The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

A few people have asked about ratings for Twin Cities radio's morning drive shows, usually the biggest revenue producer of the day for most stations. Here they are, with exclamations of bewilderment at the bottom.

Share of Twin Cities adults 25-54 listening from 6 am to 10 am, Oct-Dec. '06.

1. KQRS-FM 19.1
2. KTIS-FM 6.7
3. 93X -FM 5.7
4. K102-FM 5.5
5. KS95-FM 5.2
(tie)KNOW-FM 5.2
7. WCCO-AM 4.5
8. WLTE-FM 4.2
9. KDWB-FM 4.1
10. JACK-FM 3.7
11. Cities 97 3.7
12. KFAN-AM 3.5
13. KOOL 108 3.1
14. B96-FM 2.5
15. Air America 1.9
16. The Current 1.9
17. AM 1500 1.8
18. KMOJ-FM 1.7
19. FM 107 1.6
20. KSJN-FM 1.6
21. KTLK 0.9
22. The Patriot 0.8

A few things that should jump out at you here:

Head-banging 93X pulling a bigger ADULT audience than K102, KS95 and a couple other middle-age venues? WTF? I thought the younger crowd was dialing OUT radio for MP3, iTunes, etc?

KQ92 still dominates -- hell, CRUSHES -- the competition. Proving the eternal appeal of bowel and feces humor.

JACK FM is tied with Cities97. Is one on to something while the other is slipping? Is Cities' crowd the real personal music crowd, and therefore weaning itself off radio?

KNOW, significantly ahead of WCCO, (through an election season), is now, without question, the area's principal source for actual news, as opposed to feel-good infotainment or partisan bullshit. 'CCO might ask itself how to go about grabbing back some of MPR's well-heeled, well-educated demographic?

Air America -- the woefully produced, low-powered, miserably underfunded "lefty-liberal" AM station is not only marginally ahead of AM 1500's stale, formulaic morning acts, but is DOUBLING the audience of lavishly-promoted 100,000 watt, Fox News-based FM KTLK, (where I briefly worked). Two words: "Holy shit." OK, three words: "Holy f**king shit."

Oh, wait. It gets worse. KMOJ-FM, with a signal that barely exceeds a 10-block radius and is now operating out of a broom closet, has as big an audience of adults as KTLK and the hyper right-wing Patriot ... COMBINED.