October 17

Radio AM to FM: October 17, 2003

Summer Arbitrons

Power 106 may be down, but it certainly isn't out ... the urban hits station is still the most popular radio station in Los Angeles even with a half point drop from Spring. Runner-up KROQ stayed steady at 2nd in spite of an increase of 0.3.

Of course that means little has changed in the Arbitron Ratings released last week: Power has led the race for over a year, and KROQ has claimed second-place for about the same time. Not to be outdone, KFI held onto third, the place it has been found since Winter, 2003.

In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Scratch that: things really don't change, at least not much, in the ratings race.

For the quarter, Power 106 earned a 4.8 share of the radio audience, down from 5.3; KROQ was 4.7, up from 4.4; and KFI was at 4.2, down from 4.3. Rounding out the top five was KSCA at 4.0 and KIIS-FM at 3.7.

To say that KFI is doing well is to put it mildly. At 4.2, the station is a full 2 points ahead of any other AM station in town and two full points above the next highest talk station, KABC, which at 2.2 found itself down from Spring's 2.9. (FM talker KLSX also earned a 2.2 share, down from 2.5, but KLSX likes to pretend they don't really compete with KFI).

Classic rock stations Arrow 93 and KLOS were neck and neck again this quarter as they have been for the past year or so, with Arrow edging out KLOS by the slimmest of margins, 2.4 to 2.3. Both were tied in Spring at 2.0.

Urban KJLH earned its highest rating in quite some time, earning 2.0; repetitive oldies station KRTH was at its lowest spot in a while with a 2.9 share. News stations KNX and KFWB were essentially flat at 2.1 and 1.7 respectively, compared with 2.1 and 1.6 last quarter. KLAC was back up to 0.9 from Spring's 0.7, while K-SURF was down to 0.4 from 0.6.

The full story: 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 - 5.3 - 4.8
KROQ - 4.4 - 4.7
KFI - 4.3 - 4.2
KSCA - 3.5 - 4.0
KIIS/KAVS - 3.5 - 3.7
KOST - 3.8 - 3.5
KTWV - 3.6 - 3.5
KLVE - 2.9 - 3.4
KKBT - 3.3 - 3.3
KLAX - 3.5 - 3.0

KBUA/KBUE/KMXN - 2.4 - 2.9
KRTH - 3.3 - 2.9
KBIG - 2.5 - 2.6
KCBS-FM - 2.0 - 2.4
KLOS - 2.0 - 2.3
KXOL - 2.2 - 2.3
KABC - 2.9 - 2.2
KHHT - 2.2 - 2.2
KLSX - 2.5 - 2.2
KSSE - 1.8 - 2.2

KYSR - 2.3 - 2.2
KZLA - 2.5 - 2.2
KNX - 2.1 - 2.1
KJLH - 1.6 - 2.0
KFWB - 1.6 - 1.7
KMZT - 1.6 - 1.4
KRCD/KRCV - 1.2 - 1.4
KZAB/KZBA - 1.7 - 1.4
KLYY - 1.4 - 1.3
KRLA - 0.6 - 1.0

KDKD/KDLE - 0.7 - 0.9
KHJ - 1.0 - 0.9
KLAC - 0.7 - 0.9
KBLA - 0.9 - 0.8
KLTX - 1.1 - 0.7
KXTA/XTRA - 0.5 - 0.7
KSPN - 0.4 - 0.5
KWVE - 0.5 - 0.5
KGGI - 0.4 - 0.4
KKLA - 0.5 - 0.4

KSUR/XSUR - 0.6 - 0.4
KWIZ - 0.6 - 0.4
KTNQ - 0.5 - 0.3
KWKW - 0.5 - 0.3

Ratings are copyright © 2003 Arbitron. May not be quoted or reproduced without prior written permission from Arbitron.

///

To subscribe to The Daily Breeze, call (310) 540-5511