It’s been a while since we’ve looked at the ratings for our local beacons of sports radio banter, KNBR 680, KNBR 1050 (KTCT) and 95.7 FM “The Game” (KGMZ), which is currently holding tryouts. After a little delay, the numbers for the “Holiday” period and January are finally out. That’s so Arbitron, always taking their sweet-ass time.
By the way, has anybody out there in the comments section either tried out for this “Lucky Break” thing or listened to any of the different auditions? I’m curious to hear how it’s going, if it’s an interesting contest, or if any regular callers from KNBR are either jumping ship or acting as spies. I’ve been told that a regular “Damon Bruce Show” caller known as “Butcher Boy” competed during the first night of the contest.
Is this contest having an impact in the ratings? We’ll have to wait for the February and March numbers to find out…
I thought about heading down to Pete’s Tavern and trying out, then I remembered that I have absolutely no radio training (besides weekly segments on The Sly Show). Plus, I’d rather focus on writing and get into podcasting than dive into something that isn’t my specialty. In other words, I’d probably be a total flop — and that’s if they even let me on. We’ve been spent a post or two covering the local radio business on BASG. If I happened to perform well enough to become a finalist, people would probably complain about a conflict of interest.
Anyway, here are the Arbitron numbers, first for The City:
San Francisco |
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|
December |
Holiday |
January |
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| Station |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
Owner |
| KNBR-AM | 2.9 | 684,300 | 2.8 | 656,800 | 3.7 | 744,400 | Cumulus |
| KGMZ-FM | 0.9 | 164,700 | 0.8 | 170,600 | 1.0 | 197,000 | Entercom |
| KTCT-AM | 0.9 | 312,000 | 0.7 | 257,600 | 0.6 | 241,000 | Cumulus |
Then we have Sharks/Earthquakes/Single-A Giants country:
San Jose |
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|
December |
Holiday |
January |
|||||
| Station |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
AQH% |
Reach |
Owner |
| KNBR-AM | 3.7 | 165,000 | 3.2 | 159,900 | 3.8 | 168,300 | Cumulus |
| KGMZ-FM | 1.2 | 41,500 | 0.9 | 42,100 | 1.1 | 41,000 | Entercom |
| KTCT-AM | 1.1 | 87,800 | 1.0 | 70,500 | 0.8 | 56,700 | Cumulus |
The sports radio ratings in both markets went down from December to the “Holiday” period, then jumped a bit in January — except for KTCT (KNBR 1050), which fell a bit in January for whatever reason. The jump for KNBR 680 was about 25% from Holiday to January, perhaps because during the holidays most of the regular hosts are on vacation.
1050’s reach was much lower in January. Reach is another word for “Cume,” which according to Arbitron’s website is “The total number of different persons who tune to a radio station during the course of a daypart for at least five minutes.”
“Daypart,” huh? Imagine using that in a conversation. “Sure, lunch sounds good. What’s the best daypart for you to leave work and foodeat?”
AVQ stands for “The average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute period,” so AVQ% means: “a percentage of the population being measured. [AQH Persons / Population] x 100 = AQH Rating (%).”
What does all this mean? “The Game” seems to be holding steady but plateauing a bit, at least according to Arbitron, which may be why they’re experimenting with things like the “Lucky Break” contest to create a little extra buzz. KNBR has dug in, poised to jump ahead further once the San Francisco Giants start playing every day.
Again, we’re well aware that Arbitron’s numbers don’t include things like demographics, which shows perform the best, or which hosts smell like bratwurst and Milwaukee’s Best. Sorry, we don’t have access to that info, so if anyone at either station wants to send it over to us we’re all eyes and ears, but not noses. Definitely not noses.
