Ratings Anomaly in L.A.

At the risk of sounding like a Republican who doesn’t want to believe the polls, there’s a weird thing happening in Los Angeles with KUSC’s ratings.

From the LA Times:

Arbitron says KUSC has lost more than half its core audience over the last 20 months. Ratings declined moderately during 2010 and the first half of 2011, then went into a tailspin.

According to Aribtron’s reports, KUSC’s average core audience has sunk from nearly 26,000 listeners in 2009 to 9,500 in its latest report — a 63% fall. Core listeners are people who tune in for at least five minutes during any given 15-minute period between 6 a.m. and midnight.

I’m sure there’s more to the story that will soon be revealed, but you can read the article here.  It’s probably not time to panic, because donations are actually UP.

KUSC’s president, Brenda Barnes, says that as far as she can tell, the audience hasn’t gone anywhere, not to satellite radio or other musical streams… KUSC officials also point to rising donor rolls during a period when ratings were sinking, from mid-2011 to mid-2012. Station officials said the increase from 37,345 donors to 39,620 was evidence that listenership was not in free fall, because if Arbitron’s numbers were accurate, the potential donor pool would have shrunk badly, triggering a decline in gifts the station musters mainly through on-air pledge drives.

It’s a mystery.  Any other stations reporting similar situations??