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ESPN 97.5 Houston Adds 92.5 Simulcast

Nothing against people like Eddie Martiny, Sarah Frazier and Mark Krieschen. I guess many of you think is better to be on the winning side than the losing side and I can respect that. I like rooting for the underdog.
 
old school radio said:
No I don't hate corporate radio, but I do hate people bashing on local owners. This whole thread started because of people bashing on a local owner who provides local jobs and local content.
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Having been a "local owner" myself once, I don't feel bad about criticizing an owner who has tried to be successful with horrible facilities and bad decisions.

In fact, one of the "local owners" I worked with was local. And the worst, by a country mile, was also local. They come in all flavors.
 
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old school radio said:
So that makes it ok??

Let's use the 5million dollar mark for conversation purposes at KILT. The station in 2008 was doing 20million. 15 million in profit is not a bad place to be (but not enough for greedy corporate executives)
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You just increased them by 10%.

And the first roughly $5 million goes for commissions. Remember, agencies take 15% off the top, and the rep takes more and then the sales staff gets a cut, too. And local sales has commissions, salaries, insurance, etc.

I can easily see them with well over $10 in expenses before the corporate overhead, legal, SEC filings, and other things groups do from the corporate office.

That leaves them with about a 35% to 40% margin at best. Take half the revenue away in 2020, and they will lose several million this year.

You really have to listen and ask some questions as you don't know how a station operates in a major market.
 
old school radio said:
Nothing against people like Eddie Martiny, Sarah Frazier and Mark Krieschen. I guess many of you think is better to be on the winning side than the losing side and I can respect that. I like rooting for the underdog.
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One thing is being an underdog, another is just doing stupid things.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Having been a "local owner" myself once, I don't feel bad about criticizing an owner who has tried to be successful with horrible facilities and bad decisions.

In fact, one of the "local owners" I worked with was local. And the worst, by a country mile, was also local. They come in all flavors.
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This industry is littered with people with good intentions and bad signals.

You can put the best programming on a bad signal or you can put lousy programming on a bad signal, either way, people won't listen to a station that they cannot receive, and either way it's not going to work.

Unpopular opinion, but entirely my own: voice tracking is not evil. There is no magic that comes from being in a studio speaking live versus speaking into a computer. The magic comes from the words that you speak and what you inspire people to do.

But having worked both "local" and "corporate" radio gigs, I appreciate that in the corporate environment the equipment is well maintained, the toilets properly flush, the building is secure, and the paychecks don't bounce. When you're working for smaller operations that aren't well funded you can't take those things for granted...

Everybody thinks that running a radio station is easy. When you start actually being responsible for all of it, you learn quickly that none of it is easy, and all the things your boss made you do that you hated were actually necessary.

The best decision I ever made in my career was while doing due diligence on buying a station, backing out of it when I realized just how much of a mess that place was and how I could never make enough to make the station profitable. I've kept my eye on that station over the years. They haven't turned in the license yet, but 22 years after turning it down it's still a silent STA more than it's on the air.
 
johndavis said:
This industry is littered with people with good intentions and bad signals.

You can put the best programming on a bad signal or you can put lousy programming on a bad signal, either way, people won't listen to a station that they cannot receive, and either way it's not going to work.

Unpopular opinion, but entirely my own: voice tracking is not evil. There is no magic that comes from being in a studio speaking live versus speaking into a computer. The magic comes from the words that you speak and what you inspire people to do.

But having worked both "local" and "corporate" radio gigs, I appreciate that in the corporate environment the equipment is well maintained, the toilets properly flush, the building is secure, and the paychecks don't bounce. When you're working for smaller operations that aren't well funded you can't take those things for granted...

Everybody thinks that running a radio station is easy. When you start actually being responsible for all of it, you learn quickly that none of it is easy, and all the things your boss made you do that you hated were actually necessary.

The best decision I ever made in my career was while doing due diligence on buying a station, backing out of it when I realized just how much of a mess that place was and how I could never make enough to make the station profitable. I've kept my eye on that station over the years. They haven't turned in the license yet, but 22 years after turning it down it's still a silent STA more than it's on the air.
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Amen. Thanks for and excellent perspective.
 
