While Nielsen now releases ratings for our local radio stations every four weeks, I normally only report on them every quarter, or roughly three months. It’s not because I find the ratings boring, but if I reported them every month, it would be as if I was constantly reporting them and you’d assume I was lazy. Which I am, but I try to keep that a secret.
These are not normal times, however. We are in the middle of a pandemic-driven economic shutdown, encouraged/persuaded to stay home as much as possible, and that’s made huge changes to the ratings in a very short time. These are the COVID-19 days after all. The April book is the first book that was fully part of the shutdown; March was only partially affected. But the trends that began in March held in April.
For the first time in years, though not the first time since I’ve been writing this column, an AM station rules the Los Angeles airwaves. KFI (640 AM) did it, with a huge jump to a 5.5 rating, up from 4.2 last month and 2.9 back in December of last year. At the same time, usual (at least in the past year) leader KOST (103.5 FM) dropped to third at 4.5, from March’s 2nd place 5.1. KRTH stayed steady at 5.2, but dropped one place into second. Tied with KOST was KTWV The Wave (94.7 FM) which was down from March’s 4.9 and the 4.6 and 4.7 the station earned in February and March, respectively.
KFI was not the only AM station to benefit from these weird times. KNX (1070 AM) was down to 3.4 from last month’s 3.8, but that’s still higher that the 3.0 share the station earned in both January and February. Conservative talker KRLA (870 AM) came in the highest rating for the frequency in decades, 1.8 compared with 1.4 in March and its usual 1.1 or so prior. Even KABC (790 AM) got some love for a change, earning a solid 1.4 — the first time it has been above 1.0 in recent memory.
So what’s going on? Is everyone tuning into news and information stations to get COVID-19 information rather than listening to their favorite music? In a word, no, and that is because listenership is down. Way down. Some stations ended up in April with fewer than half the number of listeners than they had in February.
Ratings company Nielsen calls it “cume,” for the cumulative number of distinct listeners tuning into a station for at least five minutes in a rated quarter hour. Just to give a few examples, KRTH had a cume of 1,605,700 listeners in April, down from 2,889,100 in February. KOST was hit even worse, with a cume of 1,475,400; less than half the 3,025,000 listeners they had in February. KIIS-FM? 1,227,800 in April, 2,534,500 back in February.
That’s because they all went to the news and talk stations, right? Nope. KFI while at the top of the ratings was actually 18th in town when comparing cume, 671,900 compared with 841,000 back in February. KNX, one of the few stations with an increase in March was still down in April … with the three month trend of February through April being 1,018,400, 1,177,900, 770,400.
What gives? Driving. We’re not doing it, so a major time for radio listening is gone for many. Listening at work or in stores? Almost totally eliminated, meaning that stations that usually get an artificial boost in the ratings due to work/store background listening lost that advantage. And while every other station with one exception — KFWB (980 AM) — was down in cume, those that have more listeners who listen by choice, say at home, tended to fare better. The “forced” listening stations — stations with listeners who “hear” a station only because it’s background music while working or shopping — are the ones that lost the most.
This could be an important selling point if we ever get the economy rolling again. Stations that lost fewer listeners as a percentage might be worth more to advertisers, as they would tend to be the stations with a more actively involved audience.
Stiller Passes
While he is better known now as George Costanza’s father on Seinfeld, you may remember when he was all over first radio and then television with his wife Anne Meara in the 1970s and ‘80s advertising for Blue Nun wine, along with other companies and public service campaigns. Their pun-filled ad-libs made for some very entertaining commercials, based in part on the banter they developed as stand-up comedians in the 1950s and ‘60s.
Jerry Stiller passed away May 10th at the age of 92. His son, actor-comedian Ben Stiller announced the passing on Twitter, writing “I’m sad to say that my father, Jerry Stiller, passed away from natural causes. He was a great dad and grandfather, and the most dedicated husband to Anne for about 62 years. He will be greatly missed. Love you Dad.”
Meara died in 2015.
I have great memories of the Blue Nun Stiller and Meara ads … it seems they were heard constantly when I was young. I recently heard one on an aircheck of (probably) KHJ, but they were national. Hearing it at my current age, I was able to more appreciate the puns and double entendre found throughout the ads … they were quite clever and something missing from much of radio advertising today.
Giving a Hug
Paul McGuire from Castaic low-powered KHUG sent an update:
“After reading your column where you mentioned KHUG, a listener from Alhambra, Paul Kenedy, wrote into the station and suggested a female blues DJ — Irene B., the Mississippi Moonshine Mama, from Cairns, Australia — would be a great addition to and a great match with the station.
“Kenedy copied Irene on his note to KHUG (received by owner/DJ Henry Urick), and she wound up volunteering to do a show for KHUG despite never having heard of the station, not to mention living on another continent!
“Her show, "Drivin' Home with the Blues," premiered May 4th in its new weekly time slot, Mondays, 7-8 p.m. P.T. You can hear it online at www.khug.rocks.
Long Distance Travels
I had many responses to my column last week on long-distance (DX) listening, and will feature some of your responses next week … just to give me time to sort through all the emails! But one in particular included a link that you might find helpful if you are DXing yourself.
It’s a list of every AM station on every frequency in the United States. You can print it out or keep it handy on your computer. Just make sure you don’t have your computer nearby as you try to DX any AM stations. The link was sent to me by Victor D’Agostino and compiled by “Mesa Mike.” Find it at tinyurl.com/radiowaves0515
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