A Spanish station, KSOL 98.9, and a urban hip-hop station, KMEL 106.1, are making steady gains in the latest Arbitron ratings for the San Francisco market. Before saying much more about these numbers (which are from the radio industry site All Access) we should point out that cumulative ratings (listeners 12 and older) are considered to be a beauty contest — nice to look at, but advertisers don’t care about these overall figures. They’re more interested in how stations perform in particular demographics.
Returning to the beauty contest, NewsTalk KGO-AM was No. 1 again, as it has been since Marconi, although its numbers are slightly down from a 6.1 last fall to a 5.5 this summer (June, July and August).
KOIT was No. 2, drifting downward from a 4.9 last fall to a 4.1 this summer.
The surprise is KMEL, which came the closest ever to beating KOIT with a 4.0.
No. 4 was Univision Radio’s KSOL, which has steadily gained audience in every book in the last couple of years, registering a 3.8 this summer. KSOL in San Francisco and sister station KSQL in Santa Cruz carry a combination of talk shows and Mexican music.
No. 5 was All News KCBS 740 with a 3.5.
Showing growth were KFOG, 98.1 KISS (KISQ), KRZZ (La Raza Radio), Live 105 (KITS) and Univision Radio’s KVVF/KVVZ.