July seattle radio ratings: more of the dismal same for news talk

KOMO dropped a little, 4.9- to 4.0, but still good in 9th place; public talker KUOW is still at 11th with 3.8. Mariners baseball helps KIROAM, up from last month's 2.5 to 3.3. KTTH (Rush Limbaugh's home) lost slightly 3.0 to 2.9 at 18th place but still whacks former Big Dog KIROFM, who rose from 2.3 to 2.7, but only tied for 19th place. Progressive talk KPTK sucks as usual, tied for 27th place with only a 1 share. Kool Konservative KVI does only slightly better tied with KJRAM with a 1.6.

Numbers are for the months of  MAY 09, JUNE 09,  JULY 09

1    KRWM-FM    Soft Adult Contemporary    5.6    5.0    5.6
2    KJR-FM           Classic Hits    6.0    5.7    5.3
3    KPLZ-FM    Hot Adult Contemporary    5.1    4.8    5.2
4t   KJAQ-FM    Adult Hits    4.8    4.3    4.9
4t   KBKS-FM    Pop Contemporary Hit    4.7    4.7 4.9
6t   KZOK-FM    Classic Rock    4.2    4.4    4.4
6t   KUBE-FM    Rhythm Contemp. Hits. 3.7  4.2 4.4
6t   KMPS-FM    Country    5.0    5.0    4.4
9    KOMO-AM    All News      4.2    4.6    4.0
10   KKWF-FM    Country    3.6    4.1    3.9
11t  KUOW-FM    News Talk Information 3.6    3.7    3.8
11t  KCMS-FM    Contemporary Christian    4.5    4.3    3.8
13    KISW-FM    Active Rock    3.4    3.3    3.7
14t   KQMV-FM    Rhythmic AC    2.8    3.6    3.3
14t   KIRO-AM    All Sports    2.8    2.5    3.3
16    KNDD-FM    Alternative    2.8    3.3    3.2
17    KMTT-FM    Album Adult Alternative    3.0    2.9    3.0
18    KTTH-AM    Talk/Personality    3.4    3.0    2.9
19t   KWJZ-FM    New AC /Smooth Jazz  3.5 3.7    2.7
19t   KIRO-FM    News Talk Information    2.6    2.3    2.7
21t   KPLU-FM    Jazz    1.9    1.9    2.0
21t   KING-FM    Classical    1.7    1.5    2.0
23    KNBQ-FM    Country    1.9    1.9    1.7
24t   KVI-AM    Talk/Personality    1.5    1.5    1.6
24t   KJR-AM    All Sports    1.7    1.7    1.6
26    KFNK-FM    Active Rock    1.5    1.2    1.1
27t   KPTK-AM    Talk/Personality    1.0    1.2    1.0
27t   KIXI-AM    Adult Standards    1.2    1.2    1.0
29    KDDS-FM    Mexican Regional 0.6    0.9    0.9
30    KEXP-FM    Alternative    0.6    0.4    0.7

Comments

[Pete]

where's KOMO FM?
Has anyone been fired yet at Bonneville for the bonehead move?

[mrogi]

Do we need a Fairness Doctrine to force radio stations to hire liberal talkers that nobody wants to hear? KPTK is a ratings disaster. Rhodes, Miller, Hartmann, Press, Schultz, Malloy, and Reagan suck the ratings tailpipe. Not even government edict can make the public listen to their drivel.

[Coiler]

If no one wants to hear them, plenty of conservatives must have voted for Obama.

[Duffman]

Hmmm, thanks Bla'M. Interesting; seems like KIRO-FM is 'starting' to move up?

[Duffman]

Don't fool yourself, it was because of BUSH radio.

[Bill Wippel]

The top 9 FM stations have a 42.4 total share of the market. Les than 2 shares seperate these stations. KUBE, once the music leader in the market,is now in a race for the bottom 10. What would it take for one music station to break out of the cluster and be #1 by a mile? Try one month without commercials.

[SIGG]

It looks like KIRO would be doing at least a solid mediocre (instead of a crappy abysmal) if it weren't for one albatros whose ratings are so unbelievably awful he's pulling the whole station into the toilet with him:

KIRO Morning News
#9 M25-54, #6 M35-54, #9 M35-64, #8 A35-64, #4 M35+, #4 A35+

Dave Ross
#8 M25-54, #9 M35-54, #9 35-64, #6 M35+

Dori Monson
#6 M25-54, #5 M35-54, #3 M35-64, #3 M35+

Ron & Done
#13 M25-54, #9 M35-54, #7 M35-64, #7 M35+

Luke Burbank
#21 M25-54, #20 M35-54, #22 M35-64, #19 M35+

His best ratings are adults over the age of 35 where he's managed to become the 12th most listened to radio program ... at 7PM ... in DMA14 ... congratulations, you're the King of Poop Island!

