KOST does it again!

The Holiday season Nielsen ratings were released last week, and it comes as no surprise to see KOST (103.5 FM) in the number one spot due to the annual playing of 24/7 Christmas songs. Even though the holiday period ran through January 7th and thus includes almost two weeks post-Christmas, KOST earned more than double the rating of second-place KRTH (101.1 FM), 13.3 compared to 5.6.

KOST sister station KBIG (104.3 FM) was third at 5.1, followed by KTWV (94.7 FM) with 4.3, and KNX news-radio (1070 AM, 97.1 FM) at 4.1.

The holiday season is always an interesting one, as it is difficult to determine exactly where the KOST listeners come from. I don’t believe that major decisions by station programmers are ever made due to the results, but it must be frustrating to have no real way to counter the juggernaut that is KOST. That being said, there were some interesting results, and it will be intriguing to see if they hold long-term.

Indeed, there were a few surprises. KCBS-FM (93.1) — aka Jack-FM — surged ahead of KLOS (95.5 FM) in the last few months, and maintained a 1.0 lead during the holiday weeks, 3.9 to 2.9. As recently as last August, the stations were tied. Similarly, though they’ve been close anyway, KROQ (106.7 FM) beat KYSR (Alt 98.7 FM) 3.3 to 3.1 after slightly trailing most of the past six months.

KFI (640 AM) found itself outside of the top-10, tying with Alt 98.7. Not that long ago, KFI was consistently in the top-5 … as I’ve said numerous times, it appears that gutting the news department, overloading the station with commercials, letting the format drift with no real leadership in programming, and stopping all promotions and advertising doesn’t seem to have worked out quite as well as iHeart executives might have thought. It’s not an AM-FM thing, it’s purposeful destruction of a once-popular station by iHeart. Heads should roll in upper management, but they won’t.

One station that surprises me is KPWR (Power 106, 105.9 FM). Tied for 23rd with KLYY (97.5 FM) and KKJZ (88.1 FM), it earned a 1.5 share of the audience. Nothing against the format, but for historical perspective, back when the station was top-40 K-West, it earned a 2.4, and that wasn’t good enough to prevent the change to Magic 106. Similarly, when Magic hovered around the same 2.4, it triggered the switch to Power. KPWR has now been at or around a 1.5 share for most of the past few years; I cannot for the life of me understand why owner Meruelo stays with it. One of the strongest signals in Los Angeles maintaining a format with a rating as low 1.5 is just a puzzlement.

On the other hand, I could ask the same question of many stations running low-rated formats, especially the AM stations with nothing to lose by trying something else. KEIB (1150 AM) at 0.4, KTNQ (1020 AM) at 0.1, KRLA (870 AM) at 0.4, KMZT (1260 AM) at 0.1, KABC (790 AM) unrated because they don’t pay for Nielsen… all of them could do better.

Each rating is an estimate of the percentage of listeners aged six and over tuned to a station between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight.

1. KOST (13.3) 2. KRTH (5.6) 3. KBIG (5.1) 4. KTWV (4.3) 5. KNX (4.1) 6. KCBS-FM (3.9) 7. KIIS-FM 8. KLAX, KROQ (3.3) 10. KUSC (3.2)

11. KFI, KYSR (3.1) 13. KLVE, KSCA (3.0) 15. KLOS (2.9) 16. KPCC (2.5) 17. KKGO (2.3) 18. KCRW, KXOL (1.8) 20. KJLH, KRR: (1.7)

22. KBUE (1.6) 23. KKJZ, KLYY, KPWR (1.5) 26. KLLI (1.4) 27. KDAY (1.3) 28. KKLQ (1.2) 29. KRCD (1.1) 30. KCSN, KLAC (0.8)

32. KAIA (0.7) 33. KFWB (0.6) 34. KNX-Stream (0.5) 35. KDLD, KEIB, KRLA (0.4) 38. KCBS-FM Stream, KHJ, KKLA, KKLQ HD2, KLAX Stream, KMZT, KNX HD2, KROQ HD2, KTWV Stream, KWKW, KWVE, KXOL Stream, KYLA (0.1)

Quick Takes

Word on the street is that KFI is planning to make some minor programming changes; I am betting that more will come, but they may arrive slowly. Will it stay local? Can talk survive in its current form? Can we bring back a full news department… Saddleback College is donating its longtime KSBR (88.5 FM) signal to Cal State Northridge, which has been operating KSBR and KCSN as a same-frequency simulcast under the name The SoCal Sound. Saddleback says that owning a radio station no longer fits with its long-term goals. … Driving to Yosemite recently, I never saw a single billboard or other advertisement for even one radio station. How is it that a medium focused on promotion and advertising – doesn’t?

Keep Them Coming

The response to our Jim Healy column may break the record for responses. I’ll have the best ones next week.