‘House Party’ Gives KKBT-FM a Lift in Arbitron Ratings

Overall radio rankings for the first three months of the year showed little change from the last quarter of 1995, though there was a decided uptick for KKBT-FM (92.3)--also known as “The Beat”--and its “House Party” morning show.

Release of the latest Arbitron ratings on Tuesday showed that the Los Angeles audience pretty much kept to its regular listening habits since the last three-month survey.

Spanish-language music station KLVE-FM (107.5) retained the top slot with an average 7.1% of the audience between 6 a.m. and midnight, up from 6.9% three months ago.

In second place again was rock-music outlet KPWR-FM (105.9), though it dropped a half-percentage point to a 5% share. Again coming in third was talk-station KFI-AM (640), though it too dropped half a share point to 4.3%. And KKBT was fourth with 4.2%, up from 4%.

In the hard-fought morning drive rankings from 6-10 a.m., KLVE, with hosts Pepe Baretto and Lupita Pena, jumped to a 7.5% share, up from 7.1. Howard Stern came in second for KSLX-FM (97.1) with 5% of the audience, moving up from a previous fourth-place tie.

But the more dramatic jump in the morning was KKBT, which took third place with 4.5% of the audience, moving up from a seventh-place tie at 3.8%.

KKBT Program Director Harold Austin credited “the fine work” and the “incredible chemistry” of the “House Party” team--John London, Shirley Strawberry, Dennis Cruz, Ben Kelly and P-Funk, who reports from the street.

The program “moves fast, it’s community oriented, it’s very topical and it has controversy,” Austin added. “It has humor, and sometimes the humor can be a little out of control. The parodies, the bits of the songs can be too risque but controversy sells.”

While the overall ratings measure listening by anyone over the age of 12, a key demographic for many radio advertisers is the 25-54 audience, and there the rankings vary somewhat, with many music stations outperforming their overall showing.

KLVE was still first with 8.8% of that group, but KTWV-FM (94.7), known as “The Wave,” came in second with 4.3% of the audience, where it was tied for seventh overall. And adult contemporary KOST-FM (103.5) took third place in the 25-54 ratings, with 4.2%, versus fifth place overall.

Meanwhile, KOST’s sister-station, KFI, was in sixth place in the 25-54 demographic, with a 3.7 share, having dropped from second place with a 4.5 share.

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Radio Ratings

The area’s Top 25 stations and their Arbitron ratings for the first quarter, compared with the previous quarter:*--*

CURRENT LAST QUARTER 1. KLVE-FM 7.1 6.9 2. KPWR-FM 5.0 5.5 3. KFI-AM 4.3 4.8 4. KKBT-FM 4.2 4.0 5. KOST-FM 3.9 3.6 6. KROQ-FM 3.8 3.6 7. KIIS-FM/AM 3.7 3.6 -- KTWV-FM 3.7 3.2 9. KRTH-FM 3.6 3.5 10. KLAX-FM 3.2 3.2 11. KBIG-FM 3.1 2.9 12. KABC-AM 3.0 2.9 13. KLAC-AM 2.9 1.9 -- KYSR-FM 2.9 2.8 15. KNX-AM 2.8 2.7 16. KLOS-FM 2.6 2.4 17. KCBS-FM 2.3 2.4 18. KFWB-AM 2.1 2.4 19. KLSX-FM 2.0 1.9 -- KZLA-FM 2.0 1.6 21. KBUE-FM 1.8 1.6 -- KKGO-FM 1.8 1.8 -- KKHJ-AM 1.8 3.1 -- KXEZ-FM 1.8 2.0 25. KTNQ-AM 1.4 1.6

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The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from Jan. 4 through March 27.