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Media KOGO is tops among general listeners according to Arbitron ratings



Radio: Station Ranks High Consistently;

Election Boosts Ratings

In a ratings period buoyed by post-election drama, news-talk outlet KOGO-AM continued to reign as the top-rated radio station among general listeners in the San Diego market last fall.

In The Arbitron Co.’s report for late September through late December, KOGO drew 6.3 percent of listeners ages 12 and older during an average 15-minute period in the week. Arbitron’s system is based on listeners keeping diaries of the stations to which they listen, plus when and where.

It’s the third ratings period in a row that KOGO has topped for general listeners. The station, which is owned by Clear Channel Communications, also ranked first in the market for average listeners in a 15-minute period, with an audience of 22,200.

Following KOGO were: soft rock station KYXY-FM; XHTZ-FM, which plays a mix of hip-hop, top 40s and rhythm and blues; sports station XTRA-AM; and top-40s station KHTS-FM.

KHTS, another Clear Channel station, ranked first for its cumulative audience, which looks at the total number of different people who tune into a station during the whole week.

KHTS, called Channel 933, had 457,600 listeners. The station was followed by XTRA, XHTZ, KFMB-FM and KOGO.

An Impressive Feat

Kevin McCarthy, market manager for KOGO and other AM stations Clear Channel owns or operates in San Diego, considers his station’s results an impressive feat.

The fact it’s the third consecutive time that KOGO has ranked first, is a result of long-term planning and several programming changes, McCarthy said.

When Clear Channel predecessor Jacor Communications bought KOGO from Par Broadcasting in 1996, it already owned a talk station KSDO, which had a weaker signal.

The following year, a great deal of KSDO’s programming was moved onto the KOGO station, including on-air personalities Roger Hedgecock and Rush Limbaugh.

When other opportunities arose, such as Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s advice program and radio broadcast rights to the San Diego Padres’ games, Clear Channel secured both for KOGO, McCarthy recalled.

Winning All-Around

At the time the Padres games began airing on KOGO, the station had already reached No. 2 in the ratings, McCarthy said. The boost the baseball broadcasts provided was “icing on the cake,” he said.

“What’s coming together is a well-thought-out plan that we had back when we launched this thing in 1997 to become San Diego’s signature radio station,” McCarthy said.

This is the first time in more than four years that any station has been the most-listened-to in San Diego for three consecutive radio periods, he said. “I think that validates the work that we’ve done.”

Other news-talk stations didn’t fare as brightly in the general ratings. Although KFMB-AM’s cumulative audience rose from 158,100 to 190,600 in the fall quarter, the station’s share of listeners went down from 2.5 percent to 2.2 percent. KFMB is owned by Chicago-based Midwest Television.

Lower-rated stations with similar talk formats saw their numbers increase in the fall. KPRZ-AM, a Christian-“positive values” station, improved from a 0.5 share in the summer to a 0.6 in the fall. Conservative talk station KCBQ-AM, which didn’t register on the summer ratings, in the recent period had a 0.1 share. Both stations are owned by Salem Communications.

KSDO, which Clear Channel now operates for Houston-based Chase Broadcast Group, maintained its 0.8 share, grew in cumulative audience from 72,400 to 74,600, but decreased from 2,800 to 2,700 in listeners per average quarter hour.

Covering The Election

The 2000 election, including the prolonged election race between President George W. Bush and former Vice President Al Gore, was only part of why news-talk stations saw an increase, said Mark Larson, president of the local Radio Broadcasters Association.

Listeners’ tastes are mercurial, and talk stations and music stations are favored at different times, said Larson, who is general manager of AM stations KCBQ and KPRZ.

However, new audience members who are introduced to the format for an event such as a major election could continue listening, having a longer-lasting impact on San Diego’s market, he said.

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