Air America Radio Making Huge Gains In Colorado

[sabra]

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http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/01/141706.php

Air America Radio Making Huge Gains In Colorado

The conservative echo-chamber believed Air America Radio would be dead quicker than George Bush’s Social Security privatization plan, but new recent data is proving otherwise. Barely a year after its formation, and contrary to conservative spin, Air America Radio is building an audience at a rate that any radio station would envy.

In the Colorado market, which encompasses Denver and Boulder, KKZN 760-AM reached a milestone in its young life, gathering a 2.0 share in the spring 2005 Arbitron rankings. A year ago, the station's rating was a paltry 0.4. "The Al Franken / Ed Schultz duo in the middle of the day is kicking butt," said Jerry Bell, the station's program director. This marks yet another increase, in yet another market, for the newly formed and rapidly expanding liberal radio enterprise.

In the previous quarter, KKZN received a 1.6 rating. Thus, KKZN has shown an increase of 25% in just 3 months. By contrast, KOA, which broadcasts conservative talkers such as Rush Limbaugh has registered a drop in the last 6 months from a 6.9 rating to a 5.5 rating. Thus, while conservative talkers are still at a structural advantage, the station’s audience has dropped by over 20% in just 6 months.

It has been a pretty consistent trend throughout the country that conservative talk radio and conservative news, such as Fox News, are losing viewers in droves. Part of the loss is a credibility problem from the conservative side. Moral values czars such as Rush Limbaugh and Bill Bennet have been caught with drug addictions and gambling addicitions respectively. Bill O'Reilly was caught sexually harassing his employees. The pro-war, right wing cheerleaders like Sean Hannity have been exposed by and large for what they are, draft-dodging cowards who aside from talking tough in the safety of their studio, let others do their fighting for them.

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[Rainscents]

1. This is great news!!!

[iconoclastNYC]

2. Just imagine how this is going to affect our democracy

Five years from now.....ten years....our message is getting out now....people are becoming activated....it gives me hope.

[NewJeffCT]

6. yes, I hope they keep building over time!

Having listened to Stern for several years in the late 90s and early 00s, I know from him that it takes time for radio audiences to build... it's not like TV where new shows are either hits or tank out of the box most of the time.

[FreedomAngel82]

3. Awesome!

And sometime this month my town is supposed to be getting AAR! We're a town not small but not big either. I was very surprised personally. But this is my favorite line: <It has been a pretty consistent trend throughout the country that conservative talk radio and conservative news, such as Fox News, are losing viewers in droves.>

So take that Bill O'Reilly!

[rocktivity]

7. Where are you exactly, FreedomAngel?

Would you describe your area as largely Republican?

Last night, I watched a TV show about the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder. It was stressed that her home town of Boulder Colorado was particularly upscale and c onservative. If AAR is making inroads in areas like that, this is REALLY good news.

:headbang:
rocknation

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. I have family in Boulder

and have always considered it a pretty liberal town. It IS a college town, you know.

[Mich Otter]

4. Radio info source

A source I visit often to keep up on what is happening in talk radio is:
http://www.radio-info.com/mods/posts?Board=newstalk
They are very good at finding news about upcoming programing changes and at digesting the numbers to figure out what it all really means.

[rocktivity]

5. VERY good news

Moral values czars such as Rush Limbaugh and Bill Bennet have been caught with...addictions...Bill O'Reilly was caught sexually harassing his employees...(P)ro-war, right wing cheerleaders...have been exposed...for what they are...talking tough in the safety of their studio, let(ting) others do their fighting...

And let's not forget the morals czar du tutti morals czars, President Mightymouse himself. The Downing Street minutes, the Terry Schiavo Jesus freak show, and of course Traitorgate have delivered a credibility-sapping trifecta of trouble for the right wing noise machine. Well, we'll know for sure if it's working tomorrow night when the results of http://www.actblue.com/list/hackett">that election in Ohio come in. A lame duck? Bush is more of a quadraplegic duck!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Stevepol]

8. Any election fairly counted since 2002 has gone Democratic.

The only problem is that 80% of the vote is now counted on electronic voting machines and that includes the central tabulators.

It's not the voters who are at fault: the voters are disenfranchised.

With fair elections, Max Cleland would be in Congress as well as Walter Mondale and who knows who else?

The only mantra we should have is FAIR ELECTIONS. That means:

VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS AND REQUIRED AUDITS FOR ALL ELECTIONS.

[CrispyQ]

9. Thanks for this.

I'm going to write to KKZN & ask them to carry Thom Hartmann.

