Sports is a money format, irrespective of market, because it is a marketing sell, not exclusively a ratings sell.
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When the HD signal goes down ... off the air.
- Thread starter landtuna
- Start date
Sports is a money format, irrespective of market, because it is a marketing sell, not exclusively a ratings sell.
Rated markets, perhaps, but not necessarily small towns. I've seen way too many stations go sports then go silent (or be sold to a religious group) because no one listened. After all, who in Bumscratch, Alabama is going to care about a panel on the Angels or Knicks? They are all about the local high school team and Alabama/Auburn. Everything else is an afterthought and I can't imagine it's much different in other small towns and cities in the 'flyover states' where pro teams are a several hour drive or more away.
That's not to say sports talk isn't popular in these areas, they just don't seem to support a whole 24/7 format. I don't know if they're still around, but I haven't heard a peep in ages from NBC Sports, CBS Sports and Yahoo! Sports, all recently-debuted (to me) sports talk networks that never gained any traction.
If sports is a money format, it seems to be so because of local, engaged hosts and not the networks. Or, at least not outside of ESPN and Fox Sports Radio.
Good points, all.
Small town AMs have a hard time with any format. A sports based station in a smaller market pretty much has to be a community station, with high school sports, any area college sports and any syndicated play by play that might be appropriate, such as the All Star Game.
Fill in with ESPN or one of the other networks, and maybe do a local morning show that has lots of sports, remembering that the best sports stations are really "guy talk" stations.
You can't save a 1 kw daytimer in Abbeville with a sports format. But in slightly larger towns that are not in the shadow of a bigger metro, they might work.
Remember that the criteria is not being in a rated market as the smaller rated markets get very little agency business and it will go to the top station or two, not a sports station with a 1 share.
I know but any demographic cume is a portion of the total audience and if the total is relatively small, the demo is limited. Obviously, this is working now for a lot of stations but I think it's a short term fix and when that's all that's left on the AM dial(in some areas), people are going to be scratching their heads about what to do next.
Sell it to a Godcaster or go dark. That's what they do next. Pull the plug. Turn in the AM license and move that sports format to FM if they can. Nowhere in the Constitution is it written that there must be broadcast activity from 540 to 1710 kHz. AM, especially standalone AM, is rapidly becoming an impossible business to sustain. Unless the advertising pros suddenly disregard their research and start chasing 55+, AM will go the way of shortwave. Hardly anyone in the demographics Madison Avenue cares about has ever listened to AM regularly. I'm 60; the only reason I'm still scanning the band is because I cut my listening eye teeth (horrible mixed metaphor) on Top 40 AM in the '60s. By the late '70s, that music was on FM in just about every market, so the kid who used to grow up listening to the Big 68 was now listening to V-105. That kid is now in his early 50s and just about to age out of the gullible audience advertisers crave, and the kids in the two generations that followed him have no history of listening to AM for anything but a ballgame.
Sports isn't a short-term fix, it's the last hope, life support. Once enough of those sports diehards find FM alternatives (or satellite/Internet alternatives), nothing other than 24/7 infomercials or paid preaching is going to pay the bills on AM. So why scratch a deep furrow in your scalp looking for a solution that doesn't exist?
If you assume that the solution to AM's problem is programming. It isn't. The solution requires action by the FCC, and the FCC doesn't care. That's a problem too.
If the FCC waves its magic want and gives owners of AM stations everything they want ... (a) what would that "everything" be, and would it keep the stations on their current frequencies rather than clogging 88-108 with more pea-shooter translators?, and (b) What would the AM stations broadcast that would bring listeners back from FM? Yes, that's that dirty word, programming. But I can't wrap my head around a "solution" that doesn't involve it. Please explain in as much detail as you can.
I suggest reversing several terrible rule changes they made that ruined AM forever. Once they do that, then we can talk about programming.
Assume I can read your mind and I now understand what changes will be made (guesses: restoring clear channels, eliminating AM HD, eliminating interference from timers, lights, computers, power lines, etc. through massive FCC intervention and enforcement). Presto. The AM band now sounds like I remember it sounding when I was in my teens. Now, what's being broadcast on it and is anyone under 55 listening to it?
The longer the FCC waits, the harder the job becomes, and it's almost impossible now. It's not worth hypothesizing about something that is not going to happen.
Here's the latest on the FM translator proposal:
http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2015/09/articles/where-does-the-fccs-am-revitalization-order-stand
http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2015/09/articles/where-does-the-fccs-am-revitalization-order-stand
It didn't say so, but I assume that if an AM station were to 'buy' a translator and move it 250 miles into their market, that it would have to meet co and adjacent channel criteria of existing translators before being approved. Doing otherwise would do exactly what some existing FM broadcasters are concerned about by adding FM translators to AM station; increased in market interference and congestion.
What if the FCC waved its magic wand and allowed AM stations that chose to do so to go all digital. No IBOC -- just all digital or all analog.
Workable?
The benefits could be better sound, "digital" delivery technology, many new radios in vehicles already have reception capability, and there would still be AM modulated stations for those who still have AM modulated AM radios.
Would an all digital AM station cause more interference to adjacent channels than the present HD system?
Workable?
The benefits could be better sound, "digital" delivery technology, many new radios in vehicles already have reception capability, and there would still be AM modulated stations for those who still have AM modulated AM radios.
Would an all digital AM station cause more interference to adjacent channels than the present HD system?
There are few radios out there, and nobody is going to buy a new radio to get some stations they are not interested in when for "free" they can get thousands of stations on their mobile device.
And the biggest issue with larger city AMs is that most don't cover their market day and night. Going digital does not change that.
So the only way to save AM is to simulcast on FM? That's not saving AM, that's saving your business. A worthy goal, for sure, but the medium wave signal goes from the raison d'etre of the whole operation to an FCC-mandated energy pig, serving a completely unsellable audience.
I have yet to see any proposal that truly saves AM in the sense of commercially viable broadcasting on a frequency range of 540 to 1710 kHz.
Please read my response on this similar thread:
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/sho...M-Window-%91Critical%92&p=6066523#post6066523
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/sho...M-Window-%91Critical%92&p=6066523#post6066523
One and the same. Think broadcasting is something that can be done without tying it to an expensive radio operation? Talk to some of those LPFM broadcasters that are crying for more power and commercial status because they can't keep their financial heads above water. Radio broadcasting isn't a toy, it's a business. Not a very good business at that.
How about letting (or requiring) AM stations with FM translators go all digital on AM? That way the majority still hear the FM version and the AM version is available in better fidelity for those with compatible radios?
It wouldn't be the suicide that an all digital standalone would be committing.
It wouldn't be the suicide that an all digital standalone would be committing.
There are no available radios which will receive a digital-only signal on the AM band (as I recall). Digital on the medium wave broadcast band is cursed by the same impulse noise that is killing AM.
While the AM signal produces snaps, crackles and pops ...... digital just stops working until the receiver can re-lock onto the digital signal. The problem isn't the method of modulation. The problem is the noise on the medium wave frequencies.
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