from the LA Times
April 27, 2006
Stern's East Coast replacement, David Lee Roth, was fired last week because of poor ratings. His West Coast counterpart, Adam Carolla, is having his own problems. His KLSX-FM (97.1) morning show didn't place in the top 20 for morning drive time in key demographics.
from the Los Angeles Times
July 20, 2005
Pop station KIIS-FM (102.7) has jumped to No. 1 in the local radio ratings, displacing hip-hop outlet KPWR-FM (105.9) for the first time in three years, according to figures released Tuesday by the Arbitron ratings service.
Meanwhile, a format change at classic-rock station KCBS-FM (93.1) nearly doubled its percentage of listeners 12 and older in the quarterly popularity survey, which covered March 31 to June 22.
KIIS went from second to first place even though it lost audience share, dropping from a 4.6% audience share in the winter quarter to 4.5% in the spring. But KPWR fell even farther, going from 4.7% to 4.2%, which made it No. 2 in the Los Angeles-Orange County market.
KIIS' rise to the top has coincided with its addition of more rap artists -- such as Eminem, 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg -- mirroring both the top of the album sales charts and rival KPWR's playlist.
"We've been striving to get this station back to No. 1 and obviously we're really excited," John Ivey, programming director at KIIS, said Tuesday.
He acknowledged that shifting toward a more "rhythmic" lineup helped, but he heaped praise upon the station's relatively new morning DJ, Ryan Seacrest. "Hats off to Ryan and his crew," Ivey said. "He beat Big Boy, [Howard] Stern and Kevin & Bean -- that's a big deal."
KPWR officials took the decline philosophically.
"Having the pleasure-opportunity-privilege to be No. 1 for three full years, that just doesn't happen," said Jimmy Steal, the station's program director and programming vice president for its parent company, Emmis. "We all knew that was going to be interrupted, we just didn't know when."
The battle between the market's top Spanish-language stations tightened during the spring, with KLVE-FM (107.5), KSCA-FM (101.9) and KLAX-FM (97.9) finishing in a three-way tie for third, each averaging 4% of the audience. KLAX made the biggest jump, after tying for ninth at 3% in the winter. KSCA rose from a sixth-place tie at 3.6% while KLVE increased from 3.8% and fifth place in the winter.
William B. Tanner, executive vice president for programming at Spanish Broadcasting System, which owns KLAX-FM, attributed the 33% rise to programming changes that included an afternoon oldies hour, a new afternoon disc jockey and a revamped news operation.
"We're thrilled to death," said Tanner. "It exceeded our expectations."
The trio muscled past talk station KFI-AM (640), which fell from a second-place tie at 4.6% in the winter to sixth place with 3.9% in the spring. KFI's drop mirrored a rough time for news and talk radio in general.
"It's never fun to go down," said Robin Bertolucci, KFI's program director. "We are to some degree a victim of a slow news cycle, but I'm still confident about our long-term plan and I wouldn't change a thing."
KCBS leapt from 24th place in the winter with 1.7% of the audience to 11th place and 3% in the spring, its first survey as "Jack FM," the moniker the station assumed March 17 when it shed its 12-year-old "Arrow 93" classic-rock format. The new format, which management compared to a listener's Apple iPod on shuffle, features a dizzyingly varied playlist with artists such as Chaka Kahn and Charlie Daniels, and no disc jockeys.
Jeff Federman, KCBS general manager, said the company was expecting to see improved ratings -- based on the Jack format's performance in other cities -- but said the L.A. numbers were more than they had hoped for. He predicted that the breadth of the station's 1,200-song playlist -- three or four times the size of most other stations -- would help keep Jack from fading as a novelty act.
Before Jack launched in Los Angeles, program director Kevin Weatherly said the station, which plays songs from the '60s through today, would serve as a bridge between its sister stations, oldies outlet KRTH-FM (101.1) and alternative rocker KROQ-FM (106.7). But it may have ended up stealing listeners from those two: KROQ fell from fourth place with a 4.2% audience share in the winter to 3.7% and an eighth-place tie with adult contemporary station KOST-FM (103.5). KRTH dropped from ninth place with 3% in the winter to 2.5% and a tie for 13th.
from the Los Angeles Times
April 29, 2005
XTRA, the sports station that used to be on two frequencies, 690 and 1150, moved to KLAC's 570 frequency Feb. 3 amid much fanfare.
