The poll showed Stern is listened to by 17% of likely voters. Of those Stern listeners, 53% say they would support John Kerry and 43% would support George W. Bush. When looking at battleground states that will likely decide who wins the White House, the preference for Kerry is even stronger, with Stern listeners showing support for the Democrat by a margin of 59% to 37%.

All this makes yesterday's news of Stern's return to stations in key battleground states such as Florida and Pennsylvania all the more important if the 2004 election is as close as the polls are indicating. But how will it play across the nation? FMQB broke down Stern's affiliates and matched them up with the results of the 2000 Presidential Election. In the table below you will find the tallies for Bush vs. Gore. Stern's affiliates are listed for each state, with the cume in parenthesis.

Here are some of the states where Stern could make a difference, assuming that the Bush-Kerry contest runs as close as Bush-Gore did:

• Florida - Obviously a huge battleground state, where Bush beat Gore by only 547 votes. Stern is on four stations in Florida, three of them added yesterday.
• Michigan - Won by Gore by a margin of 217,279 votes. Stern has decent numbers in Detroit (cume 111,600) and WBBL/Grand Rapids (cume 13,900), the two markets he's on in the state. His influence over swing votes could help keep Michigan in the Democrat column.
• Missouri - Won by Bush by a margin of 78,786 votes. All it would take is for roughly 39,000 people to change their mind and vote Democrat to hand the state to Kerry. Stern's cume on KPNT/St.Louis is 128,600.
• Nevada - Won by Bush by 21,597 votes. Stern's cume on KXTE/Las Vegas is 90,900. He is also on KBZZ/Reno, but those cume numbers were not available to FMQB at press time.
• Ohio - The state that NBC's Tim Russert says is the key to the 2004 election. Won by Bush in 2000 by 165,091 votes. Stern's total cume in the state from WNCX/Cleveland, WBZX/Columbus and WAQZ/Cincinnati is 366,100.
• Pennsylvania - A state that Bush lost to Gore by 204,840 votes. Bush has made numerous campaign stops in the state over recent months, realizing the chance to catch the Democrats in the state is possible. Pennsylvania is also home to WYSP/Philadelphia and WQXA/Harrisburg - two perennial Stern strongholds for a total cume of 425,400. Stern recently returned to the airwaves in Pittsburgh where his cume was 124,700 on WXDX in the Fall 2003 Arbitron survey, his last full book before the Clear Channel outlet dismissed him.
• Tennessee - Won by Bush by 80,229 votes. Stern's cume on WMFS/Memphis is 39,400.
• Washington - Won by Gore by 138,788 votes. KISW/Seattle's Stern cume of 166,800 could help keep the Republicans from making up the difference.

Cume listed in parenthesis based on Arbitron Winter 2004 survey, except WJSE, which is Fall 2003.

Election results source: Federal Election Commission (http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2000presgeresults.htm)