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KFI's Falling Ratings

G

Gregg.

KFI usually had been a top 5 station in Los Angeles. It was one of the few AM Talk stations doing well in a major market. But over the summer, ratings have dropped. In July and August KFI was #11. Now in the September ratings, it's in a three-way tie for #13.

The only major market Talk stations in the top 10 are WSB Atlanta (#1), WGN Chicago (#7) and KTRH Houston (#8). KFI is owned by Clear Channel but only carries two Clear Channel/Premiere syndicated Talk shows: Rush and Coast to Coast. The rest of the day is all local, as is the hourly news. That's kept KFI doing great in a market where most listening is on FM.

Los Angeles, as a Sunbelt city, doesn't listen much to non-music programming, be it Talk, All-News or NPR. Its two NPR outlets, KPCC and KCRW, are not highly rated. Compare that with KQED San Francisco and WAMU Washington, sometimes #1 in those markets. All-News KNX is almost never in the top 10. Contrast that with New York, where TWO All-News stations make the top 10. Or Chicago, Washington and San Francisco where All-News is often #1. But at least till now, LA radio listeners had been going to the AM band for KFI all these years. Are the down ratings just a glitch? Or are LA listeners just catching up to their counterparts in other large markets where Talk stations have been slipping?
 
A few months back I called it an anomaly but it's certainly looking more of a downward trend. Many here have pointed out the tipping point might have occurred when John & Ken got muzzled for their crack-ho comment about Whitney Houston. Bill Carroll isn't setting the world on fire and Tim Conway Jr is same ol' same ol'. Being a non election year there isn't much to talk about that hasn't been driven into the dirt. Obamacare is here, Jerry Brown is a doddering fool and Sacramento is a disaster.

While KFI has fallen, one thing remains constant and that is KABC hasn't moved an inch from the cellar.
 
Tom Leykis was ragging on the dropping KFI ratings yesterday and particularly how John and Ken seem to be different now. I do agree that ever since management decided to neuter them, they just haven't been the same and mostly they seem boring now. I'm sort of glad because I've always though that Robin was a incompetent manager at best but because KABC's long string of PD's were brain dead on arrival, it made her look like a genius by comparison. But all you had to do was look at her programming choices of Bill Carroll, Tim Conway Jr, Mo Kelly, Brian Suits, the Fork Report and Lisa Ann Walters to realize how bad she is at her job.

I don't think their ratings dive is an anomaly. I think they too have gone old like KABC and the grey-haired audience pool is limited in size. How many more times can you hear that Obama wants to destroy America before you decide to bail out.
 
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I agree with stevechang: Rush Limbaugh still attracts a large audience but the anti-Obama rhetoric (most of which I agree with, by the way) has really gotten old. KFI needs a local host who talks about local issues. Another bit that has really gotten old is Tim Conway Jr.'s "What The Hell Did Jesse Jackson Say?" The first few times that listeners had to try to decipher "Thimpotnce ofth civrites mushes in Semma cannabee oversted" were somewhat amusing but the bit has been done to death and needs to be permanently retired.
 
The last paragraph of stevechang's post is preposterous. The only (significant) KFI show where you hear that kind of talk is Rush, and it's been like that with his show since Obama got elected. The amount of Obama attacking on the station is and always has been rather modest compared to other stations. Handel is constantly bending over backwards to be "fair" to Obama, and J&K only really get nasty towards Obama on the issue of illegal immigration. John was screaming like a woman the other day at the Republicans over the government "shutdown", and today he got into a shouting match with Congressman Tom McClintock over the same thing. It's hardly GOP talking points on those shows.
 
Completely missed out on the shouting match with McClintock, I only caught a snippet where John actually gave Tom some room to talk. Usually he runs right over spokesholes and callers alike.

The ratings decline is a surprise, the show sounds about the same as it has in the past. Sure there are times where they might seem to be walking on eggshells, but that doesn't diminish the entertainment value by that much. Having Shannon's presence in there has been a plus, I had no probs with Terri Rae's occasional ewww back in the day, but I have been making it through an entire news update nowadays. Maybe some people have grown a bit weary of the usual John and Ken style of radio? They are still tops in my 2.5 hr commute, but when Dodger baseball is on, they are a close second.
 