Although as far as the FCC is concerned the call letters remain KLAC, the station bills itself XTRA Sports AM 570. The implication is that the station is giving sports fans something extra.
But, it appears XTRA Sports AM 570 may be giving sports fans less, at least less sports programming.
Shortly after making the switch to 570, the station dropped its local nighttime sports show in favor of Phil Hendrie's syndicated general talk show. And now comes word that the station will drop its early-morning syndicated sports show in favor of a syndicated Howard Stern-type show out of Chicago.
Beginning May 23, Van Earl Wright, Andrew Siciliano and Krystal Fernandez will be replaced by Erich "Mancow" Muller, described by XTRA General Manager Don Martin as "a toned-down Stern."
The sports show, called "The Morning Extravaganza" and syndicated by the Fox Sports radio network to about 100 stations, is not going away. It will still be carried by Lancaster station KAVL (610) and on XM satellite radio's Channel 142. It just will no longer be carried by XTRA.
Ratings, of course, are why XTRA is veering away from sports at certain parts of the day.
"We are here to shatter the myth that sports lovers need sports 24/7," Martin said. "If you look at what works in morning drive, in every format, it's entertainment. Entertainment wins, period. So we went and got the most entertaining show out there."
Martin says his station's midday lineup of Jim Rome, "Loose Cannons" Steve Hartman and Mychal Thompson, and Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton remains strong.
"With the combination of Stern going away [to Sirius satellite radio sometime before the end of the year] and Mancow entering the world of syndication, we saw an opportunity to take the station to a whole new level," he added.
In the last Arbitron rating book, "The Morning Extravaganza" drew a 1.1 share among men 25-54 in Los Angeles. In the same demographic category, Stern on KLSX-FM (97.1) drew a 7.6 share, down from a 9.2 share in the previous rating book.
The station would like to get somewhere close to those numbers with Muller.
Said Joe McDonnell of rival station KSPN (710), "The move will increase their ratings, there's no doubt about that. But it may also turn off some of their hard-core sports listeners, which will be a good thing for us."
David Vassegh, McDonnell's former producer at KSPN and now a reporter at XTRA, listened to McDonnell's comment in the Dodger Stadium press box Wednesday night and said, "What does he know?"
Said Martin, "We're still the sports station of record. But it's all about winning."
from the Los Angeles Times
Steve Carney, Special to The Times
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.
The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from Jan. 6 to March 30.
from mediaweek.com
KPWR-FM (Power 106), Emmis Communications’ Rhythmic Top 40 station in Los Angeles, maintained a razor-thin ratings edge over second place Clear Channel’s News/Talk KFI-AM in the Arbitron Winter survey released April 25. Power 106 dipped 4.9 to 4.7, while KFI moved up 4.4 to 4.6. Moving up from fifth to third place was Clear Channel’s heritage Top 400 KIIS-FM which grew 4.0 to 4.3. Infinity Broadcasting’s Modern Rock KROQ-FM maintained its fourth place position, gaining one tenth of a share point to 4.2.
In the ever-heated battle for the Latino audience, Univision Radio’s Romantica-formatted KLVE-FM remained the top Hispanic outlet, despite a half-share loss. KLVE slipped 4.3 to 3.8, falling from third to fifth overall among all stations in the market, regardless of language. Meanwhile, L.A.’s Regional Mexican outlets traded half an audience share point. Spanish Broadcasting System’s KLAX-FM fell to 3.0, while Univision’s similarly formatted KSCA-FM increased to 3.6, advancing from 9th to sixth place in a tie with Infinity’s Smooth Jazz station, KTWV-FM.
Beyond KFI’s rartings gain, results were mixed among the market’s other News/Talk stations. Infinity’s FM Talk station KLSX dropped to a 2.5 from a 3.0 in Fall, slightly above where it was a over a year ago in Fall 2003 when it had a 2.3. KLSX morning man Howard Stern is now sixth among morning shows in the market. Infinity’s News KNX-AM moved up in the ratings from 2.6 to 2.2, while the company’s other News station, KFWB-AM, inched up slightly from 1.5 to 1.6. Salem Communictions’ Talk KRLA-AM maintained its 0.8 overall share from Fall to Winter.
