So how can those two stations be both tied for #1? Everyone in the 18-34 demo was born between 1989 and 2005.
Simple. We are looking at "share" of audience in the so-called "ratings" that appear online. Share is a percentage of only those who listen to radio in a defined time period.
If we use
ratings, which is the percentage of all people whether listening to radio or not in the defined time period, we find that a huge percentage of the younger demos either listen to radio less or not at all because their music, unedited and uncensored, appears online and is available without ads and intrusive DeeJays on mobile devices.
Example (using latest LA) data of
rating vs.
share:
Rating: the average percentage of 18 to 34 year old users of OTA radio in mid-2021 was 4.5%, and today it is 3.5%. That is the PUMM figure, Persons Using Mass Media meaning stations and their streams.
Share: the percentage of persons using radio is always a total of 100%, because, whether more or less people, that figure only shows how radio audiences are divided among stations and share does not show people who listen less or not at all to radio.
History: Nearly 25% of average listeners have left in two years. 20 years ago, the figure of PUR (called Persons Using Radio back then) was around 18%; radio is off by over 80% in 22 years in 18-34.
So a huge percentage of younger listeners don't listen to OTA radio or, even, their streams. They can get their own playlists or a variety of curated lists. They don't get many ads or, if you pay, any ads. No traffic reports that they can get on Waze and weather is updated on Weatherbug and others. News headlines, configurable to one's taste, political perspective and world view, come in dozens and dozens of services and sources.
Now, here is just KRTH in 18-34: in mid-2021 they had a
rating of 0.3. Today they have a 0.2. In 18-34, in mid-2021 they had 9,200 AQH listeners while now they have 6,000. KIIS had 7,900 two years ago and has 5,600 18-34 listeners on average now.
In mid-2021 all stations together had 135,600 18-34 listeners. Now, it i is 108,200. And that is 3.5% of all 18-34 year olds in the market. They other 96.5% are not, on average, listening.
Still, though, despite much lower amounts of listening time, 77.5% of all persons in the 18-34 demo do use radio in some amount during each week in LA. In 25-54 it is 81.5% who use radio, and in 35-54 it is 84.4% who use radio weekly.
In 2000, the percent of people using radio was just over 94%. There has always been a percentage of people who don't use radio in a given week... usually due to things like illness, heavy work schedule, vacations, etc., and not a dislike for radio.