:hi:

[Surya Gayatri]

12. Excellent idea, Crispy.

Thom Hartmann's true place is on AAR. (I regularly stream him instead of Franken during the same time slot). Would an e-mail campaign to the AAR management have any impact in getting him syndicated nationally, I wonder? As I said earlier on another thread, Hartmann is a national treasure and needs to be heard far and wide.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[glitch]

19. Couldn't agree more and Welcome to DU! nt

[Surya Gayatri]

23. Thanks glitch! Great to be here...

Have been lurking around for several months, but didn't have a system suited to posting. My new computer has changed that--with WindowsXP, Celeron 2.4 and broadband, I'll be able to get my 2 euro cents in. DU rocks! :yourock:

[donco6]

21. Email campaigns do make a difference.

They do sometimes use those to develop target markets - or at least to include the area in the next listener survey.

[Surya Gayatri]

24. Well, I'm going to send one suggesting the following...

Malloy originates in Georgia and is rebroadcast from the NY "flagship" station WLIB. Why can't Hartmann originate in Oregon and be syndicated out of NY as well?

[donco6]

26. Why not?

Hell, Limpballs is broadcast all over the country.

[CrispyQ]

27. Hatrmann rocks!!

Even my repub mother thinks "he is reasonable. I like him!" Yes, he is one of our brightest progressive voices.

Welcome to DU!! :hi:

[nostalgicaboutmyfutr]

10. you can here it all the way down

to Colorado Springs....couple dead spots, but it is here....would love to hear them open a repeater around these parts....I think there are a lot of conservatives who are that way simply because that is all they have heard....

BTW...boulder would have to be considered one of the most liberal of cities in colorado....maybe the ramsey's neighborhood was conservative (as the state is) but boulder is liberal hippieville!

[KharmaTrain]

11. Even Better News In Those Numbers...

KKZN-AM Clear Channel Talk 0.5 0.9 1.6 1.6 2.0

Above are the station's ratings for the past year. The 0.5 was under a former talk format, and the 0.9 was for a partial book...the format was flipped during the ratings period. It takes 18 months for a station to establish a trend and the numbers here are looking very good. Anything with a 2 share or greater is an impressive showing...especially an AM station which doesn't have a solid signal across the entire market.

What's even more interesting is not the KOA numbers. KOA is 50,000 watts and will draw listeners with Gregorian chants. The other two talk stations in town are more interesting to look at:

KHOW-AM Clear Channel News/Talk 2.0 2.8 2.7 2.5 2.6

That was Jay Marvin's former station...he's at KKZN now...and the long-established talker in town. They're feeling KKZN's heat.

The one I think is most interesting is:

KNUS-AM Salem News/Talk 1.7 1.9 2.6 1.9 1.5

This is "The Patriot"...the wingnut hate station. Look at the drop between the election (the 2.6) and now (1.5)...that's almost a 50% drop in listeners. Also KKZN is beating their asses and any time an AAR station can beat a Salem/Patriot, that's a very, very good thing.

Congrats to the folks at KKZN...and to the other AAR affiliates!

[Zinfandel]

13. AAR will continue to kick ass and grow...I know so many

who didn't know about Air America Radio, but once they listen, they are hooked, word of mouth will make AAR grow and grow. Good investment.

Support AAR www.airamericaradio.com

[SlipperySlope]

14. Boulder was crying out for a station like this.

NPR and the local "progressive" station weren't enough. Now, if it gets market share in Grand Junction I'll be impressed!

[stepnw1f]

15. Hear That? Al Franken and Schultz kickin' butt

That's why we need them. You may not agree with everything they say or don't say, but they are effective in countering the spin with facts. The could get more aggressive in my opinion, however I think they are doing this on purpose. You can jerk the middle left on a dime. It takes time to convince people.

Remember... we are up against 30 years of propaganda from the right. The word "Liberal" has been demonized for a very long time.

[LSK]

20. you mean somebody likes Franken???

No way!!! :sarcasm:

[stepnw1f]

22. Kicking Ass

not just "somebody". Nice try!

:evilgrin:

[Vox_Reason]

17. We love our AAR affiliate WCHL in Chapel Hill, NC

Listen every day as much as I can. Stephanie Miller, Al, and Ed, 9 to 6.

Thanks, WCHL--and thanks for caring about our community!

[donco6]

18. I started listening to them last month.

It's great on the drive to work and back.

[kainah]

25. from Laramie, Wyoming

I do my part! I can pick it up at home but also in most of the southeastern part of the state. It's a welcome companion driving through very red and very deserted Wyoming.

[Psst_Im_Not_Here]

28. And on a good day

we can even get it Air America down here in "focus on the family"-land Colorado Springs! Those are great days for those of us here. There are more of us than you might think!