The top-rated stations among Adult 25-54 were: KLVE (4.4), KSCA (4.0), KROQ (3.7), KFI (3.7), KTWV (3.7).
The top-rated stations among Young Adults 18-34 were: KPWR (7.5), KROQ (7.0), KIIS (6.2), KSCA (5.3), KLVE (4.7).
Among all Persons 12 years and older, Los Angeles’ top morning show winners are: KFI (5.6), KSCA (5.6), KROQ (4.8), KLAX (4.3) and KPWR (4.0).
from the Los Angeles Times
January 14, 2005
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%.
CORRECTION
DATE: January 18, 2005
Radio ratings -- An article about Arbitron radio ratings in Friday's Calendar section said KROQ-FM (106.7) placed fourth in the latest listenership survey. In fact, KIIS-FM (102.7) placed fourth, with 4.2% of listeners 12 and older; KROQ was fifth, with 4.1%.
from the Los Angeles Times
October 19, 2004
Though hip-hop outlet Power 106 maintained its supremacy in the Los Angeles-Orange County market, completing 2 1/2 straight years as the No. 1 radio station in the area, the race among the top seven tightened considerably during the summer, according to ratings released Monday.
During the summer survey period from July 1 to Sept. 22, KPWR-FM (105.9) attracted 4.9% of all listeners ages 12 and older -- down slightly from its 5% in the spring but still a larger slice of the market than anyone else's, according to the figures from the Arbitron ratings service.
With listener habits disrupted by summer vacations and daylight saving time, second-place KLAX-FM (97.9) also slipped from the spring, averaging 4.4% of the audience in the summer, compared with its previous 4.7% share. That was still far ahead of its winter showing, though, when the outlet for traditional Mexican music was in 10th place with a 3% share of the audience.
Tying for third in the latest survey were talk station KFI-AM (640) and alternative rocker KROQ-FM (106.7), each garnering 4.3% of the local audience. KFI had been alone in third in the spring, with 4.5%, and K-Rock following at 4.4%.
The Nos. 5 through 7 stations made big gains during the summer. KIIS-FM (102.7) leaped from seventh place, with 3.2% of the audience, to fifth and 4%. KLVE-FM (107.5), home of Spanish-language love songs, rose from 3.1% and eighth place to 3.7% and sixth. And KKBT-FM (100.3) jumped from a ninth-place tie to seventh, increasing its share from 3% to 3.6% in the summer.
The biggest loser in the summer was adult contemporary station KOST-FM (103.5), which fell from fifth place and 3.7% of the audience to 3.1%, an eighth-place tie with rhythm & blues station KHHT-FM (92.3).
Among morning shows, "El Cucuy," the alter ego of frenetic Spanish-language host Renan Almendarez Coello, maintained the lead that he reestablished in the spring quarter. He commanded 6.7% of the morning drive audience, down from his 7% share in the spring. He was followed by Bill Handel at KFI, who took 5.6% of the audience, also down slightly from his 5.8% in the spring. Handel has been the top English-language morning host since spring 2003.
Coello returned to mornings in March after leaving his afternoon show on KSCA-FM (101.9) in a dispute with management. His former morning show on that station topped the ratings for six years, and his replacement, Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, fared well in the most recent listener survey.
Sotelo had taken a huge ratings hit when Coello reclaimed his old morning time slot, now on rival KLAX, falling from a second-place tie with 4.7% in fall 2003 to seventh and 3.3% in the winter, and further still in the spring, to 2.9%, though he remained in seventh. This summer, Sotelo posted an enormous gain in audience share, increasing to 3.9% of the audience, though he still couldn't break out of seventh place.
Kevin & Bean, the KROQ morning team, rose from fifth place to fourth in spite of losing audience share, slipping from 4.6% to 4.5%. They switched places with KPWR's Big Boy, who dropped to fifth after going from 4.7% to 4.1%.
Shock jock Howard Stern, reemerging this year as a force among all listeners, not just his core adult audience, held third place in the mornings for talk station KLSX-FM (97.1). He took 5% of the audience, down from 5.2% in the spring.
