Hour by hour in the ratings war
In the fight for radio ratings, the fiercest competition is among the morning shows -- but that’s not to say the stations aren’t scrapping and scratching for every audience member in every other part of the day. The latest Arbitron ratings figures, released Monday and covering the first three months of the year, show that different stations command different parts of the day, for a variety of reasons.
Mornings are important because, with a captive audience of car commuters, more listeners are tuned to the radio than at any other time of day, said Kevin Weatherly, program director at the alternative-rock station KROQ-FM (106.7) and classic rock KCBS-FM (93.1).
“Morning in L.A. is the most competitive market in the country,” said Weatherly, who is also senior vice president of programming for Infinity Radio, parent of KROQ, KCBS and five other Southland stations. “We’ve got a lot of great personalities here.”
And now first among them are Kevin & Bean, the morning hosts on KROQ.
Morning drive
The duo, Kevin Ryder and Gene Baxter, placed first among all listeners 12 and older during the morning time slot, 6 to 10 a.m.
They beat their usual rivals: Bill Handel on talk station KFI-AM (640), Big Boy on hip-hop station KPWR-FM (105.9) and comedian Steve Harvey on urban outlet KBBT-FM (100.3).
That group had always lagged far behind Renan Almendarez Coello on Spanish-language station KSCA-FM (101.9). But “El Cucuy,” as Coello is known, opted to move to afternoons in February, enabling Kevin & Bean to become the first English-language morning show to take No. 1 since 1995, Weatherly said.
“He’s obviously built an unbelievable following. They’re trying to do everything they can to steal away his audience,” Weatherly said. On Wednesday they were telling jokes in Spanish and offering advice to the lovelorn -- a staple of Coello’s show.
“That,” Weatherly joked, “is part of the public service that is ‘Kevin & Bean.’ ”
Midday
Listeners from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. seem split between provocative rhetoric and easygoing music.
Tying for first place in the time slot was talk station KFI-AM (640) -- which features during that span the last two hours of Rush Limbaugh’s program and the entire noon-to-3 p.m. run of relationship advisor “Dr. Laura,” Laura Schlessinger.
Limbaugh, who uses his program to needle anything counter to his conservative viewpoint, changed the face of talk radio when he became nationally syndicated in 1988. He has long commanded the largest national audience in radio, estimated at 14.5 million listeners per week, according to trade journal Talkers Magazine. Schlessinger is tied with Howard Stern for third place, with about 8 million listeners, according to the magazine.
Also attracting 4.4% of the midday listeners was adult contemporary outlet KOST-FM (103.5), which bills itself as “your listen-at-work station.”
Capturing the cubicle set has been the battle plan for KOST since it went on the air Nov. 15, 1982, said Jhani Kaye, the station’s program director. “A lot of offices that have their clients filtering through the building want to have music that’s generally acceptable to them.”
Slightly behind, in third place, was KBIG-FM (104.3), which Kaye also programs and which he describes as an up-tempo alternative to KOST.
Afternoon drive
Commuters returning from work are the main target in the 3-to-7 p.m. time slot. KPWR, “Power 106,” leads the 12-plus ratings in afternoon drive time, but executives there see Coello gaining in their rearview mirror.
While KPWR took 5.2% of the audience, Coello’s move to afternoons shot KSCA from 24th place in the fall to second in the winter, with a 4.9% audience share. But he was on afternoons for only the last two months of the quarter, pointed out Fernando Schiantarelli, Coello’s manager and an executive with Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., the parent of KSCA. He predicted Coello will be No. 1 come the spring ratings.
Significantly, Coello is already No. 1 among adults 25 to 54, according to Arbitron’s figures. Those concerned with the bottom line -- advertisers and station executives -- care very little about the very young or very old. They focus on more likely consumers, such as adults 25 to 54, one of the many age groups that Arbitron breaks out.
“The advertisers very rarely buy 12-plus. That’s 12-till-death,” said John Ivey, the L.A. programming director for Clear Channel Communications, the nation’s largest station owner, which has eight outlets in the Southland, including KOST and KBIG. “Everybody is so focused on what their target [demographic] is. Even if you’re mass appeal, you can lose focus if you’re not targeting in on specific listeners.”
At KOST and KBIG, Kaye said, “we’re attempting to get no one under 18. We welcome all through the door, but we’re not focusing on them.”
KPWR, on the other hand, knows its audience is younger and consequently draws advertisers seeking those listeners.
“Power 106 is as true a mass-appeal radio station as a KIIS [FM 102.7] or a KROQ,” said Jimmy Steal, program director at KPWR and vice president of programming for Emmis Communications, its parent.
“You look at the music used to sell cars, movies and fast-food chains” and it’s hip-hop, he said. “The vibe Power delivers on is extra-conducive to afternoons and nights, and especially on the weekends. There’s an element of escapism.”
Nighttime
And that new music keeps listeners glued. During the 7 p.m.-to-midnight time slot, KPWR, with 7.2% of the audience, far outdistances its nearest competitor, KROQ, at 5.3%, which itself has a good lead over third-place KIIS, at 4.5%.
Power’s nighttime features the “Sexy 7 at 7” song countdown, “Whoa Call,” in which three rappers test their skills against one another, and “Live From L.A.,” where DJ Felli Fel premieres new music.
“So much of what drives nights is music,” agreed KROQ’s Weatherly. He credited nighttime DJ Stryker with his station’s success but also noted that many tune in for “Loveline,” the syndicated sex-and relationship-advice show hosted by comedian Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky.
Love also seems foremost on the minds of evening listeners ages 25 to 54. KOST leads all its English-language competitors among that demographic, based on the strength of its long-running nightly program “Lovesongs on the Coast.”
And that mood seems to be paralleled among Spanish-language listeners, as KLVE-FM (107.5) features its own love songs and dedications program, hosted by Gustavo Neri, which beat out KOST for No. 1 overall in the nighttime among listeners 25 to 54.
Starting over
With advertising revenue and jobs in the balance, station executives obsess over ratings numbers like baseball fans dissecting batting averages and pitching statistics. But as important as the numbers are, there’s little time to enjoy the good ones.
“The bad thing about having a really great spike: It goes away,” KPWR’s Steal said, erased 90 days later by new numbers.
“You celebrate the victory and go back to work,” Weatherly said.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Radio Ratings
The area’s Top 25 stations and their average share of audience as measured by Arbitron for the first three months of this year, compared with the previous three-month period.
*--* Current Last quarter 1 KPWR-FM 5.0 5.4 2 KROQ-FM 4.4 4.4 3 KIIS-FM 4.0 3.9 4 KSCA-FM 3.7 3.9 KFI-AM 3.7 3.6 6 KOST-FM 3.6 3.9 7 KLVE-FM 3.4 3.4 8 KKBT-FM 3.1 3.6 KRTH-FM 3.1 3.1 10 KBUE-FM 2.9 2.7 11 KLAX-FM 2.8 2.9 KTWV-FM 2.8 3.4 13 KBIG-FM 2.7 2.6 14 KHHT-FM 2.6 2.6 15 KABC-AM 2.5 2.4 KLSX-FM 2.5 2.5 17 KLOS-FM 2.4 2.0 18 KCBS-FM 2.3 2.1 19 KXOL-FM 2.2 2.5 KZLA-FM 2.2 1.9 21 KFWB-AM 2.1 1.8 KNX-AM 2.1 2.2 23 KYSR-FM 2.0 2.1 24 KMZT-FM 1.8 2.0 25 KSSE-FM 1.6 0.9
*--*
The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from Jan. 2 to March 26.