Not a Good Month for Bush Radio

The Arbitrends for Los Angeles came out today, and Richard Mellon Scaife will probably want his money back - his messengers have lost listeners by the boatload. These are month-to-month extrapolated ratings (not rolling three-month average) for listeners 12+.

Limbaugh drew a 4.1 last month. This month he dropped to a 3.3.*
Sean Hannity was at a 2.7 last month. He's now at a 1.8.*
Laura Ingraham: 1.1 to 0.8.
Dennis Prager/Michael Medved: 1.2 to a 0.7.*
Hugh Hewitt: 1.3 to 0.7.

*These are 10am-3pm ratings. Limbaugh is on 9am-noon. Bill O'Reilly's on 9 to 11am on the same station Hannity's on (from noon to 3).

How did KTLK, the Air America station do? Overall, 0.5 to 0.9, making it the only talk station in L.A. to score an increase. Stephanie Miller (mornings): 0.7 to 1.0. Franken (9 to noon) and Ed Schultz (noon to 3): 0.7 to 1.0. Randi Rhodes (3 to 7pm): again, 0.7 to 1.0.

KTLK's 7pm to midnight surged from a 0.2 to a 1.0. Not to diminish Seder, Garofalo and Malloy, but KTLK still runs Clippers basketball thanks to an old contract, and they've been on a tear. The fact that this station pulls these kinds of numbers with a HORRENDOUS signal is a small miracle.

By the way, don't write this off as being liberal ol' Hollywood. The GOP stronghold of Orange County is included in this, too.

UPDATE: Here are the L.A. numbers from "the money demographic" - 25-54 year olds:

Limbaugh: 3.3 to 2.9.
Hannity: 1.8 to 0.5. (Ouch)
Ingraham: 0.9 to 0.6.
Prager/Medved: 1.4 to 0.3.
Hewitt: 1.4 to 0.9.

KTLK (Air America):
Miller: 1.1 to 1.1
Franken/Schultz: 0.7 to 0.7
Rhodes: 0.9 to 1.3. (That's my girl!)
Garofalo/Seder/Malloy/Clippers: 0.3 to 1.0.

UPDATE: Got an email from Marc Maron's guest booker, and Marc's new show will debut Tuesday night at 10pm on KTLK. It's great to see one of Air America's pioneer talents given another chance. Maron's show will be distributed through Air America's new syndication arm (as is Thom Hartmann's show).

This is the next logical step for Air America - not all stations can commit to their 24/7 programming, and it'll put them on the same playing field as Premiere Radio (Limbaugh and Savage's syndicator) when it comes to show clearance.

Comments

[sybil]

I'm currently an arbitron participant, yea! I get to imut my AAR listening habits among other stations.

[rhoda]

Atrios picked up your item about conservative radio.

[DocG]

Are they getting rid of the Clippers games any time soon? I'm sick of that hack b-ball team cutting into Randi Rhodes on my drive home.

[lib4]

C&L picked you up as well

[loser = Chicago]

I'd love to be excited about this. Two basic questions pop up: one, what is the long term trend? How much do the numbers bounce around. Two, why no change in NY? What's different about LA?

I'm never too impressed with these self-reported, pre-selected ratings methods. I can't believe advertisers pay real money based on such ridiculous hokum. Would you believe a political poll that was consistently done this way?

[Lefty in LA]

All I know is my car radio is set 80% of the time to Air America w/about 20% on that horrible "John and Ken" show when the Clippers are on. Those two dorks are the radio equivalent of a car crash, and my ears can't look away. Hate and vitriol has never been so mesmerizing... at least until the clippers game ends.

[LA KTLK]

That signal does suck. It fades when I go up beverly glen. But I keep listening!

[ny ny]

The Marc Maron Show starts tomorrow night on KTLK. That should be some good stuff, too.

[Phoenix Woman]

It's especially sweet to see that Hugh Hewitt is tanking.

By the way, it's not just in LA that the Nazibots are tanking. It's happening nationwide and has been since the 2004 elections.

Case in point: Rush was doing so badly at KSTP-AM in Minneapolis that they dumped him last year.

This is KSTP-AM, mind you, owned by the Hubbard family -- and Republican as all get out. Where Rush has been a fixture since around the time my spouse and I got married back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

They said his ratings were tanking, along with those of every other one of their wingnut talkers.

He's now on some other local station, and desperately trying to rebuild his audience, if the giant billboards one sees for him everywhere are any indication.

[Steve J.]

From the Fall of 2004 to the Fall of 2005, wingnut radio took some hits while liberal radio picked up quite a bit.

