Readers of Jeremy-Gilby-dot-com know that I’ve got no love for the Wanna-be-Media-Empire called Air America.

Michelle Malkin has reported on a post by The Radio Equalizer that Air America’s listener-ship has been waining.

This is no surprise to me.

So why is Air America, the station for the minority, displaying such a poor showing?

- Air America’s flagship station, WLIB-AM in New York, garnered a 1.2 share in the latest quarter, down 0.1 from the year-ago period. By comparison, WABC-AM, New York’s leading conservative station, garnered a 3.8 share, up 0.1 from the year-ago period. WOR-AM, another conservative station, posted a 2.1 share, down 0.1 from the year-earlier period.

- Air America’s Boston station, WKOX-AM, got a tiny 0.6 share in the latest quarter, compared to a 4.3 share at WTKK-FM and a 4.0 share at WRKO-AM, both of which are conservative.

- Air America’s San Diego station, KLSD-AM, got a 1.9 share, up from 1.5 in the year-ago quarter. A respectable performance. By comparison, KOGO-AM, San Diego’s conservative station, garnered a 5.5 share, up from 5.2 in the year-earlier period.

- Air America’s Philadelphia affiliate, WHAT-AM, garnered a 0.8 market share in the latest quarter, down 0.1 from the year-earlier period. By comparison, Philadelphia’s conservative station, WPHT-AM, posted a 4.1 market share, up smartly from 3.2 in the year-earlier period.

- In Providence, Maloney reports, ratings at WHJJ-AM plunged after it replaced its conservative line-up with Air America, from a 3.5 share of the 12 and older audience to a 2.6 share. Meanwhile, Maloney says Providence’s conservative station, WPRO-AM, “saw a surge during the survey period from a 4.4 to a 5.1 audience share.”

Now, I mention that Air America is the voice of the minority. Why?
Well, rewind 12 years ago. And the left was trying to rationalize why Talk Radio, specifically Rush Limbaugh, was such a giant in the radiowaves.

“Well, of course Rush will be popular, there is a democrat in the White House.”

You heard this from every facet of the monolith of the MSM: Newspapers, News Magazines, Television Talking Heads, Newsies, whatever. Rush was popular becuase Bill Clinton was in the White House.
(Of course, 4 years before that, the same voices said the popularity was because a Republican in the White House.)

So, by the same lack of logic, since GWB is still President, Air America should be exploding in popularity!

Okay, so can we all agree that the political population density of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in D.C. is NOT the source of talk radio popularity?

I’m sure some of Air America’s supporters will point to particular shows that are successful with particular demographic subgroups. But so what if Al Franken is beating Rush Limbaugh among left-handed male eskimos between the ages of 35 and 54? The Arbitron numbers leave no doubt about the general trend: Air America is no match for conservative talk radio. Even in San Diego, where Air America is doing decently, its ratings are only a little more than one third that of the conservative competition.

In the past, Air America’s defenders could argue with some justification that its low ratings were the inevitable result of starting from square one. But Air America’s flagship station, WLIB-AM, has now been on the air for a full year. As Maloney suggests, it is no longer credible to blame the station’s mediocre performance on the fact that it is new:

WLIB has now had a full year, a generous amount of time in broadcasting, to build an audience and figures are still flat compared with the previous niche Caribbean format the station featured. Often in radio that would mean imminent cancellation, but backers continue to be so noisy, they have generated enough industry hype to sustain poor performance a tad bit longer….

My contention is that if liberal talk radio can’t find an audience in New York City, it certainly doesn’t have a chance in San Antonio, Reno, Fresno and other places now gaining Air America stations that have small “progressive” populations.

Okay, is ANYONE talking about the long-shot possibility that Franken-and-Company are just not entertaining?
There isn’t anything news worthy to listen for, that left-wing listeners can’t get from the television, or NPR. And if the material these comic geniuses isn’t funny, then what is the point of listening?

That is the difference with Right-Wing talk shows. There is information presented that is not presented from the monolithic mainstream media. That is where most of the success comes from.
Tack on that most of the successful talk radio hosts are entertaining to listen to.

I mentioned this about Air America before, Hollywood icons as: Your-favorite-Free-Speech-Assault-Fiend Al Franken, Loud-Mouth-Hate-Monger Janeane Garofalo, and Public-Enemy-Number-1 “Chuck D”, are visual beings. They all work in video media. Audio, while it appears simpler, is a much different animal; and so far, these guys just don’t got what it takes.
And few people can stomach all the hate that this channel is spewing forth.

One exception, is Alan Colmes. Alan at least approaches the medium in a balanced, smart manner. While I dislike his politics, and sometimes his arguments, his attitude more than makes up for it. Its not hateful, its rational.

Granted, I don’t listen to either Air America, or Alan Colmes; so this analysis is purely superficial. But looking at the data, I don’t think I’m too far off.