KOST Continues Ratings Domination

KOST-FM is still on a roll. Arbitron reported Tuesday that the easy-listening adult contemporary station continues to be the most listened-to radio station in the area.

KOST (103.5) has been at the top of the Southern California ratings heap for the last six quarterly surveys.

“We have an uncanny ability to second-guess what adult listeners want,” said KOST program director Jhani Kaye. “And, luckily, over all these years we’ve stayed one step ahead of them.”

The runner up was Top 40 station KIIS-FM (102.7), which has been No. 2 for the past four ratings periods.

The latest rankings covered the period from March 28, 1991 to June 19, 1991.

The audience for news and talk stations--which had risen dramatically in the last ratings period, due to the Persian Gulf War--dropped substantially in this survey. All-news KFWB-AM (980), which had been in fourth place last time, fell to 10th, while rival news station KNX-AM (1070) dropped from sixth to a tie for 16th with Spanish-language station KTNQ-AM (1020).

KQLZ-FM (100.3) “Pirate Radio” has continued on its downward plunge since modifying its format earlier this year. It debuted in March, 1989, in the Top 10 but since then has dropped steadily, ranking 20th Tuesday.

KLOS-FM (95.5) funnymen Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps continued to reign supreme over the morning airwaves--radio’s prime time--followed by KABC-AM (790) duo Ken Minyard and Roger Barkley.

Here are the area’s top 15 stations, followed by their average ratings between the hours of 6 a.m. and midnight during the most recent spring quarter and the preceding winter quarter. Each rating point is said by Arbitron to represent about 16,000 listeners.

SPRING WINTER 1. KOST-FM 6.1 5.7 2. KABC-AM 5.1 4.3 3. KIIS-FM 4.7 4.6 4. KLOS-FM 4.5 4.0 5. KBIG-FM 4.1 3.5 6. KKBT-FM 4.0 3.6 7. KRTH-FM 3.6 2.8 8. KPWR-FM 3.4 3.5 KWKW-AM 3.4 3.1 10. KROQ-FM 3.1 2.9 KFWB-AM 3.1 4.3 12. KXEZ-FM 3.0 3.2 13. KLVE-FM 2.8 3.1 KTWV-FM 2.8 2.9 KLSX-FM 2.8 2.1