Two Top Spanish Stations Tie for No. 1 in Ratings

For the first time, the top two Spanish stations in the market--KLVE-FM (107.5), playing adult contemporary music, and KSCA-FM (101.9), airing Mexican regional music--have tied for first place in the local radio ratings. Each drew 6% of the audience in the Los Angeles-Orange County area during the summer, Arbitron reported Tuesday.

Both stations had occupied the No. 1 spot in the past, but not at the same time. In the previous three-month ratings period, KLVE reclaimed the top spot that it had held for 27 months until KSCA took over last winter. But in the most recent survey, covering July 2 to Sept. 23, KLVE dropped back three-tenths of a point while KSCA moved up two-tenths.

Moving into third place and the top English-language position was urban station KKBT-FM (92.3), which went up two-tenths of a point to average a 4% share of audience throughout the week among listeners 12 and older.

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Meanwhile, the escalating Clinton scandals did not help much of the talk- and news-radio world.

Talk outlet KFI-AM (640), which was tied for third place last quarter with a 3.9% share of audience, fell to 3.4% and a seventh-place tie this quarter. Talk rival KABC-AM (790), in its first summer without Dodger baseball, dropped back from 2.9% and a 13th place tie to 2.8% and 14th place.

News station KNX-AM (1070) fell three-tenths to 2.1%, while KFWB-AM (980) also had 2.1% but moved up two-tenths. Talk station KLSX-FM climbed three-tenths to 2.5% and 16th place.

While adult contemporary station KYSR-FM (98.7), better known as Star 98, achieved its highest rating in more than a year--a 3.1% share, ranking 13th overall--KOST-FM (103.5), another adult contemporary music station, jumped six-tenths to 3.9% and fourth place.

The share is the percentage of the listening audience that tunes in for at least five minutes in any continuous 15-minute period.

In the key morning drive period from 6 to 10 a.m., KSCA’s Renan Almendarez Coello moved up a full percentage point from the previous quarter to 9.1%, partly at the expense of KLVE’s Pepe Baretto, who dropped back two-tenths to 6.6% and second place.

Howard Stern on KLSX stayed in third place with a 5.1% share of audience. Three hours of Bill Handel’s morning drive show and the first hour of Rush Limbaugh accounted for KFI finishing fourth, but dropping from a 4.3% share to 3.8%.

KABC’s morning drive programming fell from 3.3% to 3%, which put it in 11th place.

In the demographic of listeners 25-54 years old, the group sought by most advertisers, the top stations were KSCA (7.5%), KLVE (6.9) and KOST, which moved up nearly a full percentage point to 4.7%.

With 1.5 million listeners, Top 40 station KIIS-FM (102.7) retained top slot in cumulative listening, a position it has held for five consecutive quarters. Hip-hop station KPWR-FM (105.9) was in second place with 1.4 million listeners. This “cume” figure is the number of different people who tune to the station for at least five continuous minutes during an average week of Arbitron’s survey.

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Radio Ratings

The area’s Top 25 stations and their Arbitron ratings for the summer months compared with the spring quarter of the year:

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CURRENT LAST QUARTER 1. KLVE-FM 6.0 6.3 -- KSCA-FM 6.0 5.8 3. KKBT-FM 4.0 3.8 4. KOST-FM 3.9 3.3 5. KPWR-FM 3.7 3.9 6. KIIS-FM 3.5 3.3 7. KRTH-FM 3.4 3.3 -- KFI-AM 3.4 3.9 -- KROQ-FM 3.4 3.3 10. KTWV-FM 3.3 3.3 11. KCMG-FM 3.2 3.1 -- KLAX-FM 3.2 3.5 13. KYSR-FM 3.1 2.9 14. KABC-AM 2.8 2.9 15. KBIG-FM 2.6 2.6 16. KLSX-FM 2.5 2.2 17. KLOS-FM 2.4 2.6 -- KCBS-FM 2.4 2.4 19. KNX-AM 2.1 2.4 -- KZLA-FM 2.1 2.3 -- KLAC-AM 2.1 2.2 -- KFWB-FM 2.1 1.9 23. KTNQ-AM 1.9 2.2 24. KSSE-FM 1.8 1.3 25. KKGO-FM 1.6 1.9

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The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from July 2 through Sept. 23.