Applying style to a List component

[Jazztronik]

I'm trying to do this but I can't get rid of that ugly black Arial type the List items use by default.

I've done it in two different ways, as seen on the internet:

// first off I have to retrieve the reference to the list which I previously created
_list = this.getChildByName("playlist") as List;
_list.setStyle("fontFamily", "Century Gothic");
_list.setStyle("letterSpacing", 3);
_list.setStyle("color", 0x6666FF); 

and this way I've seen in the Adobe documentation for setStyle (that example uses a Button label instead: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/F...setStyle%28%29). This is what I've done following that method:

_list = this.getChildByName("playlist") as List;
var tf:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
tf.color = 0x6666FF;
tf.letterSpacing = 3;
tf.font = "Century Gothic";
_list.setStyle("textFormat", tf); 

Please how can I properly change the style of the text in the List??