Holiday Ratings

People love Christmas music. Even more this past season than last year.

As expected, KOST (103.5 FM) clobbered everyone with its annual holiday music format it runs for just over a month. For the “Holiday 2017” ratings period that covered most of December, KOST earned an 11.7 share in the Nielsen ratings, a point more than last year and more than double second place KBIG’s (104.3 FM) 5.7.

In case you’re wondering why the “Holiday” ratings period covers much of December while the “December” ratings are mostly in November, blame it on our calendar. Nielsen breaks ratings into 13 four-week periods, so the “monthly” ratings don’t align with the months themselves, except for the first of the year.

Christmas competitor Go Country (105.1 FM) is a way behind KOST but still does well with the holiday music — almost a full point jump from December’s 2.1 to Holiday’s 2.9.

KROQ (106.7 FM) beat Alt (98.7 FM), mostly by not dropping as much as Alt. While the two were tied in December at 2.6, for the Holiday period KROQ earned a 2.4 while Alt earned 2.2.

KFI (640 AM) was solidly in the middle of the top-10, with a 3.9 share and 6th place. KNX was close behind in 9th place, but a full point behind at 1.9. The next AM station isn’t found until 29th place where KEIB (1150 AM) and KRLA (870 AM) tie at 1.0. Former talk leader KABC (790 AM) has dropped so low (0.4 … I believe the lowest rating in the history of the station) that it is seriously time to consider alternative formats. I personally favor full service music, news and sports such as heard on the original KMPC (now KSPN 710 AM) years ago.

How to kill a station in one fell swoop? start playing satellite-fed music that is already done better by others. The Sound (100.3 FM) changed to satellite-delivered (translation: cheap) contemporary Christian music in mid November. Ratings have since plummeted, from 2.8 in November as The Sound, 1.2 with just two weeks of the format in December, and a 0.5 in the Holiday period. The number of listeners dropped as well, from about 1.5 million plus as The Sound to just 372,000 as KKLQ.

Yes, it’s too early to truly judge, as the format is but two months old. But satellite is satellite: no satellite-delivered format, no matter the content, has ever succeeded on a station in Los Angeles. I see no reason to think that K-Love will do any better. The sister format to KKLQ, called Air 1, hasn’t made a showing in spite of being on KYLA (92.7 FM) as well as at least two major Los Angeles HD streams the company leases. Air 1 is satellite as well, with no connection to the local community.

The interesting question is where former Sound listeners went. Looking at the ratings, it appears they left local radio completely, as I predicted. KRTH (101.1 FM) was flat at 4.8, KLOS (95.5 FM) was flat at 2.4, and KCBS-FM (Jack FM, 93.1) dropped a half point to 2.7 from December’s 3.2. That’s lower than The Sound’s last book, in case (former) owner Entercom CEO David Field is paying attention. Remember my column on station growth potential? Field apparently didn’t read it, seeing that he sold the wrong station.

The station of the month? Stevie Wonder’s KJLH (102.3 FM), which earned a solid 2.0 share, 0.5 higher than it has been in at least six months, and the highest share the station has seen in years, if memory serves right. Congratulations on a great job!

The full story: Each rating is an estimate of the percentage of listeners aged 6 and over tuned to a station between 6 a.m. and 12 midnight.

1. KOST 11.9 2. KBIG (5.7) 3. KRTH (4.8) 4. KIIS-FM (4.3) 5. KTWV (4.1) 6. KFI (3.9) 7. KLVE (3.1) 8. KKGO, KNX (2.9) 10. KAMP (2.8)

11. KCBS-FM Jack-FM (2.7) 12. KPWR Power 106 (2.6) 13. KLOS, KPCC, KROQ (2.4) 16. KRCD, KRRL Real 92.3, KSCA (2.3) 19. KXOL, KYSR Alt 98.7 (2.2)

21. KJLH (2.0) 22. KLAX (1.9) 23. KBUE (1.8) 24. KLYY, KUSC (1.7) 26. KXOS (1.4) 27. KCRW (1.3) 28. KDAY (1.1) 29. KEIB, KRLA, KSSE (1.0)

32. KSPN (0.9) 33. KWIZ (0.8) 34. KKJZ (0.7) 35. KSUR K-Surf (0.6) 36. KFSH The Fish, KFWB, KKLQ, KLAC (0.5) 40. KABC (0.4) 41. KTNQ, KWKW, KYLA (0.3) 44. KKLA, KLAA (0.1)

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