KBIU 103.3 in Lake Charles is off the air?

[CosmicMagician]

Was listening to Lake Charles radio today and found that there was no signal for 103.3 last night and into this morning. I wonder if it is mechanical, or is the station going out of business?

I am just concerned because KBIU is a Cumulus Media station; and Cumulus have been rumored to be on the verge of a coming bankruptcy:

http://medialifemagazine.com/radio-giant-cumulus-edges-bankruptcy/

KBIU has always struggled in Lake Charles market ratings, ever since the station downgraded and switched frequencies from 103.7 to 103.3 in 2005. They relaunched earlier this year as Hot 103.3, but it seems that nobody in the Lake area is interested in listening to it. KBIU has had about 4 or 5 format changes since B104 changed their signal to 103.3 MHz, to make up for the Houston rimshot station at 103.7 - (I bet the Cumulus program director regrets making this decision.)

 

[CosmicMagician]

While listening to 103.3 in Lake Charles there was no signal from KBIU. I even managed to pick up Classic Hits 103.3 in Hammond (Baton Rouge) and KLAA 103.5 in Alexandria. (although both signals were very poor, and the latter was stronger.) By default, KBIU 103.3 is technically supposed to block out 103.3 in Hammond.

KBIU has been off the air for at least 12 hours now - no signal to be found. Maybe later on today it will come back? Just wondering if the station will either flip or if Cumulus has suspended it.

 

[rfburns]

There was a nasty line of thunderstorms that swept through yesterday afternoon and last night. I suspect they are off air due to storm damage of some kind.

RFB

 

[CosmicMagician]

Are you in the LC area? Well, they're back on the air. This has to be one the longest durations of a station off-the-air that I have seen. KBIU got about 15 hours offline. That doesn't sound too good.

Ever since the switch to 103.3 from 103.7, KBIU have been nothing but a bottom-feeder station. Back when they were B104 they were topping the market with teammate KYKZ 96, I remember. I wonder if Cumulus regret the downgrade decision from 103.7 to 103.3. Has anyone else noticed that KBIU has been a disaster ever since? I hear the Houston station was not successful and was actually auctioned off to the Educational Media Foundation. Way to destroy a good LC radio station, fellas.

 

[ContinuousWave]

There was a nasty line of thunderstorms that swept through yesterday afternoon and last night. I suspect they are off air due to storm damage of some kind.

RFB

I'll ask the engineer....Grego will tell me...

 

[ContinuousWave]

Are you in the LC area? Well, they're back on the air. This has to be one the longest durations of a station off-the-air that I have seen. KBIU got about 15 hours offline. That doesn't sound too good.

Ever since the switch to 103.3 from 103.7, KBIU have been nothing but a bottom-feeder station. Back when they were B104 they were topping the market with teammate KYKZ 96, I remember. I wonder if Cumulus regret the downgrade decision from 103.7 to 103.3. Has anyone else noticed that KBIU has been a disaster ever since? I hear the Houston station was not successful and was actually auctioned off to the Educational Media Foundation. Way to destroy a good LC radio station, fellas.

That was the old Cumulus under the Dickies.....buying 103.5 and moving it to 103.7 for the money they paid for it and then selling it for 1/7 of that wont happen under the new Cumulus management...

 

[davideduardo]

Are you in the LC area? Well, they're back on the air. This has to be one the longest durations of a station off-the-air that I have seen. KBIU got about 15 hours offline. That doesn't sound too good..

It happens, and much more often than you think, particularly in medium and small markets where an FM does not have an auxiliary antenna and site.

A lightening strike or storm can wipe out the antenna, or big lengths of coax. Replacement has to be ordered, riggers hired and the day and weather have to be right for climbing. Or the lightening could have gone down into the building, wiping out all kinds of things ranginf from the final stage of the transmitter, harmonic filters, etc. Or a power line hit might have taken out the substation or transformer, burnt surge protection and junction box components, etc.

While stations try to be as redundant as possible, there will always be catastrophies that can't be covered and sometimes the loss of several days on the air.

 

[Kent]

Ever since the switch to 103.3 from 103.7, KBIU have been nothing but a bottom-feeder station. Back when they were B104 they were topping the market with teammate KYKZ 96, I remember. I wonder if Cumulus regret the downgrade decision from 103.7 to 103.3. Has anyone else noticed that KBIU has been a disaster ever since? I hear the Houston station was not successful and was actually auctioned off to the Educational Media Foundation. Way to destroy a good LC radio station, fellas.

Bottom feeders in Houston typically bill more than any Lake Charles station, including KYKZ. I'm sure Cumulus somewhat regrets that it had to sell 103.7 for cheap, but I doubt it had any regrets at the time it downgraded KBIU and bought the station.

 

[davideduardo]

I hear the Houston station was not successful and was actually auctioned off to the Educational Media Foundation. Way to destroy a good LC radio station, fellas.

There were four stations in a separate partnership at the time of the parent Cumulus bankruptcy. They were put in a trust and offered for sale to capture some capital for the settlement. The station you refer to was not a "failure" but simply part of a set of stations that the bankruptcy agreement decided to put up for sale. It was not auctioned off... it was sold to the company making the best offer.

