Talk Stations Prepare Their Own Campaigns

The countdown to November’s election is a frenzied, madcap rush to gain popularity, filled with name-calling and the intense heat of competition.

And that’s just on talk radio.

The political season represents an important window for Los Angeles’ talk stations and personalities, especially with next week’s Democratic National Convention being staged in the city for the first time in four decades.

Always competitive, radio outlets see the political season as a chance to define themselves and strengthen their bond with listeners.

“It’s a time to demonstrate that we are dependable in time of need,” said Erik Braverman, program director of KABC-AM (790), which will feature station personalities such as Larry Elder and Al Rantel on what’s been dubbed the convention’s “radio row.” “Every four years you have an opportunity, and somewhat of an obligation, to be as thorough and as entertaining and informative as possible.”

Indeed, talk station KRLA-AM (1110) began planning its political coverage in December, said program director Ron Escarsega, and sees part of its mandate as providing the audience access to key figures.

“Between Michael Jackson and Don Imus, we had all of the leading candidates on the air” during the primaries, Escarsega noted.

Both stations hope the political season will provide a means to narrow the gap between them and ratings leader KFI-AM (640), whose lineup is skewed to nationally syndicated personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and Laura Schlessinger. In a jab at KFI, after the Republican gathering, KABC--which also had a presence at that convention--ran on-air promos saying, “We were talking to the newsmakers while our competition was merely talking to themselves.”

To further bolster its local credentials, next week KABC will preempt the syndicated Mike Siegel--who replaced Art Bell as its late-night maven of the paranormal in April--in favor of local talk featuring liberal commentator Bill Press from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Not to be outdone, KFI will take a page from its daily recap during the O.J. Simpson trial and broadcast an “hour of the convention” at 7 a.m. daily during Bill Handel’s morning show. The goal is “just to make you sharper about the convention. That’s the whole theme of it,” said program director David G. Hall.

KFI will also pare back Phil Hendrie’s comedic afternoon-drive show by an hour, with its nighttime tandem Karel & Andrew expanding to broadcast from the convention beginning at 6 p.m. Hall disputed the notion that KFI is less local than its competitors, saying the station is well-equipped to go live from the convention area should events warrant it.

Based on recent data from audience-measurement firm Arbitron, KFI remains the most listened-to talk station in the Los Angeles area, which is home to an estimated 10.3 million potential listeners age 12 and over.

Within that broad age group, KFI averaged an estimated 54,000 listeners per quarter-hour during the three-month ratings period ending in June, reaching a total audience--or “cume”--of roughly 858,000 listeners over the course of an entire week.

KABC averaged about 43,000 listeners per quarter-hour, with a cumulative total of 632,000. KLSX-FM (97.1)--anchored by Howard Stern’s syndicated morning show--attracted 36,000 people per quarter hour and a cume of 584,000, while sister station KRLA’s averages were 14,000 and 257,000, respectively.

The other major variable in radio hinges on time spent listening, or how long an average listener tunes in each week. By that measure, relatively small KIEV-AM (870)--with a total of just 148,000 listeners per week--actually leads at 9 hours, 15 minutes, followed by KABC at 8 1/2 hours and 8 hours for KFI.

To compete with KFI, Braverman noted, KABC needs to make sure that its loyal listeners--currently a smaller pool than KFI--feel compelled to stay with the station longer. In that respect, he likened “time spent listening” to a small restaurant, which needs patrons to sit for coffee and dessert to compete with higher-volume establishments.

With the exception of Stern’s show, KFI dominates the talk race through the morning and daytime hours behind Limbaugh and Schlessinger, although overall tune-in for the station is down in those hours compared with the winter quarter Arbitron standings as well as those for the spring of 1999.

KABC, by contrast--after sinking to a 40-year-low market share during the winter--posted solid gains during the daytime, with lesser improvement by KLSX and KRLA.

Larry Elder’s 3 to 7 p.m. afternoon drive show on KABC also rebounded from a winter dip to average more than 65,000 listeners per quarter hour--and a cume of 355,000 per week--regaining an advantage over KFI, where Hendrie averaged 49,000 and 332,000, respectively. (KLSX’s Tom Leykis, whose focus on politics skews heavily toward the sexual variety, draws more listeners per quarter-hour than Hendrie, about 52,000, but a lower cume of 282,000.)

Tune-in drops sharply after the commuting window, though KABC’s combination of Mr. KABC and Siegel--with a weekly cume of about 160,000 listeners--maintains the station’s edge from 7 p.m. to midnight over KFI, which tallies a total audience of 124,000 over the course of a week for Karel & Andrew and Tim & Neil.

KFI has lost a sizable amount of audience compared to both spring ’99 and the winter quarter, after which the station flipped Hendrie into the afternoon-drive slot and Karel & Andrew into the 7-to-9 p.m. window.

Hall, however, said he was pleased with the results of the switch, pointing out that both Hendrie and Karel & Andrew had recorded increases among adults ages 25 to 54--a key demographic for the sale of advertising time.

Beyond the commercial talk stations, extensive convention coverage--including the candidates’ addresses--will again be available on public radio outlets such as KCRW-FM (89.9) and KPCC-FM (89.3).

Because of the lag time in assembling Arbitron data--which is culled from “diaries” mailed out to prospective listeners--it will be months before program directors can ascertain how well their own 2000 campaign strategies panned out.

Though talk generally ranks behind music in terms of overall audience (several music stations cume more than 1 million listeners per week), the genre is desirable to advertisers because it tends to attract a more affluent and educated crowd. According to a 1999 Arbitron breakdown of audience attributes known as “Qualitap,” 38% or more of KABC, KFI, KLSX and KRLA listeners are college graduates. In addition, nearly 40% of the KABC, KFI and KLSX audience comes from households with income in excess of $75,000 per year.