January 20

Airwaves: January 20, 2006

Fall Arbitrons

After slipping in the Summer book, light rock formatted KOST came back. In droves: jumping more than a full point to take the top spot for the fall quarter in the Arbitron ratings released last week.

And if you think it was just Christmas music, think again. Yes, KOST did indeed have a nice spike for the month of December with their annual holiday music format. But to jump that much, they needed more, and got it. They even beat last year by a half point. Apparently people are into sappy music again.

Right behind was KIIS-FM, which for the most part held steady with a 4.3 share from 4.4, KLVE which was at 4.3 from 4.2, and KFI which was flat at 4.0.

Where was KPWR, Power 106? Last year at this time they were at the top with a 4.9 share. Over the past year the effect of increased competition hit them, culminating with a half point from Summer's 4.0 to Fall's 3.5. If I'm not mistaken, this may be the lowest rating the station has had since it knocked KIIS-FM out of the top spot back in 1987. Keeping perspective: Power is still number eight in the city.

KFI led the talkers once again, beating 16th place KABC (2.4) and 19th place KLSX (2.2) That's the lowest for KLSX in at least a year, and will serve as the baseline for the post-Howard Stern era. The second tier of talk remained about the same, with KRLA at 32nd (0.8) and Liberal talker KTLK at 35th (0.7).

News radio, or the closest things we have to news radio, are still struggling. KNX was flat at 1.7, while KFWB was down to 1.2 from 1.4. For perspective here, you may recall that KHJ changed to country music in 1980 when they dropped to the low 2 shares. What's wrong with news? Some say the problem is David Hall, KNX and KFWB programmer. Hall seems to think news is the problem, so he's taking more of it away by airing consumer call-in program from 9 AM to 12 noon. Are game shows far behind?

The full story: each rating is an estimate of the number of listeners aged 12 and over tuned to a station between the hours of 6 am and 12 midnight. Copyright 2005, 2006, Arbitron, Inc. May not be quoted or reproduced without prior written permission from Arbitron.

Station: Summer - Fall

KOST: 3.1 - 4.4; KIIS-FM: 4.4 - 4.3; KLVE: 4.2 - 4.3; KFI: 4.0 - 4.0; KROQ: 3.8 - 3.9; KSCA: 3.5 - 3.8; KXOL: 4.2 - 3.6; KPWR (Power 106): 4.0 - 3.5; KBUE/KBUA: 3.1 - 3.3; KLAX: 3.7 - 3.3

KRCD/KRCV: 2.5 - 3.2; KTWV (The Wave): 3.0 - 3.2; KCBS-FM (Jack-FM): 3.4 - 2.9; KHHT (Hot 92.3): 3.0 - 2.8; KRTH: 2.7 - 2.7; KABC: 2.5 - 2.4; KKBT (The Beat): 2.5 - 2.4; KBIG: 2.3 - 2.3; KLSX (Free-FM): 2.5 - 2.2; KSSE: 2.3 - 2.2

KLOS: 2.1 - 2.1; KYSR (Star 98.7): 1.8 - 1.8; KNX: 1.7 - 1.7; KZLA: 1.9 - 1.7; KJLH: 1.5 - 1.6; KMZT (K-Mozart): 1.6 - 1.5; KFWB: 1.4 - 1.2; KLYY: 1.3 - 1.2; KDAY: 0.7 - 0.9; KDLD/KDLE: 0.7 - 0.8

KHJ: 0.8 - 0.8; KRLA: 1.0 - 0.8; KSPN: 0.6 - 0.8; KFSH (The Fish): 0.6 - 0.7; KTLK: 0.9 - 0.7; KKLA: 0.5 - 0.6; KLAC (X-TRA Sports): 0.7 - 0.6; KTNQ: 0.6 - 0.6; KWIZ: 0.4 - 0.6; KWVE: 0.5 - 0.6

XTRA (Fabulous 690): 0.5 - 0.6; KLTX: 0.3 - 0.4; KWKW: 0.4 - 0.4; KGGI: 0.3 - 0.3; KKGO/XSUR: 0.3 - 0.3

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