That makes sense, too. Why would teen and twenty-somethings wanna listen to a MILF and an old guy with a lisp when there are stations that put hot young things on the air? But, a MILF would still be attractive to men in their 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s, which is where his audience apparently is ... (all due respect to the precious 6,200 podcasters - lol)

[Sclub]

It's not like Bryan Suits, Fred Ebert, etc.,,, ever did much better there SIGG

[SIGG]

Of course.

Why pay someone in Azteca coupons and free Diet Coke to get a #20 rating when you can pay someone in what's left of the station treasury for a #21 rating?

Makes perfect sense, Sclub. With logic like that, you could GM a heritage radio station in Seattle.

[KS]

"If no one wants to hear them, plenty of conservatives must have voted for Obama."

Independents did and a lot of them will now say that they were duped, as shown in his latest approval ratings, which are now hovering around 50%.

[woody held]

actually under 50%, according to Rasmussen,who tied for #1 accuracy in 2008 prez election

[David Tatelman]

It blows my mind that these new ratings are so different from the old Arbitron ratings. Does that mean that everything that was done by KIRO and the other stations who used to lead the ratings was wrong?

I know that Dori Monson has made me a fan of sportsradio, which I never used to listen to, but now as soon as he starts haranguing the liberals I switch to 710 AM.

[LucasFoxx]

Actually, the only big suprise about how the ratings ended up after the big change is where the new ratings ended up. It has always been suspected that some diary keepers would write down call letters of their favorite radio stations even when they were listening to something else. That has now been weeded out, so the ratings should show a more accurate picture of at least what the diarists are actually listening to if not the market itself.

[Dave]

Minority broadcasters aren't the only critics of Arbitron's portable people meter service. Now other broadcasters are speaking out about the service's low sample sizes.

In an open letter dated Aug. 10 to Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski, Michael Luckoff, president and general manager of Citadel's News/Talk KGO-AM and KSFO-AM, the No. 1- and No. 6-rated stations under the PPM in San Francisco, wrote that because of low samples, Arbitron's PPM service has become "next to worthless if not actually destructive to
many radio broadcasters."

Luckoff accused Arbitron of reneging on its promise to build PPM samples that were as large as the diary samples in each market.

"Not only was the promise never kept, but in fact only a fraction of that guaranteed number were ever placed. In the San Francisco metro for instance, approximately 7,200 diaries were distributed in every quarter. Now, there are but 2,000 meters, 800 households surveyed for
what Arbitron hopes to be a two-year period," Luckoff wrote.

Because of the low sample size, Luckoff concluded that radio is unable to effectively sell and program. "When the scant numbers of meter response information is 'sliced and diced' the available numbers, trends etc. are of absolutely no value in making any such decision with any degree of accuracy or reliability."

Luckoff's final point: Broadcasters are paying 50 percent more for less usable data.

Arbitron was not immediately available for comment.

[WILD BILL]

SIGG, sounds more like a personal problem. You need to reach in your pants and express your true feeling for this unnamed host. Be Free! Like the budderfly!

[SIGG]

WILD BILL - would I be making a safe guess to assume you are part of the uncoveted 18-34 "at heart" demographic that Luke has locked-up, *not* the coveted 18-34 "in years" demographic of which Luke has a zero-share?

Do you ever cyber with a 15 year old girl because you're "young at heart?" You better be careful, the coppers seem not to care the age of one "at heart" as much as the age of one "in years."

[Tacoma Listener]

In a side note about KIRO 710 ESPN Seattle. I was listening early Monday morning and Bill Schwartzie came on to do his fast talking sports news.

Funny thing, it was a tape of Friday's sport rehash of Mariners losing 11 to 1 and Seahawks heading for San Diego.

At Least KJR has live sports updates.

Nice F***UP 710 ESPN SEATTLE!

[homegrown]

dave ross is probably one of the worst blatherheads on the air. he never asks a tough question of his guests. he has no problem booking sims nickels or gregoire because of his timid spineless interview style. he actually apologized to gregoire once when he asked her a semi-tough question.mr. marshmellow
is a big hit with the liberals. He gives the local pols. a platform to say whatever they please completely unchallanged..