Los Angeles and Inland Empire PPM for June 2011

[justpassingthough]

Seriously, how do these two stations compare when you take morning drive out of the equation? Last I heard, K&B were the number one morning show, 25-54 but they hardly represent the rest of the day's programming. Taking AM drive out of the mix would give us a better idea of which station is winning the programming battle. C'mon! I'm curious here!

KROQ is ahead of KYSR by about 15% in 10 AM to Midnight, M-F. The last two books have been closer than the prior two books.

The interesting thing is that the KYSR cume rating in 10 AM to 12 AM is now higher, although not by much, than that of KROQ (Cume Rating is the % of all people in the demo the station reaches).

What KROQ has going for it is the fact that most ad buys are based on 6 AM to 7 PM, M-F. So on that comparison they are definitely ahead of KYSR.

Is anyone privy to any info on whether CC is happy with KYSR's performance? They seem rather competitive considering that they're going after a giant like KROQ, and it has to be a little cheaper to run, since they don't have the big morning personalities to pay....

 

[davideduardo]

Is anyone privy to any info on whether CC is happy with KYSR's performance? They seem rather competitive considering that they're going after a giant like KROQ, and it has to be a little cheaper to run, since they don't have the big morning personalities to pay....

KHHT and KYSR were the two lowest performers of the CC FMs. KYSR bills about half of what KOST bills, and KOST is nearly 40% under KIIS. However, KYSR slows down KROQ, which is a good competitive move. KROQ bills just a tiny bit under double what KYSR bills.

Airstaff expense, unless you have an enormously expensive morning show, is not by itself the largest expense of a station. And if you have a talent like, let's say, Seacrest, you make the money back; KIIS is #1 in billings in LA and it nearly doubles the revenue of KRTH or KLOS or KLVE, all top-10 billers.

 

[radioresearcher]

Is anyone privy to any info on whether CC is happy with KYSR's performance? They seem rather competitive considering that they're going after a giant like KROQ, and it has to be a little cheaper to run, since they don't have the big morning personalities to pay....

KHHT and KYSR were the two lowest performers of the CC FMs. KYSR bills about half of what KOST bills, and KOST is nearly 40% under KIIS. However, KYSR slows down KROQ, which is a good competitive move. KROQ bills just a tiny bit under double what KYSR bills.

Airstaff expense, unless you have an enormously expensive morning show, is not by itself the largest expense of a station. And if you have a talent like, let's say, Seacrest, you make the money back; KIIS is #1 in billings in LA and it nearly doubles the revenue of KRTH or KLOS or KLVE, all top-10 billers.

KROQ really drives a lot of billing off mornings as does KIIS. Both KROQ and 98-7 were well out of the top 10 in 25-54 in the recent weekly. Alternative, as a format, is on a decline right now.

 

[davideduardo]

. Alternative, as a format, is on a decline right now.

It's not hard to see why. A music test composed of alternative "partisans" will really be divided into several disparate groups... the songs one group loves will be hated by another group and just tolerated by another. It's a coalition that resembles those well-known "mutual loathing society" groupings of Italian political parities.

 

[ocer]

. Alternative, as a format, is on a decline right now.

It's not hard to see why. A music test composed of alternative "partisans" will really be divided into several disparate groups... the songs one group loves will be hated by another group and just tolerated by another. It's a coalition that resembles those well-known "mutual loathing society" groupings of Italian political parities.

Haven't people made that argument for years? Is there really much evidence of loss in the format?

 

[justpassingthough]

. Alternative, as a format, is on a decline right now.

It's not hard to see why. A music test composed of alternative "partisans" will really be divided into several disparate groups... the songs one group loves will be hated by another group and just tolerated by another. It's a coalition that resembles those well-known "mutual loathing society" groupings of Italian political parities.

Haven't people made that argument for years? Is there really much evidence of loss in the format?

Well, New York lost their alternative station- even though most of the alternative music over the past 35 years has come out of either NY or LA. Chicago is most likely about to lose their alternative station. The cities that are left with alternative stations either lean extremly active rock or lean more indie alternative like KYSR and KROQ.

 

[uncamark]

. Alternative, as a format, is on a decline right now.

It's not hard to see why. A music test composed of alternative "partisans" will really be divided into several disparate groups... the songs one group loves will be hated by another group and just tolerated by another. It's a coalition that resembles those well-known "mutual loathing society" groupings of Italian political parities.

Haven't people made that argument for years? Is there really much evidence of loss in the format?

