LA April Ratings - KFI Is Back to #1!

[asugeorge1]

The April numbers are out and the COVID-19 ratings bump continues for KFI, this time enough to push them to #1 in the 6+ numbers. KFI is up to a 5.5 from a 4.2 share in March and a 3.8 in February. Not sure when the last time was when KFI was number #1, but it’s nice to see an AM station at the top in Los Angeles!

https://ratings.****************/content/arb003

Meanwhile, what’s a little perplexing is that the COVID-19 ratings bump has not extended well to KNX 1070. This is surprising considering in Chicago, San Francisco and others cities, all news is #1. KNX actually dropped from a 3.8 in March to a 3.4 in April to place #10 overall. Listeners must like Bill Handel, Gary and Shannon, Tim Conway Jr. and Coast to Coast more!

Lastly, the great KRTH is the epitome of stability sticking with a 5.2 share the last three months. If there is anything that is consistent in LA radio, it’s the continuing popularity of KRTH over the decades!

 

[michael hagerty]

The April numbers are out and the COVID-19 ratings bump continues for KFI, this time enough to push them to #1 in the 6+ numbers. KFI is up to a 5.5 from a 4.2 share in March and a 3.8 in February. Not sure when the last time was when KFI was number #1, but it’s nice to see an AM station at the top in Los Angeles!

https://ratings.****************/content/arb003

Meanwhile, what’s a little perplexing is that the COVID-19 ratings bump has not extended well to KNX 1070. This is surprising considering in Chicago, San Francisco and others cities, all news is #1. KNX actually dropped from a 3.8 in March to a 3.4 in April to place #10 overall. Listeners must like Bill Handel, Gary and Shannon, Tim Conway Jr. and Coast to Coast more!

Lastly, the great KRTH is the epitome of stability sticking with a 5.2 share the last three months. If there is anything that is consistent in LA radio, it’s the continuing popularity of KRTH over the decades!

There are a few markets (Washington, D.C. is another) where they have a strong News station but the Talk outlet is doing better in the pandemic.

 

[davideduardo]

There are a few markets (Washington, D.C. is another) where they have a strong News station but the Talk outlet is doing better in the pandemic.

However, if we look at 25-54 AQH persons, KFI is off 25% from February.

Everyone is off. The 25-54 total listening (AQH) is down by 47% compared to February. Some music stations are off as much as 60% in average quarter hour persons. KFI is among those that lost the smallest percentage, but they are still way off.

I'd say that stations like KFI are doing a better job in retaining listenership, as they are off much less than the market average. But I would not say they are doing "better" as the loss is huge. Their cume is also off in that demo by about 25%, so it's not a higher TSL due to the pandemic.

In 12+, they are only off by about 15% compared to February. But this shows that only 55+ looks for a talk AM in this kind of situation.

 

[guruofradio]

David is correct. News and Talk are up in share, but average rating is down across the market as listenership (cume) is slashed 30-60% across the market. Similar in other markets as PPM's roll out. News stations are only up in share because they fell the least in cume, 15% vs 60%. Question is when do things get back to normal? Probably when people get back in their cars where radio performs well. At home, the smart speaker offers so many choices that radio does not benefit.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I notice Rush has been discussing his overall cume number as being over 43 million listeners several times lately. He has never been shy about discussing the success of his show, but I have never heard him discuss the cume as often as he has over the last month or two. I am guessing he must have a bump from a lot of people working (or not) from home who now have an opportunity to tune in whereas they could not at the office.

 

[davideduardo]

I notice Rush has been discussing his overall cume number as being over 43 million listeners several times lately. He has never been shy about discussing the success of his show, but I have never heard him discuss the cume as often as he has over the last month or two. I am guessing he must have a bump from a lot of people working (or not) from home who now have an opportunity to tune in whereas they could not at the office.

Every major market I have looked at shows his cume off.

 

[oldies76]

Lastly, the great KRTH is the epitome of stability sticking with a 5.2 share the last three months. If there is anything that is consistent in LA radio, it’s the continuing popularity of KRTH over the decades!

K-Earth 101 was far more popular many, many years ago with their true oldies of the 50's 60's and 70's format and their legendary jocks. Back then, all you'd hear was talk about the wonderful music they played and the jocks that wholeheartedly cared about their audience, not to mention their ties and roots to the Boss radio days. If it wasn't for KHJ Boss Radio, KRTH wouldn't exist today.

So yes, they have remained relevant over the decades with respect to ratings and a great accomplishment, but the luster is long, long gone.

 

[jimbo]

I notice Rush has been discussing his overall cume number as being over 43 million listeners several times lately.

I believe Rush has been saying his "ratings model" shows 43 million listeners, a sarcastic reference to the Imperial College of London COVID-19 model that initially projected 550,000 dead in the UK and 2.2 million deaths in the United States.

Edit: Yes, found references to models.

