Summer radio ratings: KPRS wins the last book-only book

Hot 103 Jamz has won another summer radio ratings book. That's nothing new for Kansas City's locally-owned urban powerhouse. But as hundreds of area listeners walk around town with Arbitron's new Portable People Meters strapped to their persons, you have to wonder: Is it the last ratings period Carter Broadcasting will win for a while?

As radio insiders know, Arbitron has long weighted the ratings to make up for the low participation of minority listeners. The number of paper diaries returned to Arbitron, especially by African-Americans, is often disproportionately low compared to their actual percentage of the population. What happens then is one of the most contentious bits of number crunching outside mark-to-market: The minority ratings Arbitron does receive are then adjusted upward to make up for the shortage of filled-out diaries. In a recent survey, for instance, the percentage of black men aged 18-34 had to be adjusted by more than 50 percent.

That's all about to end with PPMs, which are being used around Kansas City as we speak. The next ratings period will feature diary numbers, but those will likely be overshadowed by the "pre-currency" numbers Arbitron releases from its PPM sample. (PPMs will be issued monthly instead of quarterly.) Assuming that the minority listeners who get these electronic devices don't lose them or forget to wear them disproportionate to any other group of listeners, Arbitron won't need to weight their ratings.

Already we've seen this have a devastating effect on stations aimed at Spanish and African-American listeners. Industry reps have howled, and Congress has taken the PPMs to task, so Arbitron may take corrective action yet. For now, though, the outlook would seem grim for urban broadcasters around the country -- including KPRS and Magic 107.3, which also had a great Summer book.

On the other hand, Chicago's urban stations didn't appear to suffer much from the PPM switch ... but ratings for Spanish stations in Chicago dipped. For that matter, that city's longtime morning man Steve Dahl (who's white) was yanked when his PPM numbers came in because station management decided hours of uninterrupted music would do just as well for less money.

But hey! Why all the gloom and doom? Carter's riding high after ekeing out a win over the Spring book winner, 98.9 The Rock. In demos, your winners were The Rock in 25-54 year olds and, by a mile, in 18-34 year olds; Magic 107.3 in 35-64 year olds; and Mix in the surprisingly important cougar demo of women 25-44. Here are your rankings for 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Sunday, for the Summer 2009 book ("t" means tie, "+" means gained 2 or more ranks from Spring Book, "_" means lost 2 or more ranks from Spring Book). The number in parentheses is how the station ranked overall in the 25-54 demo.

 1. Hot 103 Jamz - 6.1 (2)       _12t. KUDL - 3.2 (12)
 2. The Rock - 6.0 (1)           14. WHB - 2.9 (7) 
 +3. Magic 107.3 - 5.4 (4)       _15. Jack FM - 2.6 (10)
 4. KFKF - 5.3 (8)               16t. Buzz - 2.3 (15t)
 5. Mix 93.3 - 5.0 (5)           16t. Star 102 - 2.3 (14)
 _6. 980 KMBZ - 4.9 (13)         18. 610 Sports - 2.0 (18)
 7. 101 the Fox - 4.8 (3)        19. Kiss FM - 1.8 (15t)
 _8. 94.9 KCMO - 4.2 (9)         20. KCCV - 1.2 (21)
 +9. Q-104 - 3.9 (6)             21. La Gran D - 1.1 (20)
 +10. The Wolf - 3.8 (11)        22. Gospel 1590 - 1.0 (23)
 _11. KCMO-AM - 3.4 (17)         23. La Super X - 0.9 (22)
 12t. 95.7 The Vibe - 3.2 (19)   24. KXTR - 0.6 (-)