Air America Radio web listenership up for October

While many people, particularly certain failed weekend disc jockeys turned shitty bloggers, have been ghoulishly awaiting the hoped-for demise of Air America Radio, there are still quite a few people who don't feel the same way. At least that's what online listening ratings are saying.

Webcast Metrics, a firm that measures online streaming listenership, has released its monthly ratings for October, showing listenership to the official Air America Radio streams improving from September.

In October, 214,526 different computers accessed the official streams of Air America between the hours of 6AM and Midnight, Monday through Sunday, compared to 199,700 during the same period in September. For the time period between 6AM and 8PM, Monday through Friday, those numbers are 165,010 and 148,856 respectively. This is referred to as the 'cume', meaning the average number of unique persons (defined as the number of different IP addresses) who listen to a station for a minimum of five minutes within a reported time period.

The ratings report, similar in some respects to the terrestrial radio ratings measured by Arbitron, also measures average quarter hour (AQH) ratings, the average of the number of listeners recorded every fifteen minutes for each station. From 6AM-8PM in October, that number is 5,129, compared to 4,824 the previous month. From 6AM-Midnight, those numbers are 3,623 and 3,498. In both surveys, Air America holds the #10 position of the top internet radio stations. Keep in mind that all of the services in the Top 10 broadcast multiple streams. Air America's main stream and its secondary stream, which currently airs only the Thom Hartmann show, are included.

Here's how the top 15 stack up, from 6AM-Midnight:

1. Digitally Imported (Electronic/Dance)
2. 1.FM (Multiple formats) (Multiple formats)
3. AccuRadio (Multiple formats)
4. 977Music.com (Multiple formats)
5. ABC Radio Group (Multiple formats)
6. RadioIO (Multiple formats)
7. ESPN Radio (Sports Talk - two streams)
8. EMF Broadcasting (Multiple religious formats)
9. Soma.FM (Electronic/Dance)
10. Air America Radio (Political talk)
11. Big R Radio (Multiple formats)
12. WNYC (Public Radio)
13. Beethoven.com (Classical music)
14. HitzRadio.com (Contemporary hit music)
15. ChoiceRadio.com (Multiple Formats)


You can see Kurt Hanson's report on the October rankings here, or go directly to the Webcast Metrics site. A month-by-month reference can also be found there.

And finally, it should be noted that the numbers provided are for the official Air America streams only. They do not include the webstreams of individual affiliates, which make up a sizeable percentage of online listening.