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KFI's Falling Ratings

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!

Nah, the commercial load is about the same. What you heard had to have been a fluke (maybe they were having technical difficulties so they ran extra commercials). The commercial time in the middle of the top of the hour newscast is never that long.
 
How about the bottom-of-the-hour newscast? When the newscast is over, there are often two or three more commercials before the program host comes back on. That is not a good way to program a station!
 
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!

Four minutes of spots in a five minute newscast that presumably had more than one story?

Not likely.

And if you're going to ask why the ratings are improving, suggesting that something is driving listeners away is kinda self-defeating, isn't it?
 
How about the bottom-of-the-hour newscast? When the newscast is over, there are often two or three more commercials before the program host comes back on. That is not a good way to program a station!


Really? KMPC did exceptionally well with a couple of 30s, a 60 or even more between the end of a newscast and the beginning of a DJ show for....decades.
 
My wild guess? Listeners are getting tired of Bill Handel's irreverent putdowns, Rush Limbaugh's "Obama-will-ruin-America" diatribes, John & Ken's over-emotional ranting, Neil Saavedra's food talk, Bryan Suits' war stories, and Tim Conway Jr.'s "What the hell did Jesse Jackson say" game.

By the way, Bryan Suits made a tweet on October 18 that Robin Bertolucci might want to consider: "It's a disaster when Limbaugh takes phone calls. A good local show would kick his ass."
 
My wild guess? Listeners are getting tired of Bill Handel's irreverent putdowns, Rush Limbaugh's "Obama-will-ruin-America" diatribes, John & Ken's over-emotional ranting, Neil Saavedra's food talk, Bryan Suits' war stories, and Tim Conway Jr.'s "What the hell did Jesse Jackson say" game.

By the way, Bryan Suits made a tweet on October 18 that Robin Bertolucci might want to consider: "It's a disaster when Limbaugh takes phone calls. A good local show would kick his ass."


Gee, Steve...a page ago, it was spot load.

And you're wild guessing reasons for a decline when the numbers are going up.
 
Actually I've made several comments about KFI's high commercial load and how tiresome some of the hosts are getting. I find myself listening more to KPCC and KNX and even KPFK now. Ratings numbers can fluctuate quite a bit from book to book but KFI had been in a slide for several months. Not being able to interview all the listeners, I can't come up with reasons for KFI's rationgs going up or down without guessing. On the previous page---See? I do read the posts---wadio theorized that KFI is trying to pander to younger listeners and those younger listeners aren't listening to KFI anyway. And no one has explained any definite reasons for KFI's decline and the October spike. David?
 
Well, I think all of AM Radio has a high commercial load. It's just a fact of modern life. I doubt KFI's commercial load was that different when it hit #1 a couple of years ago.

Yes, KFI did re-enter the top 10 in the October ratings, going up to #9. But then, all of Talk Radio seemed to get a bump from the government shutdown and fiscal cliff. In September, only three large market Talk Radio stations made their city's top ten. Then in October, thanks to the controversy in Washington, the number doubled.... WSB Atlanta (#1), KFI, WGN Chicago, WBAP Dallas, KTRH Houston, WMAL DC. KFI, WBAP and WMAL were not in the top 10 the previous month.

So what to do about KFI and other highly profitable AM stations in the future? I don't think the major owners really know. As mentioned above, WBAP Dallas just lost its FM simulcast. Same thing happened recently in Buffalo, Tuscon and San Diego. Talk Radio, because it's an older-skewing format, seems to be OK on AM. In most cases, owners don't see the justification for replacing a music format on FM with a Talk simulcast.

Note that this isn't true for the Sports format. I'd say about half of all markets now has a Sports station on FM. KDKA-FM just hit #1 in Pittsburgh and WXYT-FM also spent time at #1 in Detroit. I'd guess you'll see a Sports station on FM in LA before KFI or KNX gets an FM simulcast.
 
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