"Glitch" interesting, Limbaugh rejects Obama's "glitch excuse making" I wonder what Rush's take on his failing LA ratings would be?
 
Yesterday, Tim Conway Jr. joined John & Ken near the end of their show and announced that he would be talking about the crazy Connecticut woman who tried to drive through barricades at the White House and was shot and killed by police. Okay.....but then he said he would also be discussing Miley Cyrus and Breaking Bad. John was incredulous that anybody would care about Miley anymore. I know I don't. And he pointed out that the 1983 finale of M*A*S*H was seen by 100,000,000 people but only 3% of the population watched the finale of Breaking Bad. He said, "Nothing makes me change a station faster than hearing people talk about a tv show that I've never watched." Do KFI hosts have the freedom to pick their own topics? If so, perhaps Conway needs to let someone else tell him what to talk about. And why KFI allows him to keep doing that idiotic "What The Hell Did Jesse Jackson Say" bit is beyond me!
 
LARadioRewind said:
He said, "Nothing makes me change a station faster than hearing people talk about a tv show that I've never watched."
Click to expand...

He should have simplified that to "hearing people talk about any TV show". John doesn't watch any TV or movies. He's an elitist snob who looks down his nose at anyone who gets into that stuff, and that includes his movie-reviewing radio partner.
 
Open letter to Robin Bertolucci:

October 3, 6:58 pm: Tim Conway Jr. announced that in the next hour he would be talking about Miley Cyrus. I changed the station.

October 6, 7:15 pm: Mo'Kelly announced that after the break he would be talking about Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan. I changed the station.

October 7, 6:55 am: Bill Handel started to talk about Miley Cyrus. I changed the station.

If other KFI listeners are as sick of hearing about Miley Cyrus as I am, and they, too, change the station as soon as they hear Miley's name mentioned, then you know part of the reason for KFI's declining ratings. Celebrity gossip is not my idea of "more stimulating talk radio."

--Steve
 
Celebrity gossip is not my idea of "more stimulating talk radio."
Click to expand...

It's nothing more than pandering to the younger demo -- it's people outside the demo injecting into the format what they think young people want to hear.

Of course since young people generally don't listen to radio, especially AM radio, the pandering will never reach the ears of the target demo. All it does is drive away the existing audience.
 
This day was bound to happen sooner or later, but I guarantee the suits in Burbank thought it was going to be later and not sooner.

The issue has always been not if, but when KFI should be moved to FM. My criticisms about neutered hosts, which I believe accounts for a large part of the recent drop aside, there has always been an opportunity cost decision that has presented itself to the suits: Do we take KFI, a continual (until now) top 5 station and move it onto FM and cement and possibly even build on that status while simultaneously killing off an existing successful format with better demos, or do we just let it make money on AM while we still have the successful formats on FM? Until now the decision was made really easy for them by the surprising levels of success attained in recent years by KBIG, KHHT and KYSR and the lack of drop off in cume on the AM side. KFI was holding its own, despite being relegated to AM.

But the suits have a real problem now. If they move KFI to FM, it is not the juggernaut it was three years ago and the move will probably have much less of an impact than it would have been then. Plus it is the more drastic decision as opposed to the other obvious solution, which is to shake up the team. Shaking up the line-up is the easier call because it doesn't mean blowing up a one of the successful cash cows on the FM side. But it is fraught with danger too. KFI got to where it was on the strength of Rush in his prime, Handel, and John and Ken. All superb talents that do not come around every day. We can pretty safely assume Hannity will be in the 12-3 slot come January, but as successful as he is nationally, the national talk programming doesn't do as well as local. The best example of this is that J&K were always getting their best ratings when they were railing against Sacramento, slimy local politicians and corrupt local police forces. But yesterday John was going on about how "both parties are to blame for the mess in Washington". With mundane and stale takes like that, it is no wonder they are going down.

