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KBDZ The Classic Rock Station
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Except that it doesn't. The station's 60 dBu signal covers almost none of St. Louis proper, and 95% of listening takes place inside the 60 dBu signal contour. Unless they live in Hillsboro or Festus, people in the St. Louis metro probably don't know the station exists. At my brother-in-law's house off of River Des Peres near the Shrewsbury Metrolink station, the seek skips straight from 92.3 to 93.7.
JC has always been talented, but it's going to take a lot more than him (like a transmitter move) to get that station to be successful in St. Louis.
JC has always been talented, but it's going to take a lot more than him (like a transmitter move) to get that station to be successful in St. Louis.
The 95% rule applies to in-home and at-work listening only. But that is about 2/3 of all listening... in-car listening is often good way beyond the 60 dbu, but most people don't have a "favorite" station that they can't listen to anywhere they are.
But that station only covers about 150 thousand people in its 65 dbu contour, most of whom are not even in the St Louis MSA. The station is a Cape Girardeau / Paducah market station.
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A 36 kw station at under 600 feet HAAT is hardly a flame thrower in a market where eight stations are 100 kw at about 1000 feet and another six have 74 kw to 92 kw and another eight are between 42 kw and 54 kw... a total of 22 stations with higher power and antennas fully inside the metro.
Correct. The vast majority of listeners will listen to their favorites on all of their radios, which is a significant disadvantage for rimshots. If the car radio's seek will stop on the station, the rimshot has a chance at getting some in-car only listening, but the car radios on the wife's 2010 Honda CR-V and my 2012 Honda Civic don't stop on 93.1 near my brother-in-law's house. Those are good car radios; so, I can't imagine too many others stopping there either.
It doesn't even have a very viable signal in the Cape Girardeau or Paducah area either. It's really more in the KTJJ/KDBB mode, though the seek on our car radios will occasionally stop at 98.5 in the Shrewsbury/Affton area. It may cover a large area, but it's not a very heavily populated one.
The signal is pretty poor anywhere north of Arnold. Corcoran has a following who will put up with some static to listen to him into South County and the Metro East, but even with a full lineup of local jocks instead of dismal Westwood One programming after the morning show, it is quite doubtful it will ever make any sort of even minor impact in the metro area. St. Louis Classic Rock fans are a finicky bunch. They grew up on KSHE; they don't always care for the stuff that the rest of the country does because they didn't grow up on it. I think more Classic Rock fans would rather turn to an online source like the stations at StLouisClassicRock.com, or TheRoots.FM, who play tons of classic rock that was popular here, and even that faction is relatively small. 93.1 will never be a St Louis station; its ownership should simply embrace the towns in its 60dBU coverage area; there are some fairly good sized ones like Farmington, Festus, Park Hills, and its COL of Perryville. IMHO, they'd do a lot better and make a lot more money catering to their local area then trying to be something they aren't.
Some of the wisest and most successful broadcasters I know have told me how it isn't a good decision to sell out of the 60dBU and I agree with them, having tried myself and failing. There is a translator on the books in St Louis County on 93.1, too; once it goes on the air, it is doubtful KBDZ will exist on the radio with any sort of listenable signal at all north of Arnold, and since the 2 60dBU contours will not touch, there isn't much ownership can do about it.
Some of the wisest and most successful broadcasters I know have told me how it isn't a good decision to sell out of the 60dBU and I agree with them, having tried myself and failing. There is a translator on the books in St Louis County on 93.1, too; once it goes on the air, it is doubtful KBDZ will exist on the radio with any sort of listenable signal at all north of Arnold, and since the 2 60dBU contours will not touch, there isn't much ownership can do about it.
I'm a big fan of the playlist, but I can't get a trace of anything on 93.1 in the CWE. That's no surprise given when it's coming from... but I was in Oakville earlier in the week, tuned in, and to my surprise, the signal sounded lousy there too. If the signal is nothing to boast about in South County, it's hard to claim it's much of a St. Louis station.
In full credit to Kent above, if the goal is for KBDZ to be a St. Louis station, 93.1 needs to somehow get closer to St. Louis (is that possible with KQQX and KSD?), or find a simulcast buddy who is.
In full credit to Kent above, if the goal is for KBDZ to be a St. Louis station, 93.1 needs to somehow get closer to St. Louis (is that possible with KQQX and KSD?), or find a simulcast buddy who is.
There are a number of stations that would keep this station from getting any closer; they were lucky to get the opening they did have to go to Class C2; it was made by KQQX moving north, if KQQX hadn't moved north they would have been stuck as a Class A. They had a long standing Country format on that station with local news; IDK why they didn't just stick with that. I've been there, done that with rimshots. Its a losing proposition.
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