I did my best to protect Charlestonians from Air America (and Rush Limbaugh)

I put our Arbitron diaries in the mail this morning.  (By "our" I mean mine and Justine's.)  Justine's went back with the "Did not listen to the radio today" boxes checked for each of the seven days.  That's because she rarely listens to the radio.  Instead, she listens to CDs, her iPod, and streaming audio on her computer.  Since she's part of a dream demographic - a single, 21-year old female with a paycheck to spend - that can't be good news for radio broadcasters and advertisers.

My diary wasn't exactly full but I did listen, as I always do, to WSCI-FM (Charleston's NPR station), WJWJ-FM (Beaufort, SC's NPR station), and WAVF-FM (Charleston's alternative [sic] station).  I didn't listen to our Air America affiliate or to either of our conservative talk-radio stations.  I was tempted to listen to WLTQ-AM, our Air America station, to see if Al Frankin would say something about the scandal engulfing the network over it's shaky finances, but I guessed that he wouldn't and I didn't want to be an enabler.

As for my demographic, our NPR stations will probably be tickled to death that I listen to them.  I'm a middle-aged white man with enough spare change in my pocket that I can write them a check during pledge week.  Our AA station, on the other hand, probably won't care that I didn't listen last week.  It's aiming for young men between the ages of 18 and 34.  I wish it luck.  I've lived in Charleston long enough to know that males here in that demo have things on their minds other than progressive politics.  You aren't exactly a chick magnet if you sit on the beach listening to Randi Rhodes interview Tom Harkin.

A note to Pops:  I got $4 from Arbitron.  The first dollar came with a letter thanking me for agreeing to participate.  The next two came with the the two diaries.  The last one came with a letter reminding me to return the diaries.  Four bucks wouldn't have gotten me much at Starbucks but, fortunately, I can't stand Startbucks' over-cooked coffee.  Instead I got a 20 oz cup at the Sunoco station (Brewed fresh every hour™), a Krispy Kreme doughnut, and change.  If I'd known ahead of time that I'd a get a dollar for every diary, I'd have told Arbitron that I was married, had 6 foster kids over the age of 12, and gone back to Sunoco for a couple of refills.

Comments

[pops]

Four bucks?

In the words of Air Force Major Kong, "Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that."

[Margaret]

I am used to making my own espresso, thus Starbucks is terribly expensive to me. (to everyone?)

[Geoff]

HA!!

"You aren't exactly a chick magnet if you sit on the beach listening to Randi Rhodes interview Tom Harkin."

How true!

I don't listen to AA locally (OK, I TRY not to listen) because it is a clear channel station. I do stream it but with everything out there on the 'internets' I hardly ever listen to AA now a days.

Hows the new Mac? Mine came and worked for an hour, then the screen got all messed up! Bummer :(