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Bay Area Radio in 2020
- Thread starter HenryOchs
- Start date
KGO-AM changing hosts in 2020 would get a lot of attention here.
Note, KGO is the second highest rated all-talk station in SFO (behind KSFO). And with the excellent John Rothmann in evenings and Pat Thurston in mid-day, the station has a chance to move upwards. If they could dump the awful A&G morning show and bring in a local morning show, KGO's fortune's would further have a good chance of upward momentum.
Regarding ratings, what's the take on classic hits KBAY, which regularly dominates the San Jose ratings?
Regarding ratings, what's the take on classic hits KBAY, which regularly dominates the San Jose ratings?
Huh?? How is this possible with KGO-AM?? It's going to have to be brokered though at this point as a way to clear programming from Westwood One.
Re:
Technically, 95.3 KRTY is an in-market station, it just fails to cover the full market (or even a majority of the market, arguably) with a reliable signal.
The northern half of the market hasn't shown a propensity to embrace Country music with any longevity in decades. The County format collectively is not at a strong point right now. I cannot see any flip to Country occurring in 2020 if we're speaking core San Francisco & Alameda County signals.
That said - there *are* two signals that could be candidates for a format change or adjustment in 2020. Those would be 103.7 KOSF and 102.9 KBLX. The first is easy to fix - simply evolve the playlist to a broader Classic Hits or Variety Hits arrangement. The case of KBLX is more interesting. Do you keep a pure Urban AC format in a market that is only 7% African American and is already served by KMEL and Q102.1? If the owner were anyone other than Bonneville, I'd say "maybe," but Bonneville is a company that hardly has any experience programming such a format in a long-term manner, and they definitely don't have experience turning around a sagging station with any sort of Urban format!
Does Bonneville throw the baby out with the bath water and do something drastic with 102.9, such as returning a true AAA station to the market?
Technically, 95.3 KRTY is an in-market station, it just fails to cover the full market (or even a majority of the market, arguably) with a reliable signal.
The northern half of the market hasn't shown a propensity to embrace Country music with any longevity in decades. The County format collectively is not at a strong point right now. I cannot see any flip to Country occurring in 2020 if we're speaking core San Francisco & Alameda County signals.
That said - there *are* two signals that could be candidates for a format change or adjustment in 2020. Those would be 103.7 KOSF and 102.9 KBLX. The first is easy to fix - simply evolve the playlist to a broader Classic Hits or Variety Hits arrangement. The case of KBLX is more interesting. Do you keep a pure Urban AC format in a market that is only 7% African American and is already served by KMEL and Q102.1? If the owner were anyone other than Bonneville, I'd say "maybe," but Bonneville is a company that hardly has any experience programming such a format in a long-term manner, and they definitely don't have experience turning around a sagging station with any sort of Urban format!
Does Bonneville throw the baby out with the bath water and do something drastic with 102.9, such as returning a true AAA station to the market?
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The San Jose ratings are also part of the San Francisco ratings. KBAY does not do well in the full market (SJ is an "embedded" market) because of signal.
The simple answer is no. If you think country music is not at a strong point now, AAA is at an even lower point. It was stronger five years ago. If you're going to blow up a station, the last format you'd pick is AAA, even in San Francisco, especially if the owner is Bonneville.
In the unlikely event country music does return to the SF airwaves, I think the station should be called "(Frequency) The Buzzard"
That KBAY is not a full market signal is understood, yet it, like KOLA in Riverside/San Bernardino does very well in an adjacent market with a Classic Hits format; and both KBAY and KOLA routinely land at #1 in their core markets. With KOSF mentioned prior in this thread, what are some of the Bay Area specific ingredients this board thinks KBAY does well that KOSF would be smart to emulate with a classic hits approach that goes much broader than its current 80s based approach? Heck, even KRTH in LA, another perennial highly ranking classic hits station, stretches into the 2000s on occasion. With classic hits doing well in markets across the West Coast (KOOL Phoenix, KLTH Portland - which, BTW is also an iHeart station), and with the legacy of KFRC locally, KOSF could easily rise from its current bottom of the top 20 ranking with a Classic Hits approach that borrows some of the ingredients KBAY has demonstrated work well in market #4.
I'd like to see KBLX return to it's roots and the old brand, The Quiet Storm. I do remember having a weird dream long long time ago that KBLX went Classic Rock.
The only reason I would consider an AOR/AAA station again in SF is because of the history of KFOG (not the Alternative incarnation which was doomed from the start). Admittedly, I'm biased to AAA, but given a format choice between that and Country... I'd still pick AAA, even if Classic leaning.
But so much of the success of that station was based on (a) the air staff, and (b) the quality of and passion for the new music. Neither of those things are available now. I think the second item is really critical to the success of a station. I don't see a lot of passion for the music as a genre. At least to the degree that it would support a commercial station.
I would have said Alt 105.3, but according to the ratings they are now averaging 2.0 or higher, which isn't great, but better than they have been. [I know these aren't the important metrics, but that's all I have to go by.] I think KFOG folding helped them. I still wonder about their long-term viability, since the playlist is mostly stale 90s and 00s songs, and not much new music.
Iheart is Cutting people all over the USA but so far San Francisco and Sacramento has not confirmed who has been removed due to the national cuts.
The future of anything AAA esque in SF isn't in returning to the classic sound of KFOG. It would be a non-commercial music discovery station for an ethnically diverse younger audience such as KCRW in LA or Radio Milwaukee. Not something the commercial operators are going to do.
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