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KKGO Flips To Christmas

T

TheBigA

I know everyone's excited about this. KKGO flips to Christmas music today, according to Country Aircheck:

"Deck The Y'alls: Mt. Wilson KKGO/Los Angeles flipped to Christmas programming today (11/25) at midnight running through Dec. 25. Additionally, Martina McBride will take over as guest host for middays beginning Dec. 2."

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I think this marks the third year in a row they've done this. They've never really challenged KOST for the holiday championship, but this usually keeps them from suffering the usual country ratings drop during the holidays.
 
Probably a long shot, but haven't heard this since the 1970's Christmas season: "Peace At Least" by Rotary Connection (Minnie Riperton). Must play now!
 
[V] Musik said:
Probably a long shot, but haven't heard this since the 1970's Christmas season: "Peace At Least" by Rotary Connection (Minnie Riperton). Must play now!
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Wow...pretty obscure reference there. I know of this band, and they actually did an entire Christmas album in 1968. Yes, probably a long shot that anyone even knows about it. I found it on YouTube, and it had 25 views. My own personal family videos have more views.

BTW they were best known for their covers of hit songs, especially a particularly crazy version of Ruby Tuesday.
 
Only 25 views on Youtube? Try 19,195 views! This got airplay on top 40 KSEA in San Diego probably back in 1974 . . . Special request, music rewind!
 
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[V] Musik said:
Only 25 views on Youtube? Try 19,195 views! This got airplay on top 40 KSEA in San Diego probably back in 1974 . . . Special request, music rewind!
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By comparison, the "unboxing" video for my new computer motherboard has 22,000 views and it has only been released for about a month and is a very niche product.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUd9hqKg3xU for reference)

That is a very, very small number of views for YouTube.
 
Are any of these stations playing "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen? I'm pretty sure KOST isn't. I'm wondering if the other two are. It's a great song.
 
radio128 said:
Are any of these stations playing "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen? I'm pretty sure KOST isn't. I'm wondering if the other two are. It's a great song.
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It's out of your OTA listening area but I was surprised as heck to hear it on WMJI. Usually they play the same 40 Christmas tunes only done by different artists. [Sorta like if "Jingle Bells" were done by Michael Buble, The Carpenters, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, etc.] Didn't think iheart had it in them to play what's essentially a novelty tune.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
It's out of your OTA listening area but I was surprised as heck to hear it on WMJI. Usually they play the same 40 Christmas tunes only done by different artists. [Sorta like if "Jingle Bells" were done by Michael Buble, The Carpenters, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, etc.] Didn't think iheart had it in them to play what's essentially a novelty tune.
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Amazing how a few novelty tunes thrown in makes it more fun and memorable. But, sssshh... don't actually tell anyone that or you will be labeled as some sort of out-of-demo outlier who doesn't have a clue about what makes for good radio, especially around the Holidays. The existing, time-tested and audience group-tested formula is as standard as Coke and will not be changed under any circumstances.

And now back to our regularly scheduled Mariah Carey Christmas...
 
Although KKGO played Christmas music for the third straight year, it was to no avail, as they fell in the December book.

https://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb003

From 2.4 to a 2.1
 
Keep in mind that the survey period was 11/7 - 12/4/2019 and the flip occurred on 11/25/2019,
thus only 10 days out of 28 for the "December" period were in holiday mode.

Their ratings/shares over the years haven't increased all that much;
going up against the KOST is not easy.
 
KKGO's cume soared by 179,500 to 1,179,900, tops in the nation during the 12-5/1-1 rating period in persons 6+, including the 11-25/12-25 period of all-Christmas music as Lon Helton reported in his Country Aircheck newsletter last Wednesday.

As far as I know, KKGO has never cracked the top 20 in 25-54 through its nearly thirteen years of existence unlike other country stations which have enjoyed cume numbers in excess of 1,000,000, with KPLX/Dallas & KILT/Houston, so I assume their 25-54 numbers have been solid for many years as heritage country stations.

I'm not sure about the 25-54 numbers for WNSH/NYC, which also cracked 1,000,000 listeners a couple of times last year.

I recall that David Eduardo stated on another thread last year that the LA market is 70% ethnic.

I should also point out that Emmis Radio President Rick Cummings was quoted in the NYT on August 19, 2006, two days after Emmis blew up KZLA and flipped it to Movin' 93.9, as saying that 'Country is a tough format to do in a market that is an ethnic melting pot', and went on to say that 'The appeal of the format is fairly limited when it comes to ethnicity'.

He went on to say that in Los Angeles, stations that cater to mostly white listeners are 'playing for less than 25% of the marketplace on a good day'.

Is there any reason not to expect that KKGO will continue to struggle in attracting listeners in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos as KZLA did back then?
 
Marv said:
KKGO's cume soared by 179,500 to 1,179,900, tops in the nation during the 12-5/1-1 rating period in persons 6+, including the 11-25/12-25 period of all-Christmas music as Lon Helton reported in his Country Aircheck newsletter last Wednesday.
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That is "tops in the nation" for country cume. It is certainly not to for all radio stations.
 
DavidEduardo said:
That is "tops in the nation" for country cume. It is certainly not to for all radio stations.
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It is not about how much they gained during the December book by going all-Christmas. It is all about how much of a loss they staved off to other competitors (particularly KOST); In other words, the opportunity benefit of going all Christmas is greater than the cost of not doing so. They have made the same decision for several years in a row and I suspect they know what they are doing.

As an aside, I am always amazed that those who rail against corporatization and consolidation in radio don't ever give Saul his due. He does (with his own money and livelihood) what they say they want but they never give him any props for doing so. Maybe if his stations played Taylor Swift and Cardi B.?
 
Excluding KFRG, does anyone know if there are any other country stations either out here in the southwest or elsewhere which have been routinely plagued with lousy 25-54 numbers as KKGO has been throughout its existence?
 
Marv said:
Excluding KFRG, does anyone know if there are any other country stations either out here in the southwest or elsewhere which have been routinely plagued with lousy 25-54 numbers as KKGO has been throughout its existence?
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Perspective: KKGO is usually the most listened to country station in the US. Only the two country stations in Houston come close in cume.

But LA is now 45% Hispanic. 8% Black. 12% Asian. Another 10% immigrants from Persia, Armenia, Russia, Lebanon and the like and have no country tradition or understanding. That leaves only about 22% to 25% non-Hispanic whites, most of whom do not come from a place with a country lifestyle. LA is losing about 100,000 non-Hispanic whites a year, in fact.

So I would say that the numbers KKGO gets are, if not spectacular, quite outstanding. The owner likes exclusive formats and makes nice money from a station that was fully paid for about 60 years ago.

KFRG, in a market that is 52% Hispanic, gets sensational numbers. Less than they got a decade ago, but the ethnic balance has changed there, too.
 
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