KPWR and KIIS Knock KOST Out of Top Spot : Radio: Arbitron ratings show tie for first place. ‘It’s really the tightest race it’s been in a long time,’ said KOST’s program director.

Dance station KPWR-FM (105.9), Southern California’s top station from 1987 to 1989, and Top 40 station KIIS-FM/AM (102.7/1150), the No. 1 station from 1983-87, have reclaimed their titles after more than a two-year period of trailing soft-rocking KOST-FM (103.5).

Quarterly ratings released Tuesday by Arbitron showed KPWR-FM and KIIS-FM/AM tied for the No. 1 spot, each drawing 5% of the audience.

KOST-FM came in right behind the two, drawing 4.8% of the audience.

“It’s really the tightest race it’s been in a long time,” said KOST Program Director Jhani Kaye. “Considering that the top three stations were only two-tenths of a point apart, this isn’t bad at all.”

KPWR Program Director Rick Cummings attributed his station’s rise in the ratings (from 10th place six months ago) to modifications in its programming, which involved varying the mix of dance beats and adding more bona fide hits to the playlist.

He also pointed to Arbitron’s recent change in polling procedures, reflecting the new U.S. Census population estimates for Southern California, which increased the number of Latinos surveyed by about 10%-12% and decreased the number of blacks polled by about 10%. Both KPWR and KIIS have large Latino audiences.

Those polling modifications presumably also helped Spanish-language KWKW-AM (1330), which tied for fourth place with easy-listening KBIG-FM (104.3), each drawing 4.2% of the audience.

Meanwhile, the KLOS-FM (95.5) team of Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps remain the most popular among the hotly contested morning drive-time period, followed by KIIS’ Rick Dees, KWKW’s Jaime Pina and all-news KFWB-AM (980). Ken Minyard and Roger Barkley of KABC-AM (790) dropped from second to fifth, while Howard Stern of KLSX-FM (97.1) rose to eighth. Stern had been 21st following his July, 1991, debut, then had climbed to 14th in the last ratings period.

The Arbitron survey covered the period from Jan. 9, 1992, to April 1, 1992. Here are the area’s Top 15 stations, followed by their ratings for the most recent winter quarter and the preceding fall quarter:

WINTER FALL 1. KPWR-FM 5.0 4.3 KIIS-FM 5.0 4.8 3. KOST-FM 4.8 6.0 4. KBIG-FM 4.2 3.2 KWKW-AM 4.2 3.2 6. KKBT-FM 3.8 3.8 7. KLOS-FM 3.5 4.4 KRTH-FM 3.5 4.0 9. KABC-AM 3.4 4.2 10.KLVE-FM 3.3 4.0 11.KFWB-AM 3.2 2.5 KXEZ-FM 3.2 2.9 13.KROQ-FM 3.1 3.2 KTWV-FM 3.1 2.2 15.KLSX-FM 3.0 2.8