LA Ratings R Out

[jasonharper2013]

KBIG Has is biggest lead and best number years

Here r top 5
KBIG 5.9
KIIS 5.4
KAMP 4.5
KOST 4.4
And....KPWR 4.0

 

[pjc1961]

Los Angeles: http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb003
Riverside-San Bernardino: http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb379

August 2013 age 6+ overall publicly released ratings for subscribing stations cover the survey period of Thu. 7/18/13-Wed. 8/14/13.
Next survey period will be September 2013 covering Thu. 8/15/13-Wed. 9/11/13 with the data delivery date being Mon. 9/30/13.

AllAccess.com's August 2013 PPM Ratings Analysis featuring the top 5 (or so) stations in the 25-54, 18-34 + 18-49 demographics
(scroll down for Los Angeles):
http://www.allaccess.com/arbitron-p...search-director-inc-presents-exclusive-august

 

[Thomps2525]

Several people on several radio message boards have been complaining about the heavy commercial load on KFI and the frequent airings of commercials for hair replacement, insomnia cures, mortuaries, dentists, Kars For Kids, et al. (I particularly hate the commercials that are done by Tim Conway Jr. because every phrase and sentence is spliced to eliminate the normal pauses---thecommercialsdonotsoundnaturalatall.) And now KFI, which for several years was almost always among the top five, has dropped to 11th. Coincidence? I think not!

 

[Thomps2525]

In Riverside-San Bernardino, the audience share of KOLA, which in March dropped the 1960s music and went to a 1970s-80s-90s classic hits format, dropped from 6.6 to 5.8. The 12% drop put Spanish-language KLYY in the top spot. Are listeners finally deciding that the 1990s hits aren't as appealing and enduring as the 1960s hits...or is the ratings drop what David would call an "aberration"?

 

[davideduardo]

In Riverside-San Bernardino, the audience share of KOLA, which in March dropped the 1960s music and went to a 1970s-80s-90s classic hits format, dropped from 6.6 to 5.8. The 12% drop put Spanish-language KLYY in the top spot. Are listeners finally deciding that the 1990s hits aren't as appealing and enduring as the 1960s hits...or is the ratings drop what David would call an "aberration"?

KOLA is simply moving around within the range we often see in markets with small numbers of meters. KOLA has been anywhere from 7th to 2nd in 25-54 so far this year.

We have seen KFRG up by about a point from recent levels, and KOLA off a bit. KLYY is off a bit from levels set earlier in the year.

It's just wobble, not an aberration.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

KOLA is simply moving around within the range we often see in markets with small numbers of meters. KOLA has been anywhere from 7th to 2nd in 25-54 so far this year.

We have seen KFRG up by about a point from recent levels, and KOLA off a bit. KLYY is off a bit from levels set earlier in the year.

It's just wobble, not an aberration.

Oh. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Thomps2525]

The ratings for KABC, KFWB, KPFK, KRLA and KTLK are dismal, KFI's ratings have been plummeting, and the ratings of KNX and KPCC are good but not great. In the August Arbitrons for San Diego, news/talk KPBS ranks third with a 5.0 share. Is KPBS's large share solely because our neighbor to the south has fewer news/talk stations...or are there other reasons?

 

[MC]

Is the KFI drop part of the Dickey identified trend of a weakening talk radio market (because of the Limbaugh-Fluke fuss) or other factors? End of election cycle, improving economy, demographic changes???

 

[AM FM listener]

KFI seems to be in a pickle. With Hot doing so well, the KFI to FM 92.3 talk has really subsided. And, as has been pointed out on these boards before, KFI can't go to FM 98.7 because KYSR has an important role to block KROQ from rising higher in the ratings. So...KFI is stuck on the AM band for the time being and that run may be starting to fade.

 

[Thomps2525]

The previous comment is accurate: KFI is in a pickle.

Dill.

David can probably answer this: Did the ratings of San Francisco's KCBS-740 go up after the station starting simulcasting on 106.9? And, considering the 50,000-watt signal of AM 640, would KFI pick up any additional listeners with an FM simulcast?

 

[davideduardo]

Is the KFI drop part of the Dickey identified trend of a weakening talk radio market (because of the Limbaugh-Fluke fuss) or other factors? End of election cycle, improving economy, demographic changes???

It's still programming. KFI has been well inside the top 10 in 25-54 in PPM and in the last few years.

However, the "in your face" KFI style seems very toned down... since the John & Ken incidents that evoked an apology a while back. It is, IMHO, not a fun listen the way it was before. And I have been an admirer or KFI, David's and Robin's work back to the time I was doing talk on AM also.

Just look at some of the stations that are doing well on AM with talk... Cincinnati, Austin, Buffalo, etc., and it can be done.

 

[davideduardo]

David can probably answer this: Did the ratings of San Francisco's KCBS-740 go up after the station starting simulcasting on 106.9? And, considering the 50,000-watt signal of AM 640, would KFI pick up any additional listeners with an FM simulcast?

