KOST Does It Again: Christmas Music Propels It to No. 1

Sorry, Indie 103.1 fans — in its last Arbitron ratings period, the station — now known as Spanish language “El Gato” — failed to pull out of the basement, averaging a 0.4 share of the audience (tied, by the way, with public radio KCRW, among others).

Arbitron just released its personal people meter ratings for the holiday season, and no surprise here, KOST-FM’s annual all-Christmas music, all the time format dominated. KOST averaged a 7.2 share of the L.A. audience, with a cume of 4.3 million listeners. Top 40 KIIS was next up, with a 6.2 share, then classic hits KRTH — which also went with a Christmas sound this holiday — with a 4.4 share.

After that was Spanish AC KLVE (4.0), talk KFI-AM (3.9); Spanish oldies KRCD (3.8), alternative KROQ (3.6), urban KPWR (3.5), regional Mexican KLAX (3.3); and regional Mexican KSCA (3.2).

KUSC: L.A.’s Public Radio Champ

Ever wonder how many people listen to L.A.’s public radio stations? We know pretty much the commercial station leaders, starting with KIIS 102.7 FM. But Arbitron’s new Personal People Meter (PPM) service is finally including pubcasters among its tally, and the results are interesting.

Several of L.A.’s public stations outperform their commercial counterparts. Pasadena City College’s KPCC 89.3 FM, for example, has more listeners than CBS-owned FM talk station KLSX 97.1 FM. And KCRW 89.9 FM far out paces KDLD “Indie 103.1″ FM. Cal State Long Beach’s KKJZ “K-Jazz” 88.1 FM, meanwhile, outperforms Stevie Wonder’s KJLH 102.3 FM.

The champ, however, among local public radio outlets is classical KUSC 91.5 FM, which I’m sure benefitted from the elimination of KMZT “K-Mozart” a few years ago.

Here’s how they do, with September average week cume numbers:

KUSC-FM 756,400
KPCC-FM 557,900
KKJZ-FM 400,900
KCRW-FM 322,100
KPFK-FM 187,900

L.A.’s other public stations didn’t amass a big enough audience to be reported.