Once the reigning king of morning drive, Stern had slipped somewhat from his heyday in the 1990s. But a feud over indecency issues earlier this year with the Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and his resulting on-air rants about them and President Bush, has brought him attention and listeners.
But Stern's performance didn't help the rest of the lineup at KLSX, which dropped from a ninth-place tie with 3% of the audience in the spring to 12th and 2.8% in the summer.
The news that arrived two weeks before these ratings may have been even worse, however: Stern announced that when his contract with KLSX parent Viacom/Infinity is up in January 2005, he's jumping to Sirius satellite radio, leaving Infinity stations and the rest of Stern's 45 outlets with 15 months to find someone to anchor the top of their schedules.
Talk station KABC-AM (790) dipped from its spring showing, falling from a 12th-place tie with 2.9% of the audience to 14th, with 2.6%.
The market's two all-news stations showed mixed results: KNX-AM (1070) fell from a tie for 18th, with a 2.1% audience share, to 21st, with 1.8%. Meanwhile, KFWB-AM (980) -- which also serves as the Dodgers' flagship station -- rose from 1.3% and a tie for 28th to 1.5% and a tie for 25th, an increase that coincided with the Dodgers' run for a National League West title.
Ryan Seacrest, who took over the morning show on KIIS in February from 22-year veteran Rick Dees, improved on his audience share from the spring, his first full ratings period as host. Seacrest went from 2.9% to 3.4%, but nevertheless dropped to eighth from a seventh-place tie in the spring.
from the Los Angeles Times
July 21, 2004
Steve Carney, Special to The Times
He's the boogeyman of morning radio; El Cucuy scares up a big win for KLAX-FM in the latest L.A.-area ratings. KPWR-FM, the hip-hop hot spot, holds strong as No. 1 overall.
Hip-hop station KPWR-FM (105.9) continued its reign over Southland radio, entering its third straight year as the area's top-rated outlet, while frenetic Spanish-language host Renan Almendarez Coello regained his throne as king of the market's morning shows and pulled his station up with him to new heights, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Arbitron radio ratings service.
This spring, KPWR maintained the 5% share of local audience it had in the winter and held on to its top spot in the ratings, where it has perched since the spring of 2002.
Coello's home, KLAX-FM (97.9), saw the most dramatic results in the spring ratings survey, which spanned April 1 through June 23. The station rocketed from a 3% share of the audience in the winter to 4.7% in the spring, shooting it from 10th to second place overall.
"Renan lifted the station," said Bill Tanner, executive vice president of programming at Spanish Broadcasting System, which owns KLAX. "As go the mornings, so goes the station, and it was never more true than today."
Coello left his longtime home, KSCA-FM (101.9), in March after a bitter dispute with management over grievances that included pay for his supporting cast. Known as "El Cucuy de la manana," or "the morning boogeyman," Coello began dominating morning ratings almost as soon as he took over a.m. drive time at KSCA in 1997, until he left for the more leisurely schedule of an afternoon show in February 2003.
KLAX hired him after KSCA suspended him for an on-air rant against management and returned him to mornings on March 22 -- where he immediately shot to No. 1 in the market among Spanish-language hosts, according to the winter ratings. Since then, he has continued his ascendance and now leads all morning hosts by a wide margin.
KLAX's morning show finished ninth in the winter, with 3.2% of the audience. Coello more than doubled that figure, boosting it to 7% in the spring.
"The size of this win is enormous," Tanner said. "It certainly does validate Renan as the premier Los Angeles radio personality. He's a one-of-a-kind talent."
Bill Handel, morning host at talk station KFI-AM (640), saw a big increase -- from 5% of the audience last winter to 5.8% this spring survey -- but he was still no match for Coello. Though Handel dropped from the top spot to No. 2 overall, he remained the area's top-rated English-language morning host, outpacing a surging Howard Stern on KLSX-FM (97.1). Stern, the self-proclaimed "king of all media," jumped from fourth to third in the morning, increasing his audience share from 4.2% to 5.2%, buoyed by attention over his feuds with the Federal Communications Commission and Republican lawmakers over indecency.
