If I'm reading these ratings from RadioandRecords.com correctly, the recall obsession wasn't good for KFI. The talk station's summer ratings were down slightly from the spring book, and down even more compared to last summer. It's still the #1 talk station in Southern California -- which means the station is listened to by 4.2% of the radio audience age 12 and over.
KABC's ratings plunged this summer (I think a 24% drop qualifies as a "plunge") to a 2.2 share. KLXS, the FM entry in the talk wars, also fell to 2.2. Anti-Liberal Talk does appear to have helped KRLA, which jumped from a 0.6 share to 1.0. In each case, I'm sure the stations have paid for detailed breakdowns by program that will show more, but we moochers don't have access.


I don't think you have enough data here to support your conclusions. KFI's summer 2003 book is down 0.1 from Spring and down 0.3 from last summer but it is up nicely from Fall and Winter (+0.6 and +0.5).
In order to understand what is really going on here you need data that helps you filter out seasonal variation and other major events -- new DJ's, big news stories etc.
Even if talk radio is down as a whole, are there factors that would have had them even more down if it weren't for the recall? These numbers don't tell you that.
Posted by: Martin at October 15, 2003 09:09 AM