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KZAM in Wichita Falls

A

Anonymouse

Guest
I was picking up 98.7 KZAM in Wichita Falls while I was on vacation. It has a format like Jack FM but with no commercials... And the audio quality is great!

How does this station make money?
 
So they're losing money broadcasting? Why would they do that - it just sounds stupid.
 
Stupid is ten FM stations, give or take, in a market that has about 125,000 persons. And that's just the commercial ones.
 
Keep in mind that any brand new sign-on in broadcasting can expect to lose money for at least the first two years of operations. Hopefully, the people at KZAM realized that and budgeted for it. Otherwise, yes, it's stupid, and JD is right that it will be hard to make money in a market the size of Wichita Falls with that many stations around. Twenty years ago, Wichita Falls had fewer stations than it does now, and I don't think anyone other than KNIN and KLUR were live 24/7. Pretty much everything else ran satellite at least part of the time.
 
I am pretty sure that KZAM had to sign on or lose the permit. So right now they are just running in hopes that someone will buy or LMA the station very soon.

It will take a niche format for anything to be done with that station.
 
Yes, I live in Wichita Falls. The station is located between W. Falls and Iowa Park. It is my understanding the station went on the air about 1 1/2 years ago with the thought of finding a buyer ASAP. From the few times I have listened, the playlist seems rather limited. I really don't have much more info other than doing a google search may reveal a little more.

Talking about the market, 2 of our AM stations moved to the Metroplex (990 KNIN & 620 KWFT). There have been several FMs start up over the last 20 years. There is only 1 am left in town (1290). That's the station I started at in 1972.

Any other questions about the market, feel free to fire away. I might have some info.

Joe
 
Joe, how strong is the KZAM signal actually inside the city of Wichita Falls -- can you hear it inside a building --I looked at a signal map it looked kind of far out of town.
 
everydayguy:

If the station is located at Pleasant Valley, that would put it about 4 miles from the west city limits of W.Falls. Don't know if you know W. Falls or not, but I live close to Memorial Stadium, which would be probably about 9 miles straight line to the Xmitter and the station booms into my house. I can't say how the reception is in downtown W. Falls as I've not tried it. My guess the distance would be 12-15 miles. The signal might not make it into the steel buildings, but I don't know for sure.

I'm heading toward Dallas this weekend, and I'll see how far out of town I can pick the station up. Last time I tried it, I think I still received it about 25 miles southeast of the xmitter.
 
You're right. City-grade (70dBu) should be a little over a 10 mile range from the tower, while the protected or service contour (60dBu) would probably average around 17 miles.
 
jd said:
You're right. City-grade (70dBu) should be a little over a 10 mile range from the tower, while the protected or service contour (60dBu) would probably average around 17 miles.
Click to expand...

I was up in Wichita Falls over the weekend. On some of the elevated highways, I could hear picket-fencing and interference from their co-channel station. When the skip kicks in, it'll be very unpleasant.

KZAM has been running what basically amounts to an Ipod feeding an audio processor, and programming nothing but a few ripped off "Jack FM" liners and music. To their credit, a station ID does go at the top of the hour. From what I have heard, they have no local studio and no local presence. I have never heard them run an EAS test either. I doubt they have a public file where the general public can find it. They have it on the air to spend money paying their electric bill, hoping (as someone else has said) somebody's going to come around and buy it.

Remeber, this is the same market that had another FM (KXXN 96.3) go on, and off three times with three different formats (contemporary Christian [aka "Big Fish 96.3"], Hispanic and Rap). All failed, and the station's been dark for several months now. You can build them, put them on the air and play music, but unless you have a good local sales staff, with proper support, nothing will happen except your debt service and the electric bill!
 
I'm looking at my posts from over 4 years ago and laughing. LOL


So anyone wondering what's new with KZAM? The station flipped to regional Mexican music since then. I found it's website which says La Mejor 92.1 FM in the title. http://kzam987.com/
The only La Mejor 92.1 FM I found in Texas is KGDL from Trent. Could they be connected?
The website also seems to mention they've rented it from 2014-2016. My Spanish is limited though, so I don't know..?

Anyway as for KZAM, it has flipped back to it's old Jack style format from time to time. Here are two air-checks I was able to record, back from December 2013.
This first one is a sample of La Mejor. http://twup.me/mZ
This second one, 6 days later, is a sample of the automated Jack FM format. http://twup.me/n0
But at the end of last year I was in the area again and heard 98.7. It once again played regional Mexican and called itself La Mejor. So they fixed the hick-up they had experienced with the missing regional Mexican programming. Before La Mejor, the station was still regional Mexican for about a year, but with another name.


