Daily Kos - Air America has great ratings

[RamboLiberal]

Franken also said Air America is the #1 provider of streamed audio online, with 6.5 million "distinct" listeners. In addition, he reported that KPOJ Portland's in-house research showed Air America had increased their cumulative audience (number of people who have listened at least once during a one-week period) by nearly five times.

I also have it on good authority that, even though Air America was only on the air a couple weeks, WNTD Chicago had the best "Spring Phase 1" ratings in that it had had in the last 12 months (though that was a pretty low bar). ("Spring Phase 1" means the average ratings for February, March, and April combined. Arbitrends don't give figures for single months, they give figures for three-month phases. You have to run the raw numbers through a program called Maximizer to get single-month numbers -- that's what Inside Radio meant by "extrapolated" April numbers.)

Plus, on The Majority Report, Sam Seder mentioned that they had increased their listenership by 170%, moving WLIB from #20 to #10 for their daypart.

All this means that, even if April was just some peak-of-interest fluke and AAR were to fold tomorrow (which looks very unlikely now, and not just because of the ratings), there's a huge, proven audience for liberal talk that station managers are going to notice. My larger hope for Air America has always been that it would prove that there's an audience for liberal talk and help other liberal hosts, like Arnie Arnesen and Ed Schultz, get more syndication deals. Liberal radio should grow beyond Air America, just as right-wing radio is far more than just Rush.

http://www.dailykos.com/

[Lisa0825]

1. Great news!!!! Thanks for posting it!:-) (nt)

[napi21]

2. I understand how you can track individual streaming listeners, but

how do they track the number of radio listeners? I can't imagine how they could do that because of the different outlets, like in a car, portables outside, and others in homes.

I'm thrilled to hear that AAR is doing so well, and I have to admit, I expected it to be a success. I hope some local Ga. station will pick it up, though I suspect I'll be dead before that happems.

[lanparty]

3. Surveys

Just like Nielsen, they have survey participants who keep logs of what they listen to.

[napi21]

4. Hey, Thanks! I really have always wondered when the

Limbaugh's always claimed to have millions of listeners, how they knew that, or if they were just bragging to get higher ad rates. Well, they're probably doing that too.

Interesting, I never heard of Neilson ratings for radio.

[politicat]

6. The radio "Nielsons" are Arbitrons. NT

[lanparty]

10. Accurate measurements

I personally think that the Nielson AND Arbitrons are full of SHIT!!!!

They are based on a statistical model of creating a MAXIMUM audience from as many different demographics as possible. Niche programming is therefore discounted.

These days, we have technologies that could measure TV watching a lot more accurately. They're called CABLE BOXES. Just give a household free cable and attach each TV to a cable box. This will accurately measure their home viewing habits. They could keep supplemental logs for TV watching done out of the home. They could probably even supply people with PDAs to enter their logs as they go with menus.

Radio listening would probably be more difficult. But I suspect that they could make some special "nielson radio" boxes for your car. There are a few "car pcs" out there that could accurately measure listening of both over the air and satellite radio viewing. Likewise, they could also create home tuner units out of MediaPCs that accurately measured radio listening. Wireless networks would then collect all the data from various listening devices in addition to surveys that accounted for "off base" listening.

The result would be FAR more accurate ratings. You could also get a much larger sample without introducing more error. In addition, you can accurately gauge the habits of people who just plain can't remember what they watch.

The powers that be don't want this. They want to be able to control the NATURE of the content by controlling the measurement system. The free market really doesn't govern the media. Big Corporate does.

[Lisa0825]

5. I stream it everyday in my office, and leave it on....

Even when I am not able to listen... I want to be counted as a supporter everyday!

[napi21]

7. I stream it all day too, But I also listen.

I used but to have to listen to Boortz. Limbaugh is on too, but I REALLY can't listen to him at all! It's sooo great to actually listen to some radio you agree with most of the time.

[Eric J in MN]

8. You can listen to Al Franken talk about the ratings

You can listen to Al Franken talk about the ratings at MOVELEFT.COM:

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2004_05_25_al_franken_talks_about_good_rating.asp

[cliss]

9. This is incredible news.

I'm in Portland, and I keep my radio station GLUED to Air America Radio. I'm so afraid of them losing their funding that I don't dare turn the dial.

So I'm a loyal listener. They really are great. I love Mark Maren. Al Franken is awesome. But the BEST is Randi Rhodes.

[Generator]

11. Blessed be

who knew that there were liberals willing to listen? OH WE DID.