Radio AM to FM

Radio AM to FM: January 18, 2002

Fall Arbitrons

Alternative rocker KROQ is the undisputed champion in the Fall Arbitron ratings book released last week. For the quarter, the station earned a 5.0 share of the radio audience, up from 4.7 last Summer.

Second-place KIIS-FM was also up, coming in at 4.5 -- an increase of 0.2, followed by The Beat (KKBT) at 4.3 (up from 3.8), KFI at 4.2 (up from 3.7) and KSCA, which tied KFI at 4.2 (up from 4.0).

The big winner was 6th-place KOST, which increased almost a full point to 4.1 ... just outside of the top-5. Apparently playing nothing but Christmas music was quite popular with area listeners at the end of the year; you can bet that more stations will play more of it next year. Sister KBIG, programmed by the same person as KOST, was down 0.3 to 2.4.

Talk did well in most cases due no doubt to the terrorist attacks in September. In addition to KFI, KABC had a great quarter with a 0.4 increase to 2.6 -- its highest rating in years. KLSX maintained its 2.5 share, and the new KRLA was up just slightly to 0.8 from 0.7. Not able to share the wealth was KLAC, which has seen its ratings decline with every additional talk show added to the format. Now all talk, KLAC earned just 0.6 -- the lowest in the history of the station and a far cry from the ratings it had as a fully-promoted music station. It appears that Los Angeles really didn't need another talk station (duh!).

Interestingly, the attacks didn't translate into far higher ratings for the two news stations. KNX was flat for the quarter at 2.4, while KFWB was up to 2.1 from 1.8. You would have thought that news stations would have cleaned up.

Sports talk was down without the Dodgers. KXTA dropped back down to 0.4 from Summer's 0.7, while XTRA dropped from 0.5 to tie. Remember the old KRLA at 1110 AM that became all-sports KSPN? Neither did anyone else ... it didn't show. Nor did the new KMPC.

Here's an interesting one: the total for Infinity's seven stations was 20.7, just one point behind the total for Clear Channel's eight, which earned a combined 21.7. The frightening part of course is the fact that both companies combined command over 40% of the listening audience in Los Angeles.

The full story (each rating is an estimate of the percentage of listeners aged 12 and over tuned to a station between 6 am and 12 midnight. Copyright, Arbitron).

1. KROQ (5.0) 2. KIIS/KAVS (4.5) 3. KKBT (4.3) 4T. KFI, KSCA (4.2) 6. KOST (4.1) 7. KPWR (4.0) 8. KLVE (3.6) 9. KTWV (3.5) 10. KRTH (3.1)

11. KHHT (3.0) 12T. KABC, KLOS (2.6) 14T. KLSX, KYSR (2.5) 16T. KBIG, KBUA/KBUE, KNX (2.4) 19T. KLAX, KZLA (2.2)

21T. KCBS-FM, KFWB (2.1) 23. KXOL (1.9) 24. KMZT (1.8) 25. KSSC/KSSD/KSSE (1.4) 26. KJLH (1.3) 27. KBLA (1.1) 28T. KLYY, KRCD/KRCV (1.0) 30T. KLTX, KWIZ (0.9)

32. KRLA (0.8) 33T. KHJ, KWKW (0.7) 35T. KFSH, KLAC, KTNQ (0.6) 38. KKLA (0.5) 39T. KDIS, KWVE, KXTA, XTRA (0.4) 43. KALI (0.3)

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