Radio Waves – By Paula Span in the Washington Post (reg req)
Towards the end of a long chatty article on Randi Rhodes we get some good news about the Air America ratings in NYC:
“Air America got its first “book” — the three-month Arbitron ratings — in late July and exulted. In New York, its flagship WLIB generally trailed the leading talk station WABC in the 25-54 demographic but beat out rival WOR. Rhodes’s afternoon show outdrew conservative stalwarts Bill O’Reilly, Bob Grant and Michael Savage, though not WABC’s Sean Hannity. It was a strong debut.

Moreover, Air America got even higher numbers among 18-to-34-year-olds. “Amazing stat,” marvels Rhodes, who did top Hannity in that group. “Nobody on AM gets 18-to-34-year-olds.”

The Media Audit, a ratings company, surveyed New York listeners for Air America and found an affluent, ethnically diverse young audience, more female than is typical for talk, that gardens, works out at health clubs, disdains SUVs, attends concerts — and votes. (Almost 11 percent self-identified as Republican, nearly 19 percent as independent.) “Most stations would kill for this kind of launch,” said Media Audit executive Mike Bustell.

Consequently, commercials for blue-chip advertisers like Ford, Home Depot, Charles Schwab and American Express were increasingly joining the ads promising to help listeners lose weight, improve vocabularies and grow hair. “

Filed under: Politics , Media, Radio by gamma