First adults, then dudes, but leave us not forget the all-important, sought after women listeners…
Trust me, everybody wants a piece of this action. And don’t take that the wrong way. To that end, let’s look at the Top 10 KC stations in women listeners, 25-54, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
For the uninitiated, this is when 90 percent of most station’s revenue is derrived. Where its heaviest hitters slug it out for money, power and glory.
Now hang onto your crucifixes because you may be in store for a huge surprise…
!) K Love 97.3 FM with a 9.3 share. It’s syndicated, it’s Christian, it takes prayer requests and it’s kicking butt!
2) Mix 93.3 FM with a 7.5 share. How many million years ago did gifted program director Jon Zellner bring in a morning show starring Rocket, Teresa & Ponch? My point exactly. Zellner’s long gone to Clear Channel but these Katzenjammers are still going strong.
3) KPRS FM with a 6.7 share. Still black and still proud.
4) KCMO FM with a 6.5 share. Whatever you do, just don’t call ’em "Oldies"
5) Q104 FM (tie) with a 6.1 share. Remember when this station launched with Randy Miller? Randy Who?
5) The Rock 98.9 FM (tie) also with a 6.1 share as well. You know, chicks are headbangers, too!
6) Jack FM (tie) with a 5.7 share. Still mixing and matching, after all these years.
6) The Buzz (tie) also with a 5.7 share. Remember when this station almost bought the farm? And Lazlo and Afentra bailed on KC things were so bleak? No mas!
7) Alice FM with a 5.1 share. Go ask Jack – it’s everything but the kitchen sink. I’m looking at Alice’s last 10 songs ranging from Led Zeppelin to The Cure to the Avett Brothers to John Cougar…you get the picture.
8) The Vibe with a 4.3 share. My 14 year-old, freshmen high school daughters have long since made the switch from Mix to The Vibe. I view it as a Mixed Blessing.
Now let’s see what’s shakin’ with the grrrls in morning drive.
1) Mix 93.3 & The Rock are tied with a 7.9 share. Not sure how much else Johnny Dare and Rocket & Teresa have in common.
2) K-Love with a 7.7 share. The Christians are coming! The Christians are coming! Wait, they’re here!
3) Q104 FM with a 6.8 share (tie). See, there’s this guy named Mike Kennedy who used to work for a guy named Randy…
3) Jack FM with a 6.8 share (tie). Wanna wreak havoc on a marraige? Wear your PPM meter only when listening to Kennedy’s wife Nycki Pace on Jack’s morning show and see what happens.
4) KPRS FM with a 6.5 share. Still a powerhouse but…remember when The Star only reported the meaningless 12-plus, Monday thru Sunday, 6 a.m. to midnight numbers? And KPRS took turns being Numero Uno with 61 Country? Were those ever the daze.
5) KCMO FM with a 5.4 share. It’s really an amazing run. Think about how long Dick Wilson has mattered in KC radio. From KY to now. I mean, who else in this town has seniority – what’s left of Walt Bodine?
6) Alice with a 5.1 share. Think of her as the new kid in school who’d like nothing more than to dump Jack.
7) The Buzz with a 4.9 share. You gotta give it up for a woman the size of host Afentra with the balls to call her own show "fat"
8) KCUR with a 4.2 share. Public radio likes to consider itself above the ratings fray but station management knows better. They too have to attract what passes for advertisers. The $64 million Question: How many of KCUR’s women listeners are Walt Bodine Groupies? Scary, huh?
8) WDAF FM with a 4.2 share. Remember when the call letters WDAF truly meant something in this town? David Lawrence, Charles Gray. And to think, this signal could have gone Contemporary Christian and totally kicked ass.
Why Christian radio stations are taking over
Christian radio is becoming more popular on the FM dial, just as it did on the AM waves years ago, and for some of the same reasons. As the general public abandons radio as a music medium in favor of their iPods and such, radio in general is being left behind in the mainstream. What’s filling that vacuum? Same thing as before, Christian radio and Talk radio.
