Al Franken Whips Rush Limbaugh in Arbitron Ratings... Surely you are kidding right David?. Do you have any idea how Rush Limbaugh crushes Air America in every market. From Wikapedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh has been the most listened-to radio talk show host in the United States and the world, and has an audience estimated by Arbitron at 20 million listeners weekly, the second largest overall radio audience after Paul Harvey.

Rush is the absolutely positively the King of talk Radio

In the LATimes, Brian C. Anderson (senior editor of City Journal and the author of South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias) writes about the liberal network, which "celebrated" its first anniversary a couple of weeks ago.

The liberal Air America Radio, just past its first birthday, has probably enjoyed more free publicity than any enterprise in recent history. But don't believe the hype: Air America's left-wing answer to conservative talk radio is failing, just as previous efforts to find liberal Rush Limbaughs have failed.

Wait a second, you say, didn't I read that Air America has expanded to more than 50 markets? That's true, but let's put things in perspective: Conservative pundit and former Reagan official William J. Bennett's morning talk show, launched at the same time as Air America, reaches nearly 124 markets, including 18 of the top 20...And look at Air America's ratings: They're pitifully weak, even in places where you would think they'd be strong. WLIB, its flagship in New York City, has sunk to 24th in the metro area Arbitron ratings — worse than the all-Caribbean format it replaced, notes the Radio Blogger. In the liberal meccas of San Francisco and Los Angeles, Air America is doing lousier still.

As Anderson notes, this is in markets where they have all the advantages.

Almost equally important: Most of those "50 stations" or so that FrankenNet and its fans rave about are:

* Small stations with dinky signals. For example, the station in liberal hothouse Boulder, CO is (according to one source) a 1,000 watt station whose antenna is on the wrong side of the mountain from the city proper, giving it a lousy signal under perfect circumstances. * Many, if not most, of the affiliates carry only a fraction of Air America's programming. Most stations in the Pacific time zone carry the Marc Maron show via delay, pre-empt the mid-morning show (formerly Lizzzzzz Winstead, now Winstead's former fifth wheel Rachel Maddow) for Ed Schultz, and may or may not carry Randi Rhodes or Janeane Garofalo. * Many of the "affiliates" are part-time at most; some of them even carry conservative programs along with FrankenNet shows. * As I pointed out last month, although Clear Channel is carrying FrankenNet in some markets, it's strictly a tactical measure; more or less like being drafted by the Vikings to be in charge of laundering jockstraps and underwear.