April 30

Radio AM to FM: April 30, 2004

Winter Arbitrons

Power 106 dominated Los Angeles once again according to the Winter Arbitrons released this week. For the quarter Power was down slightly, to 5.0 from 5.1, but that was still good enough for 1st ... a position the hip-hop station has held for over a year.

KFI and KROQ were both down, but KROQ held on a little better (4.1 from 4.4 compared with KFI's drop to 3.9 from 4.7), so the two swapped places from last quarter: KROQ was second and KFI was third. Rounding out the top five were KIIS-FM and KTWV, which were up 0.6 and 0.4, respectively, to tie at 3.8.

Talk was down on the whole more than a full point due to the lack of hot issues. While KFI still dominated, only KLSX was actually up (to 2.5 from 2.3), and much of that was due to the overwhelming popularity of morning host Howard Stern. KABC came in just behind at 2.4 from last quarter's 2.9, and KRLA came in at 0.7 compared with 0.9.

Winners included KJLH, which saw its ratings hit a recent-history high of 2.1; KMZT, which broke a 2.0 share; and KHJ, KLAC and KSUR, all of which met or beat their best ratings of the past year. Decliners included KFWB, which just can't seem to get moving in the right direction: it declined 0.2 to 1.4, the lowest rating I can ever remember for the station.

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. The full story (station: Fall - Winter):

KPWR (Power 106): 5.1 - 5.0, KROQ: 4.4 - 4.1, KFI: 4.7 - 3.9, KIIS-FM: 3.2 - 3.8, KTWV: 3.4 - 3.8, KLVE: 3.5 - 3.6, KOST: 3.7 - 3.3, KKBT: 3.4 - 3.1, KRTH: 3.0 - 3.1, KLAX: 3.0 - 3.0

KBUA/KBUE: 2.7 - 2.9, KSCA: 3.5 - 2.9, KHHT (Hot 92.3): 2.4 - 2.6, KLSX: 2.3 - 2.5, KABC: 2.9 - 2.4, KLOS: 2.2 - 2.4, KCBS-FM (Arrow 93): 2.1 - 2.3, KRCD/KRCV: 1.8 - 2.3, KSSE: 2.1 - 2.2, KZLA: 2.6 - 2.2

KJLH: 1.5 - 2.1, KNX: 2.0 - 2.1, KBIG: 2.0 - 2.0, KMZT: 1.7 - 2.0, KYSR (Star 98.7): 1.9 - 1.9, KXOL: 2.0 - 1.7, KLYY: 1.4 - 1.5, KFWB: 1.6 - 1.4, KZAB/KZBA: 1.5 - 1.4, KHJ: 0.9 - 1.2

KLAC: 0.9 - 1.0, KDLD/KDLE: 0.8 - 0.8, KFSH: 0.7 - 0.8, KLTX: 0.8 - 0.7, KRLA: 0.9 - 0.7, KSUR: 0.3 - 0.6, KXTA/XTRA: 0.7 - 0.6, KKLA: 0.5 - 0.5, KTNQ: 0.5 - 0.5, KWIZ: 0.8 - 0.5

KWVE: 0.4 - 0.5, KBLA: 0.9 - 0.4, KWKW: 0.0 - 0.4, KOLA: 0.0 - 0.4, KSPN: 0.5 - 0.3, XSUR: 0.0 - 0.1

© 2004 Arbitron. May not be quoted or reproduced without prior permission from Arbitron.

Miami Station Fined

I missed this the first time around, back in June, 2003. It seems WXDJ/Miami morning personalities Joe Ferrero and Enrique Santos were able to convince Cuban President Fidel Castro and four members of the Cuban government that they had Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the telephone.

While pretending to have a conversation of sorts, they actually played prerecorded comments made by Chavez in a random, nonsensical order and were able to convince Castro to respond and take part. The duo received recognition from the press all around the world for the stunt, even if I missed the coverage myself.

In any event, the stunt is back in the news due to the fact that the FCC is proposing to fine WXDJ $4000. The reason? Castro and his officials weren't told that their conversation was being recorded for later broadcast.

Sounds like one for KABC's Paul Harvey. Good day!
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