 

[davideduardo]

Bottom feeders in Houston typically bill more than any Lake Charles station, including KYKZ. I'm sure Cumulus somewhat regrets that it had to sell 103.7 for cheap, but I doubt it had any regrets at the time it downgraded KBIU and bought the station.

Yep. The billing in the Houston 103.7 at the time of the sale was apparently more than the total billing of the top 5 Lake Charles stations combined.

 

[davideduardo]

(I bet the Cumulus program director regrets making this decision.)

Program directors do not make that kind of decision unless they also happen to own the station.

 

[CosmicMagician]

Bottom feeders in Houston typically bill more than any Lake Charles station, including KYKZ. I'm sure Cumulus somewhat regrets that it had to sell 103.7 for cheap, but I doubt it had any regrets at the time it downgraded KBIU and bought the station.

I doubt it. KYKZ 96 is larger than life in Lake Charles, and is the champion station and cashcow there for over 35 years. People in Lake Charles love radio and especially their country leader.

Having KYKZ sign off the air is like a big part of LC that would be missing. It would almost be like Lake Charles getting their all their limbs amputated. KYKZ are so massive in LC, if it were to sign off the air, it would be market suicide for Cumulus. I do not know of any other station in America that has the same local popularity that KYKZ has.

I remember in the 1990s, KYKZ was the station that was dominating the market for a whole decade and was almost unbeatable. Back when they used to broadcast off of the KVHP-TV tower, they could reach both Beaumont and Orange, and even there in a different market, they did considerably well there, too. KYKZ and KBIU were radio stations partners that could never be beaten, so there was no reason to change anything that went on them.

The competitor station in town, LA99 (Hot AC) could not even catch up to Kicks 96 back then; even though it could beat KBIU (B104) in a few books, and had Lake Charles' strongest FM signal.

 

[davideduardo]

People in Lake Charles love radio and especially their country leader.

And that is why 40% of the listening in the market is to stations from outside the market?

 

[CosmicMagician]

And that is why 40% of the listening in the market is to stations from outside the market?

I have no idea where that statistic came from; but if it is true, my only explanation is that this is something fairly recent and pretty rare.

As I said before, especially in the 1990s; KYKZ 96 was the unbeatable cashcow in LC and not even sister station KBIU could keep up with it. This is why LA99 (Hot AC) were forced to switch to Country in 2002. If you've ever been to the Lake area, (i.e Sulphur, Westlake, Moss Bluff, even Ragley) you may notice in traffic that at least one vehicle you will find, has a KYKZ 96 bumper sticker pinned on it's rear.

 

[CosmicMagician]

And that is why 40% of the listening in the market is to stations from outside the market?

Clearly you are not from LC or you would have known about KYKZ, because anyone there will tell you how massive in popularity Kicks 96 was in the 1990s. Even a big share of the Black audience in Lake Charles listen to KYKZ. Something you won't find in the rest of the USA. ha

Here is a video in 1991 that further proves my point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCuFqCT4z9k

 

[davideduardo]

I have no idea where that statistic came from; but if it is true, my only explanation is that this is something fairly recent and pretty rare.

Data from Arbitron (past) and Nielsen (more recent).

It's been happening for a long, long time.

 

[davideduardo]

Clearly you are not from LC or you would have known about KYKZ, because anyone there will tell you how massive in popularity Kicks 96 was in the 1990s. Even a big share of the Black audience in Lake Charles listen to KYKZ. Something you won't find in the rest of the USA. ha

I can remember when KLOU on 1580 was the top station in town. That was over 50 years ago.

In 1990, KYKZ had a 22 share. KHLA and KHIU had just over a 10 share each. Lake Charles, then, was a single book a year market.

By 1995, KYKZ had a 33 share. By 1999 it was down to a 21 share, but there were two books a year by then.

There is no issue that the station was very big in the 90's. It is at a much lower level now, and the market has declining revenues; its revenue rank is well below its population rank.

 

[Kent]

I doubt it. KYKZ 96 is larger than life in Lake Charles, and is the champion station and cashcow there for over 35 years. People in Lake Charles love radio and especially their country leader.

As David pointed out earlier, 103.7 in Houston billed more than the top-5 Lake Charles stations combined when it was sold to EMF. Houston has almost 5 million people according to Nielsen; Lake Charles doesn't even have 175,000. Lake Charles may love its radio, but advertisers only have so much to spend. Plus, there aren't many national buys there, and that's where the big money is.

Having KYKZ sign off the air is like a big part of LC that would be missing. It would almost be like Lake Charles getting their all their limbs amputated. KYKZ are so massive in LC, if it were to sign off the air, it would be market suicide for Cumulus. I do not know of any other station in America that has the same local popularity that KYKZ has.

KYKZ isn't leaving the market. Even if Cumulus takes its latest CP and targets 96.1 to Beaumont, the format will just move to another stick. Keep in mind that small market stations usually have a larger market share, or "local popularity" as you put it, than large market stations. This is largely because small markets have fewer stations. As an example, KILT 610 in Houston has a cume greater than the entire population of the Lake Charles market, but doesn't even crack a 1 share in Houston. KILT is a bottom feeder and has nowhere near the local popularity of KYKZ, but it has a ton more listeners. 103.7, by the way, had almost 300,000 unique listeners every week before it was sold and left the air.