ONE-YEAR TRENDS: THREE MARKETS WEST OF LA

Today we feature three almost contiguous Nielsen Audio Diary markets with close affinity to Los Angeles: Oxnard/Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo. For many residents of these three counties they are LA exurbs but each community has it’s own personality. This map provided by KCLU shows the three market area:

According to Nielsen’s estimates, LA stations, via repeaters, draw substantial listening. Local stations KCLU and KCBX seem to attract the most NPR News listening.  Scroll down to see the one-years trends in weekly cumulative listeners. Here is a hypothetical compilation of the three-markets combined:

STATION	FORMAT	FALL 2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS
KCLU-FM	NPR News	109,000
KUSC	Classical	79,100
KCBX	NPR News & Classical	56,200
KCRW	NPR News & Triple A	42,500
KDB	Classical KUSC repeater	34,700
KCLU-AM	NPR News Santa Barbara Programs	22,800
KPCC	NPR News	17,500
KJAI	Christian Teaching	7,900

 KCLU, Thousand Oaks, is clearly the best local performer. Since they began in the 1990’s KCLU has made excellent modifications in their programming and built a strong presence with new repeaters and translators.  KCLU’s news gets national attention and often beats LA stations in awards competitions.

KCLU 1340 AM, Santa Barbara, mainly repeats KCLU-FM but it does cut away for programming of special interest to Santa Barbara.

KUSC is the most listened-to LA station.  Their repeater and translator signals blanket the three markets.  KCRW also has considerable listening. KPCC has much less of a presence.

KDB-FM has a notable history.  Now it is owned by KUSC, Los Angeles. It mainly repeats KUSC’s programming but tries to maintain a local identity. For many, many years KDB was a fiercely independent Classical voice. KDB began as an AM station in 1929 and built one of the first FM station in Southern California. More recently, KDB had increasing difficulty competing with full-power repeaters of KUSC. In August, 2014, KUSC purchased KDB.

KCSB, Santa Barbara – a College Rock/Community hybrid – also likely has significant listening. In the past they have subscribed to the ratings. KCSN in the San Fernando Valley has a construction permit for a new FM translator in Thousand Oaks.

OXNARD/VENTURA • Nielsen Audio Market #119

STATION	FORMAT	FALL 2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS	FALL 2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS	ONE YEAR TREND
KCLU-FM	NPR News	61,500	81,700	+ 24%
KUSC	Classical	54,000	52,300	- 3%
KCRW	NPR News & Triple A	25,500	30,200	+ 15%
KDB	Classical KUSC repeater	21,600	19,700	- 8%
KCLU-AM	NPR News Santa Barbara Programs	13,300	15,100	- 11%
KPCC	NPR News	6,000	14,000	+ 104%
KJAI	Christian Teaching	Na	5,500	Na

SANTA BARABARA • Nielsen Audio Market #208

STATION	FORMAT	FALL 2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS	FALL 2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS	ONE YEAR TREND
KCLU-FM	NPR News	23,800	27,300	+ 12%
KCBX	NPR News & Classical	12,800	14,700	+ 12%
KDB	Classical KUSC repeater	14,700	13,300	- 9%
KCRW	NPR News & Triple A	9,100	12,300	+ 26%
KUSC	Classical	21,900	12,000	- 45%
KCLU-AM	NPR News Santa Barbara Programs	8,900	7,700	- 3%
KPCC	NPR News	2,800	3,500	+ 20%
KJAI	Christian Teaching	1,600	2,400	+ 33%

SAN LUIS OBISPO • Nielsen Audio Market #172

STATION	FORMAT	FALL 2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS	FALL 2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS	ONE YEAR TREND
KCBX	NPR News & Classical	36,400	41,500	+ 12%
KUSC	Classical	13,700	14,800	+ 7%
KDB	Classical KUSC repeater	900	1,700	+ 47%

These data are provided for use by Nielsen Audio subscribers ONLY, in accordance with RRC's limited license with Nielsen Audio.
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