Latest ratings put Dare and Wells at top of morning heap

Johnny Dare and Murphy Wells are the undisputed royalty of Kansas City morning radio. The KQRC-FM (98.9) tandem ran away with the summer 2000 radio ratings book just released by the Arbitron Co. and helped "The Rock" win the summer book. It was the Entercom-owned station's first overall win since fall 1999. Among all listeners 12 and older, Dare and Wells had nearly twice the audience of runner-up WDAF-AM (610) between 6 and 10 a.m. weekdays. And they pulled in a staggering 28 percent of all listeners ages 18 to 34, more than three times the number of young listeners tuned in to the next closest competitor, KPRS-FM (103.3). "Hot Jamz 103" finished second overall, and the station's summer talent shuffle appeared to pay off as well. New KPRS afternoon-drive man Tony G was ranked No. 1 ahead of perennial winner Kelly Urich of KMXV-FM ("Mix 93.3"). When Entercom moved classical KXTR from the FM band to AM 1250, it was predicted that the station would lose about half its audience. Those estimates were somewhat low; KXTR-AM scored a 2.0 rating compared with 3.8 in the spring book, when it was KXTR-FM. For the summer book the station finished in a tie - ironically with "The Buzz," the station that replaced KXTR at 96.5 FM. The top-rated stations, followed by their average daylong "share" (percentage of radios in use) among listeners 12 and up, as measured by Arbitron: 1. KQRC, hard rock, 7.8. 2. KPRS, urban, 7.5. 3. (tie) KFKF-FM (94.1), country, 6.0. 3. (tie) KMXV-FM (93.3), current hits, 6.0. 5. KMBZ-AM (980), news-talk, 5.6. 6. WDAF, country, 5.1. 7. KCMO-FM (94.9), oldies, 4.7. 8. (tie) KCIY-FM (106.5), smooth jazz, 4.6. 8. (tie) KUDL-FM (98.1), adult contemporary, 4.6. 10. KBEQ-FM (104.3), young country, 4.4. 11. KSRC-FM (102.1), adult contemporary, 4.3. 12. (tie) KYYS-FM (99.7), classic rock, 4.1. 12. (tie) KCFX-FM (101.1), classic rock, 4.1. 14. KNRX-FM (107.3), R&B oldies, 3.6. 15. KCMO-AM (710), talk, 3.4. 16. KCHZ-FM (95.7), current hits, 3.0. 17. (tie) KRBZ-FM (96.5), current hits, 2.0. 17. (tie) KXTR-AM (1250), classical, 2.0. 19. WHB-AM (810), sports talk, 1.9. 20. KPRT-AM (1590), gospel, 1.1. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com >>>