"The Dream Doctor" is back in Salt Lake City after a year's absence.
KUTR (AM-820) — sister station to KSL (AM-1160) — began airing the revised "Dream Doctor" syndicated program this week in the weekday, 9 p.m.-midnight time slot. (Replacing a repeat of the "Dr. Joy Browne Show.")
Dr. Charles McPhee, the former director of the Sleep Apnea Patient Treatment Program at the Sleep Disorders Center of Santa Barbara, hosts this unusual show, which analyzes and focuses on the hidden but significant meanings of listeners' dreams. KBEE-FM used to carry the show but discontinued it on Sept.10 of last year. Now it's back as an all-talk program (in the past, it has included musical programming).
"The show has really taken off," said George Oliva, president of Springhill Syndication, which packages and distributes the "Dream Doctor" show. He also said a study revealed that most of its listeners want all talk about dreams instead of about 50 percent musical programming.
"It's a much more powerful show now," Oliva said.
COUNTY LEGENDS — FM-107.5, KKAT-FM, hit the airwaves earlier this week as an old-time country-music station, "Legends 107.5."
The station has "County Joe" Flint in the morning and plays lots of classic country music around the clock. As usual, Country Joe isn't talking much; he's letting the music rule.
DOUBLE-DIGITS RARITY — Are the days of double-digit radio shares in the Salt Lake market gone for good?
A decade ago, KSFI had a 10.8 percent audience share to lead the Arbitron ratings for listeners, ages 12-plus. Go back two years earlier to 1993 and "FM-100" led the Salt Lake radio pack with a 12.7 percent share.
Zip back to the 1970s and the old KCPX (AM-1320) had an audience share among adults in the 30 percent range. Among teens it was more like 80 percent-plus. Obviously, there were fewer stations then, but any way you look at it, today's radio audience is diluted, and getting more so each year.
In the latest Arbitrons, KSL-AM is No. 1 in the market, with only a 6.3 percent share. Tied for second are KSFI ("FM-100") and KUBL ("K-Bull 93") at 6.2 percent.
What this means is that today's top station commands just over half the audience share it had as recently as 12 years ago. Listener tastes have obviously broadened over the past decade.
The 0.1 percent rating points are extremely important today, though they were hardly significant a decade ago. To be a top-10 station today, you only need a 3.3 percent audience share, down from about a 4 percent requirement a decade ago.
RADIO HAPPENINGS — Kerry, Bill and Gina on the "Radio From Hell" morning show on KXRK have a Spanish-language lesson segment on their show regularly.
— KSOP (FM-104.3) airs an " '80s at 8 (p.m.) Show" and a " '90s at 9 (p.m.) Show" each weeknight.
The Deseret Morning News and KSL Newsradio 1160 are involved in an ongoing news-gathering partnership.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com