Radio AM to FM

Radio AM to FM: October 19, 2001

Summer Arbs

It's deja vu all over again ... In the 1980s, back when KIIS-FM (102.7) was good, their 10+ ratings shares were eroded by KPWR (105.9 FM) until the new dance station finally overtook the once mighty top-40 giant.

Flash forward about 15 years. The Spring quarter shows KPWR as well as KROQ (106.7 FM) beating the once mighty one; they both teamed up in the Summer Arbitron ratings released last week to do it again, this time making KIIS a solid third rather than an almost-second.

What's going on? A quick guess would be that listeners flocked to the all news and talk stations in response to the cowardly attacks September 11th. Guess again: talk ratings overall actually declined 0.2 in total, and news ratings for both KFWB and KNX were up only a combined 0.3.

What is perhaps most ominous for KIIS is the fact that the station has been in a gradual decline for most of the last year, with ratings in in Summer, 2000 hitting 4.9, slowly dropping to the 4.3 it earned in Summer 2001. Still good ratings, mind you and differences that statistically are insignificant. Still, as the flagship station of the Los Angeles Clear Channel group of stations, the decline can't look good.

Not that the news was amazingly good for KPWR and KROQ: Both stations were down, KIIS just dropped more. For the quarter, KPWR declined 0.1 to 4.7, while KROQ was down 0.4 to 4.7.

Rounding out the top five were KSCA (101.9 FM) which dropped 0.8 to 4.0, and KKBT (100.3 FM), which was up 0.4 to 3.8.

Dominating talk was KFI, which came in sixth at 3.7; the closest competitor was KLSX (97.1 FM) at 2.5 -- more than a full point lower. KABC was just slightly behind that at 2.2, while KRLA (870 AM), which just last quarter looked as if it were in striking distance of KABC, was at a distant 0.7. KLAC (570 AM) earned its lowest rating ever under its new (mostly) talk format, coming in at 1.0; back when the station played music it consistently earned 2.0 shares. KPLS (830 AM), home of the Don Imus Program, did not show in this book.

People apparently wanted to hear light jazz, giving KTWV (94.7 FM) a boost from to 3.6, up 0.3 from last quarter and almost a full point from Summer, 2000. Oldies were popular on KRTH, which was also up slightly to 3.2

Each rating is an estimate of the percentage of listeners aged 12 and over tuned to a station between the hours of 6 am and 12 midnight.

Station-Spring-Summer

KPWR-4.8-4.7

KROQ-5.1-4.7

KIIS/KAVS-4.7-4.3

KSCA-4.8-4.0

KKBT-3.4-3.8

KFI-3.6-3.7

KLVE-4.3-3.7

KTWV-3.3-3.6

KOST-3.2-3.3

KRTH-3.0-3.2

KXOL-1.2-2.9

KBIG-2.5-2.7

KHHT-2.6-2.6

KYSR-3.2-2.6

KLAX-3.0-2.5

KLSX-2.5-2.5

KBUA/KBUE-2.6-2.4

KNX-2.2-2.4

KLOS-2.6-2.3

KABC-1.9-2.2

KCBS-FM-2.4-2.2

KZLA-2.3-2.2

KFWB-1.7-1.8

KMZT-1.2-1.7

KSSC/KSSD/KSSE-1.2-1.6

KJLH-1.7-1.5

KBLA-0.8-1.3

KRCD/KRCV-1.2-1.1

KLAC-1.6-1.0

KLYY-1.2-1.0

KHJ-0.9-0.9

KRLA-1.3-0.7

KXTA-0.6-0.7

KTNQ-0.9-0.6

KFSH-0.6-0.5

KKLA-AM/FM-0.6-0.5

KLTX-0.5-0.5

KWIZ-0.3-0.5

KWKW-0.6-0.5

KWVE-0.5-0.5

XTRA-0.5-0.5

KGGI-0.0-0.4

KTPI-0.0-o.4

LARP

The highly-anticipated LARadio.Com event happens Saturday from 4 - 7 pm at the Museum of Televsion and Radio, 465 N. Beverly Blvd., Beverly Hills. Presented by Don barrett, guests include Elliot Field, Casey Kasem, Gary Owens and Ted Quillin, among others.

The event is part of the museum's Festival of Radio, which runs through October 27th. For details, go to www.mtr.org or call (310) 786-1000

Candles

Happy Birthday to Bern Bennett, who celebrates his birthday today. The San Pedro resident began his radio career in 1944 as a staff announcer for CBS in New York, later making the transition to television in Los Angeles after the opening of the CBS Television City.

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