First, a word of apology for a glitched-out post that hung out here for a while last night and this morning. There are reasons why I’ve never been asked to program the space shuttle.
The collapse of the I-35W bridge last week pushed a lot of beat coverage off the table for a while. In between boogie boarding and cocktails, (neither a pretty sight), I had been fishing for the Arbitron radio ratings for the spring/second quarter of this year. I now have them.
You may have seen the overall ratings, the so-called 12-plus. While a reasonable enough gauge of station popularity, that category, including both kiddies and geezers, is of almost no value to the stations’ primary customers. (That’d be their advertisers, not you, you silly listener.) But under the rules of Arbitron they are allowed only to publicly share that broad, vague figure, while zealously guarding information that has actual sales validity and impact.
But as in all things media (and life) there are ways to get your gloms on the darker secrets.
Here then is a look at the ratings and station rankings for the Twin Cities top stations among adults 25-54. First number is spring ’07, second is spring ’06.
Station ’07 / ’06
KQRS 12.2 / 11.4
K102 7.2 / 7.3
KS95 5.6 / 5.9
Cities 97 5.1 / 5.6
93X 4.9 / 3.6
WLTE 4.6 / 4.8
KDWB 4.6 / 3.1
Jack-FM 4.3 / 4.3
AM 1500 4.1 / 2.7
The Beat 3.7 / 1.9
WCCO 3.3 / 3.7
KFAN 3.0 / 3.9
KOOL 108 2.6 / 5.0
KTLK 2.1 / 1.5
FM 107.1 1.8 / 1.6
LOVE (3) 1.1 / 1.1
Air America 0.9 / 1.1
Further down the list, deep wing nut radio, WWTC AM 1280, aka, “Patriot” lost about half its adult audience from last year. Dipping to an 0.6 from a 1.1.
Digging around a little further I find the evening ratings for AM 1500 up from a 1.7 in ’06 to a 12.4 in ’07, almost certainly due to the Twins games now playing over there. But note that this extraordinary leap, (for which AM 1500 draws very little revenue as a result of their deal with the Twins), has translated to only a modest increase across AM 1500’s entire schedule.
In general, what with lower ratings for WCCO, KFAN, The Patriot, Air America and a negligible increase for heavily-promoted KTLK, it doesn’t appear Twin Cities audiences were in much of a mood for talk this past spring.
In that context I really shouldn’t, but can’t help checking on the afternoon drive, or the 3pm to 7 pm day-part of KTLK, where a year ago Sarah Janecek of Politics in Minnesota and I were gleefully hurling chairs at each other five days a week.
I’m not going to call ours’ a polished act. But damn, we were working cheap. The old saying goes, “If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will.” Which is why I have less shame than I should in noting that we were thrown out of the station while performing for a modest but growing 3.7 rating, while today, the same four-hour slot, occupied by the far, far better compensated Jason Lewis, (doing three hours), is playing in front of a 2.8 share of the local radio audience.
Did I mention how much more Clear Channel is paying him than us AND our long-suffering producer, Rob Pendleton?
Anyway, enough of that. I’m only capable of being so tacky. (Until next time.)
The cratering of ratings for KOOL108, which re-transformed itself with more ’80s and less ’50s and ’60s music, is one reason why the station’s Program Director, Travis Moon, recently departed for a new gig in Cincinnati. Internally at Clear Channel, fear and rumor-mongering says changes may soon be afoot at both KOOL 108 and KTLK in the wake of continued low audience levels and the recent whacking of long-time boss, Mick Anselmo.
I’m not able to offer 25-54 adult ratings that include any MPR station. But I can include MPR in among the 12+ rankings.
STATION ’07 / ’06
KQRS 9.1 / 7.8
K102 6.9 / 9.0
WCCO 6.6 / 9.0
KDWB 5.6 / 4.4
93X 5.0 / 4.9
WLTE 5.0 / 4.6
KS95 4.7 / 4.6
KNOW * 4.6 / 4.6
AM 1500 4.6 / 3.2
Cities 97 3.9 / 3.3
The Beat 3.8 / 3.7
Jack-FM 3.3 / 3.4
KSJN * 3.0 / 3.6
KOOL 108 2.7 / 3.7
KFAN 2.2 / 2.5
KTLK 2.1 / 2.0
89.3 The Current * 1.8 / 2.6
FM 107.1 1.3 / 1.2
The Patriot 1.1 / 1.4
* Minnesota Public Radio stations.
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