Air America Radio, just a year and a half old, is poised to grab the top spot in talk-radio for the Portland, Oregon market.
Air America Radio, just a year and a half old, is poised to grab the top spot in talk-radio for the Portland, Oregon market. Many pundits wrote off the liberal talk-radio enterprise shortly after its inception, but in the last year AAR has grown from 16 stations to 70, and in Portland, it has relegated Sean Hannity's radio station to near the bottom of the trash heap. In this particular market AAR is moving up so fast in the ratings it is likely they have already captured the top-spot from the plummeting Rush Limbaugh, as this article is being written.…
Article comments
26 - billy
thats like saying "proof that the earth is round". if you are interested go look. you obviously arent. but republican cheating is well documented in the last 2 elections.
27 - fred
but we do have proof that the earth is round. We've taken pictures from space. So what's your point? Don't bother, the "documentation" you're going to find is provided by sore losers in the Dumbocrat party who, sniff sniff, didn't get their way, again. How does it feel to be aligned with a party of losers?
28 - billy
you should be able to tell me, you have had it for 100 years, i have only had it for 5. youll be on the losing end for the next 100 as well, so im sure you can let me know.
29 - fred
youll be on the losing end for the next 100 as well,
You like to assert a lot of things that you can't prove, don't you?
30 - Peter
#1 in Portland? That's like saying chocolate has finally taken over broccoli as the #1 food for fat people.
It is obvious. Too bad the whole Air America Radio organization will more than likely be off air ue to financial issues in less than 1 year.
31 - billy
conservatives keep making dumber and dumber statements as this goes along. arent you the same person that guaranteed they would be bankrupt by the end of last month right before they opened up 8 new stations. reality hurts doesnt it?
32 - Lyle
The latest news is Thomm Hartmann is going national for them
Who's "them"? I'm presuming you mean (KPOJ owner) Clear Channel, though it sounded like you meant Air America.
If that's the case, that'll be big news as it'll be the first time CC created a local show for its progtalk stations and took it national. (Another sign of confidence in the Prog Talk format.)
I'm actually surprised a second Prog Talk station hasn't popped up in Portland, considering the format's success. I know that's happened elsewhere -- CC has done it in markets where a competitior signed Air America programming first.
33 - balletshooz
Yes, "them" means AAR, AAR is now syndicating additional shows on top of their 24/7 lineup and Hartmann is the first one. I dont know the full details but in my area (LA) I believe he will replace Al Franken, who by far is the most boring of all the shows on aar.
34 - RJ
"Bush [...] had to cheat in Ohio and Florida[...]"
Got any numbers for that?
ROTFL!
35 - spidge
KOTK was not a "liberal" talk station.
It was a "hot talk" station, with somewhat of a shock-talk format aimed at men 18-34. It was not very political. Tom Leykis used to do a liberal political show ten years ago but has moved far away from that venue now.
36 - Dave Nalle
>>Use your imagination Dave, Im sure you can figure it out. <<
Yep, it's pretty obvious that you're a willing shill for Air America puffing up their success regardless of what the actual truth is.
>>While you are at it, and I dont completely disagree with your analysis because it is on different grounds, but if you are going to throw everything into the pot, you might want to include the #1 talker in the area, Howard Stern. I think its fair to call him a liberal since he bashes Bush continually intermixed with strippers. <<
Stern is a libertarian/independent, and I did factor his station in.
>>Then see what the numbers show, I think he is like a 7.6, so it may actually be a dead heat. Anyways, I think the argument that AAR is dead, or as some conservatives have said on my blog "I guarantee they will be benkrupt by the end of the month" are a bit silly.<<
I've never said AAR was dead. Keep that in mind. I think it's doing about as well as it could hope for until it gets better, more entertaining hosts, or goes with syndicating individual shows. I only object to your constant misrepresentation that it's gaining ground while conservative talk is losing ground, when that's clearly not the case anywhere.
Dave
37 - Dave Nalle
BTW, the really interesting news in talk radio is the surging popularity of latino talk, which is coming up much faster in more markets than AAR is.
Dave
38 - Dave Nalle
Fred, to be fair, the data you're linking to from FreeP and Talkers magazine is over a year old. It's useless for assessing AAR ratings.
Dave
39 - pdx
"Meanwhile KPAM-AM, the station that carries...Dr. "Its OK To Rape Your Wife" Laura, is in freefall..."
A correction: KPAM does not carry Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Her program is on KEX. KPAM airs Laura Ingraham.
