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"Texas Mix 105.3" KTWL to be sold

I'm not sure these translators even care about ppm or ratings these stations are able to sell to a smaller client at a reduced rate with a smaller overhead . When done correctly these stations can make very good revenue .
 
radiohits said:
I'm not sure these translators even care about ppm or ratings these stations are able to sell to a smaller client at a reduced rate with a smaller overhead . When done correctly these stations can make very good revenue .
Click to expand...

But you will notice that the clients they get are the ones that the major players don't even call on. They have no agency presence, and end up with lots of night clubs and very low budget accounts.

And the expenses are not minimal... they have to lease the facility that gives them the right to employ a translator, which is either an AM or and FM HD channel. In Houston, you are likely looking at well over $100,000 for an HD and even more for an AM. And even a translator is affected by minimum wage rules, insurance, office space, sales commissions, business licenses, accounting, traffic, billing, air staff, management and all the other expenses of a station.

What you might call "good revenue" is likely less than just the GM's salary at a significant station or cluster.
 
DavidEduardo said:
they have to lease the facility that gives them the right to employ a translator, which is either an AM or and FM HD channel.
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Translators in Houston don't play by those rules. To them, paying a fee if they get caught (if ever) is a lot cheaper than leasing out an AM or HD subchannel.
 
BamaTX said:
Translators in Houston don't play by those rules. To them, paying a fee if they get caught (if ever) is a lot cheaper than leasing out an AM or HD subchannel.
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At some point, likely after the pandemic is under control, the Houston broadcasters need to establish a committee to police the translators and to submit violations to the FCC.

I believe some of the issues come from people with no broadcast management experience trying to run "radio stations" with no understanding of the rules and laws.

I am familiar with a DJ in another market who is great at his specialty. He somehow got a translator, and went through the transfer only because the seller did the FCC paperwork. But he then did not have an AM or HD2 to rebroadcast, did not understand that he could not "set the volume to 11" and many other things.

Eventually the other local broadcasters figured it out, complained and the FCC stepped in. But the FCC generally does not initiate investigations. If someone documents operations, with firm data on things like signal strength, lack of an AM or HD channel, unauthorized antenna height, etc., the FCC will investigate eventually.
 
DavidEduardo said:
At some point, likely after the pandemic is under control, the Houston broadcasters need to establish a committee to police the translators and to submit violations to the FCC.

I believe some of the issues come from people with no broadcast management experience trying to run "radio stations" with no understanding of the rules and laws.

I am familiar with a DJ in another market who is great at his specialty. He somehow got a translator, and went through the transfer only because the seller did the FCC paperwork. But he then did not have an AM or HD2 to rebroadcast, did not understand that he could not "set the volume to 11" and many other things.

Eventually the other local broadcasters figured it out, complained and the FCC stepped in. But the FCC generally does not initiate investigations. If someone documents operations, with firm data on things like signal strength, lack of an AM or HD channel, unauthorized antenna height, etc., the FCC will investigate eventually.
Click to expand...

Most, if not all, of the major broadcasting companies in Houston are leasing HD channels to the scofflaw operators, so they're not particularly interested in reporting them.

Even if they aren't leasing a channel to them in the Houston market, they are elsewhere.

iHeartRadio sent a note to the FCC about something related to one of the translators about two years ago, and that did create some FCC action, but I forget the exact circumstances. It was surprising at the time because iHeart was still leasing HD channels and studio space to the translator owner who got popped. No idea what triggered iHeart's letter.
 
David your a great mediator. It's time to call out the lawbreakers. I posted something about a Perticular "pastor" who owns over 30 Transalators who continues to break the rules over and over not only in Houston but all over the US. If the information on this site can help the FCC police the market better please don't erase valuable information. FCC applications are so easy to trace back so no one falls into making false statements about a party, company, Church ,Pastor or person. If anyone doesn't want to be mention on here maybe they should not have the privilege of owning a public Fcc application. Ghost None profits/Churches/Pastors continue to culprit the market.
 
stan said:
No thank you. The only folks that would be stuck listening to it would be in Beaumont / Port Arthur, not Houston.
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Look around, Stan. The demographics are a changin' in the Golden Triangle. Beaumont itself is near 20% Hispanic in total population, Port Arthur is over 30%. I suspect you already know this, but I would expect more Spanish language programming and less Classic Hits formats to come.
 
cotton belt said:
Look around, Stan. The demographics are a changin' in the Golden Triangle. Beaumont itself is near 20% Hispanic in total population, Port Arthur is over 30%. I suspect you already know this, but I would expect more Spanish language programming and less Classic Hits formats to come.
Click to expand...

