Air America -- Ratings Up -- and yet No Drug Abuse or Falafel Abuse

I shudder at what O'Reilly would do with couscous.

Anyhoo.

Deliciously, this is from of all places the NY Post:

CRITICS said it wouldn't happen — but all-lib eral WLIB is seriously challenging talk-radio rivals WABC and WOR.

According to Arbitron ratings released yesterday, WLIB thrashed WOR and nipped at the heels of top-dog WABC among the 25- to 54-year-old listeners advertisers chase.

"The elections are giving them an added boost in a largely liberal town, [and] they're benefiting from the whole Bush-Kerry thing," said Mark Lefkowitz of the Furman Roth ad agency.

"WABC has proven that it works in election years and not, [so] it'll be interesting to see what happens to WLIB . . . after the November election," Lefkowitz told The Post.

During midday, when both stations roll out their top guns — WABC's Rush Limbaugh vs. Air America's Al Franken — WABC is ranked 15th in listeners 25-54, followed closely by WLIB, which ranked 18th.

WOR trails badly, finishing 27th in midday.

Meanwhile, Howard Stern — who's been basking in massive media attention thanks to FCC fines, noisy cancellations, and his loudly-trumpeted move to satellite radio in 15 months — hit a new ratings high over the summer.

Stern's 8 percent total-audience share dwarfed runners-up La Mega and all-news WINS.

The shock jock has been criticized by his bosses and affiliates for doing "non-stop commercials" for satellite radio during the past week. But he finally stopped talking about it on his K-Rock show yesterday — save for one vague sentence:

"I'm in a lot of magazines for a reason that I won't go into on the air," Stern told listeners, "and in each magazine my hair looks worse than before."