Well, New York lost their alternative station- even though most of the alternative music over the past 35 years has come out of either NY or LA. Chicago is most likely about to lose their alternative station. The cities that are left with alternative stations either lean extremly active rock or lean more indie alternative like KYSR and KROQ.

RXP wasn't really an "alternative/modern rock" station. Despite its constant tweakings, it still was more of a harder-rocking AAA. In fact, Sean Ross today points out how similar RXP was to Chicago's XRT, another harder-rocking AAA, with the only difference being that XRT's classic rock selections tend to go deeper than RXP's classic rock did. Neither one is a "modern" in terms of playing teen punk, jocks with weird nicknames, deadpan imaging and some of the other things I associate with modern/alternative stations. In fact, RXP's imaging was closer to a classic or active rock station, while XRT's imaging is clean 70s-style AOR--a laser blast or deep image voice has never been heard on any of their sweepers.

 

[justpassingthough]

. Alternative, as a format, is on a decline right now.

It's not hard to see why. A music test composed of alternative "partisans" will really be divided into several disparate groups... the songs one group loves will be hated by another group and just tolerated by another. It's a coalition that resembles those well-known "mutual loathing society" groupings of Italian political parities.

Haven't people made that argument for years? Is there really much evidence of loss in the format?

Well, New York lost their alternative station- even though most of the alternative music over the past 35 years has come out of either NY or LA. Chicago is most likely about to lose their alternative station. The cities that are left with alternative stations either lean extremly active rock or lean more indie alternative like KYSR and KROQ.

RXP wasn't really an "alternative/modern rock" station. Despite its constant tweakings, it still was more of a harder-rocking AAA. In fact, Sean Ross today points out how similar RXP was to Chicago's XRT, another harder-rocking AAA, with the only difference being that XRT's classic rock selections tend to go deeper than RXP's classic rock did. Neither one is a "modern" in terms of playing teen punk, jocks with weird nicknames, deadpan imaging and some of the other things I associate with modern/alternative stations. In fact, RXP's imaging was closer to a classic or active rock station, while XRT's imaging is clean 70s-style AOR--a laser blast or deep image voice has never been heard on any of their sweepers.

Doesn't that help to strengthen the argument that alternative is a struggling format? "True" alternative stations, in some sense of the word, haven't existed in many markets for close to ten years now.

 

[AM FM listener]

Doesn't that help to strengthen the argument that alternative is a struggling format? "True" alternative stations, in some sense of the word, haven't existed in many markets for close to ten years now.

According to Arbitron's Radio Today 2010, the Alternative format has indeed declined over the last several years (12+):

2003 SPRING 3.1
2004 SPRING 3.1
2005 SPRING 2.4
2006 SPRING 2.1
2007 SPRING 2.1
2008 FALL 2.2
2009 FALL 2.1

Seems to have leveled off the last four years though. Will be interesting to see how it does when this year's report is released.

 

[radioresearcher]

Doesn't that help to strengthen the argument that alternative is a struggling format? "True" alternative stations, in some sense of the word, haven't existed in many markets for close to ten years now.

According to Arbitron's Radio Today 2010, the Alternative format has indeed declined over the last several years (12+):

2003 SPRING 3.1
2004 SPRING 3.1
2005 SPRING 2.4
2006 SPRING 2.1
2007 SPRING 2.1
2008 FALL 2.2
2009 FALL 2.1

Seems to have leveled off the last four years though. Will be interesting to see how it does when this year's report is released.

WORSE

 

[mjb1124]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall reading that Alternative ratings have actually been on the rise since the beginning of this year. And perhaps not coincidentally, the Alternative chart is becoming more stylistically unified. Most of the songs in the top 20 are either by more "indie" leaning bands, or by well-established bands (Foo Fighters, Chili Peppers, Coldplay, etc.) that have wider appeal and have transcended the different format trends over the years. The only real exception is Avenged Sevenfold's "So Far Away", a more Active Rock-leaning song that entered the top 20 around the same time that another Active-leaning song by Seether exited, and that seems to have already peaked.

So I'm gathering that the format is shifting back towards its roots, and at least to a certain degree, it's working. Of course, people will point to the loss of WRXP and WKQX as blows to the format. I can't speak for WKQX, but I know that WRXP's ratings were actually on the rise and the station was beginning to turn a profit, but Emmis already had their hearts set on selling the station. Plus, WRXP's playlist wasn't entirely representative of where the format was going, and New York is a very racially diverse town whose tastes lean towards Urban and Rhythmic music anyway. So I don't think this particular station's demise means much when you look at the big picture.