In addition to chronicling Coello's success, the spring ratings period was also the first full survey with Ryan Seacrest as morning host at KIIS-FM (102.7), which hired him in February to replace Rick Dees. (Dees' contract wasn't renewed after 22 years with the station.) But the ubiquitous host of TV's "American Idol" and "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" lost audience share for KIIS: Seacrest garnered 2.9% of the morning audience, tied for seventh place, down from the winter ratings period when KIIS' morning show was tied for fifth with 3.6%. Seacrest took over for Dees on Feb. 22, about two-thirds of the way through the quarter.
from PRNewswire
May 26, 2004
"El Cucuy's" morning program on La Raza (Monday - Saturday, 4-11 AM), was tied for #1 in the total Los Angeles radio market, Spanish and English, earning a 5.0 share.
APRIL EXTRAPOLATIONS
The April monthly extrapolation of the February-March-April Arbitrend shows huge increases for KLAX. "El Cucuy's" April morning show jumped almost three shares, from 4.6 to 7.7, by far #1 in the entire market. Overall, KLAX leaped from March's 3.6 to 5.2 in April, just one-tenth of a share behind market leader KROQ.
In the most-coveted 25-54 demographic, KLAX's April extrapolation ranked #1 in the market, moving from 4.4 to 7.2. "El Cucuy's" morning show almost doubled, jumping from 5.5 in March to 10.1 in April. Howard Stern on KLSX was #2 with 6.6.
--snips--
from Radio&Records
April 26, 2004
from the LA Times
April 28, 2004
The landscape of morning drive saw a seismic shift last month, with the biggest names in Los Angeles radio either leaving or reclaiming lost ground, and the full scope of their impact showing up in ratings released during the past week.
Shock jock Howard Stern, instead of losing out in a feud with President Bush, the Federal Communications Commission and the nation's largest radio chain, has garnered audience figures he hasn't seen since 1995.
Renan Almendarez Coello, known as "El Cucuy," left the station where he topped morning ratings for seven years and, after only nine days on the air there, made his new home the market's No. 1 Spanish-language morning show, accomplishing what the trade magazine Radio & Records called "a feat perhaps never before seen in Los Angeles radio."
And after Rick Dees was bounced from his morning perch after 22 years at KIIS-FM (102.7), his replacement, "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest, helped pull the station's morning program from 10th place to fifth.
"For this to move this quickly is amazing," said Roy Laughlin, who manages KIIS and six other Los Angeles stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. "Radio is very slow in its ratings process. Typically it takes so long to get people to tune in."
But Stern, Coello and Seacrest showed immediate, dramatic gains.
The Arbitron radio ratings released Friday covered listener preferences for the first three months of this year, presenting them as a quarterly average. But a month-to-month breakdown available this week shows just how suddenly the audience for these morning shows surged.
On his Los Angeles affiliate, KLSX-FM (97.1), Stern averaged 3.9% of Southland listeners over the age of 12 in February. When the FCC proposed slapping its maximum fine on a Detroit station for a Stern broadcast, Stern began an on-air crusade against the agency and the president in response, and radio chain Clear Channel Communications pulled the shock jock from six of its outlets, citing indecency fears. After that, in March, Stern's L.A. audience share leaped to 5.4%, making him No. 1 in the market.
He was also first among listeners ages 25-54, with a 5.7% share - the first time he's topped the L.A. ratings in that demographic since the summer of 1995, according to Infinity Broadcasting Corp., which distributes Stern's show and owns KLSX.
He saw similar gains in his home market, New York, and in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere.
And Stern's effect worked in the other direction, as well. At KIOZ-FM (105.3) in San Diego ‹ one of the Clear Channel-owned stations that pulled Stern's program at the end of February ‹ the audience share for its morning show went from 8.9% in February to .7% in March, according to Infinity. The fall was even greater among listeners ages 18 to 34 - from 20.6% to .8%.
--snips--
from the LA Times
July 17, 2003
Hip-hop radio station KPWR-FM (105.9) took first place in local radio's ratings for the fifth straight quarter, extending its lead over alternative outlet KROQ-FM (106.7), while talker KFI-AM (640) jumped to third, according to figures for the spring quarter, released Wednesday by the Arbitron ratings service.
