Any speculation of KKLA 99.5 ever going up for sale ?
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KKLA
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I thought ministries paid KKLA to run their programming?
Why would they sell it? It bills (except for the pandemic year) over $10 million a year on very limited expenses.
It is commercial. In any case, a non-com in the commercial part of the band can become commercial with an FCC procedure.
Wonder how many years its been since KKLA has used its stereo generator? KKLA must make a lot of money because it seems to me that if it were my Salem station, I'd swap programming with AM 870 and move "The Answer" to FM 99.5 and move the religious programming to am 870 to "compete" with KBRT 740 and KFRN 1280. David might be able to clarify but as I understand it, across the country, generally speaking, mainstream talk radio is doing better on FM than traditional AM in many markets.
The problem with talk radio in general is that most stations have very old listeners. A few heritage stations that have keep up with trends in their particular audience area and have added FM, such as KSL and WSB, have done well even in 25-54.
KFI, looking good in 6+, is not even close to top 10 in 25-54.
It depends on the station and a heritage, still strong station that adds FM will last quite a few more years. But secondary stations or ones that have no tradition of good ratings and a heritage seem not to succeed if FM is added.
His point is the talk station could probably do much better on the strong 99.5 signal and the religious programming would be more at home on the AM band where the small, but dedicated and profitable audience would almost surely follow. I have wondered for a long time why they didn't do this a long time ago. Being the first conservative talk station on the FM band would defintely help them in the competitive talk landscape.
The station is owned by Salem. If they thought they could make more money with talk, they'd do it. They make a lot more money with contemporary Christian music. So that's what they do.
They make most of their money brokering airtime to ministries who then ask for donations.
This is why i quipped about KKLA's stereo generator. They shut that off years ago because they rarely, if ever, play any music. Their programming consists of preachers/ministers, church services, religious-conservative talk shows, and on weekends non-stop infomercials. It just seems to me this programming would be better on AM. I'd move sister station KRLA's "the Answer" to 99.5 because if I'm not mistaken, KRLA 870s ratings have been higher than KABC which is usually in the toilet.
I'd run "The Fish" on the station. It's Salem's highly rated commercial Christian format. But barter religious makes a lot of money.
FM mono is not AM mono. FM mono has a higher audio bandwidth (15 kHz, compared to 5 kHz or less on a typical AM receiver) and less interference.
Except for very poor old recordings, all programming is better on FM, but there are only so many FM signals to go around.
KKLA would make way way less money if it was on 870.
The Fish formats are not really wildly successful. They do well and make a lot of money in Dallas (not actually Fish branded) and Atlanta. There are some other smaller markets like Portland and Colorado Springs where they have had sustained success in.
In LA, not only would the cash flow on KKLA go way down, but even on 99.5 they would still be going against the commercial-free and superior signal of K-Love as well as the various Air 1 signals.
Everything is for sale at the right price, I suppose, but if Salem were to sell 99.5, it would probably mean they are exiting the radio business. The founders had a handful of stations in smaller markets prior to KKLA (like in Oxnard), but 99.5 is what built the company we know today and is the crown jewel of the portfolio. It is what produced enough cash flow to allow their rapid expansion with acquisitions which subsequently allowed them to become publicly-traded. Despite the cynicism around here about this format, Salem is very deeply committed to it. If you look at any of their investor materials on listen to the conference calls, they almost always refer to this programming as their "foundational" Christian Teaching and Talk format. Foundational as in the foundation of Salem.
Around the U.S., Salem is in nearly all the large markets and many medium sized markets. In most cases, it has its brokered religious station on the best signal it owns and its talk radio network on the second best.
NYC - Religion 570 (5,000 watts), Talk 970 (50,000 day but only 5,000 night)
Chicago - Religion 1160 (50,000 watts), Talk 560 (5,000 watts)
San Francisco - Religion 1100 (50,000 watts), Talk 860 (also 50,000 watts but very directional)
In Dallas, Salem owns several stations. The Religion and Christian Contemporary stations are both 100,000 watt FMs, while the talk format is on AM 660, 20,000 watts days but only 700 watts nights.
So in LA, Salem has the brokered religion format on FM while the talk format is on AM. The AM signal is pretty good, competitive with other talk stations KABC 790 and KEIB 1150. Not as good, of course, as KFI.
NYC - Religion 570 (5,000 watts), Talk 970 (50,000 day but only 5,000 night)
Chicago - Religion 1160 (50,000 watts), Talk 560 (5,000 watts)
San Francisco - Religion 1100 (50,000 watts), Talk 860 (also 50,000 watts but very directional)
In Dallas, Salem owns several stations. The Religion and Christian Contemporary stations are both 100,000 watt FMs, while the talk format is on AM 660, 20,000 watts days but only 700 watts nights.
So in LA, Salem has the brokered religion format on FM while the talk format is on AM. The AM signal is pretty good, competitive with other talk stations KABC 790 and KEIB 1150. Not as good, of course, as KFI.
It should be said that you're talking about frequency response, not bandwidth. You're correct that the maximum transmitted audio frequency for an FM station is 15 kHz, which was the same for AM stations until the adoption of the NRSC standards in the mid 1980s, when the highest transmitted audio frequency for AM radio was reduced to 10 kHz. This is still relatively high fidelity in a good receiver if the station in question is broadcasting wideband audio, the trouble with AM aside from man-made noise levels, is that many stations processors deliberately limit the audio to 5 kHz and use the maximum compression possible so that the station can transmit the loudest audio possible across human voice frequencies with no more than 5% THD which is the maximum distortion permitted on AM stations per the FCC rules.
As I mentioned earlier 10 kHz can sound quite good on a hi-fi AM radio. I have two. A GE Superadio, and a Sony SRF A-100.
Both these receivers have an IF band pass switch for "wide" and "narrow/normal". On Saul's KMZT, his classical music sounds great on 1260 (even though his stations' analog modulation is somewhat limited below 10kHz to make room for his HD modulation). On the other hand some stations such KNX News sounds overly compressed (just loud), but by comparison KCBS News in SF sounds like a really good FM station.
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