How to Pass the Holidays in the New Year – Orange County Register

The period of holiday ratings – spanning roughly the last four weeks of the year – was again friendly to KOST (103.5 FM), which dominated local ratings by playing holiday music. With an audience share of 13.1, KOST scored nearly three times the rating (actually 2.79 times, rounded) of second-place KRTH (101.1 FM) with a 4.7 share.

Interestingly, however, the rating was slightly lower than last year at the same time when KOST earned a share of 13.4, and even lower than 2020’s 13.9. I wouldn’t interpret anything into that… A lot of things are working, not least the fact that, in contrast to the past two years, people were allowed to leave their homes more freely. Still, it’s interesting.

Also interesting: Go Country’s switch to holiday music didn’t seem to make a dent one way or another, as the station received a 2.5… above what it normally earns. KFI (640 AM) was third with 4.4, followed by KLVE (107.5 FM) with 4.2 and My FM KBIG (104.3) with 3.9.

Slightly further down the list, competition from Alt 98.7 and KROQ (106.7 FM) found stations closer together than they had been for a while, with Alt finishing in 15th place with 2.3 shares and KROQ with KPCC (89, 3 FM) at No. 19 was 2.0 KLOS (95.5 FM) fell a little to 2.5 from 2.9 in December and the 3.0 shares he held in September, October and November. This gave Jack-FM KCBS (93.1) a chance to reclaim the classic rock lead, despite having lost since 8/2. December was flat. The problem for Jack is that it had a stock price of 3.9 in August, and unlike November, the trend was down. It should be interesting to see what happens in the first half of this year.

The KLOS sister station Power 106 (KPWR, 105.9 FM) is still struggling. Despite an excellent signal, it remains well below its closest competitor KIIS-FM (102.7), with a 23rd place, 1.6 share versus KIIS’s 7th place 3.0. There was a time when Power beat KIIS, and it wasn’t long before KIIS set records for FM ratings — as high as 10.0 — in the mid-1980s. Kind of amazes you.

And from the files of I Told You So, KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM) received a 2.5 share of the ratings, tying KLOS and Go Country in 11th place. For historical comparison, KNX earned a combined AM-FM share of 2.8 in Holiday 2021 and an AM-only share of 3.2 in Holiday 2020. Simulcasting on FM clearly didn’t help, and owner Audacy lost that about 1.5 share he had with the old KNOU format it ran on 97.1 before simulcast, even as bad as that format was. Meanwhile, KFI has increased its ratings over the same period. Strange.

Honestly, Audacy should stop the simulcast, move the callsigns back to 93.1 FM and play soft rock on FM. But they won’t.