L.A./San Bernardino-Riverside Radio Ratings: June 2013

[davideduardo]

KCBS-FM's audience share is now 0.6 above that of KLOS.

In music dayparts, KCBS-FM beats KLOS by 100%.

In mornings, the nice increases at KLOS with the new morning show (2.5 25-54 average last 3 months of 2013 vs. 3.5 average for April-May-June), bring up the station average. But music vs. music, CBS-FM wins big.

That wasn't clear.

KLOS mornings last non-Holiday quarter of 2012: 2.5 average.
KLOS morninga most recent 3-months ending June, 2013: 3.5.

Large gains for KLOS in mornings in 25-54. Way behind Jack in music dayparts, though.

 

[Gregg]

>>>Well, first, Top 40/CHR hasn't been aimed directly at teens in more than 30 years. And the most successful practitioners of the format (KFWB, WABC, WLS, KHJ, KFRC) always did well 18-49 and 25-54.<<<

Yes, because in those days, you heard Glen Campbell and Petula Clark next to the Archies and Jackson 5. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "You've Got A Friend" could go to #1. Last year's biggest #1 song was "Call Me Maybe."

I understand that today's 39 year old doesn't want to THINK she is old. But when that person is in the car alone, should she be listening to songs about high school crushes (Call Me Maybe) or break ups (We Are Never Never Getting Back Together)?

Didn't past generations either try to stretch their tastes a bit (Classical, Jazz, Progressive Rock) or want something a bit softer and more relaxing than high-energy, high-power Top 40 (Easy Listening, Smooth Jazz, MOR, Soft AC)? Why did most cities have several very successful Easy Listening stations which tried to play the softest, familiar music they could find, which did great 25-54? And AM stations doing news, talk and MOR music, which also did great 25-54? And why was The Wave, playing adventurous, soft Jazz music, at one time the highest revenue radio station in LA? I know styles move on. But why is there no Wave for today's adults, whatever that may be?

Is there nothing to artistically challenge this generation of adults? Do they have no need to relax? No need for soft music? In the top 5, there are TWO Top 40 stations and a Hot AC?

I'd like to write more, but I have a science project to finish. (Mr. Morris hates me as it is!) And I have to gossip with my friends about who's on the cheerleading squad this year and whether Heather is breaking up with Ryan. And I have to listen to hear the Top 8 at 8 on KIIS-FM with Chio the Hitman.

 

[briancraig]

I do find it odd that their is no "soft" format that is popular with today's 25-54 audience as even mainstream AC these days is anything but light.
Just as beautiful music was replaced by soft AC or smooth jazz, I'm surprised some kind of "relaxing" music format didn't come along to serve that need or I guess I'm surprised that "need" doesn't seem to exist.

 

[michael hagerty]

>>>Well, first, Top 40/CHR hasn't been aimed directly at teens in more than 30 years. And the most successful practitioners of the format (KFWB, WABC, WLS, KHJ, KFRC) always did well 18-49 and 25-54.<<<

Yes, because in those days, you heard Glen Campbell and Petula Clark next to the Archies and Jackson 5. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "You've Got A Friend" could go to #1. Last year's biggest #1 song was "Call Me Maybe."

I understand that today's 39 year old doesn't want to THINK she is old. But when that person is in the car alone, should she be listening to songs about high school crushes (Call Me Maybe) or break ups (We Are Never Never Getting Back Together)?

Didn't past generations either try to stretch their tastes a bit (Classical, Jazz, Progressive Rock) or want something a bit softer and more relaxing than high-energy, high-power Top 40 (Easy Listening, Smooth Jazz, MOR, Soft AC)? Why did most cities have several very successful Easy Listening stations which tried to play the softest, familiar music they could find, which did great 25-54? And AM stations doing news, talk and MOR music, which also did great 25-54? And why was The Wave, playing adventurous, soft Jazz music, at one time the highest revenue radio station in LA? I know styles move on. But why is there no Wave for today's adults, whatever that may be?

Is there nothing to artistically challenge this generation of adults? Do they have no need to relax? No need for soft music? In the top 5, there are TWO Top 40 stations and a Hot AC?

I'd like to write more, but I have a science project to finish. (Mr. Morris hates me as it is!) And I have to gossip with my friends about who's on the cheerleading squad this year and whether Heather is breaking up with Ryan. And I have to listen to hear the Top 8 at 8 on KIIS-FM with Chio the Hitman.

But it was Top 40 success that caused MOR to look at Glenn and Petula, not the other way around. And MOR was well aware by the mid-60s that their audience was aging.

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "You've Got A Friend" hit when soft rock was becoming a major trend. Neither of those songs would have hit in '66 (the Roberta Flack track sat unnoticed on an LP for two years until Clint Eastwood used it in a love scene in "Play Misty For Me").

40-year old women (and these formats skew female) are statistically likely to have at least one teenage child and maybe a pre-teen or two. Mom and the kids are on the same page musically right now. Even if they can sing along, most people don't think too much about lyrics, mood, melody and beat matter more.

The formats you think did well 25-54 were formats that did better 35-64, 50+ and 65+. That was really evident for AM stations in the 1970s.