97.5 and 92.5 are broadcasting different things. I heard “ESPN 92.5”
 
Looks like 97.5 and 92.5 are not always a straight simulcast. This afternoon I found 97.5 with the Texas A&M football game while 92.5 was running the National SportsMap Radio feed with no local commercials...and ten seconds of dead air where the TOH ID should have gone.

97.5 does not have an HD signal. So what is the originating station of this separate feed? (I know, silly question, given how translator rules are blatantly ignored in this market...)
 
Re:

Yes - Gow Media is a mickey mouse operation. Just because they are "local" doesn't mean I should avoid calling them out for their poor programming and poor decision making. I give no one a free pass.
 
Markw.. Sounds like you have personal beef! not sure what credentials you would have to call it a mickey mouse operation.. last time i checked gow owns his broadcasting company and i'm willing yo bet you do not.
 
radiohits said:
Markw.. Sounds like you have personal beef! not sure what credentials you would have to call it a mickey mouse operation.. last time i checked gow owns his broadcasting company and i'm willing yo bet you do not.
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A low-rated operation on very bad technical facilities would seem to qualify under that perhaps overly negative term.
 
DavidEduardo said:
A low-rated operation on very bad technical facilities would seem to qualify under that perhaps overly negative term.
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Signal or no signal ,Numbers or no Numbers they seem to be making money.. I know of some great full power stations with numbers that are down to barebone in staff because they are making no money.
 
radiohits said:
Markw.. Sounds like you have personal beef! not sure what credentials you would have to call it a mickey mouse operation.. last time i checked gow owns his broadcasting company and i'm willing yo bet you do not.
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KGOW

They dont program it but they own it, so they are responsible for the technical plant.. and its long been figured by some people smarter than me there may be some issues with the directional pattern... I hear it in Laramie, Wyoming nightly 900 miles away and i'm in a null of both the daytime and night time patterns. Notice it as long as I've lived here, 2 years...
 
Getting back on topic: Gow is again doing splits: 92.5 is carrying the national feed of the Astros playoff games, while normal local programming continues on 97.5.

The TOH ID on KFNC has changed: It now includes an additional reference to an HD-2, which could be the feeder for 92.5. I am not receiving any HD on 97.5 at my Cy-Fair location, though I have no problem getting HD on 98.5 and 107.9, also eastern rimshots.

However, doing some measuring, the KFNC transmitter is about nine miles further away from my location than the two Estrella Media rimshots. So perhaps that additional distance is too much for any presumed HD signal to cover. Or the HD signal, if it exists, is much lower power than the other rimshots. Anyone in the east side of the market with an HD radio able to check on this?
 
radiohits said:
Signal or no signal ,Numbers or no Numbers they seem to be making money.. I know of some great full power stations with numbers that are down to barebone in staff because they are making no money.
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How do you know that it is making money?

There is a huge shortage of sports dollars today. Sports stations have always had access to what is called "sports marketing dollars" which is money that certain advertisers assign to male audiences with certain consumer characteristics and which does not trickle down to non-sports focused media. That money is almost totally dried up.

Lower rated stations seem to have been more affected than the big ones in large metros. And the Gow stations are definitely small fish in a big pond.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Getting back on topic: Gow is again doing splits: 92.5 is carrying the national feed of the Astros playoff games, while normal local programming continues on 97.5.

The TOH ID on KFNC has changed: It now includes an additional reference to an HD-2, which could be the feeder for 92.5. I am not receiving any HD on 97.5 at my Cy-Fair location, though I have no problem getting HD on 98.5 and 107.9, also eastern rimshots.

However, doing some measuring, the KFNC transmitter is about nine miles further away from my location than the two Estrella Media rimshots. So perhaps that additional distance is too much for any presumed HD signal to cover. Or the HD signal, if it exists, is much lower power than the other rimshots. Anyone in the east side of the market with an HD radio able to check on this?
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I haven’t heard anything on HD2 from 97.5 in The Heights. I’ll listen again tomorrow to see if I can.
 
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