Well the stigma of an AM station not doing well Is just that. KFI is doing Great it's in the top 5 this December book we will have to see if the changes to the John and Ken show affect the shares later this month. This goes to show if you have a flame 🔥 and you program it right you can have a successful am station.
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KFI
- Thread starter 30james
- Start date
KFI's problem is age, not share. In December 2023 in 12+ it was #2 after HoHoHoKOST.
In 25-54 it was 20th. In 18-49 it was 24th. But in 55+, it beat KOST by a tenth of a share point! In 65+
Of course, some will say that this is not an AM or talk issue, but the statistically-founded consideration that "the older people get, the more conservative they become" (In quotes as I don't want this to be my own belief). But whatever the reason, the station is very top-heavy.
My own theory is that it's owning real estate that does it.
David, can you also speak to the low cume for KFI compared to most other top ten 12+ station numbers?
How do they rank so high with so few total listeners?
How do they rank so high with so few total listeners?
That might explain "fiscal conservatives." But that's not what AM talkers focus on.
Bill Clinton was a fiscal conservative.
Uhhh....yeah.
Time Spent Listening!
Yep. Rating/Share/Average Persons is the product of how many listeners and how long they listen.
100 persons listening one hour each in a week will get the same share as 10 people listening 10 hours each.
Your theory is correct, Dealing with the property tax bills, insurance, maintenance, etc. starts people on a trend toward higher economic IQ.
I would reply but I have been admonished that political discussions are not allowed on this site. I look forward to this post being swiftly removed in accordance with site policies ( as mine was).
Discussing the "economy" in the context of analyzing the Audacy bankruptcy or the NPR national and local station layoffs is relative. Using such events as a "trigger" for purely political posts is not allowed. I deleted the post.
It seems like KFI is trying to address the top heavy nature of their listenership with the additions of certain hosts and through rearranging their lineup. I feel like the hosts that appeal the most to the older demographic occupy a similar age bracket.
That stopped being true with Millennials. They're actually getting less conservative as they age. This means that conservative talk won't automatically attract a younger audience if you move it to FM.
Millennials are shattering the oldest rule in politics
Western conservatives are at risk from generations of voters who are no longer moving to the right as they age
www.ft.com
That article specifically deals with "the West" meaning CA, OR and WA. It can't be generalized for anything between Idaho and Georgia.That stopped being true with Millennials. They're actually getting less conservative as they age. This means that conservative talk won't automatically attract a younger audience if you move it to FM.
Millennials are shattering the oldest rule in politics
Western conservatives are at risk from generations of voters who are no longer moving to the right as they age
So, while certain formats may be of no interest in overwhelmingly liberal areas, the generalization is incorrect.
The news story you linked to was behind a paywall for me, but the headline only makes sense in some ways. The world is becoming a smaller place all the time. More and more jobs require higher levels of education and specialties. Younger folks especially get out more, travel more, see more for themselves and they learn by doing so.
To keep this on the topic of Radio, I was listening to Rick Steves' travel program a few months ago. He was telling one of his guests that his father was conservative and so was he. When Steves first went to travel and study abroad, his father dropped him off at the airport and said "Son, don't let those people fool you!". Rick stated that once he himself started traveling aboard and seeing and learning and doing on his own, it became very apparent to him that it was actually he and his father who were the ones that'd been fooled - into believing things and being spoon-fed falsehood by right-wing talk and media outlets that simply weren't true or accurate or that were at minimum exaggerated.
You really think that the residents of City Terrace or Compton or Huntington Park are "getting out and traveling more" when the most commonly researched condition in such areas is "not able to make the food budget reach to the end of the month."
You are looking through very middle class lenses.
The dynamics of the talk format as a whole intrigue me. Take a very blue market like Seattle.
The market has four conservative talkers on AM - now, one is Salem and one iHeart, so set those aside for national clearance reasons and ownership - they don't rate well, and don't need to for what they are. That leaves two local AM talkers - Bonneville's KTTH and Lotus' KVI. Each one performs pretty close to the other in the ratings, and each has two local hosts.
The dominant FM talk signal is Bonneville's KIRO. Their lineup has a morning news magazine, followed by two moderates (one leaning left, one center-right.) Then, a libertarian conservative co hosting with a centrist Democrat. Then, a conservative, followed by another conservative. Even the more balanced station, leans conservative in a solidly blue market.
The facts are, talk radio even in very blue markets is dominated by conservative hosts. And I have never been able to grasp why, for the most part, liberal hosts don't get traction. I know it's not because the talent doesn't exist. There's plenty of liberal entertainers in all media that are very successful. So it's either that these talents aren't being developed, or liberal leaning individuals simply don't like the format of commercial talk radio as it exists in current times. Either way, the "liberal media" cliche certainly doesn't apply to the talk format in the United States.
The market has four conservative talkers on AM - now, one is Salem and one iHeart, so set those aside for national clearance reasons and ownership - they don't rate well, and don't need to for what they are. That leaves two local AM talkers - Bonneville's KTTH and Lotus' KVI. Each one performs pretty close to the other in the ratings, and each has two local hosts.
The dominant FM talk signal is Bonneville's KIRO. Their lineup has a morning news magazine, followed by two moderates (one leaning left, one center-right.) Then, a libertarian conservative co hosting with a centrist Democrat. Then, a conservative, followed by another conservative. Even the more balanced station, leans conservative in a solidly blue market.
The facts are, talk radio even in very blue markets is dominated by conservative hosts. And I have never been able to grasp why, for the most part, liberal hosts don't get traction. I know it's not because the talent doesn't exist. There's plenty of liberal entertainers in all media that are very successful. So it's either that these talents aren't being developed, or liberal leaning individuals simply don't like the format of commercial talk radio as it exists in current times. Either way, the "liberal media" cliche certainly doesn't apply to the talk format in the United States.
My take is it's for the same reason radio stations play certain songs and don't play others: Consensus. The conservative view can be defined very easily, and everyone seems to agree on those things. Liberals have a less defined thing. Back in the 60s, folks singer Phil Ochs had a song called "Love Me, I'm a Liberal." If you listen to it, he was using the word 'liberal' in disdain, as someone who is wishy washy. It's hard to bring together a consensus audience around an amorphous ideology. Much easier to say "faith, family, and flag."
In my time at KTAR and KFBK, I also found that while significant numbers of liberals will hate-listen to a conservative host and in some cases call in to argue, most conservatives just ignore a liberal host. So conservative hosts get all the conservatives and some of the liberals. Liberal hosts get the leftovers.