Sunday, June 19, 1988 Ja -5'': A >.if yj- *rt : iS » H * .■A- 3-.L _> * tf* ^ .1 f* ? «fr -*S ?■ By BOB SOKOLSKY The Press-Enterprise ho’s No. 1? How did it t get there? How important is it? And can an also-ran find happiness out of the top three? Those are just some of the questions than can be asked about the nebulous world of Southern California radio. And the answers tend to blur, melt and'depend upon who is being asked what at any given time. Take that first question, for example: Who’s No. 1? It seems " simple enough, doesn’t it? You look at the Arbitron rating figures and you see. who has the highest numbers and you get an answer. ,Sort of. It depends on whether you mean the overall Southern California market or the Riverside- San Bernardino and maybe Ontario market or segments of either of those territories. It also depends on whether you mean an age-12-and- older audience Monday through Sunday or an 18-to-34 audience or a 25-to-54 audience. It also depends on whether you mean .morning drive time; midafternoon or late evening. . In a very general sense, the oyerall leader, is KHS (102.7 FM) and its chief rival in many areas is KPWR (10,5.9 FM). But there are , parts of Riverside. County where the KPWR signal is not that strong; so its ratings dip quite a bit there. And then you have KDUO (97l5 FM) and KGGI (99.1 FM), both licensed to San Bernardino-, Riverside and both extremely popular in their regions. The ratings race has DJs, money, music and pitfalls But what makes these stations popular? Again, it depends on whom you ask. Jack Silver, music director of KIIS, says that as far as he is concerned the key element is Rick Dees, the station’s popular, sometimes controversial and always noticed personality. “He makes my job 100 times easier,” Silver says. “But there are other factors. There’s the music (KIIS employs a contemporary hit format) and there are the money giveaways (from February to April of this year the station handed out over $250,000 to listeners). In a way, we and Rick are sort of like the Lakers. He might be the MVP, but there is a blending of all elements.” But how closely are those elements related to the disc jockey, especially, the morning disc jockey since listeners who tune in to hear him are often prone to remain with his station most of the day? In some cases, those elements are related very closely. . KPWR, for exarqple, tended to run with the general pack as far as Southern California stations were concerned. But that-situation shifted two years ago when it changed its call letters from KMGG, turned to a contemporary [till ■III ' hit format and reached out to the East Coast to bring in a brash, funny actor named Jay Thomas to take over its morning show. Thomas, who appears as a semiregular on the “Cheers” series (he plays Carla’s husband, a former Boston Bruins goalie), can be loud and borderline-vulgar at times. But he is funny and he has helped his station climb over KIIS in certain listening areas. The April Arbitron ratings, for example, had KPWR on top with a 7.1 share of the Los Angeles market to KIIS’ 6.6. But does the power of a strong DJ hold true outside of Los Angeles itself? Not as much, apparently, although having a star doesn’t hurt. • Riverside country music station KWDJ (92.7 FM), has hardly been threatening the leaders with its numbers, but it has shown an overall ratings growth over the past year and general manager Jim Knudsen says he can almost trace it to the arrival of morning man Jim (Youngstuff) Young last February. On the other hand, contemporary pop station KGGI has managed to remain among the top two Riverside-San Bernardino stations even though it lost two of the region’s best-known radio personalities, Rob Johnson, who has moved out of the area, and Bobby Mercer, now program director at San Bernardino-based KBON (103.9 FM). And easy- . listening format KDUO, constantly .battling KGGI for top honors, has kept its grip on the top rungs with a team of smooth but low-keyed DJs. A1 Smith, general manager of KDUO, says he wouldn’t mind having a Rick Dees or a Jay Thomas at his microphone, but that he has to be realistic. "It’s tougher for us because we don’t have the budgets for those kinds of people. As soon as a guy in a medium-size market develops he is snapped up immediately by the bigger stations,” Smith says. “The only defense for us is to develop a station image rather than a personality image. If a station develops, any person can leave and you still have your audience. If Rick Dees leaves, KIIS is in trouble.” Steve Virissimo, Smith’s counterpart at KGGI, calls Dees and Thomas exceptions to the basic broadcasting rule. “They are exceptionally good,” he says. “But I think the three elements to a successful station are people, product and promotion. “People obviously include on- air personalities, but we don’t emphasize personalities on KGGI. We have a stringent format our people must follow. What’s the use of spending all the money we have spent to test the market, to find out what people want to hear, if we don’t follow the guidelines? “I really believe that we should surround ourselves with the best available people,” Virissimo says. “But I have to say we are stronger today without Rob Johnson and Bobby Mercer. “That’s not to diminish their efforts or their talents either. But say tomorrow that Rick Dees ‘ (See RATINGS, Page D-3) m PAUL GONZALES/The Press Enterprise