FYI: I deleted “God Squad’s” comment in order to check his fuzzy math
God Squad Radio
The only reason why K Love looks so good is because Hearne insists on posting shares rather than actual listeners. He thinks this is how media buyers buy so that’s all he will list. Actually media buyers don’t use share, they use rating points which is your average quarter hour listeners shown as a percentage of the population. Share is average quarter hour listeners shown as a percentage of those listening to radio. Both share and ratings are driven more by the amount of time people spend with a station rather than how many different listeners tune in the station over a period of time. Share will not measure popularity. Looking at actual listeners here’s how Herane’s list above would rank:
#1 Mix 93 KMXV 126,300
#2 The Point KZPT 105,300
#3 The Vibe KCHZ 103,500
#4 KCMO-FM 98,000
#5 K-Love KLRX 85,600
#6 The Wolf WDAF 79.700
#7 Jack KCJK 70.000
#8 KFKF 75,400
#9 Q104 KBEQ 72,000
#10 Alice KCKC 71,600
Interesting to note K Love goes from 1st to 5th. Their audience is average size at best. However K Love’s lisssteners are loyal and listen for long periods of time because the Christian music listener has no other choices on the dial. That’s why they look good in share. KPRS drops off the list completely as does the Buzz and Rock. The Point goes from not on the list ( 11th in share) to 2nd. The Wolf goes from not on the list to the number 1 Country station on the list. Q104 goes from 1st country station to the 3rd country station. Vibe goes from last to third.
OK, God Squad, Prepare to accept my shoe directly up your you-know-what.
Hearne (that’s me) does not think media buyers buy on share. Hearne (me again), knows that media buyers buy ratings points. But I’m not writing a guide for media buyers because they frankly don’t need one. They have access to these same numbers, including yours above which I checked out and are correct.
But clearly what you’re trying to do here is mislead and/or confuse the casual readers. I’m going to explain in a separate comment below.
Anyway, long story short, I don’t so much mind you’re putting words in my mouth, but try and do an intelligent job of it next time. “Hearne thinks media buyers buy on share” – nice try!
Time for Kansas Karl aka God Squad to get real…
Nobody needs to come on KC Confidential and tell media buyers how radio ratings work ot how to make ad buys. They already know, dude!
Moreover, it’s needlessly confusing to regular readers. Which is probably your purpose and goes a long way in explaining why you didn’t sign your real name. If all you want to do is clear something up or set something straight, why not use your real name? There’s no reason to be embarrassed.
Now to the above comment, here’s the deal:
Share is the primary way radio stations measure their success. Media buyers don’t look at share, they look at quarter hour ratings, but they’re all the same thing in terms of rankings.
Now, as for your above exercise in ratings spin…
The trouble with using only the cume – total number of listeners sampling the station – is it doesn’t tell you how long people are listening. It’s one thing to have a ton of people checking out the new Point, but if they are not sticking with the station once they try it, that rings a bit hollow.
So let’s look at the weekly Tiem Spent Listening numbers for Mix, The Point and K-Love. The TSL for women listeners, 25 to 54 on Mix 93.3 is two hours a week. At The Point, it’s half that or one hour.
With K-Love it’s FOUR HOURS. Quadruple that of The Point. Therein lies the Achilles Heel for the above commenter’s list.
The bottom line: There are 15 different ways to rank a radio station audience. And shares are very important – ask any radio person. They’re important because it shows how radio stations are performing in the way most radio people rank a radio station. It’s what radio people look at.
U both r WRONG
To some degree you both are wrong. Its not about just about overall numbers or how long someone is listening. Its about what your target audience is and demographics. If you run a bar and want to increase customer count would you run your ad on a Christian radio station even if they had a 9.3 share? Of course not. That is not your target audience.
By the same token if you are the Royals would you run an ad for family fun day with Christian musical acts on Johnny Dare. Again of course not.
You might place your ads on a show with much smaller ratings or share because they hit your target audience.
Let me give you a real life example. Pro wrestling draws MUCH better ratings then golf. But you don’t see Cadilac advertising on wrestling but you do on golf. Why? Because the audience they are trying to reach watches golf not pro wrestling. Meanwhile your Slim Jim eaters are watching wrestling so that is where they advertise.
That is one of the challenges of KCC trying to figure out what there target audience is.