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KROQ's horrible ratings
- Thread starter MarkW
- Start date
It's odd that KROQ doesn't get great overall ratings. But its listener base must be highly valued. KROQ is one of the best earning FM stations in America. It's often among the ten highest revenue stations nationally, and the best among CBS' L.A. cluster. Of course, it wasn't long ago that KTWV held that distinction.
You've hit the nail on the head; the music sucks! KROQ got stuck in that neo-folk scene and forgot how to "Roq" Recently I have heard them adding back some familiar songs from their roq days but it's a case of too little, too late. Alt has a new, young morning show that is doing very well, while Kevin & Bean cash their checks and phone it in. Of course, without K&B, KROQ probably wouldn't be such a great $ generator. Pendulum swings, baby!
KROQ can thank Kevin and Bean for much of that revenue. If they were to bolt, I think they would be quite vulnerable in case CBS wanted to try something new in LA.
The playlist actually seems less stale than it was for years, at least judging from their Mediabase top 50. I just don't care for much of it, so I could understand if a lot of their target doesn't either.
This is a tough format to program for, and a format that is dead in a lot of cities. What killed it? The splintering of the music. There is very little consensus music they can play that will attract the core audience they had ten years ago. It's the same problem MTV faced at one point. Kevin & Bean remain a revenue source because their show isn't really music based. The minute the station depends on music, the audience splinters. I'm not sure what the solution here is, because from what I can see, it's a music problem, not a radio problem. They can change the programmers at the station, but it won't fix the music problem. They'll just tinker and adjust the songs to get a better audience mix. So there will still be unhappy listeners, but there will be a different group of unhappy listeners.
KROQ jocks used to create a party atmosphere on air. Jed the Fish was peerless, Sluggo seemed part drunk & partly off his rocker. The KROQ personality was interjected between virtually every song and every stopset. I disagree with this thread that Kevin & Bean are phoning it in, but there certainly was an extra special dynmaic when Doc on the ROQ was there and a focus of their ire. Letting Lisa go was painful. Sports Guy Jimmy was there during the show's peak years, and Ralph's constant put-downs of Bean, are tiring. Bean works hard to be informed and is the consumate professional. Definately NOT phoning it in. Kat, Stryker, Nicole are all functional, but not necassarily unique in the way that KROQ used to stand out from the crowd and rise above its ALT peers across the country.
Due to this thread I went and listened to KROQ this afternoon (9/1) and what I heard was burned to a crisp track after yet another burned to a crisp track. If you are going to subject the audience yet again to Weezer (twice in less than 2 hours), The All-American Rejects, No Doubt, Semisonic, Sublime, etc. have the jock say or do something to remind what is special about the track. Yet all I mostly heard were KROQ call letter drops, promos for the upcoming weekend's party song countdown, and commercial stopsets. Nothing that felt like the studio was out of control and embodying an "anything can happen" attitude that KROQ had during its prime.
Due to this thread I went and listened to KROQ this afternoon (9/1) and what I heard was burned to a crisp track after yet another burned to a crisp track. If you are going to subject the audience yet again to Weezer (twice in less than 2 hours), The All-American Rejects, No Doubt, Semisonic, Sublime, etc. have the jock say or do something to remind what is special about the track. Yet all I mostly heard were KROQ call letter drops, promos for the upcoming weekend's party song countdown, and commercial stopsets. Nothing that felt like the studio was out of control and embodying an "anything can happen" attitude that KROQ had during its prime.
http://ratings.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb003
Overall they are down to 2.3 overall. Depends on billing, if they are still billing 10 million a year, CBS wont care. If billing is down they will care. Yes Alt 98.7 is alot healthier than KROQ. Woody show is rather new. Kevin and bean have been at KROQ a good 25 years, if im not mistaken.
The audience has changed since the 80's and 90's. So it is hard to program.
Overall they are down to 2.3 overall. Depends on billing, if they are still billing 10 million a year, CBS wont care. If billing is down they will care. Yes Alt 98.7 is alot healthier than KROQ. Woody show is rather new. Kevin and bean have been at KROQ a good 25 years, if im not mistaken.
The audience has changed since the 80's and 90's. So it is hard to program.
KROQ is in a bind
18 to 34 age group
They compete against Alt 98.7.
Myfm 104.3. Amp FM
And KIIS.
25 to 54 age group
They compete against
KRTH, KOST.
