KSCA Dominates; KIIS Moves Up

While Spanish-language KSCA-FM (101.1) continued its hold as the No. 1 radio station in the Los Angeles-Orange County market, for the first time in three years, an English-language station--Top 40s music KIIS-FM (102.7)--pushed past another Spanish-language rival to slide into the No. 2 spot, the Arbitron ratings service reported Wednesday.

Anchored by its Mexican regional music fare, KSCA increased its share of the overall listening audience to 6.8% from 6%--with an average of 118,800 listeners per quarter-hour--according to the most recent survey, covering the period from Sept. 23 to Dec. 15. Due to a computer software glitch at Arbitron, the rankings for the 1999 fall quarter had been delayed three weeks.

KIIS came in second with 5%--or 87,700 listeners, on average, per quarter-hour--up from 4.8% in the previous survey. The station’s popular morning drive show, “Rick Dees in the Morning,” ranked first among the English-language stations. Just hours after the ratings landed, Premiere Radio Networks announced it will begin syndicating Dees’ show this spring.

Apparently, KSCA took a substantial bite from sister station KLVE-FM (107.5), which plays love songs. KLVE--which has been either No. 1 or No. 2 since winter 1995--dropped a full percentage point from its summer audience share, down to 4.9% and third place, averaging 85,500 listeners per quarter hour.

“This is more of an Arbitron problem than anything,” insisted Bill Tanner, vice president of programming for Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., owner of KLVE and KSCA. Noting Arbitron’s three-week delay, he added: “With the exception of KSCA, which did really well because of Renan Almendarez [Coello], and Que Buena KBUE-FM [94.3 and 105.5], which was flat, everyone in the Spanish market was off.”

Over at KIIS, meanwhile, management was thrilled to have gained some ground.

“I knew we were moving up, but to predict beating KLVE is not a good bet,” said Roy Laughlin, KIIS’ president and general manager. “We were the first people in the United States to do the millionaire contest . . . before Regis [Philbin],” he added, referring to the ABC phenomenon “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

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Twice over the past 12 months, during Dees’ morning drive show, KIIS has given away huge cash prizes to listeners--$1 million and $2 million, respectively.

Dees’ audience share rose to 4.7% and an average 123,700 listeners per quarter-hour, overtaking Howard Stern on KLSX-FM (97.1), to place third in the key morning drive period, 6-10 a.m. Stern, meanwhile, dropped to a 4% audience share from 4.6%, putting his average numbers of listeners at 104,400.

Still, the big morning drive news belonged to KSCA’s Almendarez (5-11 a.m.), who leaped to an 11.1% audience share from 9.7%. The comic host’s average listenership was up to 290,000 from the previous 229,100. KLVE’s Pepe Baretto retained second place even as he lost viewers, dropping to 4.9% from 5.5%.

Adult contemporary music station KOST-FM (103.5) saw its fortunes rise, with its overall audience share moving to sixth place from 10th. Oldies station KRTH-FM (101.1) rose to 10th from 13th, to tie with adult contemporary music station KBIG-FM (104.3).

Taking a big hit was urban contemporary station KKBT-FM (92.3), sinking to 14th place from seventh as average quarter-hour listeners dropped to 42,700 from 55,600.

In talk radio, KFI-AM (640) dropped back to a 3.2% audience share and a seventh place tie, from 3.5% and sixth place. KLSX was essentially flat at 2.1%. Meanwhile KABC-AM (790) hit a new all-time low at 2%. It’s now in 21st place. KABC’s previous low was last spring at 2.3%.

Times staff writer Dana Calvo contributed to this report.

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Radio Ratings

The area’s Top 25 stations and their share of the listening audience as measured by Arbitron for the fall months compared with the summer quarter of the year:

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CURRENT LAST QUARTER 1. KSCA-FM 6.8 6.0 2. KIIS-FM 5.0 4.8 3. KLVE-FM 4.9 5.9 4. KROQ-FM 3.9 4.0 5. KPWR-FM 3.8 3.9 6. KOST-FM 3.6 3.0 7. KBUE-FM 3.2 3.3 KFI-AM 3.2 3.5 KTWV-AM 3.2 3.3 10. KRTH-FM 3.0 2.6 KBIG-FM 3.0 2.3 12. KYSR-FM 2.8 2.9 13. KCMG-FM 2.5 2.4 14. KKBT-FM 2.4 3.3 15. KLOS-FM 2.3 2.1 KNX-AM 2.3 2.4 KCBS-FM 2.3 2.5 18. KLAX-FM 2.1 2.8 KZLA-FM 2.1 2.1 KLSX-FM 2.1 2.2 21. KABC-AM 2.0 2.4 22. KSSE-FM 1.9 2.4 KFWB-AM 1.9 1.7 24. KLAC-AM 1.7 1.6 KKGO-FM 1.7 1.4

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The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from Sept. 23 through Dec. 15.