Pandora Dominates Los Angeles Radio

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Yesterday on TheStreet, I provided color on news that Triton Digital will measure Pandora(P) listening at both the local and national level. These ratings cover the country's largest radio markets and, for all intents and purposes, equate to the numbers Arbitron publishes to gauge terrestrial radio listening.

In yesterday's article, I was the first to compare Pandora's results in a major local market, Dallas-Fort Worth, to that of terrestrial radio stations in the metro. Today, I look at the nation's second-largest market, Los Angeles, where Pandora puts up an even stronger performance than it did in DFW. Refer to Wednesday's piece for ratings-related definitions/methodology and a link to fair use guidelines of Arbitron's proprietary data.

In LA, during the month of March, for the Monday through Sunday, 6 a.m.to Midnight period, Triton credits Pandora with Average Quarter Hour (AQH) ratings of 1.2, 0.9 and 0.7 among Adults 18-34, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 years of age, respectively, in Los Angeles. Based on these numbers, it's not a stretch to say Pandora dominates Los Angeles radio.

Pandora has double the 18-34 AQH rating of the two terrestrial stations, legendary outlets Power 106 and the home of Ryan Seacrest's morning show, 102.7 KIIS-FM, tied for the top spot in Arbitron's LA figures for March. In the 18-49 year old demographic, Pandora is No. 1 in LA, based on Triton's measurement, beating out the same two stations by considerable margins. Pandora also takes the top spot in the all-important 25-54 year old category at 0.7, putting it ahead of top terrestrial stations, KIIS-FM and Adult Contemporary outlet KBIG-FM.

While this does not spell the absolute end for terrestrial radio, it's pretty close.