Good old competition...killing the biased liberal media..

[dude1394]

CNN LOSES 63% OF AUDIENCE OVER INAUGURATION 2001
Fri Jan 21 2005 23:52:24 2005

CNN hemorrhaged more than half their audience from the 2001 Inauguration, overnights show. The troubled news network only averaged 779,000 viewers during yesterday's Inauguration coverage from 10am-4pm with just 168,000 of those viewers landing in the coveted 25-54 demo.

Like CNN, MSNBC also suffered major losses, only averaging 438,000 viewers throughout yesterday's coverage (141,000 in 25-54), down a whopping 68% over 2001 and faring even worse in primetime with just 385,000 viewers.

In contrast, Fox News averaged 2,581,000 viewers from 10a-4p (up 30% over 2001) and their 25-54 demo average of 705,000 came close to CNN's total coverage ratings yesterday.

PRIMETIME:

FNC -- 2,439,000 (up 57% OVER '01)
CNN -- 1,353,000 (down 14% over '01)
MSNBC -- 385,000 (down 47% over '01)

[Mavdog]

Yep, good ole competition.
I believe I read that Laura Flanders had passed Hannity's market share in NYC when they go head to head.
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Clear Channel Rolls Out More Liberal Talk Radio
Wed Jan 19, 2005 07:04 PM ET

By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Clear Channel Communications Inc. on Wednesday said it converted three stations to a liberal talk format and this year could double to 44 the number of stations carrying such programming.

After offering mostly conservative-leaning talk for the past decade, Clear Channel and other broadcasters are now embracing "progressive" talk to woo a listener base that is growing increasingly fragmented due to satellite, Internet radio and devices like iPods.

The nation's biggest radio operator said it switched underperforming stations in Washington, D.C., Detroit and Cincinnati carrying nostalgic or sports programming with talkers like Jerry Springer, Ed Schultz, Lionel, Phil Hendrie, Randi Rhodes and Al Franken.

Clear Channel has over 1,200 stations, with 175 focused on news or talk.

"The election cycle last year gave rise to dissenting voices, which gave rise to a new format in talk radio. When the public says it wants more of this, we provide it," said Gabe Hobbs, vice president of programming for news/talk/sports for Clear Channel Radio.

"Prior to 1988, talk radio was very liberal, but then Rush Limbaugh was an overnight sensation and the genre of talk radio became somewhat conservative," he said, noting that progressive talk is one of the fastest growing formats in radio.

In other efforts to reinvent itself, Clear Channel is cutting down on commercials and is converting 1,000 stations to high-definition digital broadcasting in the next three years.

HD radio will enable radio broadcasts to achieve "near-CD" quality and allow two or even three digital audio streams to be broadcast using a single carrier frequency.

Hobbs said HD Radio will encourage the development of more formats. "We can get into even more niche types of formats, like home fixing, real estate, health and whatever the imagination can conjure up," he said.

Clear Channel is the biggest affiliate of Air America, the nation's first liberal talk show network that launched in March 2004 only to nearly collapse five months later.

Venture capitalist Sheldon Drobny sold Air America in November 2003 and took it over again in May 2004 with other investors.

Air America is now in 44 markets. Drobny describes its success as a by-product of radio's consolidation with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which lifted ownership limits.

"At first the Telecom Act made it difficult to enter the market but now we're seeing the other side. They're (big radio companies) taking underperforming stations and giving them to us. We're saving a lot of dead stations," Drobny told Reuters.

[FishForLunch]

Why would anyone want to listen to progressive radio all they do is bash the country.