I've found that most people who point out ratings for Air America are being highly selective, often comparing them to stations with much better signals or to previous formats with geriatric demos huddled under a 12+ blanket. 12+ means nothing to a station because it can't sell ads. In fact, the reason 12+ ratings are available for free online is because they can't be sold anywhere else. Radio is all about demos, and for talk, the target demo is 25-54.
That's what determines the success of a station, that's what decides whether it succeeds or fails. But if there's any useful data to be divined from 12+, it should be the trend lines: which way the ratings are moving this quarter, compared to the same format last quarter.
So here is the direction of growth for every full-time progressive talk station that carries at least some Air America programming.
This compares data from Winter '05 and Spring '05, the two latest ratings periods. Stations that haven't been around that long or that don't meet the above criteria -- and that, believe it or not, is half of them -- are marked N/A. (There are probably some errors, so please let me know about them, but in anticipation of some responses, some stations are marked N/A because they or their markets aren't rated or listed, or their markets skip rating periods, or they carry mixed programming like Hannity or O'Reilly and you can't really tell what's moving the meter.)
Akron, OH - WARF-AM - N/A
Albany, OR - KTHH-AM - N/A
Albuquerque, NM - KABQ-AM - UP
Anchorage, AK - KUDO-AM - UP
Ann Arbor, MI - WLBY-AM - N/A
Asheville, NC - WPEK-AM - UP
Atlanta, GA - WWAA-AM - UP
Austin, TX - KOKE-AM - UP
Baton Rouge, LA - WYNK-AM - FLAT
Binghamton, NY - WYOS-AM - N/A
Boston, MA - WXKS-AM / WKOX-AM (Combined) - UP
Brainerd, MN - WWWI-AM - N/A
Brattleboro, VT - WKVT-AM - N/A
Burlington, VT - WTWK-AM - N/A
Chapel Hill, NC - WCHL-AM - N/A
Charleston, SC - WLTQ-AM - UP
Chicago, IL - WCPT-AM - UP
Cincinnati, OH - WCKY-AM - N/A
Cleveland, OH - WTAM-AM - N/A
Columbia, SC - WOIC-AM - UP
Columbus, OH - WTPG-AM - DOWN
Corpus Christi, TX - KCCT-AM - N/A
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX - KXEB-AM - UP
Davenport, IA - WKBF-AM - N/A
Denver, CO - KKZN-AM - UP
Detroit, MI - WDTW-AM - UP
Eugene, OR - KOPT-AM - UP
Fresno, CA - KFPT-AM - N/A
Honolulu, HI - KUMU-AM - N/A
Huntington, WV - WRVC-AM - UP
Ithaca, NY - WNYY-AM - N/A
Key West, FL - WKIZ-AM - N/A
Kihei, HI - KAOI-AM - N/A
Lafayette, LA - KEUN-AM - N/A
Lihue, HI - KQNG-AM - N/A
Los Angeles, CA - KTLK-AM - UP
Madison, WI - WXXM-FM - N/A
Memphis, TN - WWTQ-AM - N/A
Miami, FL - WINZ-AM - UP
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN - KTNF-AM - UP
Missoula, MT - KKNS-FM - N/A
New Haven, CT - WAVZ-AM - N/A
New Orleans, LA - WSMB-AM - FLAT
New York, NY - WLIB-AM - DOWN
Petoskey, MI - WWKK-AM - N/A
Philadelphia, PA - WHAT-AM - N/A
Phoenix, AZ - KXXT-AM - UP
Portland, ME - WLVP-AM - N/A
Portland, OR - KPOJ-AM - UP
Providence, RI - WHJJ-AM - N/A
Reno, NV - KJFK-AM - UP
Riverside, CA - KCAA-AM - N/A
Rochester, NY - WROC-AM - DOWN
Sacramento, CA - KSAC-AM - N/A
San Antonio, TX - KRPT-FM - N/A
San Diego, CA - KLSD-AM - UP
San Francisco, CA - KQKE-AM - UP
San Luis Obispo, CA - KYNS-AM - N/A
Santa Barbara, CA - KIST-AM - UP
Santa Cruz - Monterey, CA - KOMY-AM - FLAT
Santa Fe, NM - KVSF-AM - UP
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL - WSRQ-AM - N/A
Seattle, WA - KPTK-AM - N/A
Spokane, WA - KPTQ-AM - UP
Springfield, MA - WHMP-AM - N/A
Victor Valley, CA - KSZL-AM - N/A
Washington, DC - WWRC-AM - UP
West Palm Beach, FL - WJNO-AM - N/A