Unlike mobile money, airtime's value does not rely directly on a government's stability or ability to hold down inflation by, say, showing restraint printing money.
The decision to devote valued airtime in news bulletins to such items has not occurred by accident.
In the subsequent decades, content producers and advertisers came to rely on Nielsen as the independent currency standard for determining the value of airtime on both radio and TV.
"There's a real value to airtime," Ayers said, "when it features Alaska".
The result was advertising airtime in small, high-value parcels - something that had never been possible with ITV.
For example, telecoms can be profitable in Africa not for selling airtime, but for powering value-added services such as mobile banking and mobile business, among others, that address the needs of this unique population.
On the continent, the situation is different, where it is a part of the culture for presidents, board members or directors of football to be in front of the cameras for a flash interview after each game with airtime that is as valued and as analysed as managers.
For businesses on the precipice of significant debt, that matters, but those numbers probably pale in comparison to the sheer value of the airtime.
The value of international airtime transfers has doubled from $350m in 2011 to $700m in 2012, estimates Berg Insight, a consultancy.Some authorities are concerned about airtime's use as money.
If audiences drop below expectation, the value of the airtime to advertisers will fall too, while ITV has also decided to shift much of its week-to-week coverage to ITV4, away from the terrestrial mainstream.
It is also the only major race which has maintained its audience following the switch from the BBC to Channel 4, though there will never be quite the value attached to airtime on a commercial station as there is on the otherwise adverts-free national broadcaster.
