Local stations eye Arbitron ratings

The spring 2001 Radio Market Report by Arbitron was made public Aug. 13. For Springfield radio stations, the published numbers are an indicator of where they stand in the local market depending on where they look.

With the nature of radio stations and their concentration of specific target audiences, "You can slice and dice (the numbers) a ton of different ways," said Rex Hansen, vice president and general manager of Journal Broadcast Group's Springfield operations KTTS-FM 94.7 and -AM 1260 and its newest station KSPW 96.5.

One way is to look at the category with the broadest scope, which is listeners more than 12 years old, listening 6 a.m.-midnight Monday through Sunday.

In that category, Hansen's KTTS-FM received the highest Springfield average quarter hour share rating with a 12.6.

"That is basically a measurement that people look at and say, 'overall, 12 plus, more people listen to KTTS than any other station in the Ozarks,'" he said.

Scoring second in that category is Clear Channel Communi-cations' KGBX-FM 105.9. It received a 10.6 share rating. KTTS and KGBX were the only Springfield stations in that category with share ratings in double digits, and both stations had received only a 6.2 rating in Arbitron's fall 2000 report.

But the jump in the 12-plus category is not cause for celebration for Donna Baker, market manager of KGBX and Clear Channel Communications' four other Springfield stations, FM 100.5, KXUS-FM 97.3, KTOZ-FM 95.5 and KGMY-AM 1400.

"It's a little bit difficult to give a snapshot of what the market really looks like in radio," Baker said. "That's always been something that's frustrating, I think, for everybody in the business."

For her and her stations, a tapered view is preferred. "There is very little emphasis in our business placed on 12-plus. ... The primary focus of radio is targeting toward a specific group of people."

For KGBX that target audience is adults 25 to 54, she said. In that category, KGBX and KTTS swapped positions; KGBX earned the top spot with a 16.5 rating, followed by KTTS's 10.8 rating.

"If we increased in 12-plus but didn't grow within our target ... we wouldn't be achieving our goals," she said. "(KGBX) wants to seek to own the minds and hearts of 25 to 54 (year-old) adults, and we're doing that really well."

Hansen agreed that reaching a target audience is a key goal. "Radio stations typically target a smaller segment of the marketplace where they're trying to be dominant in a particular slice," he said. For him that niche audience was found via the new KSPW.

"We identified what was available in the marketplace ... that there was a section of the market that was clearly not being served," he said. "We decided we could make a bigger impact, still on the youth end of the market, but instead of the young country, which is where Max 96 was, we would serve it with the rhythmic (contemporary hit radio)."

Since its first broadcast on March 23, the station has captured Springfield's younger audience, specifically the 18- to 34-year-old range. With its "pop rhythm, hit pop and hit hip-hop" format, it debuted at No. 1 with a 13.2 share rating in that category. That's not a staggering number by Arbitron standards, but it represents a 500 percent increase from the 2.2 rating received by the previous station, KMXH.

"Power has done a great job in just coming out of nowhere," Baker added. "Already they have a very large audience. If you look at 18-34, they came from nowhere to number one. That's what's most important to them. What happened with their format competitor of Hot (106.7 KHTO-FM)? It looks like they sliced their audience completely in half. Will that hold up? Time will tell."

According to Arbitron's numbers, KHTO's ratings in the 18 to 34 category dropped from a 12.9 share in fall 2000 to a 6.2 share this spring.

While the Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group has an infant station in KSPW, its other station, KTTS, will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.

"The station has been a fixture in the community for many, many years ... I think many people would feel (KTTS) is one of the jewels of the Ozarks," Hansen said. "There are very few (radio stations) that people feel have a commitment to serving their needs, their market, the way that this radio station has ... for as long as it has."

Although Journal Broadcast Group has only been owner of the station for a short time since June 1999 and Hansen has been general manager for an even shorter time since January 2000 an importance of the station's deep roots is understood.

"All the pride and all the heritage that (KTTS) has had, we are respecting it and we're trying to bring it along ... to 2001. We're trying to maintain the strength of that. In our own way here at KTTS, we were so dominant for so long that we were the brand. When people thought radio, they thought KTTS. We needed to bring that radio station into the year 2000 2001 now and I think we've been successful in doing that."

Hansen said some program changes were made to move the station forward including fewer commercials and more music, and shorter newscasts from seven minutes to five minutes. Another was a change in the KTTS-AM call letters. It is now KTTF-AM.

Baker has made a few changes of her own, namely with KTOZ. Alice, as it's known, went from a modern adult contemporary format to rock adult contemporary this spring, and it now plays '80s, '90s and now music.

"Basically, what we try and do is be consistent for the long term; look for changes in the market that present opportunity ... to best take advantage of the competitive situation in the market," Baker said. "The adjustment to Alice grew that radio station."

KTOZ ranked second in the 18- to 34-year-old demographic with an 11.4 share rating, up from last fall's 8.6.

But a number that Baker enjoys seeing as much as any other has nothing to do with her specific stations. It's called the "cume" or cumulative ratings. Arbitron's recent cumulative rating shows that 248,500 people are listening to the radio in the local market in a week's time, a number that has increased in each of the last four Arbitron ratings books.

"Frankly, the big winner in Arbitron is all the radio stations," Baker said. "People are continuing to use the medium. Ninety-some percent of the population listens to the radio during the week, and that's a good thing for all broadcasters, regardless of the specifics."[[In-content Ad]]