L.A.’s Top 5 Radio Stations? No Change Since Fall, Says Arbitron

Judging by the latest quarterly Arbitron Ratings Co. figures released Wednesday, Los Angeles radio listeners are locked into their favorite stations and aren’t much interested in sampling anything new around the dial.

The top five stations during the most recent survey period, from January through March, remained the same as last fall.

Top 40/Urban formatted K-Power, KPWR-FM (105.9), was the most-listened-to station among the 85 that can be picked up in the Los Angeles basin. Close behind was Top 40 KIIS-FM (102.7), followed by all-talk KABC-AM (790), soft rock KOST-FM (103.5) and beautiful music KJOI-FM (98.7).

The only marked trends among the top 20 stations were:

The sustained strength of New Age-music KTWV-FM (94.7), which replaced the album rock format of KMET-FM a year ago.

A listener increase shown by all-Spanish stations, such as KTNQ-AM (1020) and KLVE-FM (107.1).

A spurt of new country music listeners, seen in the steady growth of the audience for KZLA-FM (93.9).

The ratings also suggested that big promotion budgets do not necessarily translate into immediate ratings success, as illustrated by KMPC-FM (101.9), which dropped from a .7 to a .5 rating. The album-rock station, which switched from an urban/jazz format last year (dropping its longtime call letters KUTE-FM), has hired a number of former KMET deejays and begun a highly publicized “shock jock” evening segment with deejay Guy Kemp. Nevertheless, KMPC-FM remains one of the least-listened-to stations in Los Angeles, according to the new ratings.

KIIS-AM (1150), which simulcasts the Top 40 format of its FM counterpart, has an even lower rating than KMPC-FM but, for advertising sales purposes, the .2 survey share given the station by Arbitron slightly boosts the KIIS-FM/AM combination listener rating. A year ago the combined rating was high enough to edge KPWR out of the No. 1 spot, but KIIS-FM/AM has not been able to overtake the top spot in the Los Angeles market since June, 1987.

Listed below are the Top 20 stations in Los Angeles, followed by their fall and winter shares of the Los Angeles listening audience as measured by Arbitron. A single rating point represents approximately 16,000 listeners.

Last Winter, Fall 1988 1. KPWR-FM (105.9) 7.5 7.1 2. KIIS-FM (102.7) 6.9 6.6 3. KABC-AM (790) 5.5 5.8 4. KOST-FM (103.5) 4.5 5.3 5. KJOI-FM (98.7) 4.3 3.9 6. KLOS-FM (95.5) 3.8 3.6 7. KROQ-FM (106.7) 3.7 3.4 8. KBIG-FM (104.3) 4.0 3.3 9. KRTH-FM (101.1) 3.7 3.3 10. KFWB-AM (980) 4.2 3.3 11. KTNQ-AM (1020) 3.0 3.0 12. KLSX-FM (97.1) 3.6 3.0 13. KNX-AM (1070) 3.2 3.0 14. KLVE-FM (107.1) 2.5 2.8 15. KMPC-AM (710) 2.5 2.7 16. KIQQ-FM (100.3) 2.8 2.5 17. KTWV-FM (94.7) 2.3 2.4 18. KZLA-FM (93.9) 2.1 2.4 19. KJLH-FM (102.3) 1.8 2.3 20. KNX-FM (93.1) 1.3 1.9