Radio Audiences

No. 2 is actually No. 1, and No. 1 is really No. 3. Move No. 3 to No. 4, take No. 4 off the Top 12, and bring up No. 5 to the No. 2 spot. Confused? Those are part of the maneuvers radio executives and advertisers go through every three months to determine the real meaning behind the Arbitron ratings.

A new week greeted Rush Limbaugh with four more advertiser defections, for a total of 11, along with a sharp rebuke from former Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Peter Gabriel asked that his song "Sledgehammer" no longer be used on Limbaugh's radio program. Even after Limbaugh issued a rare apology, the furor that had erupted when the conservative radio host called an activist law student a "slut" and a "prostitute" showed no sign of abating Monday. But a backlash that might be a career-breaker for some commentators seemed unlikely to dent Limbaugh's considerable stature among his 15 million weekly listeners and conservative leaders.

Latino organizations continue to express outrage over comments made by radio talk-show host Howard Stern in the wake of last month's shooting death of Selena, the tejano music superstar. The National Hispanic Media Coalition, during a news conference Monday in City of Commerce, called for stations to pull the nationally syndicated program off the air and said it would file complaints against Stern with the FCC.

With jobs disappearing, bills piling up and the horizon appearing ever-narrower, the American middle class might be asking: Where is our voice? Where is our champion? Where is our . . . Roseanne? Actually, the original is raring to go. Roseanne Barr is angry. She's outspoken. And she would once again like to unleash her acid, comedic tongue on behalf of everyday Americans. "I think we should say something about class in America," Barr told me this week. "It's the dirty little secret nobody wants to talk about."

I: Is he really saying that? You don't usually get congratulated on Tom Leykis' syndicated radio show unless you're, say, a caller describing the way you talked your unexpectedly pregnant girlfriend into having an abortion -- and then dumped her. Or unless you're a woman with a lascivious tale to share, like the law clerk who boasts about tripling her pay by engaging in masochistic sex with the partner of another firm.

Cowboy crooners know that more country music is sold in Los Angeles than anywhere else, a distinction on display Thursday night when singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw opened the first of three sold-out shows at the Staples Center. But Los Angeles listeners would have trouble finding Hill, McGraw or any other twangy troubadours on the radio dial: On Thursday, the city lost its last country music broadcaster when KZLA-FM (93.

In THE last year, listeners to classical music radio in Los Angeles have noticed something different about segments of the weekday sound of KUSC-FM (91.5) -- evidence of human beings talking to them live between the symphonies and concertos of Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms.

To grasp the depth of racial polarization in their town, all Chicagoans need do is tune in Monday night to an unusual radio program. Only hours before polls open in Tuesday's mayoral election, two competing radio stations--one with a predominantly white audience and the other heavily black--will simulcast a call-in show to unite their listeners for the first time over the airwaves.

Laura Schlessinger constantly encourages her listeners to be honest and direct, and she's about to practice what she preaches. Just as the KFI (640 AM) talk radio psychotherapist sits down to do an interview, a fan from Fullerton, who has quietly watched Schlessinger broadcast her live two-hour call-in show from a statewide women's conference at the Anaheim Marriott, sheepishly interrupts.

About a dozen die-hard jazz fans and musicians have launched a campaign to fight KKGO-FM's plans to move its jazz programming to an AM station and replace it with classical music. "We feel that for 30 years KKGO has been the sole provider of the full spectrum of jazz on FM radio, and L.A. has become the second-largest jazz community, so it's crucial to keep KKGO playing jazz on FM," said Ellen S.

Ed Reimers, the veteran television and commercial announcer with the deep, resonant voice who for more than two decades reassured viewers that "You're in good hands with Allstate," has died. He was 96. Reimers, an early on-air personality at KTTV-Channel 11 in Los Angeles in the 1950s, died Sunday of age-related causes at his daughter Kathryn R. Manning's home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. For 22 years, beginning in 1957, Reimers was the TV spokesman for Allstate Insurance Co., memorably cupping his hands and delivering the company's famous slogan at the end of the commercials.

How many people actually listen to Rush Limbaugh, the radio talk titan White House officials have spent the last week characterizing as "the head of the Republican Party"? According to what Limbaugh delights in calling "the drive-by media," the number varies wildly. Is it 30 million (Pat Buchanan on MSNBC), 20 million (Time magazine, ABC News), 19 million (Fox News), 14 million (CNN), or "14.2 million to about 25 million" (Washington Post)? Answer: Maybe.

In THE last year, listeners to classical music radio in Los Angeles have noticed something different about segments of the weekday sound of KUSC-FM (91.5) -- evidence of human beings talking to them live between the symphonies and concertos of Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms.

First the standards vanished from radio, as stations playing lots of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald went dark. Then over the past couple of years, the oldies format collapsed, and suddenly the sounds of Motown, Elvis and the Beach Boys were hard to find on the radio. Now even classic rock stations are starting to feel pressure, as commercial radio strains to find ways to connect with younger listeners who find most of their music online.

With Air America filing for bankruptcy protection last week, and its local affiliate dropping in the most recent ratings, right-wing critics are gleefully writing the epitaph for liberal talk radio -- dead at 2 1/2 . But other observers say that regardless of whether Air America survives, an audience exists and will remain for left-leaning hosts. "There's a market for good talk radio, no matter what the political label is," said Perry Michael Simon, news-talk-sports editor of AllAccess.

Cowboy crooners know that more country music is sold in Los Angeles than anywhere else, a distinction on display Thursday night when singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw opened the first of three sold-out shows at the Staples Center. But Los Angeles listeners would have trouble finding Hill, McGraw or any other twangy troubadours on the radio dial: On Thursday, the city lost its last country music broadcaster when KZLA-FM (93.

In 1985, Deirdre O'Donoghue began playing host of a Sunday-morning radio show in Los Angeles that was devoted to the music of the Beatles. During the next 15 years, "Breakfast With the Beatles" and the soothing, erudite voice of O'Donoghue became synonymous. So when the veteran disc jockey passed away in January 2000 from complications connected to multiple sclerosis, it was hard to imagine another personality piloting the show.

What's going on in black radio? George Michael is such a darling of black radio that he defeated Michael Jackson as the nation's favorite male R&B singer in the annual "American Music Awards" ceremony--the first white artist to win in any R&B category in the 16-year history of the competition. Scottish singer Sheena Easton, who's also white, saw her recent single, "The Lover in Me," become a hit on black radio before it cracked the pop radio market.

It's only 345 more days until Christmas and KOST-FM (103.5), and hundreds of other radio stations around the country, can barely wait. Like more than 300 other radio stations across the country, KOST-FM flips to an all-Christmas music format in November, and for the first time many of them rode it to the top, according to the Arbitron ratings released earlier this week. In its fifth year of adopting the holiday format, KOST-FM rocketed from 10th place to first in the quarterly ratings.

KCRW-FM General Manager Ruth Seymour was getting her teeth cleaned in February when her dentist suggested the station adopt a new technology called podcasting. Seymour was unfamiliar with the software that allows listeners to download audio programs to such portable devices as iPods. Now she knows, and has plenty to smile about. Apple Computer Inc.