Air America Ratings, Seattle, Denver, Portland

SUMMERTIME SLIDE

In Key Markets, AAR's Ratings Melt





Like an ice cream cone left in the hot July sun, Air America Radio's ratings are melting in some key (read: liberal) regions of the country.

Based on fresh ratings data released Thursday evening, the "progressive" radio network has lost strength in three cities where it had previously found the most listener support: Portland, Seattle and Denver.

Representing the spring 2006 Arbitron reporting period, these results provide one of the two most important report cards for the entire year.

A quick rundown:


In Seattle, AAR affiliate KPTK-AM had increasingly been providing a rare bright spot for liberal talk radio, but that wasn't the case this time: it fell from a previously respectable 2.8 share to a bottom-feeding 1.7 among all listeners 12 and older. That had KPTK tied for 23rd place overall.

Up against baseball on rival KOMO- AM, the increasingly left- leaning KIRO- AM also fell, from 4.3 to a 3.9.

Conservative talkers were mixed: KVI- AM dropped from a 3.1 to a 2.5, while competitor KTTH- AM held just about steady, with a 2.8 share.


In Portland, KPOJ- AM, which had been Air America's biggest nationwide success story, also took a dive: it dropped from 4.1 to a 3.5 share.

Conservative and other talk formats had better luck in the Rose City, with KXL and KEX-AM both up slightly and far ahead of Franken & Co. Until now, KPOJ's ratings had held fairly steady and it was considered a model for liberal radio's potential future national success.


Denver's KKZN-AM had also provided a previous pocket of libtalk support, but that proved to be short- lived. The station finished the spring ratings book with a mere 1.3 share, leaving it near the bottom in the overall market.

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