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Sinclair selling KOMO, KVI & KPLZ

fordranger797 said:
Yes, I meant the KOMO radio format. All-news radio is extremely expensive, and I don't see it continuing without KOMO operating their own radio station with the format, and using their own content to fill the time. I think it's a 100% guarantee that all-news radio is history in this market.
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Last I heard, KIRO-FM was still around. They do news around the various talk hosts.

Honestly, I'm not sure there is enough non-stop news to support a stand-alone news radio station in the Seattle market without a lot of repeating stories and cost. Even here in D.C. the top billing WTOP, does a lot of story repeating. They also have a partnership with the local NBC station, who share a lot of content with them. One has to remember though, with WTOP, they're covering news technically in two states plus the District of Columbia. KOMO covers a single market made up of mainly two cities, Seattle and Tacoma.
 
All news has a bit in common with all music. The top stories run in heavy rotation until they're burned out. 2-3 times an hour is about right for a good story. Just like other formats, your heavy listeners only tune in for maybe 20 minutes or so as they commute, shop or relocate the kids for a couple of hours. What works in LA works in Seattle in that regard.

But there are fewer juicy, gory stories in Seattle than LA too, so it's hard to live up to the "if it bleeds, it leads" wisdom that drives the ratings. Fortunately, in Seattle, the city council breaks out into open warfare between factions on a regular basis, which is much fun for all, and grist for the newsradio folks. Generally, once you've covered a spot news story, it often stays covered. Get the reporter to do 2 or 3 reads and it's over. Not much extra cost if your SOP includes planning ahead for tomorrow morning's shows.

Just like the meta-important DC market, Seattle has 6 or 7 different county governments, dog knows how many different cities including Bellvue, Renton, Everett, Sammamish, Bremerton et al. No shortage of rocks that need to be turned over, just a shortage of people doing the flipping.

We have a plethora of NGOs and other pressure groups hanging from every streetlight. No shortage of news if you have the experienced staff to dig it out. Olympia is a festering pit of political slipperiness that should have a light shining on it 24/7 in an era where funding for "Capitol Bureaus" has dried up.

It's certainly not a shortage of news. It's a shortage of revenue. Yes, news radio is expensive to operate. And once upon a time, there was advertising money to support it. And now more than ever, there is a NEED.
 
The radio dial in Seattle is changing, no doubt. For the better? I think not. But such is media here in mid 2021. Like it or not, AM radio is becoming unimportant and FM may be the next on deck. Radio is and has been a great medium but the future probably will look at it as a fossil within a decade or two. This change is not without precedence if one looks at media history.
 
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But what about WCBS and WINS? Or KNX? Or KCBS 740? Will there come a time that they are no longer a need for listeners in those markets? I mean, a majority under 55 get their news from their phones (or social media), and it continues to grow. Cable news also saw big dumps in the past several months (hint hint, no more Trump), plus the network evening newscasts skew old (see all the medicine ads?) Even Fox News saw drops in viewership.
 
Yeah, probably. I assume other people would be thinking the same. Ask a fresh college bachelor's graduate (born in 1998-99 most likely) what an AM radio is. Most will barely know what that is. And this may even occur in places like Los Angeles, where heritage AMs like KFI and KNX still rate in the PPMs (in fact KFI is #2 6+).
 
I saw mentions of HD channels - note that neither KOMO-FM nor KPLZ-FM transmit in HD. However, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them did go HD in the future.

I could see how flipping either 97.7 or 101.5 to a Spanish format could create problems for Bustos, as well as Salem which just shifted one of their AMs (1680) to a Regional Mexican format. KZTM 102.9 transmits a Spanish Pop format on its HD2 subchannel (Urbana - same format & branding they flipped KXXP to down in Portland). In the event KOMO or KPLZ go Spanish, perhaps Bustos might swap KZTM's HD1 and HD2 channels, placing Urbana on HD1 and La Zeta on HD2. This would give Seattle its first full-powered FM Spanish Pop station.
 
crainbebo said:
Yeah, probably. I assume other people would be thinking the same. Ask a fresh college bachelor's graduate (born in 1998-99 most likely) what an AM radio is. Most will barely know what that is. And this may even occur in places like Los Angeles, where heritage AMs like KFI and KNX still rate in the PPMs (in fact KFI is #2 6+).
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And KFI is not even in the top 10 in 25-54 and not in the top 15 in 18-49.
 
On the topic of KIRO, I think they do an excellent job balancing news content with talk shows. I'm sure that some listeners tune in exclusively for the news, because some of the talk programming is not going to conform everyone's political beliefs. Digital news is the new trend, and whether or not that is a good trend is up for debate.
 
I'll leave this here as a point of information:
On April 11, 2013, Fisher announced that it would sell its properties, including KVI Radio and KOMO-TV, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group.[15] The price for all the stations was $373.3 million.[16] Although nearly all of Sinclair's broadcast properties are television stations, the company has retained KVI, KPLZ-FM, KOMO and KOMO-FM.[17] The deal was completed on August 8, 2013.[18]

On June 3, 2021, Sinclair announced they would sell KVI, KPLZ and KOMO AM/FM to Lotus Communications for $18 million. Sinclair will retain KOMO-TV.[19]

Source: KVI - Wikipedia
 
Isn't KFI a top five biller in the L.A. market? Their ho-hum showing in A18-49 and A25-54 doesn't seem to be harming them.
 
Ah - that makes much more sense now. :) Thanks for the info.

I wrongly interpreted the Wikipedia footnote as only including the Seattle radio stations & TV station.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Actually, while in-car listening is approaching the half-way mark, most radio listening is still at home and at work.
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Is that a nationwide (US) figure? I would imagine % of in-car listening would be higher in, say, Los Angeles, than in New York City....but I could be wrong....
 
radiocph said:
Is that a nationwide (US) figure? I would imagine % of in-car listening would be higher in, say, Los Angeles, than in New York City....but I could be wrong....
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Actually, except for New York City, nearly every major market is the within a narrower range, whether it is San Antonio or LA. The differences between the largest markets and the smallest are really only in the "few minutes" per trip range.

I only look at PPM markets, as the diary ones are not comparable as they have different PUR figures overall. And the PPM markets are still approximate, as the PPM measures At Home and Away, not home, vehicle and work listening such as the diary does.

NYC is different due to the high use of public transportation.
 
seatownmedia said:
The radio dial in Seattle is changing, no doubt. For the better? I think not. But such is media here in mid 2021. Like it or not, AM radio is becoming unimportant
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Is becoming? One could argue it started the slide 40 years ago. Where does that leave it today?
 
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