Plus KROQ's signal is medium power which hurts it as well. I was going to say to flip to sports but they have no teams in LA that are looking for a station.
18 to 34 age group
They compete against Alt 98.7.
Myfm 104.3. Amp FM
And KIIS.
25 to 54 age group
They compete against
KRTH, KOST.
Plus KROQ's signal is medium power which hurts it as well. I was going to say to flip to sports but they have no teams in LA that are looking for a station.
It's all about mornings. That's all that matters.
They share 20% or more of their cume with KIIS, KYSR, KBIG, KPWR, KCBS, KAMP, KRTH, KOST, KRRL, KLOS, KSWD and KXOL.
Actually, they share 20% or more of the 25-54 cume with KCBS, KBIG, KYSR, KIIS, KERH, KOST, KLOS, KAMP, KSWD, KPWR, KTWV and KRRL.
It's not as much a power issue as an antenna height issue. They are 5400 watts from the Verdugo Mountains, and not on Mt Wilson. Several stations on Mt Wilson that do very well like KSCA and KIIS have the same power range and do great.
Seemed? Those who know Doug can confirm that he *is* partly off his rocker. That's why he's so brilliant on and off air.
KROQ has always been a living breathing radio station where the people behind the mic are as important as the music.
I understand that nothing lasts forever and people move on... and what resonates with today's generation may be different from Gen-X, so that combined personality of the station will evolve over time...
...but you've got to let KROQ be KROQ, or else you end up with Pandora with commercials.
You realize Pandora HAS commercials? Unless you pay.
What makes you think that? A lot of people had said The Wave was completely dead two years ago. Now it's a Top 5 station.
KCBS-FM #7
KYSR tied for #8
KSWD #16
KLOS tied for #17
KROQ #19
So that is quite a low rating. Unless advertisers looking for white men figure this is the rating region where they will find their audience. The theory that Kevin & Bean are outperforming the rest of the station may be true. But if the station is #19 overall, how good could they be doing?
So why is KYSR doing so well? Interesting that LA, San Diego and Kansas City are the only markets where two Alternative stations compete. All other markets have one or no Alternative station.
KYSR tied for #8
KSWD #16
KLOS tied for #17
KROQ #19
So that is quite a low rating. Unless advertisers looking for white men figure this is the rating region where they will find their audience. The theory that Kevin & Bean are outperforming the rest of the station may be true. But if the station is #19 overall, how good could they be doing?
So why is KYSR doing so well? Interesting that LA, San Diego and Kansas City are the only markets where two Alternative stations compete. All other markets have one or no Alternative station.
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KROQ is now 12th in 18-49 compared to KYSR's 3rd.
This is not an ethnic issue. KROQ indexes with the market at 41% to 43% Hispanic (depending on the month). While it has nearly no African American listeners, the African American percentage of the market is under 7% Black and under-indexing with this group is not abnormal for rock stations.
It's a programming issue. KYSR is just delivering listeners better.
Note that both of these are "inferior" technical facilities as they are not on Mt Wilson but they are still Class B licenses.
You're comparing 25 hours of programming to 24/7, which is 168 hours. We need to see a breakout for morning drive. If the bulk of the revenue comes from the 25 hours of morning show, then it doesn't matter what happens the rest of the day. This isn't unusual for CBS, who had a similar situation with Howard Stern. His show brought in the bulk of the revenue, and the rest of the day was gravy.
I'm really just stating the obvious. The station has no growth at the moment. They're currently declining.
When you have a solid product and are making a ton of money from it, you don't feel compelled to change things. That's KROQ. They made a ton of money with the same DJs, same morning show, same music, same amount of commercials, etc.
And it's tough to shed your roots and try to appeal to a new audience when your legacy is what's holding you together. Since revenues/profits are still important, it's tough for KROQ to go ahead and try something new.
Although KYSR and KROQ's playlists are virtually identical at this point, I think KYSR's success is based on what they did different from KROQ over the past few years:
1. KYSR played less recurrents (i.e. '90s gold titles) than KROQ.
2. KYSR found a morning show that is competitive to Kevin and Bean.
3. Rebranding to ALT 98.7 gave the station more identity with listeners.
Growing up, I would listen to KROQ religiously. Not just because I loved the alternative rock genre, but because the mix of music was relatively eclectic and different. Maybe that's a good way to rebuild audience.
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