Power 106 remains atop ratings

Flaunting a rhythm so steady it could back a track on the station’s hip-hop playlist, KPWR-FM (105.9) once again topped local radio ratings, just as it has every quarter since spring 2002, according to figures released Thursday from the Arbitron ratings service.

“The music is as popular as it could be,” said Val Maki, who oversees the rap station as division vice president of Emmis Radio Corp., its parent company. KPWR, “Power 106,” garnered 4.9% of local listeners ages 12 and older, the same share as it had in the summer. Moving up to second was talk station KFI-AM (640),jumping from a third-place tie with alternative rocker KROQ-FM (106.7) in the summer, with 4.4% of the audience for the fall ratings period, which surveyed listeners from Sept. 23 to Dec. 15.

KROQ dropped to fourth, with 4.1% in the fall, passed by Spanish-language station KLVE-FM (107.5), which jumped from sixth place at 3.7% in the summer to third, with a 4.3% share of the fall audience.

Former second-place station KLAX-FM (97.9), a Spanish-language outlet that had been steadily rising in the ratings, plunged to eighth place in the fall, dropping from 4.4% to 3.5%.

Meanwhile, smooth-jazz station KTWV-FM (94.7) saw just as big an increase in its audience, jumping from 3% in the summer to 3.9% in the fall, rising from 10th to a tie for sixth. Tied in sixth place was adult-contemporary station KOST-FM (103.5), which sees a bump in its numbers every year when it switches to all-Christmas music for the holidays. It jumped from 3.1% and an eighth-place tie in the summer with R&B; station KHHT-FM (92.3), which tumbled to 15th, with 2.4% of the local audience.

KFI’s AM talk rival, KABC (790), also increased its audience during the quarter, rising from 14th place with a 2.6% share to 12th place with 2.9% in the fall. FM talk station KLSX (97.1), the home of shock jock Howard Stern, also moved up, from 12th place and 2.8% in the summer to 3% and a 10th-place tie with hip-hop and R&B; outlet KKBT-FM (100.3).

Among morning shows, Bill Handel at KFI moved from second place to first, even though his audience share dipped from 5.6% in the summer to 5.5% in the fall. That’s because the former No. 1, Spanish-language host Renan Almendarez Coello, or “El Cucuy,” plummeted from 6.7% to 4.9%. The unusual stumble for the powerhouse host saw his KLAX show fall to third, behind rival KSCA-FM (101.9), which took its morning show with Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo from seventh place and 3.9% to second with 5%.

Tying for fourth with 4.6% of the audience were Stern on KLSX-FM and Kevin & Bean on KROQ, who increased their share slightly from a 4.5%, fourth-place showing in the summer. Stern, who announced in October that he is leaving terrestrial radio for Sirius, the subscription satellite radio service, fell from third with a 5% audience share in the summer. KPWR’s Big Boy dropped from fifth to sixth, even though he increased his audience share from 4.1% to 4.5%.

The heated presidential campaign apparently did little to help the area’s two all-news stations. KNX-AM (1070) fell from 21st in the summer with 1.8% to 1.6% in the fall, dropping out of the area’s Top 25. Sister station KFWB-AM (980) remained flat at 1.5%.