Eminem Keeps 106 in Power

Hip-hop outlet Power 106 retained its top spot in the ratings and increased its percentage of the Southland audience, while Spanish-language station KSCA-FM plunged from second to eighth during the summer, according to figures released Friday by the Arbitron ratings service.

A combination of promotions, charity events and good music helped create a successful summer for KPWR-FM (105.9), said Jimmy Steal, Power 106’s program director. The latter included songs from “The Eminem Show,” the rapper’s eponymous album, which has sold 6 million copies and remained near the top of the charts all year.

“Those songs seem to do exceptionally well for us and for several other stations as well,” Steal said, adding that records from Ashanti, Westside Connection and Xzibit have also made for a strong summer playlist.

He said Eminem’s upcoming movie, “8 Mile,” will also focus attention on hip-hop music, which can only help the station.

KPWR increased its share of listeners 12 and older in Los Angeles and Orange counties from 4.9% to 5.1%, holding off another station with Eminem on its playlist, alternative rocker KROQ-FM (106.7), which jumped from third to second in the quarterly standings and garnered 4.9% of the audience.

Close behind was Top 40 outlet KIIS-FM (102.7), which rose from sixth to third and took 4.6% of listeners for the summer ratings period, which spanned June 27 to Sept. 18.

Meanwhile, KSCA (101.9) dropped from a 4.7% share of the audience to 3.2%, tying it with oldies station KRTH-FM (101.1).

The drop at KSCA is merely an aberration, said Ken Christensen, L.A.-area vice president and general manager for Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., which owns KSCA and several other Spanish-language stations in the market. He noted that all other Spanish stations except one also declined, a phenomenon he suspects arose from an abnormally low number of Spanish speakers being included in the survey this time around.

“It’s certainly a concern it was that big of a change,” Christensen said, but he said no other factors changed at his stations that could account for the shift--promotions, format changes, etc.--so he believes the numbers will rebound in the next quarter.

Despite the station’s decline, KSCA’s powerhouse morning man, Renan Almendarez Coello, known as “El Cucuy,” held on with the top morning show in the market.

But his share of the audience dropped as well, from 7.9% to 6%, while talk station KFI-AM (640) jumped from fourth to second in the morning, with Bill Handel’s audience share increasing from 4.5% to 5.5%.

KFI’s surge was just part of the movement among morning shows, in which no English-language programs held their places from the spring ratings period. Kevin & Bean on KROQ rose to third place from fifth, while comedian Steve Harvey on KKBT-FM (100.3) dropped from second to fourth and KPWR’s Big Boy fell from third to fifth.

Despite that shift, KPWR’s Steal said he “couldn’t be more proud of the staff for the year we’ve had,” referring not only to the ratings success, but also to the two prestigious Marconi Awards that the National Assn. of Broadcasters recently gave Power 106 and Big Boy.

Because of the vagaries of Arbitron’s survey system, such as those Christensen noted, and because of factors beyond their control, such as promotions or format changes at other stations, Steal said that programmers should never get too high or too low about their numbers for any one ratings period. Even with Power 106’s impressive showing, he cautioned against irrational exuberance.

“Ratings are like the stock market,” Steal said. “It goes up and down over the course of the year, but when you get that year-end statement, you hope you’re on the plus side.”

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Radio Ratings

The area’s Top 25 stations and their average share of audience, as measured by Arbitron for the summer months compared with the previous three-month period.

*--* Current Last Quarter 1 KPWR-FM 5.1 4.9 2 KROQ-FM 4.9 4.3 3 KIIS-FM 4.6 3.7 4 KFI-AM 4.5 3.8 5 KTWV-FM 3.6 3.4 6 KOST-FM 3.4 3.9 7 KKBT-FM 3.3 3.5 8 KSCA-FM 3.2 4.7 KRTH-FM 3.2 3.1 10 KLVE-FM 3.0 3.6 11 KLOS-FM 2.7 2.1 12 KBUE-FM 2.6 2.3 KYSR-FM 2.6 2.3 14 KABC-AM 2.5 2.0 KHHT-FM 2.5 2.5 16 KZLA-FM 2.4 2.3 KCBS-FM 2.4 2.4 18 KLAX-FM 2.3 2.7 KLSX-FM 2.3 2.2 20 KBIG-FM 2.2 2.8 21 KNX-AM 2.1 2.3 22 KMZT-FM 2.0 1.6 23 KXOL-FM 1.9 2.5 24 KFWB-AM 1.6 1.8 25 KJLH-FM 1.5 1.4

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The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from June 27 to Sept. 18.