KABC REGAINS RADIO LEAD; KIIS-FM IS 3RD

KABC-AM(790) has regained the throne as Los Angeles’ most listened-to radio station while KIIS-FM(102.7), which had reigned atop the ratings for three years, has fallen to third, figures released by the Arbitron Rating Service showed Tuesday.

The ratings, covering the period between April 3 and June 25, showed that Dodger-powered KABC captured 7% of the daily radio audience while KIIS’s Top 40 music format got 5.9%--a whopping 20% decline in its share since the last ratings period.

KPWR-FM (105.9), meanwhile, registered a 36% increase in its audience to climb over KIIS to No. 2 in the spring ratings with an average of 6% of the audience.

KPWR, which changed its format and its call letters (it formerly was KMGG) last January, had finished fifth in the previous ratings period with 4.4% of the audience.

The last time that KABC’s talk format was No. 1 in the market was the spring of 1983, a position it had held for more than 3 1/2 years. KIIS was second then but overtook KABC in the next ratings period and stayed on top until Tuesday, with KABC hovering in second.

“I’m delighted; it’s nice to be No. 1,” KABC program director Wally Sherwin said Tuesday. “I think it shows the one thing this station has is consistency. These music stations yo-yo up and down all the time. I don’t think there’s a great deal of loyalty in the audience; they go from one to the other.”

Arbitron’s top 10 stations for the spring ratings period, with their average share of audience between 6 a.m. and midnight, in order, were KABC-AM 7.0, KPWR-FM 6.0, KIIS-FM 5.9, KJOI-FM 5.2, KBIG-FM 4.3, KOST-FM 4.2, KROQ-FM 3.8, KFWB-AM 3.7, KRTH-FM 3.5, KLOS-FM 3.4.