Driving KFI's move up the rankings was a.m.-drive host Bill Handel, who claimed the top spot among morning shows by rising from third place and pushing the former No. 1 program, KROQ's "Kevin & Bean Show," to second. Handel claimed 5.4% of the audience from 6 to 10 a.m., up from 4.9% in the winter, while Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter dropped from 5.3% to 4.9% among listeners ages 12 and older.
The ratings charted the period from March 27 to June 18 and also showed pop station KIIS-FM (102.7) plunging from third place overall to eighth, with 3.4% of the spring audience compared with 4% in the winter. KROQ repeated its second-place performance, keeping its 4.4% of the audience, while KPWR increased its share from 5% to 5.3%. KFI, meanwhile, leapt from a fourth-place tie at 3.7% of the winter audience to 4.3% in the spring, the ratings period that included all but the first week of the war in Iraq, a staple topic on the talk station.
Its talk rivals also saw gains during the span. KABC-AM (790) rose from 15th to 11th place by increasing its audience share from 2.5% to 2.9%. KLSX-FM (97.1) held its 2.5% share of the audience from the winter, but that was good enough to elevate the station from 15th to 13th place.
But the war apparently didn't compel Southland listeners to tune into the area's two all-news stations, KNX-AM (1070) and KFWB-AM (980). The audience share for KNX remained at 2.1%, which was good enough to boost it to 19th overall from a 21st-place tie. And even the start of baseball season was no help for KFWB, the Dodgers' new flagship station, which fell from a tie with KNX to 25th place and a 1.6% share of the audience.
Among morning shows, the same group of contenders has jockeyed for the top spot during the past couple of years. Among those in the horse race with Handel and Kevin & Bean has been KPWR's Big Boy, who lost audience share this time, dipping from 4.8% of morning listeners to 4.6%, but nevertheless rose from fourth to third place. Pulling the same feat was Steve Harvey on KKBT-FM (100.3), who rose from fifth into a fourth-place tie despite losing .1% of his 4.2% audience share in the winter.
But charging into the race is Howard Stern on KLSX. The latest figures show him moving from sixth among all listeners ages 12 and older into a tie for fourth.
Until Feb. 3, all the English-language morning hosts trailed far behind "El Cucuy" on KSCA-FM (101.9), the alter-ego of host Renán Almendárez Coello. After dominating morning ratings for nearly six years, Coello moved his wildly popular program to afternoons and left his old time slot to Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo. Sotelo's morning show dropped but still finished second in the winter ratings, but those figures still included some of Coello's shows. In the spring ratings, the first to chart only Sotelo, KSCA dropped from 5% of the morning audience to 4.1%, falling into a fourth-place tie.
KSCA also dipped slightly overall, falling from 3.7% of the audience and a fourth-place tie to 3.5% and a sixth-place tie with Spanish-language competitor KLAX-FM (97.9).
Also making a jump was smooth-jazz station KTWV-FM (94.7), going from 11th to fifth.
Radio Ratings
The local area's top 25 stations and their average audience share of 10.4 million listeners in the spring quarter, as measured by Arbitron, compared with the previous three-month winter quarter.
Current Last Quarter 1 KPWR-FM 5.3 5.0 2 KROQ-FM 4.4 4.4 3 KFI-AM 4.3 3.7 4 KOST-FM 3.8 3.6 5 KTWV-FM 3.6 2.8 6 KSCA-FM 3.5 3.7 KLAX-FM 3.5 2.8 8 KIIS-FM 3.4 4.0 9 KRTH-FM 3.3 3.1 KKBT-FM 3.3 3.1 11 KABC-AM 2.9 2.5 KLVE-FM 2.9 3.4 13 KLSX-FM 2.5 2.5 KZLA-FM 2.5 2.2 KBIG-FM 2.5 2.7 16 KYSR-FM 2.3 2.0 17 KXOL-FM 2.2 2.2 KHHT-FM 2.2 2.6 19 KNX-AM 2.1 2.1 20 KBUE-FM 2.0 2.9 KLOS-FM 2.0 2.4 KCBS-FM 2.0 2.3 23 KSSE-FM 1.8 1.6 24 KZAB-FM 1.7 0.5 25 KJLH-FM 1.6 1.4 KMZT-FM 1.6 1.8 KFWB-AM 1.6 2.1
The ratings survey covers people 12 and older listening between 6 a.m. and midnight, from March 27 to June 18.
from the Los Angeles Times
April 22, 2003
Hip-hop outlet KPWR-FM (105.9) completed a year as the Southland's top radio station, while the battle for the area's favorite morning show tightened considerably with the departure of the host who controlled the time period for six years, according to the Arbitron ratings released Monday.
