KIIS-FM still No. 1; KOST is yule-fueled
Top 40 station KIIS-FM (102.7) once again topped local radio ratings, but KOST-FM (103.5), the annual home of wall-to-wall Christmas music, got the biggest boost from holiday listeners, according to figures released Wednesday.
KIIS attracted an average of 5.6% of the Los Angeles-Orange County audience in the fall, down slightly from its 5.8% share in the summer but still far in front of the competition, according to the Arbitron survey of listeners 12 and older from Sept. 18 through Dec. 10.
KOST -- getting the audience injection it sees every year when it turns its playlist over entirely to holiday music -- jumped from fifth to third, increasing its share from 3.9% to 4.5%.
Oldies station KRTH-FM (101.1), which also injected a heavy dose of Christmas carols into its playlist, rose to second place from third last summer with a 4.7% share of the audience.
Spanish-language station KLVE-FM (107.5) remained in fourth place, while increasing its share slightly from 4.1% in the summer to 4.3% in the fall.
Meanwhile, during the crescendo of the presidential race, talk-radio station KFI-AM (640) fell from second place to fifth, dropping from 4.4% to 4.2%.
KFI maintained its dominance among morning shows, however. During the 6-10 a.m. bloc, its tag team of Bill Handel and Rush Limbaugh averaged 5.9% of the audience, far ahead of second-place Ryan Seacrest on KIIS, with 4.9%. Gary Bryan on KRTH came in third, with 4.8%.
The morning show on Spanish-language pop station KLVE-FM (107.5), with Omar Velasco and Argelia Atilano, placed fourth with 4.6%. And Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo on KSCA-FM (101.9) rounded out the top five, pulling in 4.5% of the morning audience.
The heated political season appears to have benefited other spoken-word stations, though. All-news KNX-AM (1070), which had placed 24th with 1.9% of the summer audience, jumped to 17th place in the fall with a 2.6% share. Sister news station KFWB-AM (980) also moved up, slightly, from tied for 22nd with a 2.0% share to a tie for 21st with 2.2%.
Conservative talk station KABC-AM (790) remained tied for 19th despite increasing its audience from 2.1% to 2.3%. Left-leaning talker KTLK-AM (1150) rose from a 0.9 share, tied for 33rd, to 1.0%, tied for 30th.
Talk station KLSX-FM (97.1) also moved up, going from 29th place with 1.2% in the summer to 1.3% and a 27th-place tie in the fall.
This was the second quarter in which Arbitron used its new Portable People Meters to measure radio rankings. The people meters are pager-sized devices that survey participants wear; they track all the stations a person hears during the day, and for how long. The meters replaced the old diary method, which required chosen listeners to remember to write down honestly and accurately what stations they tuned into during the course of the day.
But rather than simply being the easier, faster and more-accurate survey method that Arbitron has touted, the people meter system has been controversial, especially among broadcasters targeting African Americans and Latinos. Among other complaints, they say their listeners are under-represented in the Arbitron survey pool, which depresses their stations rankings.
In September, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama and his fellow Democratic Illinois senator, Richard J. Durbin, weighed in, asking Arbitron to delay using the people meters until all the concerns were addressed.
And the following month, New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo filed suit, alleging false advertising and deceptive business practices. Cuomo and Arbitron settled earlier this month, with the company agreeing, among other things, to make changes to how it recruits survey panelists, to donate $100,000 to a joint project of the National Assn. of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Spanish Radio Assn. to support minority radio, and to seek accreditation from the Media Rating Council, an independent auditor.
The rating council has already approved people meter use in Houston and Riverside-San Bernardino, and it is reviewing the system’s use in Los Angeles, New York and other markets.
This was the last full-quarter ranking for the alternative station Indie 103.1, KDLD/KDLE-FM, which switched to El Gato 103.1, playing regional Mexican music, two weeks ago. The station garnered only 0.4% of the listening audience in the fall, tying it for 44th place in the market. In a farewell message it replayed after going off the air, Indie obliquely blamed the people meters for its declining fortunes. But the station also registered a 0.4% share in the fall of 2007 under the diary system.
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Fall rankings
The area’s top 25 stations and their average share of audience as measured by Arbitron for the fall months compared with the previous three-month period.
*--* -- -- -- Last -- -- Current Quarter 1. KIIS-FM 5.6 5.8 2. KRTH-FM 4.7 4.2 3. KOST-FM 4.5 3.9 4. KLVE-FM 4.3 4.1 5. KFI-AM 4.2 4.4 6. KLAX-FM 3.7 3.4 7. KRCD-FM 3.6 3.1 8. KSCA-FM 3.5 3.8 9. KROQ-FM 3.4 3.7 10. KTWV-FM 3.2 3.1 -- KPWR-FM 3.2 2.9 12. KBIG-FM 3.1 3.3 13. KBUE-FM 3.0 3.1 14. KCBS-FM 2.9 3.8 15. KLOS-FM 2.8 2.9 16. KHHT-FM 2.7 2.8 17. KNX-AM 2.6 1.9 18. KXOL-FM 2.4 2.5 19. KKGO-FM 2.3 2.5 -- KABC-AM 2.3 2.1 21. KYSR-FM 2.2 2.1 -- KFWB-AM 2.2 2.0 23. KLYY-FM 2.0 2.1 24. KSSE-FM 1.9 1.7 25. KUSC-FM 1.8 2.0 *--*
The rating survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from Sept. 18 to Dec. 10.