40 - Sammy
What are liberals and democrats for? What I have read here, and heard on AAF is a lot of bashing and negativity. Are they for anything besides bigger government, socialist programs, and weath redistribution? If they are, someone please tell us. None of your well known national faces do. Lately, the liberal voices have confirmed to me, that they shouldn't be running much of anything, especially not anything related to National Security.
41 - Dave Nalle
As far as I can tell they're not for anything. They're just against a whole lot of things.
Truthfully, they appear to be for some vague concepts like 'social justice', but when it comes to trying to pin them down the definitions of the things they support seem to change with the wind, and the one thing you can always get them to agree on is that they oppose whatever Republicans are for.
Being the anti-whatever party has always been a terrible political move. Very hard to sell. And you can see the results of that in the fact that the seriously screwed up GOP is able to beat them in elections pretty regularly. People would rather vote for a corrupt party with a few positive ideas than a well-meaning party full of negativism, hate and no ideas.
Dave
42 - gregrocker
Liberals are first for social justice, having led the civil rights movement against the vile racism of the same 700-pound right wingers who belch their bile here. Many liberals died to deliver the promises of the Bill or Rights to all of our citizens and, at every turn, they were met by the police dogs and sneering lynch-mob pukes like the same guys who can't even stand to hear that their lying talk radio disinformation operation is being exposed by Air America Radio, which is leading the opposition to the worst President in the history of the world. Only 25-50 million of the dumbest fattest flat-earth redneck faith healers duped by talk radio liars for 15 years, could bring this country into the disrepute of the entire world (starting with our supposed allies, who hate Bush in the 80% range), could plunge us into a quagmire on the exact same piece of real estate that brought down the British Empire, could waste trillions on this and other fools errands in a deliberate effort to bankrupt the social compact the public won't let them kill ooutright. WE are the true patriots, not phony lying hypocrites who smear the only successful President of our lifetime for doing what every one of his critics was caught doing worse, who contribute nothing to the betterment of society except more hatred and divisiveness. Whose response to a cretin President who let thousands of black people drown while he golfed and goofed, was to give him 75% approval, since killing black people to these pigs is good leadership. Its time to start standing up to these bullies and that is what Air America does every day, for better or worse. They are the leaders of the resistance, and an army is forming on the radio. Look out, righties: You are really out of shape!
43 - RJ
gregrocker:
You sound pretty full of hate yourself...
44 - Dave Nalle
And full of misinformation since no one bothered to tell him that every major civil rights act has been passed primarily because of Republican support against Democratic opposition.
Dave
45 - Steve Voss
I will keep it simple with an easy question. Why do liberals continue to do nothing but call people names? I do not understand how calling someone a fat head or an obese demon that should choke on his on vomet is in anyway, shape, form or fashion productive. It is o.k. to have a different opinion, viewpoint etc., but come on already, Air America is full of meaningless banter and name calling. I try to listen from time to time but the only usefull dialogue is during a commercial. Why?
46 - RogerMDillion
Try and stay on topic, Dave.
Whenever balletshooz prematurely trumpets the ratings of Air America, every post he makes about them, you want to lump in all the stations together by subject, which has nothing to do with the argument at hand.
Where in the article does it talk about the city of Portland having a bigger liberal audience than a conservative one?
47 - DrPat
Comments 21 posits the liberal bent of the "left" coast first, although Coment 16 lays out some real comparable ratings numbers.
There is a whole conversation here, not just the initial post, Roger.
48 - RogerMDillion
Dave's numbers have nothing to do with the post, so his arguement is flawed because he's comparing apples and oranges.
If he wants to discuss the type of stations in the Portland area and their audience size, be my guest, but don't think it does anything to contradict the original article, which compares one station to another.
I'm still waiting for you to produce Fonda's quotes about islamicfacism that you claimed were so prevalent in the media last month. How's that coming along?
49 - Bob A. Booey
"As far as I can tell they're not for anything. They're just against a whole lot of things."
Sound like anyone we know?
That is all.
50 - billy
BULLSHIT "As far as I can tell they're not for anything. They're just against a whole lot of things."
The entire GOP agenda is to roll back Democratic ideas.
Heard of social security, medicare, voting rights, minimum wage, gas mileage requirements, park service, 40 hr work week, unions, civil rights.
The entire GOP agenda is to rollback, provatize, or eliminate Democratic ideas.
Hey GOP morons, if you dont know what Dem ideas are just look at your own "ideas". they are defined solely by eliminating the Dem ideas.
