Two weeks ago I mentioned that KROQ (106.7 FM) earned its highest Nielsen rating in many years, coming in at 5th place with a 4.3 share of the audience aged six and over. I did not have any further information, though, so I was hesitant to say if it was an anomaly or a real trend.
One of the reasons I didn’t have the information is because Nielsen doesn’t release demographic breakdowns outside of its paid subscriber stations. So I have to rely on leaks from others who do have the data, and even then I am not allowed to give the exact numbers. For example, if someone sends me the info, I can say that “KXXX is #3 in men aged 18-34.” I am not allowed to say that “KXXX earned a 4.3 share in men aged 18-34.”
Well, now I have some info; it came from someone I’ll call “Deep Neal.” And I have to say, KROQ is truly killing it. For example:
- KROQ is #2 for adults aged 25-54.
- Mornings are at record highs for the station overall … including the highest rating in the history of KROQ for adults aged 25-54, and dominating the ratings for adults 18-49 as well. In fact, the morning show is #1 in adults 18-34, adults 25-49, men 18-34, and men 35-54.
- In afternoon drive, KROQ is #2 with adults aged 25-54, the highest in six months.
Obviously, the morning show — Klein.Ally.Show — is a driving force in this KROQ renaissance, but looking at the ratings, there is a fascinating change that starts right in the winter of 2025. Again, I am limited in what I can access, but the morning show ratings from the very beginning were fair to middling at best during most of its early run. Then, as if a light switch were flipped on, the ratings took off. Between the average of Winter 2025 and now, the ratings for adults aged 25-54 actually tripled.
During this time, I have also been receiving occasional emails asking me to talk about the show, something that never happened before. What gives?
I asked morning co-host Kevin Klein his thoughts, and he called it a “perfect storm” of events. Part of it being time. “We were always a better show than we were getting credit for … four years of grinding finally got it.” He also mentioned social media posts that got some traction, as well as the idea that some other shows may have gotten a bit stale. But one point he makes I believe is key: “Kevin Ryder returned to KROQ,” Klein explained. “And that healed old wounds with angry former listeners.”
When did Ryder return to KROQ? April 2025, the exact time of the start of the sudden jump in morning show ratings. When Ryder came back, the morning show was in 14th place among adults 25-54. Once back, the show jumped to 7th by the end of the quarter. By early 2026, it was #1, a position it has held almost every month since.
Now, remember — Ryder isn’t even on the morning show now, though he was there seemingly forever as half of Kevin and Bean. He hosts afternoons, which, as already mentioned, have also done very well as of late. This shows the loyalty of listeners, many of whom wrote to me and posted online that they would “never listen to KROQ again” after the firing of Ryder from mornings by, I am told, KROQ’s corporate management.
This loyalty is something many station managers forget when making changes, and ignoring it can destroy trust. That KROQ was able to save it speaks volumes for its own local management, primarily programmer Kevin Weatherly, who was instrumental in getting Ryder back after his own return to KROQ. Many stations refuse to admit mistakes, and it hurts them long-term deeply. Radio is a personal medium after all.
Regardless, it does indeed appear that KROQ’s recent success is not at all a fluke, and I congratulate them all on a job well done.
Spooky Programs
The online Top-40 Hit Clock has some special programming planned for Halloween on Saturday. Tune into http://la2.indexcom.com/player/hitclock at 6 p.m. for “The Yukon Jack Halloween Special,” described as two hours of spooky music and Yukon Jack craziness!
Then at 8 p.m. hear “The War Of The Worlds,” Orson Welles’ original CBS radio drama that “frightened” the nation in 1938 when a series of news bulletins covered a Martian invasion of the Earth.
I put “frightened” in quotes because, as it turned out, most people were not actually frightened; local newspapers of the time reported on mass hysteria caused by the program to try to discredit radio itself, a brand new flashy competitor to print media, portraying it as irresponsible and not trustworthy. The reason the newspapers were able to spread the myth had to do with listeners themselves … The vast majority of people were tuned to “The Chase and Sanborn Hour” starring Edgar Bergen on NBC; Welles’ CBS program “Mercury Theater on the Air” only had about two percent of the listening audience of the time, according to Hooper Ratings.
Since so few actually heard “War” — including its numerous on-air notices that it was a fictional account, along with the overall corniness of the play — the manufactured panic was not easily refuted, making it perhaps the first urban myth.
Regardless, it is a Halloween tradition once carried by former CBS station KNX (1070 AM). I commend Top-40 Hit Clock for keeping the tradition alive.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com.