“My FM” beats them all in the September Nielsens

The September Nielsen radio ratings were released last week, covering the four-week time period of August 20 through September 16. Officially the results are released monthly in major cities like Los Angeles, though I tend to report on them quarterly as they were released in the old days, so as to not be too repetitive. It also helps to see if changes are trends rather than anomalies.

Sometimes the trends and changes are caused by forces outside of actual listening, such as when someone holding a ratings meter is in a desirable but under-represented demographic, happens to listen a lot to one station. More on that later.

“My FM” KBIG (104.3 FM) was the most popular station in town with a rating of 6.1, beating out KRTH’s (101.1 FM) 5.4 and and former leader KOST’s (103.5 FM) 5.1. Right behind was “Jack” KCBS-FM (93.1) at 5.1, and KROQ (106.7 FM), with its strongest finish in many years: fifth place at 4.3.

Interestingly, the strong KROQ finish did not come at the expense of KYSR, Alt 98.7 FM, which has held steady for most of the year. In fact, for the past four months, Alt has had consistent ratings shares of 3.1 – 3.1 – 3.2 and 3.2. Where then did the KROQ listeners come from? Hold that thought.

I’ve been writing this column almost 40 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a strong showing by a public station as the September results for KUSC (91.1 FM). The station jumped 0.8 from August to finish at 8th place with a 3.9 rating. The next highest was not far behind, with “LAist” KPCC (89.3) coming in tied for 10th with top-40 KIIS-FM (102.7) at 3.7. KCRW (89.9 FM) and KKJZ (88.1 FM) earned 2.3 shares.

As per usual, talker KFI (640 AM) is the highest-rated AM station in town, this month at 3.8 and ninth place Unfortunately, that’s down from the 4.5 the station had in June. Semi-competitor all-news KNX (1070 AM) was just a little down the list, tied with KLOS (95.5 FM) at 14th place with a 3.1. For comparison, KNX had a 3.2 share in June.

Power 106 KPWR (106.7 FM) finally showed some life, earning a 2.2 share and coming in at 21st place. Longtime listeners may have noticed that the station has changed its music a bit in the past few months, adding a lot more “old school” from the 1990s and early 2000s. Back in June, Power sat at 1.6 and was as low as 1.4 earlier in the year. This is one I believe is too early to call, though, as it is just one month so far — same as KUSC’s and KROQ’s rises, by the way — and Power was still at 1.7 just one month ago.

KLAC (570 AM) is still going strong due to the Dodgers, earning a 1.7 share. Dodger baseball is one of the few local teams that still attracts a large radio audience, and it shows. KSPN (710 AM) earned a 0.8, while KNX-FM (97.1) earned a 0.2 share.

Considering how popular country music is right now, it took me by surprise to see Go Country KKGO (105.1 FM) down to a 2.0 share, following a declining trend that began in June. The last four months have seen the station move 3.2 – 2.5 – 2.3 – 2.0. Seems odd, as the station has not changed much.

Here’s what I think is up. Keeping in mind I do not have any direct information — Nielsen doesn’t release the data directly, and no one has secretly handed it over, but I have talked with enough programmers and ratings experts over the years to know this is a distinct possibility: it would seem that some Nielsen meter holders that listened a lot to Go Country were cycled out of the system, replaced by others who perhaps happen to listen to, say, KROQ. If the meter holders happen to be younger, they actually count for more, as it is harder to get and keep younger people on the panel. Therefore, a male aged 25 may have double or even triple the weight in the ratings as a female aged 60.

It may seem far-fetched, but that’s the limitation of the system. If you happen to have a few people in the ratings panel that listen — a lot — primarily to one or two stations, when they leave the panel, it can make a fairly dramatic change to the results. Not on purpose, just the way things work. Most panelists stay in the system about two years, up to three. Smart programmers look at the data as much as possible so as to not overreact when changes like this happen.

I personally think Go Country happened to lose some “good” meters on the panel, and perhaps KROQ, Power, and KUSC picked some up.

Some day I’ll do a column covering more on how the ratings are calculated. Suffice to say, the system isn’t perfect, but right now it’s the best we have. In the meantime, here is the full list representing estimates of the percentage of listeners aged six and over, tuned to a station between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight.

1. KBIG (6.1) 2. KRTH (5.4) 3. KOST (5.1) 4. “Jack” KCBS-FM (4.6) 5. KROQ (4.3) 6. KLVE, “The Wave” KTWV (4.2) 8. KUSC (3.9) 9. KFI (3.8) 10. KIIS-FM, KPCC (3.7)

12. KLAX (3.3) 13. “Alt” KYSR (3.2) 14. KLOS, KNX (3.1) 16. KSCA (2.8) 17. KKLQ (2.4) 18. KCRW, KKJZ, “Real” KRRL (2.3)

21. “Power” KPWR (2.2) 22. “Go Country” KKGO (2.0) 23. KBUE, KXOL (1.8) 25. KJLH, KLAC (1.7) 27. KDAY, “Cali” KLLI (1.3) 29. KLYY (1.1) 30. KSPN (0.8)

31. KAIA (0.6) 32. KFWB (0.5) 33. KXOL Stream (0.4) 34. KEIB, KLXM (0.3) 36. KDLD, KNX-FM, KTLW, (0.2) 39. KIRN, KKLQ HD2, KLAX Stream, KMZT, KROQ HD2, KROQ HD2 Stream, KRTH HD2, KWKW, KYLA (0.1)