Radio Waves Podcast #249

Radio: May 22, 2020

    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.

    Two surprises? KAMP (97.1 FM) and KROQ (106.7 FM) … Amp was down to its lowest share ever (1.3 from March’s 1.9 and February’s 2.0) and KROQ was down to its lowest rating ever (1.4 from 2.0 in March and 2.5 in February). Seems that Entercom selling The Sound wasn’t  such a bright idea after all. Actually it never was.

    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.

    DXing

    I received more letter about the fun of long distance listening than I expected! Here is a sample …
    “This brought back memories of picking up WWL from New Orleans and XERS from Del Rio Texas in the early 70s from the Lennox area!”  —  Marvin Johnson

    “In the 50’s I had a multi band radio (from my grandparents) and listened to radio Australia in the mornings. I used a long wire and attached it to the aluminum shingle roof of our home. In 1969, sailing to Hawaii (Transpac), we picked up an AM station in New Orleans.  And Oo course, we often listened to the Mighty 690 out of Rosarito Beach Mexico. I have heard KFI all over the West, usually around sunset.” — Alan Armstrong

    “I'm 87 now; made my first crystal set at age 9. Wow! KNX, KFI, KHJ. Was stationed at Nome, AK during the Korean war spying on the Russians. Can't let you know too much but I had the run of the base and scrounged together a ham station where I could hear and work dx stations as far as the tip of Argentina.” — John Schellenbach

    “Some time in the late 40's while a teenager growing up in Norwalk, CA, I received a small 3 or 5 tube Arvin radio, which was slightly smaller than a 2 slice toaster.  It had an antenna some 12-15 ft long which I attached to the crown moulding at the ceiling in my upstairs bedroom. Wonder of wonders, I could pick up KSL/Salt Lake and also KOA/Denver every once in a while.  Denver had some great country western (cowboy) music.” — Frank Hilarides

    “Reading your column this morning brought back memories from my service time in the Army.  I was stationed for about a year at Ft. Bliss, Texas (El Paso) and worked in the Initial Receiving Point (IRP) of the Ft. Bliss Reception Station.  One evening around 7 pm I was trying to find music on a newly purchased radio when much to my surprise I hit KFI for a Dodger game. Oh boy, something really good! From that point on, every time I ‘had the duty,’ I would try to find the Dodgers. El Paso was just the right distance from L.A. to have near perfect reception (sometimes) with KFI.  Probably didn’t hurt that KFI was a clear channel station either.” — Dan Curran

    “Back in the early 60's, when I was living in the Memphis, TN, area, and was around 11-12 years old, I would sit up late at night with my $14 Hitachi pocket transistor radio, scanning for AM radio stations. I quite often pulled in stations from east of the Rockies, including Denver and WLS in Chicago. I recall one in Idaho, also. Don't recall ever getting one from west of the Rockies. My homework rarely got finished, but I had a lot of fun! Thanks for the memories!” — Terry Cramer

    You are very welcome. I love letters like these. If you don’t mind, I’d like to feature a few more over the coming weeks … might take our minds off the COVID crisis!