Re: Say Air America is still on?

From: Jonathan Kirwan (jkirwan_at_easystreet.com)
Date: 09/08/04 

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 01:52:16 GMT

On 7 Sep 2004 16:19:02 -0700, jdurban@vorel.com (Product developer) wrote:

>Neo-socialist whinning from frustrated losers hasn't ever produced
>ratings worth a damn.

Well, I cannot speak for other areas. But I've an interesting sidebar on this
score for one particular market.

The state of Oregon in the US is one of those "swing" states that could go
either way in the national elections. The distribution of these voters isn't
spread evenly in Oregon, though. The more liberal voting side tends to reside
in the Portland metro area, where about 1/2 of the entire state's population
lives. Serving this Portland market (among others) is a local AM station, KPOJ,
which was purchased by Clear Channel (itself a satanic corporation that does
weird incantations in the dark of night in order to try and rule the broadcast
world ;) some years back. The ratings for this station were at the dead bottom
of the arbitron list.

The manager at KPOJ argued with Clear Channel to permit carrying Air America on
this station. In the end, they gave him the permission he needed. (My guess is
that it's ratings had no place to go, but up, so his arguments may have been
easier to make than they might have been in other markets.) Since carrying Air
America, they have gone from nil to the top station in talk for the market and
only slightly behind two other FM music stations.

"In a three-month period, KPOJ went from 12,000 listeners to almost 80,000
listeners per week, with little promotion or marketing," and also, "In the
important 25-54 age category, KPOJ ranks third in the Portland market with a 4.9
share (which means a 4.9 percent share of the listening audience). It's ahead of
all other AM stations and finished behind top-ranked country-music KUPL (98.7
FM) and No. 2-ranked adult rock station KINK (101.9 FM)."

  http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=25525

KPOJ has, in a very short time, blown everyone else away in the PDX market.
Part of the reason was that right wing owners had gained control of much of the
media here and what they didn't directly own had changed enough in their
presentations that it was hard to tell them from FOX news services.

[For just one of several examples, conservative, evangelical Christian tycoon,
Bob Pamplin, Jr. (who inherited nearly $500 million and operates a 25-store
Christian supply chain) owns KPAM, a 50kWatt AM station in the Portland market
and also 11 newspapers in the Portland newspaper market area -- often purchased
through a lawyer who wouldn't disclose that he was the purchaser ("Willamette
Week" verifies that this is how they were approached, for example.) Along with
evangelical Christianity to his credit, Pamplin is a Republican who donated
$100,000 to George W. Bush's campaign in July.]

KPOJ has been operating under a 5kW license but will soon be operating at 25kW.
When that happens, there will be just three AM stations in the market operating
at higher power: KEX, KXL and KPAM (all operating at 50kW.)

In the "Adults 25-54" category (the 'coveted' one) KPOJ enjoyed a 4.9 share for
the Spring ratings, up from less than 1.0 before the transition.

25-54 category, Spring 2004
---------------------------
KUPL --- 5.8
KINK --- 5.5
KPOJ --- 4.9 <--- Air America
KWJJ --- 4.8
KKCW --- 4.6
KGON --- 4.5
KVMX --- 4.4
KRSK --- 4.2
KUFO --- 3.8
KEX --- 3.7
KRVO --- 3.7
KKSN --- 3.6
KXL --- 3.5
KXJM --- 3.2
KFIS --- 2.8
KLTH --- 2.2
KNRK --- 2.0

In summer, it dropped slightly to a 4.8 share:

25-54 category, Summer 2004
---------------------------
KWJJ --- 5.6
KINK --- 5.2
KUPL --- 5.0
KKCW --- 5.0
KVMX --- 4.9
KPOJ --- 4.8 <--- Air America
KRSK --- 4.6
KGON --- 4.4
KRVO --- 3.9
KUFO --- 3.8
KKSN --- 3.3
KXJM --- 3.1
KEX --- 3.1
KXL --- 3.1
KLTH --- 3.0
KFIS --- 2.7
KNRK --- 2.6

Regarding the specific talk programs for 25-54 in the Portland market (about 1.5
million people):

  Al Franken is #1
  Ed Schultz is #1
  Randi Rhodes is #1
  Marty Kaplan is #2
  Janene Garofolo & Sam Seder is #2

KEX derailed KPOJ from completely running the entire daily tableau by getting a
#1 slot in the 25-54 age group for the time, 7pm to midnight.

Overall KPOJ is rated now as #3 in the 25-54 age group from the 6AM to midnight
period and their numbers essentially bounced from a 0.2 to a 6.4, blowing away
the big FM music stations.

Jon

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