Friday, July 16

NYC Ratings: Fedora Boy Fails to Mention...

...the story behind his goofy headline. First, Drudge's unlinked bleat about the Arbitron quarterly New York City report which was released today:
MID-DAYS NYC: LIMBAUGH 4.8 SHARE [WABC] SMASHES 'AIR AMERICA' 1.7 SHARE [WLIB] IN ALL LISTENERS [12+]...

'AIR AMERICA' FADES MONTH TO MONTH...
Details? Demographics? Ah, who needs 'em, right Matty? The 12+ numbers include ages 65+, where WABC kicks almost everyone's ass. There's good news when you break it down by age group:

25-54 10am-3pm: WABC 2.7 WLIB 2.2

WLIB trailing WABC by a half a point in the 25-54 age group during the Limbaugh time period is no small story, folks. Especially when you consider that this is WLIB's very first ratings quarter - EVER. It took Rush over 14 years to get a 2.7. Franken popped a 2.2 in three months.

Randi Rhodes in the 25-54 group debuted well against Hannity in 3-7pm:

25-54 3pm-7pm: WABC 3.1 WLIB 2.2

Keep in mind that in radio, when you debut, you're starting with zero audience. It's pretty safe to say that most - if not ALL of WLIB's tropical music audience didn't stick around when the format flipped to all-talk and Air America. Any radio exec will tell you - these are very encouraging debut numbers.

By the way, in affluent Westchester County, WLIB (under the old format) went from a 0.0 a year ago, to a 0.3 last fall. The debut of Air America grabbed a 1.5 among all listeners 12+. We also call that a nice start, especially when WLIB has signal problems north of the Botanical Gardens. It might be a testament to their web listening. We'll find out in the days ahead.

All in all, WLIB can now sell some real advertising - and Bartcop is getting some serious bang for his buck with that schedule he bought.

See? Getting accurate info all depends on who you know. You can see the 12+ results at Radio and Records Online.