KOST-FM coasts to No. 1 with holiday music

When Andy Williams sings “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” the folks at KOST-FM (103.5) ought to sing along -- and not because they like marshmallows for roasting and caroling in the snow.

The adult-contemporary station, elevated by its annual switch to nonstop holiday music, trounced its rivals in Los Angeles-Orange County radio last month, according to figures released Wednesday by the Arbitron ratings service.

KOST attracted a whopping 8.1% of the listening audience from Dec. 10 to Jan. 6, with more than 4.5 million people tuning in for at least five minutes each week.

In a distant second place was pop-music station KIIS-FM (102.7), which netted a 4.9% share of the listeners 6 and older. That would have been good enough for No. 1 as recently as November.

The home of continuous Christmas carols maintained its first-place finish from the previous ratings survey, which ran from Nov. 12 to Dec. 9. It scored a 5.5% audience share, beating KIIS, which had 4.7%.

KOST began its wall-to-wall holiday music on Nov. 19 and continued until Dec. 26.

The station, which started the holiday music marathons in 2001, always sees a resulting bump in ratings. It even rode the switch to a No. 1 ranking at the end of 2005. But it never before dominated the way it did last month.

And a change in the ratings system itself highlights the impact even further. Before 2008, Los Angeles radio ratings were released quarterly, and relied on survey participants charting their listening habits in a diary. Now Arbitron uses electronic receivers, called Portable People Meters, which automatically register any stations a person hears.

When Arbitron changed its ratings-gathering system, it also broke up the year into 13 four-week segments -- one for every month, plus what it calls the year-end “holiday” period. In 2008, KOST led the holiday period with a 7.2% audience share, ahead of second-place KIIS at 6.2%.

This year, KOST dominated every part of the day, except the 6-10 a.m. “morning drive” slot, where it placed second to talk station KFI-AM (640). There, Bill Handel and the first hour of Rush Limbaugh’s program ruled, garnering 6.1% of the audience -- up from 5.5% in December. KOST, featuring the duo of Mark Wallengren and Kristin Cruz, with their “Christmas Wish” charity and phone calls to Santa, placed second with 5.7% -- a jump from the previous month’s 4.1%, when they were sixth.

Regional Mexican music station KBUE-FM (105.5), featuring “Don Cheto,” alter ego of Juan Carlos Razo, and all-news station KNX-AM (1070) were next, tied at 4.4%.

But KOST won middays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., beating the classic hits at KRTH-FM (101.1) by 8.6% to 4.9%. During afternoon drive, from 3-7 p.m., KOST again topped KIIS, 8.6% to 5.4%. From 7 p.m. to midnight, KOST beat KIIS 8.2% to 6.4%. And KOST did the same on weekends, leading KIIS 8.6% to 5.7%.

An advance by most of the area’s public-radio stations in the previous month ebbed during the holiday period. Classical outlet KUSC-FM (91.5) dropped from 2.5% to 2.1%, but remained in 19th place. News and public-affairs station KPCC-FM (89.3) dropped from 2.2% to 1.9%, though it remained in 21st place. KCRW-FM (89.9), with its news and eclectic music, slipped from 1% and 32nd place to 0.9% and 34th place. And jazz station KKJZ-FM (88.1) held its 0.8% share of the audience, but rose from 38th to 37th place.

calendar@latimes.com