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LA radio ratings september 2022

How many other AM stations still exist that get ratings as amazing as KFI's? It seems almost surreal seeing an AM in third place (and with those numbers) in this day and age, especially when they aren't on mass-accessible analog FM.

Is it down to them having particular "killer app" hosts or is there simply a loyal audience that tunes in for everything? The only times I ever brush past them on the dial are late at night, and it's never seemingly more than 3 seconds before I'm assaulted by enthusiastic talk of the chupacabra, little green men, and cancer-curing venus fly trap plants. (It's depressing to know that's what so many people want to hear, and that the best 50,000 watt signal in the region is having 7-8 hours of its days squandered on it.)
 
yeoldeschool said:
How many other AM stations still exist that get ratings as amazing as KFI's? It seems almost surreal seeing an AM in third place (and with those numbers) in this day and age, especially when they aren't on mass-accessible analog FM.

Is it down to them having particular "killer app" hosts or is there simply a loyal audience that tunes in for everything? The only times I ever brush past them on the dial are late at night, and it's never seemingly more than 3 seconds before I'm assaulted by enthusiastic talk of the chupacabra, little green men, and cancer-curing venus fly trap plants. (It's depressing to know that's what so many people want to hear, and that the best 50,000 watt signal in the region is having 7-8 hours of its days squandered on it.)
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Well, fourth. With a 4.7 6+. Still, yeah, most AM stations that show up at that level in other markets are also simulcast on FM.

You can't judge any station by what it puts on late at night. The keys are Bill Handel in the morning and John & Ken in the afternoon. And it seems Gary and Shannon have developed a very solid following in middays. They are the only place on the L.A. radio dial for live talk with local hosts.
 
yeoldeschool said:
How many other AM stations still exist that get ratings as amazing as KFI's? It seems almost surreal seeing an AM in third place (and with those numbers) in this day and age, especially when they aren't on mass-accessible analog FM.

Is it down to them having particular "killer app" hosts or is there simply a loyal audience that tunes in for everything? The only times I ever brush past them on the dial are late at night, and it's never seemingly more than 3 seconds before I'm assaulted by enthusiastic talk of the chupacabra, little green men, and cancer-curing venus fly trap plants. (It's depressing to know that's what so many people want to hear, and that the best 50,000 watt signal in the region is having 7-8 hours of its days squandered on it.)
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Kfi is a pure example of if you have good talent, you don’t have to worry about simulcasting on fm. The audience comes to find them. It’s crazy how am is dead elsewhere except Los Angeles
 
Michael - I wasn't accusing KFI of anything beyond trying to make as much money as possible at every moment of the day from whatever programming choices were available to it. As in, it's the audience that depresses me, for that very reason. It's difficult to accept there's apparently nothing else out there people would rather hear more.

Back to the ratings topic: this makes me wonder what KFI's ratings would be if they were on analog FM. The web archive's coverage of Radio Industry News, Radio Show Prep, Radio Promotions, Radio Station Data, Podcast News has some gaps, but KNX's numbers don't seem to have dramatically increased in the half year after they debuted on 97.1. They seem to be ramping up starting in June, but that's about 7 months after they appeared on FM in, I believe, early December, which leads me to suspect something else is behind that.
 
yeoldeschool said:
Michael - I wasn't accusing KFI of anything beyond trying to make as much money as possible at every moment of the day from whatever programming choices were available to it. As in, it's the audience that depresses me, for that very reason. It's difficult to accept there's apparently nothing else out there people would rather hear more.

Back to the ratings topic: this makes me wonder what KFI's ratings would be if they were on analog FM. The web archive's coverage of Radio Industry News, Radio Show Prep, Radio Promotions, Radio Station Data, Podcast News has some gaps, but KNX's numbers don't seem to have dramatically increased in the half year after they debuted on 97.1. They seem to be ramping up starting in June, but that's about 7 months after they appeared on FM in, I believe, early December, which leads me to suspect something else is behind that.
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The point is that the audience for radio at night—-especially late at night—-is a fraction of daytime listening levels. What draws ears at midnight is completely different from what draws them in daylight, which Art Bell proved almost 40 years ago.
 
