KIIS-FM holds top spot in Arbitron ratings

Pop outlet KIIS-FM (102.7) held its perch as the highest-rated station in Los Angeles and Orange County in June, while talk station KFI-AM (640) expanded its dominance as the top choice for morning listeners, according to radio ratings released Tuesday.

KIIS, whose playlist of Katy Perry, Lil Wayne, Lady Gaga and others pretty well mirrors the charts of the nation’s top-selling records, duplicated its showing from May, when it garnered 5.4% of the audience age 6 and older, according to the Arbitron ratings service. KFI, where national and local talk stars from Rush Limbaugh to John & Ken hold forth, placed second, down slightly from its 4.9% share in May.

The rest of the Top Five — adult-contemporary outlet KOST-FM (103.5), classic-hits station KRTH-FM (101.1) and KIIS’ pop rival KAMP-FM (97.1) — held the same slots as a month earlier, according to the survey of listeners from May 26 to June 22.

Spanish-language pop station KLVE-FM (107.5) slipped a little, dropping from sixth to seventh place and losing one-tenth of a ratings point, but it vaulted past several competitors in the weekday morning time slot. KLVE — which features the team of Omar Velasco and Argelia Atilano — jumped from seventh place to third in the 6-10 a.m. segment, while increasing its share of the morning audience from 3.6% to 4.2%.

KFI widened its lead in the crucial morning drive time, when broadcasters try to snag listeners first thing and hold onto them for the rest of the day. The station, with a combination of local host Bill Handel followed by the first hour of Limbaugh’s syndicated show, claimed 7.3% of the audience, up from 7% in May. The duo widened its lead over Ryan Seacrest at KIIS, who held onto second while dropping from 4.8% to 4.3%.

Rick Dees is still looking for traction in his return to morning radio. A longtime star at KIIS, Dees took over a.m. drive at KHHT-FM (92.3) on May 4. The station placed 19th among morning shows in June, Dees’ first full month on the job, with a 2.3% audience share. That was down slightly from May, when “Hot 92.3” was 17th at 2.4%. In April, the last full month before Dees came onboard, KHHT was 14th in the morning with a 2.5% share.

Despite KLVE’s morning boost, its fortunes went the opposite direction midday, when it dropped from third in May to seventh in June during the 10 a.m.-3 p.m. time slot. Its audience share fell from 4.3% to 3.7%. The midday leader was KOST, at 4.9%.

KIIS not only claimed the biggest slice of the area’s overall radio audience in June, but also once again amassed the largest number of listeners, by far, with 4.08 million tuning in for at least five minutes a week. That outpaced its closest competitor, KAMP, at 3.41 million, and marked the first time KIIS surpassed 4 million since February. It was the station’s highest total since it attracted 4.15 million listeners last September.

calendar@latimes.com