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May 2021 Bay Area Radio PPM Ratings

Country has never really been successful in the Bay Area except KSAN in 1980- and KNEW 910, KEEN 1370 San Jose back in the day. Other than that, it has been a failure except for KRTY San Jose
 
Supposedly 80% of the KNBR combo listening is to the FM. That is why they added the simulcast:to protect the format.
I would be very surprised if KNBR's mix was 80% FM. When KFOG was still around, KNBR had very high ratings as a standalone AM. Did everyone suddenly shift to FM once KFOG exited? I doubt it. The Bay Area terrain is not great for FM. 104.5 can get a lot of static and inconsistent reception in many areas of the Bay. Also, you don't need FM for sports talk or Baseball. As a Baseball fan, I've stuck with the AM side...no static, strong signal and sound quality is good enough.
 
I would be very surprised if KNBR's mix was 80% FM.

In almost every market where there is an AM/FM simulcast, the FM gets more than 80%. KNBR had high ratings because it was the only place to hear the Giants. Now that people can have a choice, and they can hear cleaner sound with less interference, they choose FM. But yes, people will put up with awful audio until they get another option. Which they now have.

But regardless, Cumulus is not going to sell 104.5.
 
I would be very surprised if KNBR's mix was 80% FM. When KFOG was still around, KNBR had very high ratings as a standalone AM. Did everyone suddenly shift to FM once KFOG exited? I doubt it. The Bay Area terrain is not great for FM. 104.5 can get a lot of static and inconsistent reception in many areas of the Bay. Also, you don't need FM for sports talk or Baseball. As a Baseball fan, I've stuck with the AM side...no static, strong signal and sound quality is good enough.
The move to the FM simulcast was done to preserve any 25-54 listeners and to try to build a new base in that age group. The AM-only listeners were aging and not being replaced by ones in the desirable sales demos.

When this station, and others like it such as KSL or WSB, added FM, the move was instantaneous in starting, and seems to have taken just a short period to get the maximum result.

Technically, there is no "static" on FM as static is a form of an amplitude modulated transmission. FM has drop-outs, multi-path and other issues, but no static.

And FM has greater presence, even in spoken word programming. To most people, a talk format on FM sounds immensely better.

And, yes, they keep the AM because the San Francisco Nielsen market extends from Santa Rosa all the way down to Campbell and the AM is needed in some places. So, for the moment, it's a perfect combo until such time as most listeners are able to stream it in their cars and at home.
 
104.5 is not great in Santa Clara County. That's the reason the old KFOG had a simulcast there. 680 sounds better in much of the county (where there is a huge base of Giants fans).
 
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