KLAX Retains Top Spot in Quarterly Arbitron Ratings : Radio: Spanish-language station’s morning show also ranked No. 1 for third consecutive time.

Spanish-language KLAX-FM’s morning show continued as the most popular radio program in the latest Arbitron ratings survey released Wednesday, while the English-language competition changed positions in the runner-up categories.

For the third consecutive quarter, KLAX’s team of Juan Carlos Hidalgo and El Peladillo (Jesus Garcia) was top-rated in radio’s most competitive time slot, and the station itself also ranked first overall. It was the fifth quarter in a row that the station drew the largest average listenership in the Los Angeles market.

Behind the KLAX (97.9) morning duo, who drew 6.6% of the audience, was ribald KLSX-FM (97.1) personality Howard Stern, with 6% of the listening audience--up from 5.4% and third place in the previous three-month survey.

In third place was veteran Rick Dees, on KIIS-FM (102.7) and AM (1150), with 4.7%, up from 4.2%. KLOS-FM (95.5) duo Mark and Brian were in fourth place, having dropped from 5.6% to 4.6%.

Veterans Ken Minyard and Roger Barkley on KABC-AM (790) tied for fifth place with Bill Handel on arch-rival talk station KFI-AM (640), each morning show drawing 4.4% of the audience. But KFI beat out KABC during the rest of the day, ranking fourth overall between the hours of 6 a.m. and midnight, while KABC was 11th. The KFI ranking is heavily influenced by the huge success of syndicated radio personality Rush Limbaugh.

Wednesday’s ratings covered the period from Sept. 23 to Dec. 15, 1993. In second place overall was rap/urban station KPWR-FM (105.9); easy-listening KOST-FM (103.5) was third. Alternative rocker KROQ-FM (106.7) and Top 40 station KIIS-FM/AM tied for fifth.

One of the most dramatic changes was KCBS-FM (93.1), which in September switched from a straight-ahead oldies station to a new, hybrid format of rock songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s and jumped from 21st to 13th place.

“We felt right from the beginning that we had found a hole in the marketplace, and this sort of makes us feel that all that original planning was right,” said KCBS general manager Dave Van Dyke.

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The area’s Top 15 stations and their Arbitron ratings for last summer and the more recent fall quarter:

SUMMER FALL 1. KLAX-FM 6.6 7.0 2. KPWR-FM 4.9 4.8 3. KOST-FM 4.7 4.4 4. KFI-AM 4.1 4.3 5. KRQQ-FM 3.9 4.2 KIIS-FM/AM 3.8 4.2 7. KLSX-FM 3.2 3.5 8. KKBT-FM 3.3 3.4 KRTH-FM 3.3 3.4 10. KBIG-FM 3.2 3.2 11. KABC-AM 3.5 3.0 12. KTNQ-AM 2.5 2.9 13. KCBS-FM 1.6 2.8 KLOS-FM 3.6 2.8 15. KFWB-AM 2.6 2.7