Details here:

http://radamisto.blogspot.com/2005/11/liberals-make-progress-on-talk-radio.html

[Pechorin]

People listen to radio? Who knew?

[DG in Boca Raton]

I've been listening to Randi since her wiod days in 92. She then moved to West Palm Beach, worked for WJNO: She Rocked, creamed ole Rushie (I wasn't doctor shopping) on a monthly basis. I used to drive to Miami and I could hear her (60 miles away), then Clear Channel bought WJNO, changed the frequency. Now I can barely hear her in Boca (26 miles). Went to XM ! She still rocks
My sister-in-law used to listen to Rushie "he makes sense" I went and got a NY Times and showed her how he spins. She Listens to Randi now

[Jill]

And Marc Maron starts up tomorrow night in the ascendant timeslot! W00t!

[Scott, Ga. USA]

I actually have to listen to Air America from 1530am Ohio at night. I can't even pick up the local Atlanta station after dark. 1530 Ohio changes from progressive talk to snake-handler church programming at midnight. Go figure.

[st paul]

Rush Limbaugh went to KTLK 101.3 FM with twice the wattage of his old station at 1280 KSTP. You can now hear Rush INDOORS at the malls and almost everywhere. that is Unheard of reception for AM stations.

Rush made the move to FM to get higher wattage and bigger sponsors with more listeners. Since the listener rate is expressed as a % of total area listeners within his new range: of course he would show a lower number; but he is heard by twice as many people as before!

KSTP begged rush to stay but FM is the future. Higher wattages and bigger audiences.

Enough of the lies about KSTP, Hubbard, and Rush

[jeff]

AAR? I cannot even hear it with their stupid 5,000 watt station here. Drive 20 in either direction and you are out of range.

[Los Angeles]

Oh god I though I was the only one going crazy with the Clippers cutting in.

[radio guy]

uh, st. paul, perhaps you could use a small lesson in how radio ratings work. (I work in the industry and read rating books for a living.)

It ain't the number of people who can be reached by the signal. It's the total number of people in the market. That number is the same for everyone in the market, whether they're a 500-watt AM or a 50-thousand watt FM.

Why? Because without a constant number to calculate against, each station could make up its own "circulation", if you will, just like newspapers have done (and been prosecuted for having done).

So if Rush's numbers went down inthe same market, it doesn't matter what station he was on -- his numbers went down.

I have no axe to grind. I work at a station that plays Rush and does pretty well with it. And I don't know the situation in that market at all.

But the market is the market is the market.

[Marsupial, Corona CA]

Actually, I'm fairly happy with KTLK's coverage area. While working in OC, I could pick them up on the entire drive from the Inland Empire to Newport Beach. I can only assume that the signal gets better as you drive north (to a point), and must be somewhat-okay in the SFV, right? Thank god they're on AM -- we are definitely out of the L.A. FM market out here (no KROQ, KYSR, or many others). Also, what Air America advertises as an affiliate out here is about the 'loosest' afiliate I've ever heard. A couple hours of Franken, and that's it? That's an affiliate??

M.

[Jim]

Hey don't knock Orange county some of us aren't rednecks, I'm as liberal as they come and I live there.

Just realize that the fall in right wing ratings and the small increase in progressive ratings (e.g.,AAR) is significant for additional reasons that most AAR stations have really lousy signals in the areas cited in the ratings list. WLIB in NYC shoots its signal out to sea mostly, while WABC is a solid signal that covers the NYC area solid. In Chicago, the Air America Station barely reaches the Chicago area with a decent signal. So to see the right wing talkers drop and the AAR talkers come up is really more significant--- people are finding the AAR-progressive stations and putting up with lousy reception. I'd like to see XM satellite radio ratings too. If they exist.

[Mark Bunker, San Diego]

How are the numbers for San Diego? It's a very conservative town but I hear the Air America station (KLSD) does well here.

[Reg]

Best Air America show is Mike Malloy....

Check out the schedule. He has them all beat for intelligence and honesty and fearless broadcasting...........

[Pope Guilty, Pendleton, IN]

I'm shocked Michael Savage isn't in there- that lunatic's based out of SF, after all.

[Dave Hayes, KTOX]

I think this was to be expected. It has become harder and harder for the right wing talkers to defend this administrations obvious shortcomings, and many Americans are waking to the fact that the Emperor has no clothes on. As a radio station owner who was the first to carry Ed Scultz in a predominately Republican market, Ed has proven himself worthy of giving the other side of equation to a starved audience seeking alternatives to the same old same old that has come from the righties for so long.