Franken Beats O'Reilly in NY Radio Matchup

[stewert]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Despite the rocky start of his liberal Air America radio network, political humorist Al Franken surged past conservative nemesis Bill O'Reilly in the first quarterly ratings matchup between the two in New York City.

But before liberals can claim a victory in the battle for ears of listeners in America's biggest city, consider this: Veteran conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh beat them both.

"The Al Franken Show," airing weekdays on WLIB-AM, more than doubled O'Reilly's "The Radio Factor" on WOR-AM among listeners aged 25 to 54 -- the group advertisers prize most -- during the only hour when the two go head to head in New York, Arbitron Inc. reported on Tuesday.

According to its April-to-June survey, the first since Air America's debut, Franken posted a 2.6 share from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., compared with a 1.1 share for O'Reilly in the 25-54 demographic.

Link:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=5724045

[OSheaman]

1. Maybe the fact that AAR is making money

Will convince someone like The Walt "We Support a Wide Range of Opinions" Disney Company to pick up the show. If that happened, Franken's ratings would match Limbaugh's--I guarantee it.

[NewJeffCT]

3. they have better advertisers now, but WLIB needs a better signal

Can a radio station upgrade its signal to 50K watts?

But, in the beginning, it was almost all Public Service Announcements on there. Now, I hear Home Depot, Flonase, Charles Schwab and a few other big names.

[lanparty]

7. Under this FCC ????

No, I don't think that any Air America station would receive approval to up their signal strength from Michael Powell. They'd have to buy out a more powerful broadcast license.

[stewert]

4. And...........

Funny how they fail to mention that Rush has been on the radio for 20 years, he should be beating everyone. And they don't mention that all the right-wingers said liberal radio will never work because nobody wants to hear it.

Yet Franken is already beating O'Reilly, and he is not far behind Rush.

And they don't mention that Franken is the #1 show with internet streams. They also fail to mention Rush and O'Reilly are on 300 stations.

It's like the reporter had to report the story, but they did a terrible job of it.

[LittleApple81]

5. Darn it. You covered all the points I wanted to make. But thanks for

doing such a good job.

[stewert]

6. And.........

I even sent a complaint to the editor at reuters.

I said the article was terrible journalism, made all my points, then asked if the guy was drunk when he wrote it.

[lanparty]

8. INCREDIBLE GROWTH!!!!

All these conservatives like to make Air America out to be a failure due to their tight purse strings. But ANY investor would be happy with a business that increased it's market from 4 stations to 20 stations in the first FOUR MONTHS of operation.

What the conservatives also forget to tell you is that Rush Limbaugh is NOT a product of grass roots (climb your way to the top) talent. Rush's syndication was initially subsized HEAVILY. The Scaife boys poored money to get him onto the air realizing his talent.

Now lets all keep in mind that Air America is a project of larger scope. They are providing 15 hours of programming a day as compared to sydicating THREE hours.

ANY startup would be tickled with Air America's success thus far. And all those conservatives would be more than happy to invest their $$$ if it wasn't for the content on the airwaves.

The thing people should realize is that talk radio is "old people" radio. Air America is trying to push into the younger demographics. These are the demographics more valued by advertisers because old folks typically buy what they have ALWAYS bought (stuck in their ways).

If Air America can punch into that 18-25 year old demographic that Howard Stern DOMINATES they will BLOW AWAY Rush and the rest of them easily.

[lanparty]

9. Not a great milestone ...

Al Franken himself is fond of pointing out that O'Reilly has shitty radio ratings.

Al Franken's great accomplishment is reaching deeply into a younger demographic that Rush SIMPLY CANNOT TOUCH!!!!!

[derby378]

2. Woo-hoo! (n/t)

[dee33]

10. I'm listening to Al Franken talk about Oh Really right now

THis is the first time I'm hearing Al Franken's show, via the web. (Took the day off)

I love listening to Al!!!

I hope he comes to a radio near me soon.

Dee

[rocktivity]

11. Welcome to DU, Dee33!

:hi:
rocknation

[wadestock]

12. This is great news....

Can anyone explain why they took Lynn Samuels off .....I admit she was a cracker box....but she understood the essential "exploitation" argument....and she was really entertaining. I called and got on her show many times....and she just said I was boring because she didn't want to hear "the facts".

God for the life of me I can't remember the guy's name on Sat morning on WABC in NY....he was ENTERTAINING....although he tried a bit too hard to play middle of the road....he started to get pissed off about the war etc...so I'm wondering if they canned him.