The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney: Thursday Latest

'EXECUTION' BACKLASH?

Franken Quickly Cut Off, Ratings Comparison Released

While Al Franken continues to have his pick of cable and late night television interviews, there may be signs some are leery of his creepy Rove/Cheney/Bush "execution" rhetoric.

Appearing on CNN yesterday, Franken's American Morning interview segment seemed abruptly cut short as soon as he brought up this supposed "joke".

Were producers ready and waiting to pull the plug?

Interviewer Zain Verjee became visibly uncomfortable as soon as Franken mentioned the "E" word. Was that the planned segment end, after just three minutes?

After insultingly trashing CNN International as a "broccoli" network, Franken may have sealed his fate, right off the bat.

Flunking the straight-face test, he responded to a question about why he had a corner on the "truth" market:

"It's the truth, because I actually do the research."

Claiming conservative authors don't back up their assertions, Franken apparently forgot he's previously disclosed some of his writing and research is done by a large team of staffers.

Sure enough, nobody mentioned Air America's scandals. In fact, he continues to avoid mentioning the network in almost every interview, unless asked about it.

While it's nice AAR has a piece of the book action, that's a one-shot deal, not an ongoing revenue source. Meanwhile, a golden network promotional opportunity is being squandered by a reluctant Franken.

At this point, why is anyone booking Franken for interviews? Do they really want this kind of hate-filled rubbish on their programs?

Checking Franken's upcoming schedule, it's now primarily made up of bookstore appearances and radio interviews:

Hear Al on Fox News Radio's
The Alan Colmes Show
Thursday, October 27, 2005
10:00-11:00 PM EST
(check your local listings for station information)

Ridgewood, NJ
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Bookends
232 East Ridgewood Avenue
7:00 PM

Hear Al on National Public Radio's
Morning Edition
Friday, October 28, 2005
(check your local listings for stations and times)

Huntington, NY
Friday, October 28, 2005
Book Revue
313 New York Ave
Al’s Air America show will broadcast from the store. Booksigning will follow.

Portland, OR
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Powell’s Books / First Congregational Church
1126 SW Park Ave
7:00 PM
Ticket info: (503) 228-4561

Seattle, WA
Monday, October 31, 2005
University Bookstore
Town Hall Seattle
1119 8th Avenue
7:30 PM

Meanwhile, over at Al's Air America page, conservative websites are credited with pumping up sales of The Truth (With Jokes):

Thanks to certain (conservative) websites, Al's Amazon.com ranking has skyrocketed since the release of "The Truth (with Jokes)" yesterday. To view the comedy video (yes, Al's not really beating someone senseless -- he saves that for our 3:30 staff meetings), check the Amazon.com page.

While I'd hate to pass up the potential opportunity to share in this credit, do you really think liberals base book-buying on coverage from conservative websites? Why admit we could have that kind of impact?

Also at his site, more whining about negative Amazon reviews. Is that why the violent video clip was produced? Why so touchy about critics, Al, aren't you used to it by now?

By contrast, Michelle Malkin's enemies are already busy trashing her upcoming book, Unhinged. Check out the personal attacks here, you won't catch Malkin crying about it as Franken seems to do.

Not aware of any mean-spirited promotional films being produced, either.

Premiere Radio Networks, home to Rush Limbaugh, has just issued this handy ratings press release:

According to the Arbitron Summer 2005 ratings survey for New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Mr. Rush Limbaugh beat liberal talkers in the ratings game.

In New York, Mr. Limbaugh's Persons 12+ audience is more than three times larger than Mr. Franken's audience. Heard Monday through Friday on WABC-AM from noon-3 p.m., The Rush Limbaugh Show scored, among Persons 12+, a 4.8 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 159,400 listeners.

Mr. Al Franken, who airs at the same time on WLIB-AM, has a Persons 12+ share of 1.4 with an average quarter-hour audience of 47,800 listeners. Mr. Jerry Springer also airs on WLIB-AM and has a Person 12+ share of 1.0 with an average quarter-hour audience of 30,100.

