News Stations Surge but KOST Leads : Ratings: Powered by interest in the Persian Gulf War, KNX and KFWB move up in the latest Arbitron figures.

KOST-FM(103.5) continued to coast along at the top of the radio heap in the latest Arbitron ratings survey, but the most dramatic surge during the past three months was felt by news stations, presumably because of listeners seeking information about the Persian Gulf War.

The latest rankings, released Tuesday, cover the period from Jan. 3 to March 27. War broke out in the Persian Gulf on Jan. 16 and a final cease-fire was called on March 11.

KFWB-AM (980), which provided continuous coverage of the war for 40 hours after it erupted, jumped to third place from 12th place in the previous ratings survey and was second in the competitive morning drive period. News director Ken Beck attributed his station’s dramatic rise to “overwhelming interest in the war.”

“I think the edge here may very well have been our use of CNN news reports and the fact that we cared enough to send a local reporter (Pete Demetriou) to the Persian Gulf,” Beck said.

Rival news station KNX-AM (1070) ranked fifth in the latest survey, up from 10th last fall, and came in fourth in the morning drive-time race. Talk station KABC-AM (790), which tied KFWB for third overall, was also third in morning drive time.

The most listened-to morning drive-time program was the wacky show of KLOS-FM’s (95.5) Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps. However, the percentage of people listening to their show dropped from 8.1% to 6.9%. KLOS tied with KNX for fifth overall.

In the No. 2 spot overall was Top 40 station KIIS-FM (102.7), which has been No. 2 for the past four ratings periods.

KIIS’ main rival, KPWR-FM (105.9), dropped from fourth place to eighth.

Easy-listening KOST has been the top-rated station for five consecutive quarters.

Here are the area’s top 15 stations, followed by their average ratings between 6 a.m. and midnight for the most recent winter quarter and the preceding fall quarter, as measured by Arbitron. Each point is said by the company to represent 16,500 listeners over the age of 12.

WINTER FALL 1. KOST-FM 5.7 5.5 2. KIIS-FM 4.6 5.1 3. KABC-AM 4.3 4.3 4. KFWB-AM 4.3 2.9 5. KLOS-FM 4.0 4.6 6. KNX-AM 4.0 3.2 7. KKBT-FM 3.6 3.5 8. KPWR-FM 3.5 4.5 9. KBIG-FM 3.5 3.8 10.KXEX-FM 3.2 3.0 11.KLVE-FM 3.1 3.7 12.KWKW-AM 3.1 3.3 13.KQLZ-FM 3.0 2.7 14.KROQ-FM 2.9 3.2 15.KTWV-FM 2.9 3.0