'Savage Besting Hannity' Story Disputed

Savage, Hannity

Last year there was a dustup over Sean Hannity’s radio contract and his decision to make some changes in his radio show arrangements.

The change-over of radio stations took effect in January and the results are in. Hannity's ratings are surging, while the numbers of his replacement (Michael Savage) in the major markets of New York (where he shifted to WOR from WABC) to Los Angeles and San Francisco, are plummeting, according to Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator.

"Over there at Politico and elsewhere there seems to be some… ahhhh… confusion", writes Lord.

READ Savage Besting Hannity In Some Markets, Click Here.

Whether this is the result of anti-Hannity sentiments or a lack of understanding of how talk radio works, let’s get the actual facts out there. Lord sorts it out:

The Nielsen ratings are in, and lo and behold, Savage’s audience is melting away. Without getting too in-the-weeds here, the comparison that follows is between January of 2013 — last year — and the same period, January of this year, 2014. Nielsen measures ratings by “AQH” — Average Quarter Hour. 

What does Nielsen report? 

For example, in New York, where Hannity switched from WABC to WOR, the percent change in the WOR audience for Hannity’s time slot has been straight up. In, for example, the always sought after 25-54 demographic Hannity’s numbers have jumped by 22% — while over at WABC, where Savage has his old time slot, Savage has dropped 34.9% in the same demographic. This pattern is repeated in other cities where Savage has replaced Hannity. 

In Dallas, for example, Savage has dropped 40%, while Hannity is quadrupling his new station’s ratings. Hannity is beating his old stations — KABC in Los Angeles, and as mentioned, WABC in New York. 

In fact, it takes time to build a radio audience and over his radio career Hannity has built a famously considerable — and conservative —audience. When he departed these stations, his replacement — that would be Michael Savage — inherited the audience. But there was an obvious question with, we suggested at the time, an obvious answer. Would the Hannity audience stay put — or follow Sean? We have made what seemed like the obvious case — the Hannity audience will follow Hannity.