Below are their rankings among all AM and FM programming for Persons 12+ in New York:

Host              Share    Avg. Qtr Hr  Rank
        (Persons 12+)  (P 12+)

Rush Limbaugh     4.8       159,400      3
Al Franken        1.4        47,800      23
Jerry Springer    1.0        30,100      27

In Los Angeles, The Rush Limbaugh Show is heard Monday through Friday on KFI-AM from 9 a.m.-noon and scored a Persons 12+ share of 4.8 with an average quarter-hour audience of 112,700 listeners.

Mr. Franken, who airs at the same time on KTLK-AM, scored among Persons 12+ a 1.3 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 29,500 listeners. Mr. Limbaugh ranks #1 in his daypart for Persons 12+ and draws 3.5 times the listeners of Mr. Franken.

In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, here are the numbers for liberal talker Mr. Ed Shultz, who broadcasts at a different time:

Host         Share      Avg. Qtr Hr  Rank
     (Persons 12+)  (P 12+)

Rush Limbaugh  4.8       112,700      1
Al Franken     1.3        29,500      28
Ed Shultz      0.9        22,900      33

Heard Monday through Friday on WLS-AM in Chicago from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., The Rush Limbaugh Show scored a Persons 12+ share of 5.9 with an average quarter-hour audience of 96,300 listeners.

Mr. Franken, who airs at the same time on WCPT-AM, scored among Persons 12+, a 0.9 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 14,900 listeners. Mr. Limbaugh ranked #1 in his daypart and draws 6.5 times the listeners of Mr. Franken.

In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, here are the numbers for other liberal talkers in Chicago, who broadcast at a different time:

Host          Share      Avg. Qtr Hr   Rank
       (Persons 12+)  (P 12+)

Rush Limbaugh  5.9           96,300     1
Al Franken     0.9           14,900     29
Ed Shultz      0.9           14,300     31
Jerry Springer 0.4            6,500     42

Now you're armed with the facts.

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Franken/Lunatic by David A Lunde

6 Comments:

>>Hear Al on National Public Radio's
Morning Edition

No surprise; now, when Sean Hannity's books came out, did they offer to interview him? Hannity
has only about 13 million more listeners than Franken, but I guess they figured nobody would be interested in hearing from one of those "right wing wackos" LOL!

(Ever hear when Ingraham played clips of NPR's Terry Gross fawning over Franken, then getting confrontational with O'Reilly? To his credit, BOR fought right back,
and to her credit, at least BOR
was booked on her show.
But OH the way TG fawned over Al.)

By the way for those in Boston area, Severin still without a home though WTKK trying to come to terms; while Michael Graham has had a tryout with the station this week, Monica Crowley gets her turn next week. Also, Hannity has been added to WPRO in Prov (tape delayed 7-10 pm, followed by
tape-delayed Savage. BOR displaced.)

By raccoonradio, at 27 October, 2005 13:10
To "samseder":

Again, we know for a fact you're not Sam, so the joke is getting very stale. No doubt you'll turn up soon enough, again impersonating other talk hosts.

By Brian Maloney, at 27 October, 2005 15:17
They don't get it. Sam Seder reads this blog, posts comments on it, and then talks about what he wrote on his Air America Radio show, The Majority Report.

It is a very interesting sociological experiment to measure the amount of deception if not outright lying that the right wing engages in.

Them: "No, that was not Sam Seder."
Me: "Yes, I just heard him on the radio, reading what he just wrote."
Them (fingers in ears): "La La Lah. I can't hear yoooou!"

It boggles the mind. 1.4 share? Who cares. This Theater Of The Absurd is freaking priceless. It's gold, Jerry, comedy gold.

By @whut, at 27 October, 2005 20:55
I checked out Frankens schedule and see he is not listed as visiting Spokane, Nov. 1 anymore. I heard the commercials on the radio and have not heard them this past week.

I am much obliged to this blog. It gives me the info needed to civilly debate Air America with my future son-in-law. He buys the propaganda, hook, line and sinker. He's young. He will come around.

By cc, at 27 October, 2005 21:14
Again, this is not Sam Seder (who my readers tell me they've never heard of, anyway).

By Brian Maloney, at 28 October, 2005 10:55
Like calling someone retarded, and proceeding to try to beat them up in order to prove it.
If the retarded/weak/pathetic are all you are willing to try an beat up on, that's really very cowardly.

That's about right. The retarded/weak/pathetic bit, that is.

By @whut, at 28 October, 2005 21:31