Jan 19

Airwaves: January 19, 2007

Fall Arbitrons

Spanish contemporary music station KLVE (107.5 FM) dominated the Fall, 2006 Arbitron ratings released last week. While down slightly, second-place tie KIIS-FM (102.7) and KSCA (101.9 FM) slipped just a bit more, giving KLVE the widest lead a Spanish station has held in recent memory, almost half a point.

Meanwhile, KFI (640 AM) rebounded from its strange decline last quarter to take fourth in a solid 4.1 tie with sister station KOST (103.5 FM). KOST, for its part, was up almost a full point with the help of its annual Christmas music marathon during November and December.

Rounding out the top ten were KLAX (97.9 FM), Power 106, KROQ (106.7 FM), KTWV (94.7 FM) and a tie between simulcast KBUE/KBUA (105.5 and 94.3 FM) and KRTH (101.1 FM).

It appears country music has more of an appeal than Emmis Broadcasting thought, as the change in format at KZLA last August (now Rhythmic KMVN, 94.9 FM) caused a downward ratings spiral to 0.7, the lowest rating 94.9 has seen since the days of AM radio domination. In the meantime, K-FROG (95.1 FM) has moved up to its highest LA rating ever at 1.1 ... and its Inland Empire signal doesn't even fully cover Los Angeles.

The news was good for KABC (790 AM), which saw a half point increase to 2.5, the highest rating the station has earned in at least a year. Likewise, KLSX (97.1 FM) rebounded from its low point last quarter, with a 0.3 increase to 1.6. Better, but far from what it had before Howard Stern left for satellite radio.

The news wasn't so good for Hot 92 Jamz (KHHT, 92.3 FM), which saw its ratings drop almost a full point to 2.1 from Summer's high of 3.0. What did it, I don't know, considering that the format has remained relatively steady during the time. Fluke? Hard to say. We'll have to wait until the next book which will be released in April.

The final book of KKGO (1260 AM) as a standards station saw a 0.6 share of the audience; it will be interesting to see how the station does with it's revamped (excellent) jock lineup and new country music format.

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: Summer-Fall

KLVE: 5.0-4.9; KIIS-FM: 4.8-4.5; KSCA: 4.9-4.5; KFI: 3.7-4.1; KOST: 3.3-4.1; KLAX: 3.9-3.9; Power 106: 3.8-3.8; KROQ: 3.8-3.5; KTWV: 3.6-3.3; KBUE/KBUA: 3.8-3.1
KRTH: 2.4-3.1; Jack-FM: 3.2-3.0; KRCD/KRCV: 2.6-2.7; KXOL: 3.7-2.7; KABC: 2.0-2.5; KLOS: 2.4-2.3; KHHT: 3.0-2.1; Star 98.7: 1.8-2.0; KBIG: 1.7-1.8; KSSE: 1.9-1.7

KLSX: 1.3-1.6; K-Mozart: 1.2-1.5; KNX: 1.8-1.5; KFWB: 1.4-1.3; KHJ: 1.4-1.3; KJLH: 1.5-1.3; KLYY: 1.3-1.3; K-FROG: 0.5-1.1; KKBT: 1.5-1.1; KDAY: 1.3-1.0

KRLA: 0.8-0.8; KSPN: 0.9-0.8; KTLK: 0.7-0.8; KTNQ: 0.8-0.8; KFSH: 0.8-0.7; KMVN: 1.2-0.7; KWIZ: 0.6-0.7; KKGO: 0.6-0.6; KLAC: 0.4-0.6; KDLD/KDLE: 0.5-0.5

KLTX: 0.5-0.5; KWVE: 0.7-0.5; KKLA: 0.7-0.4; KWKW: 0.4-0.4; KGGI: 0.3-0.3

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