If you dont know Dem ideas, you dont know your own ideas. not to mention sounding totally ignorant.
51 - red state
Please excuse Billy folks, he ate more than his fair fair share of lead paint chips as a youngster.
52 - Dave Nalle
>>Whenever balletshooz prematurely trumpets the ratings of Air America, every post he makes about them, you want to lump in all the stations together by subject, which has nothing to do with the argument at hand.<<
Roger, the point is that he ignores most of the stations. He cherrypicks the third largest conservative station and uses that for his comparison with Air America. It's not a valid comparison.
>>Where in the article does it talk about the city of Portland having a bigger liberal audience than a conservative one?<<
Nowhere. I didn't say that it does. What he says is that Air America listership is up, while conservative listenership is down, when in fact both are up, and conservative the conservative talk audience grew more than the AAR audience did.
>>I'm still waiting for you to produce Fonda's quotes about islamicfacism that you claimed were so prevalent in the media last month. How's that coming along?<<
Was this directed at me? I don't recall ever discussing Jane Fonda with you or anyone else. She's largely irrelevant in the modern era.
Dave
53 - Dave Nalle
Just out of curiosity, Billy. Could you run down a few Democratic agenda items? I always get attacked when I do it, so perhaps you could do it in a nice positive way for us.
Dave
54 - RJ
Lemme try, DN...
- Canadian-style health care. Yes, the US will finally be able to say they have entered the 21st Century when cancer patients have to wait five months before being given their first round of chemo...at the taxpayer's expense!
- A "living wage" of 15 dollars per hour. Sure, it's highly inflationary, and the economy will quickly re-adjust to circumstances and make a 15 dollar per hour job equal to what an 8 dollar an hour job was worth just a few months before. But the working classes will feel so empowered!
- Retreat from Iraq. Yes, Leftists will truly be able to call Iraq "another Vietnam" after we leave prematurely and allow a quasi-democracy to devolve into civil war and despotism, all while giving the terrorists a great place to organize and train...
- Unreformed Social Security. Yep, no changes will be made to the largest entitlement program in the country. And, in a few decades, the frderal government will be completely bankrupt. Hooray!
- The Kyoto Treaty will be ratified. Sure, this will plunge the entire US economy into recession for decades, but at least we will have bought a few years against "global warming"!
55 - RogerMDillion
"What he says is that Air America listership is up, while conservative listenership is down,"
I read the article again and suggest you do as well. Balletshooz says that KPOJ is up while KPAM is down in reference to Hannity in Portland. Where is there a mention of "conservative listenership" in its totality? He's only comparing two stations. If Hannity is on another station, then that changes things, and I'll cop to it.
I will grant you that he mentions some numbers and percentages (a 7.5% change is neglible), but he makes no direct connection between the number changes and the stations because he knows there isn't one. Dittoheads have not gone to listen to AA.
The other comment was for DrPat who always ignores it because he couldn't back up a claim he made weeks ago.
Balletshooz, has AA "captured the top-spot from the plummeting Rush Limbaugh" in Portland since completing this article yet? You need two or three books to get a serious idea of how the numbers are averaging or even trending. Not even people on your side of the aisle are going to take your reports seriously. Your hyperbolic rhetoric is silly and premature. Also, you really should have picked a name that couldn't be shortened to BS so easily.
56 - billy
post 52, D. Nalle, I wasnt attacking you, you were a surrogate to the previous post about "no ideas" which was quite brainless.
i dont have to define much RJ proved my point.
the entire life of a conservative is to fantasize about how they are going to kill a dem idea.
the whole gop agenda is taking a democratic "idea" and destroying it.
Social Security -made by dems, hated by GOP
medicare-made by dems, hated by GOP
parks system-made by dems, hated by GOP
environment rules-made by dems, hated by GOP
the list goes on and on.
your lives are defined by cutting Dem ideas.
if you dont know the Dem ideas, you dont know GOP ideas, because they are defined by what dems have done.
the dems keeping in place the programs they created in the last 100 years is exactly the agenda i want them to have.
57 - Dave Nalle
I'll agree that this is more reigned in than his other posts, for which I might want to take credit, but will refrain.
But the general thrust of his argument remains the same - that AAR is gaining ground and conservative talkers are losing it either individually or as a group. Whether he chooses to compare AAR's whole lineup to one conservative host, or station ratings of selected stations to those of other selected stations, he's still mostly just cherrypicking to make his unsupportable argument look valid. Taken in the context of the whole talk environment of the markets he focuses on the trend he identifies seems never to be correct.
