not do all the well in the money demos

> Life is not fair. If you consider progressive talk stations
> to be in competition with traditional talk stations, then
> they are generally in competition with stations with much
> better signals. Conservative talk got their first and
> grabbed most of the prime real estate.

That's probably true, but I think it also has to do with the percieved risk or potential. In Charleston, SC, Clear Channel bumped it's conservative talker to the superior FM signal and put the liberal talk station on the AM station.

 

[SaltyDog]

This is an interesting question that I may be able to help answer, but not yet.

Clear Channel said the other day that their ratings grew 3% because of Less Is More. I believe them that their ratings grew 3% but I question whether it can be attributed to Less Is More when that may be well within normal year-to-year swings. More importantly, if they go down next book I can't count on them to tell us.

I am working on a project that would take the publicly available 12+ information and create a report that would tell me what groups are going up, and which ones down, every time a book is released.

Once I'm done (by the end of this weekend I hope) it won't take much to notate the Air America stations and sort by that criteria to see how they are doing.

I hear your argument that talk radio is a 25-54 game but to be fair to Air America, it might not be the same demo for them as for conservative talk.

Also the demographic, whatever it is, will not change much book to book and so the publicly available 12+ numbers will still offer a useful comparison.

What's maddening is that Arbitron won't release it or permit licensees to release it. All we get are the favorable press releases when things are going well. I want to be able to offer an independent narrative report, even if Arbitron won't permit me to release numbers.

I am not trying to prove anything. I just want to know.

Once I figure out what I can legally publish, I'll put it on my website.<P ID="signature">______________
<a href="http://saltydog.5gigs.com">
The Salty Dog</a>
</P>

 

[FloridaBear1776]

If I were Arbitron, I would embargo ratings for ALL news-talk stations in ALL markets...

Simply to avoid becoming a pawn in this left-wing bloggers vs. right-wing bloggers game and to avoid having their data misinterpreted by people who know nothing about the industry.

 

[SaltyDog]

Re: If I were Arbitron, I would embargo ratings for ALL news-talk stations in ALL markets...

Arbitron, like all publicly-traded companies, has one goal: Make this quarters numbers. They really don't care if they are anyone's pawn.

I am going to do my own analysis for my own purposes. (Which has to do with writing a general radio newsletter. It's not even about talk radio, let alone politics). I will release what I can legally release. If anyone wants to discount them, it's fine with me. I'm not making any money off it and I'm not running for anything.

> Simply to avoid becoming a pawn in this left-wing bloggers
> vs. right-wing bloggers game and to avoid having their data
> misinterpreted by people who know nothing about the
> industry.
> <P "signature">______________
<a href="http://saltydog.5gigs.com">
The Salty Dog</a>
</P>

 

[FightingIrish]

> > I'm not really ready to take on editing this list myself.
>
> > Maybe you can take it up with the Daily Kos guy. But WTAM
>
> > is listed on Air America's site, and it is listed as N/A,
> > which may be because it's not full-time progressive talk.
>
>
> Air America listing WTAM on its site is a MISTAKE.
>
> WTAM does not get the Springer show through AAR. It was one
> of his pre-AAR affiliates, and gets the show directly from
> Clear Channel. AAR does not own Jerry's show...Clear
> Channel does. AAR is solely a "nationwide affiliate" for
> Jerry's show.
>
> KRPT/92.5 in the San Antonio market is in the same boat.
>
> -OA
>

This is a tough call. AAR is distributing Springer, and thanks to AAR, he is on in quite a few markets that CC had really nothing to do with.

I think the list is merely a guide as to where to find AAR programming, even if it is just one or two shows. And Springer is featured prominently on AAR's website. I have no idea of the whole distribution agreement technicalities between CC and AAR.
<P ID="signature">______________
The Liberal Talk Radio Update</P>