KCBS-AM is a 50 kw station, and perhaps has an advantage that it is directional mostly to the south from the north side of the Bay. That makes the signal good in the distant South Bay areas of the market. The FM did not add coverage, it added the appeal of FM.

But KCBS is all news. It is WTOP. It is WBBM. Just as WBBM added FM in self-defense, and WTOP moved to FM to improve quality and coverage, KCBS added FM to be more appealing to under-55's. And that is where it benefited. Not growth, just a staying of the erosion of the younger demos as listeners aged. It looks like it was a very smart move in retrospect.

 

[Thomps2525]

David, in September of 2006 KTAR-620 in Phoenix started simulcasting on 92.3. Four months later the AM switched to sports, leaving the news/talk format on FM exclusively. Do you think that was a wise move...or would it have been better to have news on AM and sports on FM? Is FM always going to be "more appealing to under-55's" than AM, or does it depend on the format?

 

[MC]

KCBS went up I think, but how much it had to do with the FM I am not sure. The KXNT talk station in Vegas did not do much when it added an FM channel, but the FM signal is limited as their AM signal is somewhat.

 

[davideduardo]

KCBS went up I think, but how much it had to do with the FM I am not sure. The KXNT talk station in Vegas did not do much when it added an FM channel, but the FM signal is limited as their AM signal is somewhat.

But KXNT is a talk station, while KCBS is a news station in market #4.

 

[MC]

I do not like the shouting on KFI, maybe it works for some, Vegas has 2 "shouters" that sound the same, Alan Stock and Kevin Wall. I am sure they are smart, Stock has a background as a Psychologist, but the shouting delivery, like Bill Handel, J & K, turns me off. On the other hand Dennis Miller is too low key. Vegas has always been a bad market for talk, Reno does better. KQED in SF more news than talk, but they do well.

 

[LKellerIII]

David could no doubt give a more educated answer, but the short uneducated answer is YES. IIRC, KCBS usually hovered around fifth place in the 12+ ratings, but is now usually in 1st or 2nd place. Whether the simulcast has brought in a younger demographic, David could answer, but I would think it helped, at least.

But the big difference between KCBS and KFI's situation is that CBS had only recently purchased the 106.9 frequency, and had already failed with 2 formats. The simulcast was a no-brainer.

 

[Gregg.]

The commercial Talk format is hurting in most markets. KFI has been pretty good at resisting that trend, although the last two books, its finished out of the Top 10. Currently there are only three large market Talk stations in the Top 10 in their markets... WGN Chicago, KTRH Houston and WSB Atlanta (which has a full power FM simulcast). Previously popular Talk stations such as WABC NYC, WLS Chicago, WBAP Dallas, etc. have all tumbled. Last year Boston lost three Talk stations. It only has one full time commercial Talk outlet now. And that remaining station, WRKO, is #15.

Some reasons why the Talk format is faultering...

--Is it too old? Well, even when you put younger hosts on the air, they don't seem to do much better. Andy Dean, syndicated by Clear Channel, sounds like he's barely 30. He plays Alternative Rock songs for his bumpers. But while is voice and attitude are youthful, his views are exactly the same as Limbaugh's and his ratings aren't special.
--Is it that people are tired of the same Rush playbook? Everything Conservative is absolutely good, everything Liberal is absolutely bad? I'd say that's a problem, although stations like KIRO Seattle and the old KGO San Francisco weren't like that at all. KIRO has trouble staying in the top 10. And KGO went to a mostly news format.
--Does it rely too much on syndicated national hosts? Probably, although KFI is all-local except for Rush & Coast to Coast. Same for the faultering KOGO in San Diego. CBS's WPHT Philadelphia last year got rid of Rush and Hannity, going all local in the daytime. Yet its ratings are #19.

Meanwhile, NPR News-Talk stations are doing great. NPR stations beat commercial Talk stations in many markets, including San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, Boston and Seattle. Again, I don't know why.

Maybe there's some bright Rush Junior out there, who will lead the Talk format back to high ratings. But I don't see him or her coming over the horizon.

 

[MC]

Maybe texting is the new talk radio, a way of people electronically connecting with others. I wonder if that could go the way of the CB radio? When it comes to KGO vs KCBS in Bay Area, I wonder if the traffic reports are a factor for some people.

 

[stretchdoggg]

When I have time to be sitting on Twitter, I get all my news there first. I can't tell you how many news stories I have learned about first on Twitter. The night Osama was killed, some guy in Abbottabad was live tweeting about helicopters at 2 AM, said it was "unusual". Guy was picking up followers by the thousands, every minute. Learned of Michael Jackson's death first, while in a hotel room in NYC. Boston bombings story, and how they caught the 2nd guy, played out on Twitter for 3 days. Real time stuff. LOVE Twitter, and the diverse group of people I follow.