"By the way, our computer model audience estimates show 42 million people tuning into the EIB Network. That’s according to the latest models. We have our own models. We plug in our own data, and that’s what they’re showing. “

" By the way, the audience just keeps expanding, now up to 43 million listeners, the EIB Network, estimated according to our latest model run. They’re our models and we run them, 43 million people tuning in at this moment."

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/04/21/latest-eib-audience-model-42-million-listeners/
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/05/07/eib-audience-models-project-43-million-listeners/

 

[crainbebo]

Talkers Magazine had Rush Limbaugh at 15.5 million cumulative listeners a week in Dec 2019. But this was before the COVID lockdowns. Probably more closer to 18 million now.
I'm sure all the radio talk shows have gone up in some way, due to the lockdown and economic effects. The gradual reopenings in many states (and now in many CA counties with phase 2) also are giving a voice to the talkers.

 

[davideduardo]

Talkers Magazine had Rush Limbaugh at 15.5 million cumulative listeners a week in Dec 2019. But this was before the COVID lockdowns. Probably more closer to 18 million now.

Probably closer to 11 to 12 million now, taking into account the percentage that typical Rush affiliate stations are off by in April PPM reports.

I'm sure all the radio talk shows have gone up in some way, due to the lockdown and economic effects.

No, all have gone down in listeners. They are, in some cases, up in "share" but off in rating and AQH persons.

The gradual reopenings in many states (and now in many CA counties with phase 2) also are giving a voice to the talkers.

No evidence of that. In fact, it looks like the music stations are coming back and reducing the share of the talk stations.

 

[TheBigA]

Talkers Magazine had Rush Limbaugh at 15.5 million cumulative listeners a week in Dec 2019.

That's closer to correct than what Post #8 had. EIB research is probably very similar to DJT research which is to say it's completely made up.

When Premiere sells the show to advertisers, they don't use EIB research. If they did, they'd get laughed out of the room.

 

[davideduardo]

K-Earth 101 was far more popular many, many years ago with their true oldies of the 50's 60's and 70's format and their legendary jocks. Back then, all you'd hear was talk about the wonderful music they played and the jocks that wholeheartedly cared about their audience, not to mention their ties and roots to the Boss radio days. If it wasn't for KHJ Boss Radio, KRTH wouldn't exist today.

So yes, they have remained relevant over the decades with respect to ratings and a great accomplishment, but the luster is long, long gone.

Not so. The share they have today (at least prior to the Virus) is a share of a much larger universe.

KRTH today has higher listenership than it did then in the diary era when the ratings system was different and the population was lower. In any case, the highest 4-book average year was 1990 when they had a 4.0 in the diary system. In the last 5 PPM books, they have been averaging in the low 5's.... about 30% more than they did in any year going back to 1975.

Please don't sell us chimeras.

In addition, you also have to factor in that, for the perhaps one-third of LA residents that are first generation immigrants, the songs on KRTH have never been relevant. Now, KRTH takes Hispanics into account in research and you can see how much that has improved their performance.

Check out https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Duncan-American-Radio-Issue-Guide.htm and select the 1975 to 2003 history compendium.

Oh, and KRTH may be internally linked to Boss Radio but musically it is just as linked to KFWB "Color Radio" and KRLA. KHJ did not come along until rock 'n' roll based Top 40 was over 10 years old. The other two were the first and second pioneers, preceding KHJ by years and years.

 

[TheBigA]

If it wasn't for KHJ Boss Radio, KRTH wouldn't exist today.

Factually not true. First of all Boss Radio ended 40 years ago, in 1980. But when it ended it flipped to country. By the time KHJ was oldies, that format was already being done elsewhere. WCBS-FM is one of the first oldies stations in the country, starting in 1972.

 

[crainbebo]

Interesting, as tuning around the AM band tonight, Ben Shapiro was talking about the reopening argument and Dems 'moving the goalposts'. And Lars Larson's national show has talked about reopening, dissing Gov. Newsom. Around my county in central WA, the stay-home vs. reopen-now argument is getting more heated.

 

[davideduardo]

Factually not true. First of all Boss Radio ended 40 years ago, in 1980. But when it ended it flipped to country. By the time KHJ was oldies, that format was already being done elsewhere. WCBS-FM is one of the first oldies stations in the country, starting in 1972.

In fact, if we go back nearly 5 years more, WMOD in DC was oldies in 1968. And it was really oldies, not the various gold and current blends that KRTH tried in its early years. Marv Brooks put it on the air in September 1968 and Barry Richards continued the format after the launch.

 

[michael hagerty]

Factually not true. First of all Boss Radio ended 40 years ago, in 1980. But when it ended it flipped to country. By the time KHJ was oldies, that format was already being done elsewhere. WCBS-FM is one of the first oldies stations in the country, starting in 1972.

