• by January 9, 2001

New York talk radio station, WABC-AM, reclaimed the top spot in the MeasureCast Internet Radio Top 25(tm) ranking for the week of January 1, 2001.

While Internet radio listening was down during the December and New Year's holidays, it rebounded during the first week of January with listenership rising steadily as the week went by. Wednesday, January 3, saw the largest number of Internet radio listeners, with the Friday, January 5 audience tuning in longer.

ABC Radio, which streams its content through RealNetwork's (Nasdaq: RNWK) Real Broadcast Network, enjoyed 13 of the top 25 positions for the second week in a row. The weekly MeasureCast ranking is based on Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) - the total number of hours listeners access an on-line station's streamed content.

MEDIAmazing.com, a Listener Formatted Internet-only radio station, dropped to the number two slot this week. Listener Formatted stations allow audience members to customize their music play lists on-line. Other Internet-only stations on this week's list are: Radio Margaritaville; HardRadio.com; 3WK UndergroundRadio; Oneplace's Black Gospel Network; BluesBoyMusic.com from the broadcastweb.com; and Christian Pirate Radio, a newcomer to the MeasureCast rankings.

MeasureCast also found that the majority of Internet radio listeners were located in California, followed by Texas, New York, and Florida, and that 28 percent of listeners were aged 25-34, followed by 35-44 year olds (24 percent), 45-54 year olds (18 percent), and 18-24 year olds (17 percent). MeasureCast says 73 percent of Internet radio listeners were men and the top formats in Internet radio were Talk Radio, followed by News/Talk, Classic Rock and Listener Formatted.