Point is, it is not easy to get top-notch talent with a nose for local issues and how to play them up to drawn in an audience, especially in demo, from their FM dials, and worse, I-gadgets. And they are just one or two bad programming choices away from being KABC with a better signal. So shaking up the team could kill the golden goose, but moving them to FM definitely kills another existing golden goose. They have no good options. I believe Robin has ridden the coattails of David G. Hall for many years, never having to do anything more than tweak what was already there, particularly in the nighttime hours which are less meaningful anyway. Now is the time for her to live up to the reputation she has had for all of these years. It has fallen down on her watch, she needs to fix it on her watch, and no, the move to FM not be forthcoming - That will most likely be the directive from above.
 
This is an "Apples to Oranges" comparison, but recently here in Dallas WBAP announced they would no longer simulcast on FM because "There was no significant ratings increase to justify the use of the FM signal"

WBAP is similar to KFI in several respects (a) heritage BIG signal AM (b) mostly live local talk (c) and of course Limbaugh. There are some major differences to be sure, but the primary point I am making is the programing/format was not good enough to attract the hoped for younger demos 25-54.

The change allows Cumulus to simulcast the leading sports outlet in Dallas 1310 The Ticket on a full power FM.
 
Today on KFI I heard a 1-877-Kars-4-Kids commercial...but it wasn't the godawful one with the little girl singing. I change the station every time I hear that commercial begin and I'm sure that thousands of other listeners do the same. Nope, this Kars-4-Kids commercial was a godawful one with a whole group of children singing...and I changed the station as soon as I heard it begin. Not only are the Kars-4-Kids commercials grating, annoying and irritating, they're broadcast with 50,000 watts of power! Yikes!
 
LARadioRewind said:
Today on KFI I heard a 1-877-Kars-4-Kids commercial...but it wasn't the godawful one with the little girl singing. I change the station every time I hear that commercial begin and I'm sure that thousands of other listeners do the same. Nope, this Kars-4-Kids commercial was a godawful one with a whole group of children singing...and I changed the station as soon as I heard it begin. Not only are the Kars-4-Kids commercials grating, annoying and irritating, they're broadcast with 50,000 watts of power! Yikes!
Click to expand...

And if you work around Trojan Way and Desman Road in La Mirada you will hear that kommercial in the fillings of your teeth!
 
LARadioRewind said:
Today on KFI I heard a 1-877-Kars-4-Kids commercial...but it wasn't the godawful one with the little girl singing. I change the station every time I hear that commercial begin and I'm sure that thousands of other listeners do the same. Nope, this Kars-4-Kids commercial was a godawful one with a whole group of children singing...and I changed the station as soon as I heard it begin. Not only are the Kars-4-Kids commercials grating, annoying and irritating, they're broadcast with 50,000 watts of power! Yikes!
Click to expand...

Here's how I think the "concept" developed:

The Kars for Kids commercial began with "Dad" (who I assume is the CEO of the organization and a wannabe musician) playing the guitar with his kid (I think it's his son, not daughter) singing. It was OK, actually kind of cute. It was folksy.

Then Dad bought a drum machine and made the kid practice-practice-practice until the he (or she) reached the point where he was terrified of making a mistake -- and it shows. He has to focus on staying in rhythm and staying on pitch. He sounds uncomfortable and whiny.

Meanwhile Dad narrates the copy to perfection. Twenty, thirty, forty takes -- up all night with Audacity splicing and dicing -- until it exactly fits the donut in the jingle! Ahhhh. What genius!

Dad continues to "improve" the spot with minor remixes until one day he decides to create the "rock" version, where he rips into the lead vocal and the kid narrates the copy. Stations (at least here on the East Coast) cringe and suggest that maybe it shouldn't be run too often. It goes into 6:1 rotation.

I haven't heard the "children's chorus" version yet and I pray to the almighty I never do.
 
In the October ratings, KFI rose from 13th to 9th as their audience share went from 2.8 to 3.4. Nothing substantial has changed so why the gradual ratings decline and then the sudden improvement? Many of us think that the heavy commercial load is driving listeners away. Today during the 1:00 newscast, Terry Anzur gave a teaser about a man who was "beaned...but not by a baseball." (The story involved a Missouri man who is suing the Royals because their team mascot hit him with a hot dog.) Anzur said, "That story and more Leo LaPorte in sixty seconds." Then there were four minutes of commercials! "Sixty seconds"? She didn't fool me!
 
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