TWO STATIONS CHALLENGE RADIO LEADER

As it has for nearly three years, hip-hop station “Power 106” finished ahead of all competitors in the Southland radio ratings, but looming in KPWR’s rearview mirror are talk station KFI-AM (640) and pop station KIIS-FM (102.7), both of which have closed the gap on the front-runner, according to the winter Arbitron figures released Monday.

According to the survey of listeners from Jan. 6 to March 30, KPWR-FM (105.9) attracted an average of 4.7% of the local radio audience 12 and older, dipping slightly from its 4.9% share in the fall, while KFI finished with 4.6%, up from its second-place, 4.4% showing in the previous quarter. KIIS accelerated even faster, rising from fourth place and 4.2% in the fall to tie KFI this time out.

“We’re getting awfully close,” said John Ivey, head of programming in Los Angeles for Clear Channel Communications, the national radio chain that owns KFI, KIIS and six other stations in the market.

KPWR reached and maintained its supremacy as its core music -- rap and hip-hop -- got ever more popular. Once counterculture, hip-hop now sets the tone for pop culture and appears on TV commercials and movie soundtracks. Artists such as Eminem, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and Ludacris have topped both the album charts and KPWR’s playlist for years; now KIIS listeners are getting heavier doses of them, as well.

“It’s much more rhythmic than it has been for a while,” Ivey said of KIIS. “You can kind of feel when you’ve got a station that’s firing on all pistons. We’ve found our niche, man.”

Among morning shows, the competition has been even more fierce. KFI’s Bill Handel retained the top spot in the winter quarter with 5.6% of the audience, up from 5.5% in the fall, but Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo at Spanish-language KSCA-FM (101.9) jumped to tie him, after finishing second with 5% in the fall.

Kevin & Bean on alternative rocker KROQ-FM (106.7) finished third with 4.8%, up from 4.6% and a fourth-place tie in the fall with Howard Stern. Stern, on KLSX-FM (97.1), dropped to seventh place with 3.9% of the morning audience.

Falling from third to fourth was Renan Almendarez Coello, or “El Cucuy,” on Spanish-language KLAX-FM (97.9). He garnered 4.3% of the audience, compared with 4.9% in the fall.

Ryan Seacrest on KIIS, who moonlights as the host of Fox television’s “American Idol” program, finished fifth with 4.1%, just ahead of Big Boy on KPWR at 4%.

This ratings period was the first to include the new “progressive talk” format on Clear Channel’s KTLK-AM (1150), which had aired sports talk until Feb. 3, when it switched to carrying shows from the liberal Air America talk-radio network, as well as other left-leaning programs.

Even though the format change was a winner in other markets where Clear Channel has tried it, the change did nothing here -- the station took just 0.3% of the audience in both the fall and winter.

“If I were them I wouldn’t get alarmed,” said Perry Michael Simon, news/talk/sports editor of AllAccess.com, an online journal of the radio industry. He predicted the station will be helped by the local programming it has started adding to the schedule in recent weeks to augment the nationally syndicated shows. “I think there’s a market for another strong talker. I think you just have to give it time, and Clear Channel will give it time. I think it’s just a matter of people finding it.”

He credited KFI’s long-running success with its ability to stay “on message.”

“They will concentrate on the hottest issues -- basically the [Michael] Jackson trial and immigration -- and they do a successful job of making these issues entertaining,” Simon said. “They’re just solidly at the top of the market.”

KFI’s main rival among talk stations, KABC-AM (790), dropped from 2.9% and 12th place last fall to 2.3% and 15th this winter.

Meanwhile, both local all-news stations saw increases. KNX-AM (1070) rose from 1.6% and a tie for 23rd place to 2.2% and 16th place, while KFWB-AM (980) inched up from 1.5% and a 26th-place tie to 1.6% and a tie at 25.

Changes at KNX -- which had traditionalists complaining that the tone of the straight-news station was veering toward opinion and talk-radio territory -- appear to be working, Simon said.

“Basically, the station wasn’t going anywhere the way it was. Something had to be done,” he said.

During previous flurries of news -- the start of the Iraq war, the California recall election, the presidential election -- KFI seemed to increase its audience at the expense of the news stations, which held steady or dropped. Now, Clear Channel’s Ivey said, KFI’s audience is staying tuned for even longer periods, which is further driving up its ratings. He also credited recent news topics, such as the L.A. mayor’s race, rising gasoline prices and the war in Iraq, with drawing listeners.

“They’re staying with us. I think people are just very interested in the news right now,” he said.

This ratings period was the last for “Arrow 93” and its classic-rock format at KCBS-FM (93.1). The station’s ratings had been in decline, and it had been the subject for format-change rumors for years. After dropping from 1.8% and a tie for 19th in the fall, to a 1.7% share and 24th place in the winter, KCBS on March 17 switched to a format it calls “Jack FM,” playing an eclectic mix of rock and pop from the ‘60s to today, seemingly at random.

While KPWR continued its winning ways among the general audience, it placed only 10th in the demographic prized by many advertisers: listeners ages 25 to 54. There the top draws were two Spanish-language stations -- KLVE-FM (107.5) and KSCA -- followed by soft jazz station KTWV-FM (94.7) and KFI.

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Radio ratings

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

*--* Current Last Quarter 1 KPWR-FM 4.7 4.9 2 KFI-AM 4.6 4.4 KIIS-FM/KVVS-FM 4.6 4.2 4 KROQ-FM 4.2 4.1 5 KLVE-FM 3.8 4.3 6 KSCA-FM 3.6 3.1 KTWV-FM 3.6 3.9 8 KOST-FM 3.4 3.9 9 KLAX-FM 3.0 3.5 KRTH-FM 3.0 2.8 11 KKBT-FM 2.9 3.0 12 KHHT-FM 2.6 2.4 13 KLSX-FM 2.5 3.0 KBUE-FM 2.5 2.7 15 KABC-AM 2.3 2.9 16 KNX-AM 2.2 1.6 17 KSSE-FM 2.1 2.4 18 KZLA-FM 2.0 1.8 KBIG-FM 2.0 1.9 KYSR-FM 2.0 1.8 21 KXOL-FM 1.9 1.5 KLOS-FM 1.9 2.1 23 KLYY-FM 1.8 1.4 24 KCBS-AM 1.7 1.8 25 KJLH-FM 1.6 1.6 KFWB-AM 1.6 1.5

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The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from Jan. 6 to March 30.