AM: Big daytimer or small 24hr?

[broadcastguy]

As the title says, I would like to read your opinions about which station would be better, more profitable, etc.

A big signal (let's say 20.000w) but daytimer only or a small (1.000w) operating 24h?

 

[davideduardo]

As the title says, I would like to read your opinions about which station would be better, more profitable, etc.

A big signal (let's say 20.000w) but daytimer only or a small (1.000w) operating 24h?

To start, the farther north you get the shorter the days are in the late fall and winter months. This means that a daytimer will be off the air during parts of morning and afternoon drive times for much of the year.

Then the issue is power. If the market area of a station is relatively small, coverage outside the local trade area won't be of any value. Of course, power is relative. 1000 watts at 540 covers as much or more than 50 kw above 1500 on the dial.

The advantage of a fulltime license is that listeners can depend on you any time of the day and every day of the year. If audience loyalty... as opposed to sale of time for religious or ethnic programming... is important, the fulltimer may be a better option.

If a translator is available to the AM, it really does not matter how good the AM is as most listening will come from the FM. The AM is just an excuse to have a lower-power FM station.

Beyond that, the question is what programming can generate revenue on a band where in many markets less than 10% of radio listening is found. Also important is the fact that the only sizable AM listening group is much older; even among ethnic listeners AM is very unappealing to much of the population.

 

[b-turner]

I agree with the post above.

I shall add ground conductivity to the list. If you're amid pine trees or other areas of low conductivity, it simply lowers your coverage.

The sunrise/sunset times affect even stations in the southern states. When sunrise is 7:30 in October and March, you've lost half the drivetime AM hours. Likewise, when sunset is 5:30, you lose that driving home crowd.

Consider the shortest days are within the busiest shopping period of the year, so you have the fewest commercial avails when everybody is buying.

In small markets AM radio can still be quite a success but I boil this down to a couple of factors: fewer radio choices for listeners and programming decisions stations make.

In fact, I was on the road looking for any station to listen to and caught the AM in Pecos, Texas. The station is country and lots of local programming in the AM hours (news, weather, swap shop, farm reports, etc.). I was captivated as I tuned in at 9 am to hear the legal ID followed by 20 minutes worth of 30 second units played back to back. That is not a typo. At 9:20 they began the Swap Shop that lasted until 10:15. At 10:15 was a 15 minute paid devotional from a local Church. From 10:30 to 10:57 was a 5 minute network newscast, weather and a farm report (I think around 3 to 5 minutes). The remainder was commercials. They wound out the 10 am hour with a country song before network news aired at 11 when I lost the signal. Pecos is about 8,000 people. Oil is big there. Just try to find a motel room. The highways are full of oil field traffic 24/7. The roads are not as busy in a major city at 10 at night on a weeknight compared to my drive in to Pecos. The night scene, even 40 miles from Pecos looks like stars in the sky, dotted with lit up drilling sites in every direction you look.

As a footnote, many of the ads were for services that would be of interest to temporary residents (oil industry workers) and advertising jobs. I'd say that was half of what I heard. In fact there was a good deal of agency placed ads (McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Ace Hardware, etc., where a local franchisee might direct dollars or pressure agencies to make a buy for that market).

My point of all of this is when you run your station as a viable station, have a good sales staff that will make calls and establish relationships with local business owners, especially in a smaller market, the AM can do quite well. In fact, I simply was astounded by the number of commercials I heard.

 

[Kelly A]

My point of all of this is when you run your station as a viable station, have a good sales staff that will make calls and establish relationships with local business owners, especially in a smaller market, the AM can do quite well. In fact, I simply was astounded by the number of commercials I heard.

My vote would be daytime or full time AM.. Run away.

 

[FreddyE1977]

My vote would be daytime or full time AM.. Run away.

Whistling past the graveyard, eh?

 

[Kelly A]

Or "modulating" the graveyard.

 

[Groove1670]

The only successful AM daytimers that still do well are those that have been on the air forever, and still participate in the community. They air the swap shop, local funeral announcements, High school sports and community events. Usually in towns where one generation (family) after another continues to listen to the station. My hometown AM survived way into the 90's until the new owner tinkered with the format (pulling the elements listed about) until they ran off the loyal core audience.

Unless there was a possibility of a translator. I wouldn't want one (daytime - small town). I don't see the outlook promising unless you are full time in a large market.

Once again..there are still some success stories.

 

[b-turner]

I would say it is harder to make even a fulltime AM stay afloat in a major market than a small market. When you have so many choices on the dial, it is really difficult to build awareness and then almost any significant ad dollar is controlled by an advertising agency that buys on top stations only. If nothing else, it is easy to build awareness in a smaller market where few dollars are agency controlled and more limited listening options mean the typical potential advertiser has at least heard of your station. And I'd contend good content, whether on a fairly recent AM station or a station owned by a family throughout recent decades, is the key. Simply put, you'll work your rear end off and have to order a couple of spare backsides from Amazon to keep it going and in the black.

 

[davideduardo]

The only successful AM daytimers that still do well are those that have been on the air forever, and still participate in the community. .

Or those in larger metros where brokered time, religion or niche ethnic services can be very profitable.

 

[broadcastguy]

Well thanks to all!

David: The 1Kw is dead center on the dial, the higher power daytimer is far to the right (>1400kHz) and what you say about winter days is true, during the darkest days we have sunlight from almost 8:00AM to 4:30PM so that is a big concern.

A translator is possible but at this point none of the stations have one. This particular case is a +100 -200 market so there is some competition but no monster companies (iHeart, etc).

I guess a translator is key.

 

[b-turner]

Yes, you can do okay with brokered time but it is not the cash cow people seem to think. If you sell to one client, once they cancel, it might be 6 months to a year of no billing locating another client. In my market, brokered rates are 60% of what they were 5 years ago...then again there are 14 stations brokering in my market. Selling to several clients requires lots of policing but billing more consistent although you usually never sell it all, and maybe 50% at full hourly rate with a lower pick up rate on unsold hours. At one station selling numbers clients by the hour, we did $7,000 to $8,000 a week. That was a decade ago. Selling to one client was around 35k a month on a 5 year contract. The one client formula means no board ops. With numerous clients, I had to run board ops.

I know I sold ministries on a deal of $895 a month for 5 fifteen minute programs a day with a free replay at whatever time we could slip it in. We rotated days and times to try to gain them new listeners. Still we barely billed $4,000 a week. In other words, about 25 or a bit more fully sold hours, almost all to local Churches. I had a couple of small regional ministries that did 5x a week programs and a couple of 5 minute daily shows but most opted for 15 to 30 minutes a week. As a daytimer, we only sold 7:30 to 5:30 because this was the latest sign on and earliest sign off. Bonuses went during any hour we were on the air. Back then 15 minutes a week with a free play sometime in the week was $179.50 a month paid in advance. That was 20 years ago...today about $250 a month.

This was a top 10 market daytimer with decent market coverage.