WCBS-FM did beat KRTH to all-oldies (as did David's example), but not by much. CBS-FM was July 7, 1972, KRTH was October 1 of the same year.

Where Oldies76 is right is that KRTH was KHJ-FM, its original oldies format was designed by Bill Drake and clearly influenced by the clean, uncluttered "Boss Radio" approach---including an identifiable logo sung by the Johnny Mann Singers, patterned (no accident) on "The History of Rock and Roll" jingle (which itself was just a derivative of "One-thirty-six-K-G-B").

And, its success in the mid-90s can be tied to Drake returning as consultant in 1992 and bringing in former KHJ personalities---Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele, Humble Harve(briefly) and Beau Weaver (briefly). When Morgan died, his successor was Charlie Van Dyke. Eventually, after Drake and under Jhani Kaye, Charlie Tuna joined the airstaff for weekends. And they brought back KHJ's "Big Kahuna" for promotions.

Where Oldies76 is wrong (and we discussed this at length seven years ago) is that the "glory days" he remembers fondly (which is fine) were years in which KRTH bobbed between #9 and #15 in the ratings. A three share was a good book.

40 years ago this month, KRTH (which was a gold-heavy AC station) was having a very good book. A 3.5...ninth place. The population listed by Arbitron for the market was 7,511,300.

The April book released last week has KRTH at a 5.2, in second place. The population listed by Nielsen Audio for the market is 11,465,400.

So, Oldies76, when you're in ninth place, there are eight stations more popular.

When you're in second place, there is only one station more popular.

3.5 in a market of 7.5 million is a MUCH smaller audience than 5.2 in a market of 11.4 million.

 

[michael hagerty]

Boss sidebar (wonder if I could get a Johnny Mann jingle for that?):

While KHJ did go Country in November of 1980, "Boss Radio" was gone long before then.

I'd argue the "Boss Radio" era ended just before Ron Jacobs left on July 1, 1969. His last act was implementing a format revision on June 12 and part of that included the jocks no longer referring to "Los Angeles" as "Boss Angeles".

By August, 1969 new PD Jim O'Brien had ended the practice of the station or the jocks themselves using the term "Boss Jock".

In October, the station logo was revised so that underneath "93/KHJ" were the words "Los Angeles", replacing "Boss Radio".

The phrase "Boss Jock" would creep in and out of promotional materials and on-air mentions for a year and a half, but the only consistent use of "Boss" was the "Boss 30", "Boss Hitbounds" and the "Bosslines".

Finally, in April of 1971, PD Ted Atkins banned "Boss" once and for all. The weekly playlist was just the KHJ "Thirty", new songs were just "Hitbound", and the requestline was just "Got a song you wanna hear? My number is 520-1971."

For its final nine and a half years as a Top 40 station, KHJ was not "Boss Radio."

Its ill-fated return after Country used the slogan "The Boss is Back", but it wasn't.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I believe Rush has been saying his "ratings model" shows 43 million listeners, a sarcastic reference to the Imperial College of London COVID-19 model that initially projected 550,000 dead in the UK and 2.2 million deaths in the United States.

Edit: Yes, found references to models.

"By the way, our computer model audience estimates show 42 million people tuning into the EIB Network. That’s according to the latest models. We have our own models. We plug in our own data, and that’s what they’re showing. “

" By the way, the audience just keeps expanding, now up to 43 million listeners, the EIB Network, estimated according to our latest model run. They’re our models and we run them, 43 million people tuning in at this moment."

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/04/21/latest-eib-audience-model-42-million-listeners/
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/05/07/eib-audience-models-project-43-million-listeners/

Ok, this is what happens when you only listen casually. My first instinct was "that number (43 million) seems awfully high", but I was working (still hard at work, thankfully!!) and didn't give it much thought. I should have realized he was exaggerating for humorous effect, which is definitely in his broadcast toolbox.

For that number to be true, he would have to be cuming 13% of the estimated total US population of 330 million people. He may be popular, but he isn't THAT popular. I bet not much more than 13% of the population would even know how to tune in the AM band at this point.

 

[TheBigA]

My first instinct was "that number (43 million) seems awfully high"

My first instinct was that 43 million included streaming numbers. But that's a different metric, and not included in traditional sales.

 

[oldies76]

So, Oldies76, when you're in ninth place, there are eight stations more popular.

Frankly, the average listener back in 1979, 1985, or 1988 heard their music, relished the weekends, connected with the jocks and truly enjoyed K-Earth 101 as their station of choice, as was mine. I would highly bet, the vast majority didn't give a rats what place they were in or even knew a dairy ranking system existed. The point is that they delivered.

I mean, what a better way to spend the 4th of July with BBQ's, fireworks and the top 300 songs, as voted by their true listeners, played all weekend long, a successful concept that should still be in place today. Anyone with half a brain can do that.

Stay safe Mr. Hagerty.