Rick Miller Tops Talk Show Ratings
Here’s a surprise: The No. 1 local radio talk-show host in Spokane is Rick Miller.
Miller is the KXLY-AM afternoon host who describes himself as a Bohemian-artist-anarchist (at least the latter third jokingly) and whose vocal delivery sometimes sounds for all the world like a yodel. I swear, the guy occasionally sounds like a cross between Slim Whitman and Goober Pyle. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but a more unlikely sounding radio host is hard to imagine.
But clearly, Miller is doing something right. He knows how to run a talk show. He has only been in Spokane since June (he last worked at KING-AM in Seattle), but he is already whipping KGA-AM’s Richard Clear in head-to-head combat in the afternoons. In fact, Miller’s numbers are right up there with syndicated talk legend Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh’s average audience in Spokane is 6,933 listeners; Miller’s is 6,367 listeners, according to the just released Arbitron ratings (they do not go head-to-head, however).
Here are the numbers from Arbitron’s fall ratings book. These numbers are “average quarter-hour persons,” meaning the number of people age 12 and over who, on average, are listening to the show during any one quarter-hour period. My thanks to Dave Zack at Z-Media for helping me sort through these numbers.
Here’s how the local talk boys rank:
1. Rick Miller (2-5 p.m., KXLY), 6,367 listeners.
2. Alex Wood (along with Dennis Patchin, 5-7 p.m., KXLY), 4,750 listeners.
3. Mike Fitzsimmons (9 a.m.-noon, KXLY), 4,733 listeners.
4. Richard Clear (3-6 p.m., KGA), 3,700 listeners.
They call Clear “The Bad Boy of KGA”; they must be referring to his ratings.
Among KGA’s national hosts, G. Gordon Liddy averages a 3,866 audience, and Michael Reagan pulls a 2,033.
By the way, Arbitron estimates the Spokane metro market at 407,300 people.
I am not including KXLY’s Pete Fretwell in these rankings because his morning drive show is technically not a talk show. I’ve included him in the morning team rankings, where he does well in an even more competitive field (see next item).
The top morning teams
The big numbers in radio are in the mornings, when people wake up to radio, brush their teeth to radio, and drive to work to radio.
So it’s no surprise that the three top-rated stations in town - KDRK-FM, KZZU-FM and KKZX-FM - also have the three top-rated morning teams.
Here are the rankings from Arbitron’s fall book:
1. Diamond and Gold - KDRK’s Jim Diamond and Kim Gold, 8,300 listeners.
2. The Breakfast Boys - KZZU’s Ken Hopkins and Dave Sposito, 7,800.
3. The Radio Men - KKZX’s Jim Arnold and C. Foster Kane, 7,700.
4. AM Northwest KXLY’s Pete Fretwell, 6,500.
5. The Wise Guys - KISC-FM’s Rob Harder and Mark Holman (recently changed to Mark Holman and Lee St. Michaels), 6,400.
Again, these numbers are “average quarter-hour persons” for the entire 6 to 10 a.m. morning slot. During peak morning times (around 8 a.m.) the number of listeners would be higher by several thousand.
These Top Five shows are followed, in order, by the morning shows at KEYF-FM, KGA-AM, KXLY-FM, KCDA-FM, KNFR-FM, KHTQ-FM, KAQQ-AM, KAEP-FM, KNJY-FM, KJRB-AM, KTSL-FM and KTRW-AM.
To keep the importance of a morning team in perspective, however, it is instructive to look at what happened to Jay Daniels and Kevin James. They were the top-rated morning team in town last year when they were at KDRK. Now they’re the morning team at KNFR, where their show is 10th.
Go figure.
No Hootie deal
Remember Genevieve Gerrior of Spokane? She’s the woman who is in a tug-of-war with Hootie and the Blowfish over their new record label name, Breaking Records, which is the name of the tiny record label she has had for years.
Well, Gerrior says that the Hootie lawyers have apparently withdrawn their offer to pay her $25,000 for the rights to the name.
They said, in essence, take us to court. She said, in essence, she will.
Not quite Bosnia
While we’re updating old Spotlight items, I should mention that those KDRK personalities never quite got all the way to Bosnia with that 150-square-foot “yellow ribbon” for the troops.
But they did present the ribbon to the troops at a base in Hungary. It was displayed in a mess hall, where President Bill Clinton was photographed standing next to it.
‘The Boys Next Door’
Those of us who saw the Spokane Civic Theatre’s terrific version of “The Boys Next Door” two years ago are looking forward to seeing the Hallmark Hall of Fame version tonight at 9 on CBS.
It’s a funny and moving story of developmentally disabled adults in a group home.
The Hampster
The “Concert of the Week” on KPBX-FM on Monday night at 8 will be the Thomas Hampson concert with the Spokane Symphony in November.
Barry Lee White
We may have a new country star in our midst.
Barry Lee White’s “Out a’ My Mind” is currently on the Top 40 at KDRK, and his three-song EP, “Barry Lee White,” has been mailed to country radio stations.
White, from Spokane, was the winner of the 1995 MCG Curb/94 FM KDRK Northwest Talent Search last October.
The contest prize was a Nashville recording session with the MCG Curb label, which is how the “Barry Lee White” project came about.
Susan Rae of KDRK said that White’s new songs have received a “tremendous response” from listeners.
As a result of all this, White has been offered an MCG Curb recording contract.
He and his band Moonshine have been playing throughout the Inland Northwest for years.
, DataTimes