7/28/2005

RIGHT WING RADIO LOSING IT

And Air America stealing money intended for Alzheimers patients and kids? Didn't happen. MSM ignores it. If you check Google News you will find the main story is that Air America's audience is up 140% in LA and eating into Limbaugh's audience. All reference to the theft is blog and right wing news sites. Not a single MSM source. The POV from an unbiased source regarding AA ratings is quite interesting; source is Blog Critics

In the fourth quarter of 2004 Al Franken's ratings in New York were 44% of Rush Limbaugh's. In just 3 months that ratio rose to 60%; that is bad news, but not for Air America. In the same New York winter 2005 ratings, Air America's Randi Rhodes, on in the crucial afternoon drive-time, went up 33%, while the conservative talk shows in same time slot on WABC and WOR each went down 33%. Air America's evening show, The Majority Report starring Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder went up 100%; while the WOR show in that time slot was flat and the WABC show went down 33%. In total audience, The Majority Report was the number one talk show in New York City in its time slot.
Methinks that a lot of Conservative bloggers may be sniffing at a bad batch of glue. I think Hannity is not remotely interesting or listenable; I think Rush has become an endless loop; O'Reilley is actually an interesting talk show; and here locally we have some real good nut cases on during drive times that entertain and raise real issues. I have this gut feeling that Conservative Talk Radio has run its course, the audience is not growing but declining and that is not good news for Republicans.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Howie,

that Blogcritics site is not eggsackly unbiased, so why should I trust their numbers, in the absence of further citations:

"... The reasons for the shift are not clear, but one of them may be the different approaches of right-wing and left-wing radio. Right-wing radio focuses on attacking Americans (i.e., liberals, Democrats, gays, muslims, and hippies). Left-wing radio focuses on attacking policies (i.e., the war in Iraq, the budget deficit, the environment). The ad hominem attacks by right-wing talkers on other Americans have become tiresome, non-entertaining, and frankly un-patriotic. This may be one of the reasons many people are starting to tune them out. Unless there is a plan B for right-wing radio in the future, for instance by having Rush Limbaugh broadcast from a prison cell, the decline will likely continue. ..."

Furthermore, why assume that Rush and the Fox News crowd are all that there is of "conservative" radio talkers?

Sean Hannity is basically a minor "air talent," not destined for a long prime time media life. Rush has been around since 1988. It's not remarkable if Rush is due for replacement. Even the most successful TV shows, such as Friends, don't last forever. A newer generation of right wing radio personalities may appear.

-- david.davenport.1@netzero.com

Howard said...

Hannity is #2, behind Rush. I have removed Blog Critics from this site. They have, as a requirement for publication, a link on the entry page to Amazon for a book that relates to the subject of the article. I have always had the practice of not shilling for anybody; unless I tell you I'm shilling.