Here are the stations that already serve the Spanish language programming you mentioned in our area.

KQBU
KTJM
KBEJ
KQQK
KBPO
KHTW

There are other populations that are underserved in our area, so we’ll see what happens here.
 
stan said:
Here are the stations that already serve the Spanish language programming you mentioned in our area.

KQBU
KTJM
KBEJ
KQQK
KBPO
KHTW

There are other populations that are underserved in our area, so we’ll see what happens here.
Click to expand...

That's 2 Regional Mexicans and a Hot AC all targeting Houston. An LPFM that, I'd suspect, religiously (pun intended) gets beat up by co-channel KRBE, and two extremely poor AM signals with a documented "on again/off again" relationship with the Golden Triangle.

Stan, I think you're kidding yourself if you don't realize the only parties even interested in a KXXF type of facility, in the current down market, are these Hispanic churches and maybe EMF. I'm doubtful EMF would even sniff at KXXF. Had it not been bought by John Walton, there's really no telling what would have happened to 105.3. Univision didn't want it, and had they been as short sighted as Cumulus, it may have very well ended up in the trash bin right along with KSTB.
 
cotton belt said:
Look around, Stan. The demographics are a changin' in the Golden Triangle. Beaumont itself is near 20% Hispanic in total population, Port Arthur is over 30%. I suspect you already know this, but I would expect more Spanish language programming and less Classic Hits formats to come.
Click to expand...
Just because someone is Hispanic doesn't mean they strictly consume Spanish language content. The use of Spanish language content by Hispanics in the US significantly drops with 2nd and 3rd generation Hispanic offsprings (the exception is Puerto Rico, of course).

You also have to consider that 20% isn't much to begin with. When you factor in Hispanics that don't speak Spanish or don't consume Spanish language media, the number of potential listeners significantly decreases. You'd also have to fight KQBU, KTJM, and KQQK for listener attention (which isn't easy).
 
cotton belt said:
had they been as short sighted as Cumulus, it may have very well ended up in the trash bin right along with KSTB.
Click to expand...
IIRC, Univision saw the path to upgrade 105.3 into Houston. Unfortunately, their plan to get 104.9 into one of MoCity never happened. When that plan fell apart, they sought the next best upgrade and sold the CP.

Cumulus...well I'm not sure what their intention with 101.5 was. Maybe they hoped to jump one of the stations to Devers? I guess KSAM never budged???
 
BamaTX said:
Cumulus...well I'm not sure what their intention with 101.5 was. Maybe they hoped to jump one of the stations to Devers? I guess KSAM never budged???
Click to expand...

I always figured the plan was to hold it and leave it alone to keep someone from moving it too close to KAYD.
 
BamaTX said:
Just because someone is Hispanic doesn't mean they strictly consume Spanish language content. The use of Spanish language content by Hispanics in the US significantly drops with 2nd and 3rd generation Hispanic offsprings (the exception is Puerto Rico, of course).

You also have to consider that 20% isn't much to begin with. When you factor in Hispanics that don't speak Spanish or don't consume Spanish language media, the number of potential listeners significantly decreases. You'd also have to fight KQBU, KTJM, and KQQK for listener attention (which isn't easy).
Click to expand...

Very strong point. Where there are more later generation Hispanics, the use of Spanish language radio is lower. San Antonio is nearly 55% Hispanic, but Spanish language only gets about 10 to 12 shares because Spanish dominant Hispanics are only 20% of the Hispanic population.

And remember that in Latin America, stations that play all or some English language hits or oldies are extremely popular. My own first station, 56 years ago, played a third to half English language hits, depending on the daypart. If anything, English language songs are played in Latin America more today than ever.
 
cotton belt said:
Look around, Stan. The demographics are a changin' in the Golden Triangle. Beaumont itself is near 20% Hispanic in total population, Port Arthur is over 30%. I suspect you already know this, but I would expect more Spanish language programming and less Classic Hits formats to come.
Click to expand...

The 2020 Nielsen MSA is 17% Hispanic and 25% African American.

Figure that there are probably about 7 to 8 shares available for Spanish language; other than Miami, markets with large Hispanic populations just don't get more than total radio shares that are half the population percentage. Typical would be a market that is 50% Hispanic having about 22 to 24 shares going to Spanish language radio.

Less than half of the local listening is to stations that are home to the 3-county metro. And only 5 stations even bill at $1 million or a bit more. While the market is 148th in populatio, it ranks 176th in revenue. And the market revenue has been declining each year for a decade.
 
I would expect for these numbers to change and reflect the truth with the new Census. Beaumont/Port Arthur are still a mostly First Generation.
 
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