Radio Ratings - Small Stations are Big Winners

The Arbitron ratings for the Lafayette Metro market (6 parish area comprised of Lafayette, Vermilion, Acadia, St. Landry, St. Martin, and Iberia) came out yesterday and there were quite a few interesting shake-ups that took place. New station formats knocked many old faithfuls down a notch or 2 or 4. Take for instance the new Z105.9, a Pittman Broadcasting station and by far, the biggest story of this ratings period. KFXZ 105.9 changed formats last fall from Classic Country to Urban Adult Contemporary, basically duplicating the old line-up from KNEK (104.7). When KNEK let the Tom Joyner Morning Show go, KFXZ snapped it up and began their build. They enticed air personalities to come over and ran an advertising campaign to "make the switch". Most notably, the Cravins Brothers, Donald and Charles, made the switch and took their very popular Sunday morning Zydeco show with them. The move paid off and Z105.9 shot up from a 1.2 share to a very impressive 6.2 - placing it fimly in 2nd place.

The other new kid on the block radio station, KKOO (formerly Oldies KBEB 106.7) another independently owned station, apparently made a good switch as well. It used to be Oldies 106.7 but changed it's format to Classic Country. They gained nicely in this ratings period more than doubling their share from a 1.0 to a 2.1.

Other things of note from yesterdays ratings announcement:
Regent owned #2 KMDL, 97.3 The Dawg, seems to be on a 4 book losing trend, falling from a 8.2 in the fall of 07 to a 6.2 now. Although they are not tumbling nearly as badly as Citadel's KXKC 99.1, who's coming in at #9 with a 5.1 share, and that's a giant improvement from last book's 3.7 share.

KTDY 99.1 still dominates and sits firmly in #1, but lost some ground. KSMB 94.5 fell a share point to come in at a 4.9. They made some airstaff changes earlier this year taking Chris Reed out of the mix and that could have something to do with the drop.

Classis Rock did well. Rock 93.7 increased their share from a 1.5 to a 2.8 and out of market, WDGL Eagle 98.1 had some pretty impressive gains as well. The Walton and Johnson morning show is a consistent performer for them.

Here's the top 10 list:
1. KTDY-FM 99.9, (Adult Contemporary)
2. KFXZ-FM 105.9 (Urban AC)
2. KMDL-FM 97.3 (Country)
2. KNEK-FM 104.7 (Urban AC)
5. KRRQ-FM 95.5 (Urban)
6. KRKA-FM 107.9 (Rhythmic Top 40)
7. KPEL-FM 105.1 (News/Talk)
8. KXKC-FM 99.1 (Country)
9. KSMB-FM 94.5 (Top 40)
10. WDGL-FM 98.1 (Classic Rock)

Now it is worth a note that this is a summary list of all people surveyed. Monday - Sunday 6a-12m, People 12+. Each station and daypart has it's own target demographic and would likely perform differently when looking at it's own particular demo. 12+ share does give a good overview though. The Arbitron diary-recall survey, was conducted during the 12 week period from April - June. Click the image for a full list and 4 book trend.