I'm honestly not sure what will happen to KZAM as time goes on, but I really hope they are able to keep it alive! As far as I know Wichita Falls is missing classic country music on FM, a format that might do well in that smallish city if the Spanish music proves futile.
 
Anonymouse said:
I'm looking at my posts from over 4 years ago and laughing. LOL


So anyone wondering what's new with KZAM? The station flipped to regional Mexican music since then. I found it's website which says La Mejor 92.1 FM in the title. http://kzam987.com/
The only La Mejor 92.1 FM I found in Texas is KGDL from Trent. Could they be connected?
The website also seems to mention they've rented it from 2014-2016. My Spanish is limited though, so I don't know..?

Anyway as for KZAM, it has flipped back to it's old Jack style format from time to time. Here are two air-checks I was able to record, back from December 2013.
This first one is a sample of La Mejor. http://twup.me/mZ
This second one, 6 days later, is a sample of the automated Jack FM format. http://twup.me/n0
But at the end of last year I was in the area again and heard 98.7. It once again played regional Mexican and called itself La Mejor. So they fixed the hick-up they had experienced with the missing regional Mexican programming. Before La Mejor, the station was still regional Mexican for about a year, but with another name.


I'm honestly not sure what will happen to KZAM as time goes on, but I really hope they are able to keep it alive! As far as I know Wichita Falls is missing classic country music on FM, a format that might do well in that smallish city if the Spanish music proves futile.
Click to expand...

Ooh, this sounds like a good mystery!

You are correct in surmising a relationship between the La Mejor stations, but it's a franchising relationship. La Mejor is a Mexican format, owned by a company called MVS Radio. MVS has some owned-and-operated stations throughout Mexico and then franchisees in a bunch of major cities that use the format. There are a number of Texas franchisees of La Mejor - KCOT Cotulla, KGDL Trent and KEWP Uvalde Estates.

I question if KZAM ever actually had the official affiliation, however. I found a Facebook page, not touched since 2016, and the logo is a bit dodgy. An STA was filed in April 2016 for loss of its programming source upon termination of a time brokerage agreement, so you probably read the (now-dead) site correctly.

More noteworthy is that there's a sale pending at the FCC. Rio Grande City-based South Texas FM Investments is selling for $122,000 to Mekaddesh Group Corporation, whose principals are members of the Guel family. LPFM followers will recognize the name César Guel. Mekaddesh's principals own a bunch of what seem to be Spanish Christian stations under the Hispanic Family Christian Network umbrella.
 
The sale was granted by the FCC... I'm not sure what 98.7 is playing now.
 
With all the unexpected twists and turns I see in radio, there's no idea what is going on there. I've heard of some amazing things. One station had some legal issues among investors and decided to go commercial free until everything was resolved in court that took about 18 months. Other stations simply went on, have virtually no staff and lose money until they can move to a desired location (even back in the day a warm body had to be there during all operating hours). I even worked for a station that had so few commercials that if you listened outside about 7 to 9 am and the noon hour, you'd swear they were commercial free but they were operating in the black. There's stations where a skeletal staff leaves or the key person does and it takes months to find a good person to replace them. It might be for sale and they're just keeping it going. Selling a station can take days to years. They might have other stations that are carrying the weight until they can get around to 'working' that station. And this might be a case where several stations are involved in a deal where they all move or downgrade so one of the stations can become, say, a rimshot for the DFW market and the more parties involved, the longer it takes, sometimes years.

At least a computer in a closet doesn't cost much and if the other bills aren't too much, you can stretch that over a pretty long period without a ton of money.

If they're not billing anything, it might be an either/or situation: either go on the air and lose money or be deleted by the FCC and lose your whole investment. If you spend $500,000 to get going (auction price of frequency and build out) and your broker has shown the station is worth, say, $800,000 or $900,000, it is worth it to lose another $100,000 in operating expenses before it sells. If you just shut down the value of the station is much less and the FCC will take the station license back after a year. Literally by not operating you are assured of losing money on your investment and maybe all of it.
 
Raymie said:
...noteworthy is that there's a sale pending at the FCC. Rio Grande City-based South Texas FM Investments is selling for $122,000 to Mekaddesh Group Corporation, whose principals are members of the Guel family. LPFM followers will recognize the name César Guel. Mekaddesh's principals own a bunch of what seem to be Spanish Christian stations under the Hispanic Family Christian Network umbrella.
Click to expand...

AnyHuman said:
The sale was granted by the FCC... I'm not sure what 98.7 is playing now.
Click to expand...

Oh that's not good...
 
I know, it doesn't look like it's closed yet so maybe there's a slim chance to save KZAM...
 
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