Not that AAR isn't gaining listeners. Personally I think they're getting them from NPR as the left becoems more and more polarized, but there are no ratings for NPR.
IMO no one should be greeting AAR with happiness. It's the same relentless partisanship most of the right talkers perpetrate, just with the ideology flipped. It's not any better or more balanced.
Dave
58 - ryan
its not like seattle is one of the most liberal cities in the world or anything
59 - MCH
Re comment #54;
"- Retreat from Iraq. Yes, Leftists will truly be able to call Iraq "another Vietnam" after we leave prematurely, blah, blah, blah, etc..."
by Bobby (RJ) Elliott
Um, Bobby, since you refuse to even try to enlist, would you also be considered a "Leftist"?
60 - WTF
Portland Oregon, that's not a stretch. Why am I not surprised about that?
61 - AlexinLA
Ok, maybe I don't get something, but:
KPAM - 1.8
KEX - 5.0
KXL - 4.0
===========
10.8
Where did 12.8 come from?
So, 9.4 to 10.8 for GOP radio
And, 5.2 to 4.5 for DEM radio
There...
Oh, and "billy" gave a pretty good run down of the Dem agenda.
Keep FDR's New Deal intact (social safety net)
Keep Progressive advances intact (regulation of the excesses of capitalism/robber barons)
Add to that some modern things like increase health care opportunities to all.
I would agree that the agenda could use some freshening up, but I like the old stuff myself.
I understand that many think these historical Dem programs don't help them. But I think they help the people I want helped, so I'm satisfied. Maybe we care about different types of people?
And GOP people should know that people like Grover Norquist and Karl Rove are all about rolling back the programs from past historical eras, like the New Deal programs.
Look, I get it. The GOP agenda is about helping business, which the DEMs also do, BTW, and "drowning" the Federal government. It is clear and somewhat attractive to a lot of people. I just don't think these are great ideas.
62 - Bob
Unions? holy cow, I am from Detroit, look at the companies they have brought down. Almost all of the airlines, General Motors is about to go down, Delphi is down. Companies can no longer pay lifetime pensions for working 25 years. Our taxes will keep rising because we have to pay all the government workers life time pensions, police officers, fireman anybody who works for the government, city, state, federal. Ok 40 hours and overtime is great but don't promise things you cant deliver. Oh and Unions are very very crooked, don't let anybody tell you any different. France and Germany have all the things the liberals want in the U.S. and they have high unemployment and recesions and waiting for the U.S. to get them out of it.
63 - Bob
Update to last post, riots in Paris over no jobs and slum housing, yeah France has got it together, what a joke. Other news, top al quida leader caught today, what he had said in the past, this is good, "if only the planes that hit the twin towers had weapons of mass destruction in them, then there wouldn't have been as many people to vote for Bush". lol. They know the Democrats are weak, Go Bush!
Anybody out there?
64 - davemon
After reading all this, all I will say on this one topic.
Sure the Dems started Social Security, sadly they voted to give it to non citizens.
Secondly, if the money taken out of my Fathers checks all his life were invested in the market, he'd have more than a million. Sure it goes up and down some. But damn better than the little $1,700 a month he gets, and then there's nothing to pass on to me :(
Davemon
65 - LMAO
This is funny. So, they may have been doing well in liberal loony land Portland, but this was before they filed for BANKRUPTCY!
Oh, ya, they are still around. I think. Somewhere. Yeah, they must be right? Hmm. Wonder where you can find them.
Meanwhile, Rush is still #1 nationally and Sean is still #2. Guess the free market (which Air America apparently can't compete successfully in without help from some deep liberal pockets) hasn't been too kind to AAR. Turns out that the free market WORKS!
-LMAO!
66 - Johnny On the Spot
Look at it this way. Air America has filed for chapter 11. Now, here is the kicker: It's only on about 60 or so markets...and I'm talking big ones too like #207 Santa Barbara, #126 Victor Valley, CA (where)?, #137 Palm Springs, don't forget that huge city of Santa Fe coming in at #236. LOL About half the affiliates are located in towns that don't even have a ranking they are so small. Forget NY and LA. Everyone has affiliats there. As of July 12th, Air America has lost bout 67 other affiliats. Rush is on in all 50 states and has upwards of about 620 stations. And according to ABC Radio Networks, Hannity just passed 500 stations. You Dems need to drop the cool aid and look at pure numbers. Sheesh.