There's an aircheck of Robert W. Morgan filling in for Gary Owens on KMPC in March of 1977. The station has been AC, not MOR, for four years. Morgan's playing current hits and oldies from the late 60s and early 70s that he played new on KHJ. But the commercials tell the story: Two different Cadillac dealers (average buyer age at the time: 66), an ad for Blue Shield Coronet Plus insurance that begins with the line "If you're 65 or older...", and Forest Lawn.

Again, there are 25-54 year olds listening to KOST, KTWV, KRTH, NPR, jazz, classical, country, but what the largest percentage of them have in common at the moment is the hits.

 

[Thomps2525]

On page one of this thread, I noted that KFI fell out of the top five and KNX suffered a sizeable ratings drop. I wondered why news/talk stations are losing listeners. Could it be a summertime phenomenon? Vacationers want to hear music and not news? I just saw the June ratings for San Francisco and all-news KCBS ranks third with a 4.8 audience share. That sounds respectable...but a month earlier KCBS was second with a 5.7. I checked ratings for news/talk stations in other cities: KOGO-San Diego dropped 0.1; KFYI-Phoenix dropped 0.2; in New York, WINS dropped 0.2, WABC dropped 0.1 and WCBS dropped 0.1. Stations in several other cities had similar losses. The big exception was WGN-Chicago, which jumped from 4.3 to 5.3. So what is the reason for the drop in news/talk listenership? And how has WGN bucked the trend?

 

[SuperRadioFan]

WGN is the flagship station of the Stanley Cup winning Blackhawks. Throw in the Cubs also but methinks the NHL playoffs had an impact.

 

[microbob]

Same with WLW in Cincinnati. They scored a 13.2 share and it's due to the Cincinnati Reds for the most part. Sports programming on 50kw very much has an impact.

 

[Thomps2525]

After reading those last two comments, I have two questions for David to answer: When KFI carried Dodgers baseball (1960-73), how did the games affect the ratings? And, ratings-wise, do sportscsts work better on a news/talk station than on a music station?

 

[Thomps2525]

I asked why so many news stations and talk stations have suffered substantial ratings drops recently. (I'm better at questions than I am at answers.) Here is a brief letter that appeared on the LARadio.com site on July 23:

** Why News/Talk Ratings Are Down
"I can tell you the reason for this. Almost every major radio host has turned their shows into infomercials for their books, web sites, personal appearances, etc. They spend whole segments reading from their books and mainly take calls from people who want to discuss them. Boring!" - Judd Silver

Judd could have added all of Bill Handel's many commercials for the SleepNumber mattresses that Handel and his wife sleep on, along with all of Handel's many commercials for ZeroRez, the carpet cleaners who "drink the water."

 

[Marv-L.A.]

I agree with Michael as usual; one of the programming mindsets from consultants such as Guy Zapoleon and others that I recalled reading about in both BB & R&R was 'Get teenagers to listen so that you can sell stuff to their parents (usually their moms)'. I'd hazard a guess that Ron Jacobs had a similar mindset at KHJ in the mid-sixties, but I'll leave that for Michael or David to expand upon.

When teens and their moms can listen to the same station, top 40 does exceedingly well, and the renaissance generated by AMP Radio's spectacular success has certainly contributed to the launching of well over a dozen top 40 outlets in numerous markets nationwide over the past three years, and taking on entrenched powerhouses in cities such as Dallas, Tampa & Boston, just to name a few in the process.

Toss in one enormous bailout from CHR/Rhythmic to top 40 (Chicago's B-96 flipped last summer to take on WKSC), and it's no wonder that top 40 in booming right now, just as it was in the early eighties thanks to KIIS-FM, Gerry DeFrancesco and Rick Dees.

David pointed out recently that KIIS is second to KBIG in 25-54 right now, which pretty much sums up why both formats are doing well; it was inevitable that once John Ivey & Co. reached a 6.0 share 6+ in 2008 IIRC, it made plenty of sense for CBS to launch KAMP, and they have to be delighted with the results.

 

[davideduardo]

I agree with Michael as usual; one of the programming mindsets from consultants such as Guy Zapoleon and others that I recalled reading about in both BB & R&R was 'Get teenagers to listen so that you can sell stuff to their parents (usually their moms)'. I'd hazard a guess that Ron Jacobs had a similar mindset at KHJ in the mid-sixties, but I'll leave that for Michael or David to expand upon.

It's very true that the strategy for Top 40 "way back when" was to go for the teens and then build out the young adults.

When the classic WRBQ vs The Power Pig battle took place nearly 25 years ago in Tampa, they used that strategy. Then, in a show of less than strategic thinking by WRBQ, the Q chose to defend the teens rather than the adult base they had formed. WRBQ eventually lost and changed format, and the Power Pig owned CHR as a result.

Today, with teens less radio conscious, CHRs go for 18-34, particularly women 18-34. Such was the case with Amp in LA when it launched. And from the sales perspective, there is no money in teens (there was in the late 50's and 60's... Clearasil and all that stuff), so the core has to be young adults.