...and this is
straight from the horse's patootie, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post:
According to Arbitron ratings released yesterday (October 18), WLIB (the flagship station of Air America) thrashed WOR and nipped at the heels of top-dog WABC among the 25- to 54-year-old listeners advertisers chase.
"The elections are giving them an added boost in a largely liberal town, [and] they're benefiting from the whole Bush-Kerry thing," said Mark Lefkowitz of the Furman Roth ad agency.
That's not all. During the midday-to-early afternoon slots, Rush's show, which runs on WABC, is ranked 15th on Arbitron, while Al's show is nipping at his heels at number 18. By contrast, poor WOR is plodding along at 27th.
Meanwhile, the Sundance Channel has had to defend its choice to televise Franken's radio show for 8 weeks leading up to the election. Detractors were basing their remarks on the fact that Franken, at least at this point in time, wasn't connected with film at all, but politics. They forget that Robert Redford usually puts his labels on the line. However, Clear Channel has brought Franken to San Francisco merely on the promise of bucks and high ratings, and apparently, the City by the Bay loves KQKE.
On top of all this, Andrea Mackris, the woman at the center of the O'Reilly sexual harassment flap, is said to have supped with the Air America host recently and drunkenly bragged about the connection, according to the Post. Since Fox and the Post are both owned by Murdoch, you have to take some of these accusations from bar managers and former friends with a grain of salt, since they are very much trying to shoot the messenger regarding O'Reilly's slimyness. I find this interesting though, because Franken has said on the air that he reserves judgment about the whole affair involving O'Lielly, and besides (and this is for you, Faux and Post) he changed the name of his show a couple of months ago.