I understand that. But somehow it always seemed reasonable to believe that the numbers of graveyard shift workers and ordinary people on the road still exceeded the particular demographic that resonates with the subject matter of current C2C.

That being the case, I do recall Art Bell having all the same sorts of guests and topics on his version of the program as Noory's, but if memory serves, Bell had similar numbers of people on who were much more grounded -- astronomers, scientists, technologists, etc. I actually used to listen to many of those.
 
yeoldeschool said:
How many other AM stations still exist that get ratings as amazing as KFI's? It seems almost surreal seeing an AM in third place (and with those numbers) in this day and age, especially when they aren't on mass-accessible analog FM.
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In 25-54, they wobble between 16th and 22nd, with no pattern or trending. In the most recent month, they were 17th in the broad sales demo.
 
radio128 said:
Personally, I would like to see KFI add a local show from 10 pm to 1 am or at least until midnight. Seven hours of CTC every night is a bit much in my opinion.
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No revenue, very low audience, no chance of getting payback in any form.
 
Loverofradio said:
I’ve always wondered how and why some cities embrace am and others dont?
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The presence or absence of cume magnets, I would presume. Most people explore a band if something draws them there in the first place. Without an AM magnet, AM may as well be the shortwave band to many people.

DavidEduardo said:
In 25-54, they wobble between 16th and 22nd, with no pattern or trending. In the most recent month, they were 17th in the broad sales demo.
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What is their strongest age group as a whole?

Do your sources indicate C2C's demographics in Los Angeles particularly? I have always been curious.
 
radio128 said:
Personally, I would like to see KFI add a local show from 10 pm to 1 am or at least until midnight. Seven hours of CTC every night is a bit much in my opinion.
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That will never happen since KFI is the West Coast flagship for Coast to Coast AM and that airs live from 10:00 P.M. to 2:00 A.M. Many times, George Noory is broadcasting his show live from the KFI studios when he is not in Saint Louis.

Coast to Coast is such a big part of their overnight programming that every night at 9:50 P.M. or so, Tim Conway Jr. has George Noory come on the show live to briefly promote what he is going to be talking about that night on Coast to Coast. Now 2:00 A.M. to 5:00 A.M. is all reruns and repeats of Coast to Coast so you could do something there, but there is no money in that time slot.

A better question for me is why KOGO in San Diego runs Coast to Coast AM with reruns from 8:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.? They have 9 hours of Coast to Coast from 8:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M. That is a little excessive if you ask me!
 
Loverofradio said:
I’ve always wondered how and why some cities embrace am and others dont?
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Less a case of embracing than having not let go decades ago. Markets like New York, Chicago, L.A and San Francisco have had strong news, talk, or sports stations on AM that continued to hold AM listeners and (occasionally) drag younger ones in search of that programming over from FM.

But in markets that didn't have strong audiences for spoken-word formats, or where those formats migrated to FM early on, AM doesn't perform the same way.
 
asugeorge1 said:
A better question for me is why KOGO in San Diego runs Coast to Coast AM with reruns from 8:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.? They have 9 hours of Coast to Coast from 8:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M. That is a little excessive if you ask me!
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See David's answer (post #31) above. KFI can make money on Tim Conway, Jr. before 10:00 p.m. KOGO apparently can't make the business case in a considerably smaller, quieter market, for being live between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

As far back as 1975, KFMB (now KGB) blew out all the commercials in the 8 o'clock hour one night a week for Bobby Rich to do a thing called The Turkey Hour---a bunch of oddball records and songs that were hits that weren't getting play anymore.

Why? Because there weren't that many commercials to begin with and listening levels were such that KFMB figured breaking format wouldn't hurt anything.
It took getting the Padres baseball contract a few years later to make evening ratings on KFMB profitable, which KFMB then doubled down on by hiring Bill Ballance to do a five-hour talk show every night when there wasn't a game. But that was 40 years ago. There's no equivalent that would do the same today, especially on AM.
 
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