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Casino Radio 106.3
- Thread starter Ai4i
- Start date
You might not like the programming but in a market like that, virtually every AM is struggling. The Visitor's Information format was utilized successfully for years in the market. Casino Radio is aimed at visitors. It has an opportunity for 50% commercial content without being over the top. I know with the Visitors Info format a major coup was the Feds and State would erect highway signs saying for Visitor Info tune... Yes, just like those 10 watt TIS stations. With the format, your marketing is basically no cost and you reach visitors looking for fun. You can be a laptop in a closet because it's your audience that changes versus your programming. Payroll is virtually nothing. You don't need to pay music licensing fees and many other costs other formats require. If not this format, how about another Christian broadcaster or a programmer in a non-English language with music not of your culture? Those are about the only options on AM these days if you don't want to spill red ink. At least these guys are trying something versus giving up.
It's a copout and lazy, pure and simple. It's also useless because virtually no one except senior citizens would even dream of utilizing a radio station like this. With the advent of smartphones, this format is obsolete and pointless.
Telesouth owns a bunch of stations including the "Supertalk Mississippi" network.
I don't know the market well enough to make that declaration but I do know that a non-stop casino commercial is stupid and lacks creativity. I get the name of the game is profit but that also doesn't mean the public is served by such stupidity.
And you might be surprised at how many senior citizens have smartphones. The largest share of people who watch my church services online belongs to people 65+ and most of them are watching on smartphones.
I haven’t listened to the station and have no plans to, but, as Turner mentions, I suspect the casinos are paying for their airtime. You can also sell a few spots in-between casino ads.
I agree that makes for terrible radio, but we’re not really radio's customers. We’re the product delivered to the customers. The customers are the ones paying the station.
I agree that makes for terrible radio, but we’re not really radio's customers. We’re the product delivered to the customers. The customers are the ones paying the station.
Jonathan provides a great answer. Unless you know the market, it is hard to say what should be done.
All I can add is I know from running an AM on a crowded dial in a major city it is an art of making enough money doing something that remains under the radar of those other hungry stations looking for a format that doesn't bleed red ink. Aside from that, the sandy soils and pine trees mean that AM signal has poor ground conductivity so reaching a full metro is a real challenge. In Houston we were lucky enough to have many ethnic groups that were small enough in number to be unable to handle buying a frequency, so leasing blocks of time worked. In the end, a couple of Spanish language Christian ministries began buying struggling AMs, HD on FM and translators combined resulted in more frequencies than there was demand for them. Per my owners, the monthly income reached the low point that the bill could not be paid. The station I had managed went dark and an agreement to sell at about 1/3rd of what they wanted occurred almost 2 years after I left.
My point is an AM in a place like Gulfport has few options at a viable format. Coverage is an issue. Number of frequencies is an issue. Doing well enough financially is an issue because a competitor with an FM or better coverage can wipe you out if they opt for the format you're doing. The more stations that are struggling, the tougher that gets, leaving few options as a path to enough money to make it. Many times that means get anything you can grab doing paid religion or simply leasing the station to a group that can cover your bills and give you a little profit. One other point, while everyone thinks these ministries are flush with money, the truth is most are not. Covering the actual expenses, with zero for payroll, plus a thousand or two a month is very decent.
On doing a format in a rated market, almost every business that is not a single location mom and pop has an ad agency handling things. Mostly they'll never buy your station. The local dollars are almost entirely mom and pop single location businesses paying small market rates. If you are on AM, regardless of format, chances are you don't have enough listeners in the primary trade area of that business to produce results. If you put your money on that bet, I can tell you from experience you'd win. You might be advertising that auto repair shop or insurance agency but customers are not going to drive across the city to buy from them when there's an auto repair shop on the corner and an agent representing the same companies right in your neighborhood. In other words, you might sell them once but they won't renew. If people would drive across the city, you could pull it off. And once you figure this out, you can't go out there selling these folks because it's just not the right thing to do.
I'd say if you have an AM in Gulport/Biloxi doing north of $15k a month, you're doing pretty well. I suspect quite a few are carried financially by their FM counterpart of group. I know of quite a few AMs where the FM kicks in what the AM can't seem to attract in billing.
All I can add is I know from running an AM on a crowded dial in a major city it is an art of making enough money doing something that remains under the radar of those other hungry stations looking for a format that doesn't bleed red ink. Aside from that, the sandy soils and pine trees mean that AM signal has poor ground conductivity so reaching a full metro is a real challenge. In Houston we were lucky enough to have many ethnic groups that were small enough in number to be unable to handle buying a frequency, so leasing blocks of time worked. In the end, a couple of Spanish language Christian ministries began buying struggling AMs, HD on FM and translators combined resulted in more frequencies than there was demand for them. Per my owners, the monthly income reached the low point that the bill could not be paid. The station I had managed went dark and an agreement to sell at about 1/3rd of what they wanted occurred almost 2 years after I left.
My point is an AM in a place like Gulfport has few options at a viable format. Coverage is an issue. Number of frequencies is an issue. Doing well enough financially is an issue because a competitor with an FM or better coverage can wipe you out if they opt for the format you're doing. The more stations that are struggling, the tougher that gets, leaving few options as a path to enough money to make it. Many times that means get anything you can grab doing paid religion or simply leasing the station to a group that can cover your bills and give you a little profit. One other point, while everyone thinks these ministries are flush with money, the truth is most are not. Covering the actual expenses, with zero for payroll, plus a thousand or two a month is very decent.
On doing a format in a rated market, almost every business that is not a single location mom and pop has an ad agency handling things. Mostly they'll never buy your station. The local dollars are almost entirely mom and pop single location businesses paying small market rates. If you are on AM, regardless of format, chances are you don't have enough listeners in the primary trade area of that business to produce results. If you put your money on that bet, I can tell you from experience you'd win. You might be advertising that auto repair shop or insurance agency but customers are not going to drive across the city to buy from them when there's an auto repair shop on the corner and an agent representing the same companies right in your neighborhood. In other words, you might sell them once but they won't renew. If people would drive across the city, you could pull it off. And once you figure this out, you can't go out there selling these folks because it's just not the right thing to do.
I'd say if you have an AM in Gulport/Biloxi doing north of $15k a month, you're doing pretty well. I suspect quite a few are carried financially by their FM counterpart of group. I know of quite a few AMs where the FM kicks in what the AM can't seem to attract in billing.
Casinos on the Mississippi gulf coast aren't operated by Native American tribes. Casinos have been allowed to operate in some form or another along the gulf and Mississippi River since the 1990s.I just can't image this in Las Vegas, or Atlantic City, or...
So, it would need to be in an area that has tribes running gaming enterprises. 🎰
Over 500 casinos in the US.
Something to consider?
P
Pat3
Guest
Go to youtube and type in WTNI and there are DXers picking up 1640 in Oxford, UK, Scotland and a fairly strong signal from someone in France. Not bad for only 1000 watts at night. Not sure if the DXers caught them when they were on daytime power, but that's still pretty impressive. Unfortunatly local coverage isn't that great for 1640 unless you are near the salt water path. I can usually get them late at night or early morning in Jackson.
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