The Arbitron books have recently closed on the Spring 2006 ratings period for radio stations across the country, so we thought we'd update our previous look at how Air America Radio is doing.

The ratings below were transcribed from Radio & Records' online listing for the Spring 2006 period. The ratings represent the percentage of each local market's listening population (Age 12+) over an Average Quarter Hour (AQH) time period. To estimate the potential size of AAR's audience in each of its local markets, we took the average rating for each market over the past year (treating it as a percentage) and multiplied it by that market's Age 12+ potential listening population.

We've summarized our results in the following dynamic table. You may click any of the column headings to sort the data from low to high or vice versa (by clicking the column heading again).

AAR's Ratings in Top 100 Radio Markets Summer 2005 - Spring 2006

Rank	State	City	Station(s)	Age 12+ Pop.	SU 05	FA 05	WI 06	SP 06	Avg. Rating	Est. Audience
1	NY	New York	WLIB 1190 AM	15,332,000	1.2	1.4	0.8	1.0	1.1	168,652
2	CA	Los Angeles	KTLK 1150 AM	10,790,100	0.9	0.7	1.0	1.0	0.9	097,111
3	IL	Chicago	WCPT 850 AM	07,698,300	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.9	0.8	061,586
4	CA	San Francisco	KQKE 960 AM	05,829,700	1.2	1.2	1.2	0.8	1.1	064,127
5	TX	Dallas-Fort Worth	KXEB 910 AM	04,730,200	0.0	0.0	0.4	0.6	0.3	014,191
8	DC	Washington	WWRC 1260 AM	04,132,800	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.6	0.3	012,398
9	MI	Detroit	WDTW 1310 AM	03,892,600	0.0	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.3	011,678
10	GA	Atlanta	WWAA 1690 AM	03,860,100	0.0	0.4	0.4	0.0	0.2	007,720
11	MA	Boston	WKOX 1200 AM & WXKS 1430 AM	03,841,100	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.4	0.4	015,364
12	FL	Miami	WINZ 940 AM	03,505,100	1.5	1.9	1.2	1.4	1.5	052,577
14	WA	Seattle	KPTK 1090 AM	03,204,800	2	2.3	2.8	1.7	2.2	070,506
15	AZ	Phoenix	KXXT 1010 AM / KPHX 1480 AM*	02,938,500	1.5	1.2	1.1	1.3	1.3	038,201
16	MN	St. Louis Park	KTNF 950 AM	02,632,400	1.2	1.1	1.0	1.1	1.1	028,956
17	CA	San Diego	KLSD 1360 AM	02,484,900	1.8	3.1	1.6	2.1	2.2	054,668
22	CO	Denver	KKZN 760 AM	02,157,700	1.9	1.8	1.4	1.3	1.6	034,523
24	OR	Portland	KPOJ 620 AM	01,963,400	4.4	4.1	4.1	3.5	4.0	078,536
27	CA	Riverside	KCAA 1050 AM	01,799,900	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	000,000
28	OH	Cincinnati	WCKY 1530 AM	01,705,200	1.3	1.3	0.9	0.6	1.0	017,052
30	TX	San Antonio	KTXX 103.1 FM	01,552,100	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	000,000
38	OH	Columbus	WTPG 1230 AM	01,401,300	0.9	1.1	1.3	1.4	1.2	016,816
42	TX	Austin	KOKE 1600 AM	01,204,800	0.7	0.8	1.0	0.7	0.8	009,638
43	NC	Chapel Hill	WCHL 1360 AM	01,143,700	0.0	0.9	0.6	0.0	0.4	004,575
49	TN	Memphis	WWTQ 680 AM	01,047,900	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.6	006,287
52	NY	Buffalo	WHLD 1270 AM	00,989,400	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	000,000
54	NY	Rochester	WROC 950 AM	00,941,600	1.4	0.8	0.9	1.1	1.1	010,358
57	LA	New Orleans	WSMB 1350 AM	00,862,700	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.9	0.9	007,764
63	HI	Honolulu	KUMU 1500 AM	00,774,500	0.0	0.4	N/A	N/A	0.2	001,549
66	CA	Fresno	KFPT 790 AM	00,711,700	0.4	0.4	0.8	1.1	0.7	004,982
67	MI	Grand Rapids	WTKG 1230 AM	00,703,400	0.8	1.2	0.4	1.1	0.9	006,331
70	NM	Albuquerque	KABQ 1350 AM	00,654,200	1.6	2.2	2.0	2.0	2.0	013,084
73	OH	Akron	WARF 1350 AM	00,597,200	0.6	0.6	0.9	0.8	0.7	004,180
74	FL	Bradenton	WSRQ 1450 AM	00,591,500	N/R	1.1	N/R	1.4	1.3	007,690
76	TX	El Paso	KHRO 1650 AM	00,573,600	1.0	0.6	0.5	0.3	0.6	003,442
79	CA	Monterey	KOMY 1340 AM	00,555,100	0.0	0.4	0.6	0.0	0.3	001,665
82	MA	Springfield	WHNP 1600 AM & WHMP 1400 AM	00,533,700	1.6	N/A	N/A	N/A	1.6	008,539
83	LA	Baton Rouge	WYNK 1380 AM	00,529,100	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
90	SC	Columbia	WOIC 1230 AM	00,485,400	0.9	0.9	0.5	0.0	0.6	002,912
92	WA	Spokane	KPTQ 1280 AM	00,480,800	1.0	2.0	1.3	1.0	1.3	006,250
96	WI	Madison	WXXM 92.1 FM	00,461,700	2.3	3.8	2.2	3.1	2.9	013,389

The following table provides the overall average ratings for each period, as well as the estimated audience in the Top 100 U.S. Radio Markets:

Sums and Averages for AAR Ratings in Top 100 U.S. Radio Markets
Age 12+ Pop.	SU 05	FA 05	WI 06	SP 06	Avg. Rating	Est. Audience
99,294,200	0.9	1.1	1.0	1.0	1.0	957,297

Overall, these ratings provide a good indication that AAR's ratings are flat across its major local markets, neither showing significant erosion nor significant growth. We anticipate this will change for the worse when AAR moves from WLIB in New York to the much lower powered WWRL.

Previously on Political Calculations

The Future of Air America

We kicked off our series of posts analyzing Air America Radio viability as a business with this post. We really didn't think it would go much further than this!

Air America, Again

We found that AAR doesn't just have competition from the right - it has it on the left as well....

The Financing of Air America Radio

A throw-away post that let us fill space with some information on where AAR got its financing that we had come across in our previous analysis.

Time to Harvest or Divest

As AAR appeared to be running into significant turbulence, we updated our original strategic business analysis, finding that what AAR's management needed to do was to find "white knight" financing or to start making moves to significantly cut its costs.

A Top Ten Countdown

We couldn't resist applying a list a bankruptcy lawyer came up with for a failing company to AAR's known problems - lucky thing AAR has benefitted from the generosity of multi-millionaires with deep pockets.

Profiles in Semi-Obscurity

Another space-filler post where we just unloaded background information about various members of AAR's Board of Directors that we had come across in previous analysis.

Air America's Ratings in the Top 100 Radio Markets

Our look at AAR's ratings through Arbitron's Winter 2006 period.

A Bigger Footprint

An intrepid e-mailer let us know that AAR's flagship affiliate WLIB had a bigger footprint than just the New York City market - plus, we find that roughly half of AAR's audience is in just five cities.

Profiling a Handful of AAR's Local Affiliates

Once again, we unload information we collected in other analysis. This time, we estimate just how many local AAR affiliates there are by determining where they're not.

- posted by Ironman at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Home |