Though KPWR, "Power 106," slipped somewhat from the fall ratings in its percentage of the Los Angeles-Orange County audience ages 12 and up, going from 5.4% to 5%, it still kept second-place KROQ-FM (106.7) at bay. The alternative rocker garnered 4.4% of the audience during the winter quarter survey, from Jan. 2 to March 26, duplicating its mark from the fall.
But KROQ's "Kevin & Bean" morning show leapt from fourth to first place, filling a void left when the man who had an iron grip on morning drive, Renán Almendárez Coello, moved his show on Spanish-language KSCA-FM (101.9) from mornings to afternoons.
Coello held a whopping 6.8% of the audience from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays in the fall ratings, but moved his program to 3 to 7 p.m. starting Feb. 3, saying that the morning show left him little time for other pursuits.
Coello predicted his listeners would follow him, and they did in droves. In afternoon drive, KSCA rocketed to second place with 4.9% of the audience, up from its fall showing of 24th with 1.6%. Power 106 remained No. 1 for the time slot, however.
Coello's replacement in the morning, Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, who came from KLOK-AM in San Jose, held onto enough of the audience to maintain second place. He captured 5% of the audience, while Bill Handel at talk station KFI-AM (640) came in third, with 4.9% of the listeners.
Following up in the tight morning race -- considered radio's prime time because of the huge numbers of commuters listening in their cars -- was KPWR's Big Boy, who slipped from third place (at 4.9%) to fourth place (with 4.8%). Steve Harvey on KKBT-FM (100.3) -- who frequently has fallen in behind Coello as the top-rated English-language morning host -- dropped from second to fifth, falling from 5% of the overall audience to 4.2%.
KFI also fared well overall, its weekly share of audience rising from 3.6% to 3.7%, moving from a tie for sixth last fall to a tie for fourt this winter. Its principal talk rival, KABC-AM (790), also moved up, increasing from 2.4% and 17th place in the fall to 2.5% and a 15th place tie in the winter. FM talker KLSX (97.1) remained in a 15th-place tie with 2.5%, the same figures as in the fall.
The area's two all-news stations tied for 21st place with 2.1% of the audience. But while that represented an increase for KFWB-AM (980), which rose from 1.8% at 25th place last fall, KNX-AM (1070) fell from 2.2% and 18th place. Any benefit the stations reaped during the war with Iraq won't be reflected until the next quarterly ratings survey.
from the Orange County Register
March 30, 2003
Gary Lycan - Radio
--snips--
NEW RATINGS
KPWR/105.9 FM retained the No. 1 spot overall in part two of the winter radio ratings released by Arbitron. It had 5.1 percent share of the total audience, followed by new rock KROQ/106.7 FM, 4.5; contemporary hits KIIS/102.7 FM, 4.1; regional Mexican KSCA/101.9 FM, 4.0; news-talk KFI/640 AM, 3.7; urban KKBT/100.3 FM, 3.5; oldies KRTH/101.1 FM, 3.4.
Smooth jazz KTWV/94.7 FM dropped to a 2.9 share, its lowest in two years. News KFWB/980 AM got a 2.0 share, its biggest share in two years.
Adult standards KLAC/570 AM was unchanged with a 0.9 share from the last report (No. 30) KSUR/1260 AM and 540 AM, was No. 42 with a 0.4 share.
In morning drive, among all listeners, the leaders are KSCA's Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, KROQ's Kevin & Bean, KKBT's Steve Harvey, KFI's Bill Handel, KPWR's Big Boy, KLSX's Howard Stern, KIIS' Rick Dees, KLVE's Pepe Barreto and KRTH's Gary Bryan.
--snips--
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