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| Hello Seattle, I'm listening |
If
Frasier Crane were an actual radio talk show host he would be working at
KIRO-FM in Seattle. There are so many aspects of KIRO that remind me of the
fantasy station in the TV sitcom. The quirky gardener, the Cask Club for the
Merlot drinkers and Geek in the basement – they all have a home at KIRO.
A
few notches down the dial is KUOW, one of the most successful NPR News/Talk
stations in the nation. KUOW has some things in common with KIRO. As you see in
the latest Seattle-Takoma ratings (below), the two stations are neck-and-neck
in the Nielsen PPM ratings in both AQH share and weekly listeners.
Both KUOW and KIRO are trying to attract more smart news listeners. In some
ways you could call KIRO Almost Public Radio.
THE KIRO-FM STORY
KIRO
[link] is a unique big-market commercial station because it isn’t owned by a publicly-traded,
debt-laden corporation such as iHeartRadio. KIRO is owned and operated by Bonneville,
the radio branch Deseret Management, a holding company
working on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – The Mormon
Church.
Say
what you will about the Mormon religion, these folks are great radio operators.
They remind us of how commercial radio used to be: Hometown people who feel
public service is as important as they do a profitable bottom line. For
instance, KIRO doesn’t carry Rush or Hannity, they have kinder, gentler people.
It is Almost Public Radio.
According
to KIRO’s promotional material, the station specializes in educated, affluent
news seekers. The demographics of KIRO’s
audience is similar to KUOW’s. The KIRO brand is Seattle's News and Information Leader. KIRO is built on a
foundation of trusted local personalities that attract engaged, affluent and
educated listeners.
KIRO & KUOW
PROGRAMMING COMPARISON
The chart on the left compares the schedules for the two stations during
peak hours, the times when most people hear radio.
Weekdays
on KIRO start with Dave Ross as the ringmaster of the morning show.
He is a
bright fellow with a conversational style that sounds like an old friend.
Ross
promotes and discusses upcoming news reports with as if he is interested in the stories. News
anchor Colleen O'Brien delivers the hard news. Chris Sullivan has traffic and meteorologist
Nick Allard has your weather.
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| Dori Monson |
The
rest of the weekday shows use a similar approach:
•
Tom and Curley talk about the quality of school lunches and the fact that
corner gas stations are vanishing in Seattle because the land has become so
valuable.
•
Dori Monson (a man btw) is talking about public money being used by a library
to stage a very successful drag show.
•
Ron and Don say a local freeway should have more lanes plus an interview with
Dan Pfeifer, co-host of Pod Save America.
It’s
like KUOW reports the news and KIRO talks about it. Seriously, KIRO is Almost Public Radio Monday through Friday.
But on the weekends KIRO is nowhere near public radio.
The
Saturday key hours are filled with shows that a sales manager would love. Commercial
talk radio doesn’t have any Big Magnet weekend programs like Wait, Wait… and This American Life.
KIRO’s
Saturday shows are specialty programs and some are infomercials. They bring in revenue and the
goal is not big ratings. At a commercial Talk station that is as good as it
gets on the weekends.
In
the August Nielsen PPM ratings KIRO and KUOW are tied at a 5.9 AQH share but
KIRO has a slight lead in estimated weekly listeners.
The other public radio
News stations, KNKX, consistently has substantial listening.
Another
major radio news station is KOMO-AM, owned by Sinclair.
WLRN
is clearly the top News/Talk station in this complicated market.
In
Detroit, WUOM and WDET are clearly no match for WWJ-AM and WJR-AM.
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