• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

93.3 flipped way too soon

I

indieradioguy

Considering all the legacy acts (including the Watt-less Stones) who are still recording and touring, 93.3 really blew it by flipping too soon. And 93.3 was, IIRC, the only station playing then-new Stones albums.

We don't need a half-dozen stations playing moldy-oldies from the 80's & 90's. Is there a station anywhere in this market that DOESN'T play Green Day?
 
Whatever lane there may have been between KSLX and KUPD is certainly long gone now. If KDKB had stayed the course they would be sharing 99% of their library with one of their two sister stations.

The Alternative format is in a terrible place nationally right now. At the same time the days of any terrestrial station being cutting edge new music have been over since PPM came around, going on 15 years ago now. The only way you can stay in the format and cling to some rating relevancy to the only people who matter (media buyers) is to be pretty gold intensive. Whine about Green Day and Nirvana all we want but they're familiar and test well. Unfamiliarity is a programmer's biggest enemy in PPM. People (normals, not us radio dorks) will begrudgingly sit through hearing "When I Come Around" for the 1,382,513th time in their life without changing the station. But something new and weird could very well likely cause someone to hit that button to go over to KOOL or The Mountain to sit through THEM playing "When I Come Around."
 
beauduran said:
People (normals, not us radio dorks) will begrudgingly sit through hearing "When I Come Around" for the 1,382,513th time in their life without changing the station. But something new and weird could very well likely cause someone to hit that button to go over to KOOL or The Mountain to sit through THEM playing "When I Come Around."
Click to expand...
What do you mean, begrudgingly? "Normals" don't burn out on songs anywhere near as frequently as "dorks" do. That's why "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions," "Rock the Casbah" and countless other songs that have been on classic rock stations for at least 20 years are still being played on them today -- daily. "When I Come Around" is one of those '90s tracks that will probably be with us on one format or another for the next two decades, just like "Semi-Charmed Life."
 
A 12 Hour Sample (10am-10pm) from Monday contained no songs from the 1980's, one from 1978 (The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated); around 20 songs from the 1990's, 8 new songs in rather heavy rotation, the rest are from various years post 2000.
 
CaliRadioFan said:
A 12 Hour Sample (10am-10pm) from Monday contained no songs from the 1980's, one from 1978 (The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated); around 20 songs from the 1990's, 8 new songs in rather heavy rotation, the rest are from various years post 2000.
Click to expand...

I should not be hearing "Blister In The Sun" on 94.5 (which has shamefully abandoned 60's & 70's like the guy on the Progressive commercial who stops people from becoming their parents) and 93.3, too - THAT'S what a lot of people's parents are listening to: Violent Femmes- Nirvana- and Green Day? So, in effect: except for the country stations (which play a higher ratio of new "new" music), all the other music stations play EVERYONE'S PARENTS music just like XM does.

It's no wonder so many people have ditched the radio. Who the heck wants to hear their PARENTS' favorite music?
 
indieradioguy said:
I should not be hearing "Blister In The Sun" on 94.5 (which has shamefully abandoned 60's & 70's like the guy on the Progressive commercial who stops people from becoming their parents) and 93.3, too - THAT'S what a lot of people's parents are listening to: Violent Femmes- Nirvana- and Green Day? So, in effect: except for the country stations (which play a higher ratio of new "new" music), all the other music stations play EVERYONE'S PARENTS music just like XM does.

It's no wonder so many people have ditched the radio. Who the heck wants to hear their PARENTS' favorite music?
Click to expand...
Well, this is 2021, now 50 years removed from the start of the 1970's decade so songs from the 1980's are now Classic Hits, and 94.5 has not abandoned the 70's, they just gave them it's own channel. Back to 93.3 - Searchable records indicate the last time they played "Blister In The Sun" was at 10:05am on The Forth Of July - as part of a stunt weekend. Hasn't been played since. One other Femms song, Gone Daddy Gone was also part of that weekend (Jul 2). Nirvana is in a timeless class all their own. The place I work at sells many Rock Band T-Shirts. You'd be surprised how many Nirvana shirts we sell to people well under 25! And Green Day.....you do know they're still very much active yes? They are back on large stadium tour!! You really think it's all Parents going?
 
indieradioguy said:
It's no wonder so many people have ditched the radio. Who the heck wants to hear their PARENTS' favorite music?
Click to expand...

You seem to ignore Top 40. The #1 station for young people 18-34 is KISS. They don't play their parent's music. The #2 station is KNIX, which as you say plays a lot of currents. But not as many as KISS. Then #3 is KUPD. They also play a lot of currents. I don't see what you're complaining about.
 
KDKB stunk! Don't miss the station in the least! Station spent most of the post-2K era with lousy ratings. I'm surprised it survived as long as it did.

The smart move would've been to flip to FM Sports years ago (beating 98.7 to the punch).
 
MarkW said:
KDKB stunk! Don't miss the station in the least! Station spent most of the post-2K era with lousy ratings. I'm surprised it survived as long as it did.
Click to expand...
Yet Hubbard's three rock variants account for about 15% of total market revenue, about the same as the market share for Audacy and Hubbard. The leading sports station, with higher costs, likely has a lower net income than KDKB.

In many situations, one has to look at the cluster strategy and synergies, not the individual stations.
 
Yet Hubbard's three rock variants account for about 15% of total market revenue, about the same as the market share for Audacy and Hubbard.
Click to expand...

Alternative is definitely a better choice for 93.3 than its predecessor (mullet rock KDKB).

In many situations, one has to look at the cluster strategy and synergies, not the individual stations.
Click to expand...

Sports would've fit like a glove at the cluster and would've complemented the classic rock and active rock brands beautifully.
 
MarkW said:
Sports would've fit like a glove at the cluster and would've complemented the classic rock and active rock brands beautifully.
Click to expand...
Right. But would cost more to produce and not necessarily make more money. You have to factor in the cost of doing business to any format change.

Since the move of Arizona Sports to 98.7 was rumored to have been hurried to pre-empt KGME moving to 95.5 (which in turn led 95.5 to hurriedly adopting the KPKX format to great success) I've always wanted to ask the powers that be at Bonneville if they're happy with how it all ended up.
 
Last edited:
johndavis said:
Right. But would cost more to produce and not necessarily make more money. You have to factor in the cost of doing business to any format change.

Since the move of Arizona Sports to 98.7 was rumored to have been hurried to pre-empt KGME moving to 95.5 (which in turn led 95.5 to hurriedly adopting the KPKX format to great success) I've always wanted to ask the powers that be at Bonneville if they're happy with how it all ended up.
Click to expand...

Bonneville's move of Arizona Sports to 98.7 did accelerate KGME's position from "respectable #2 sports station" to "not a factor" much faster.
 
johndavis said:
Right. But would cost more to produce and not necessarily make more money. You have to factor in the cost of doing business to any format change.
Click to expand...
Right! Doing a local origination all-sports format would be extremely more expensive, and my guess is that it would have had trouble equaling the bottom line profit of the all music format.
 
Since the move of Arizona Sports to 98.7 was rumored to have been hurried to pre-empt KGME moving to 95.5 (which in turn led 95.5 to hurriedly adopting the KPKX format to great success) I've always wanted to ask the powers that be at Bonneville if they're happy with how it all ended up.
Click to expand...

Not living anywhere near Phoenix, I was unaware of that! Great info.

Clearly, Bonneville views leadership in the sports radio format as a highly coveted item, which suggests to me it's probably pretty darn profitable.

If 93.3 were planning a similar move, Bonneville probably would've preempted that one, too. That makes my scenario of 93.3 picking Sports over alternative an unrealistic one.
 
If Bonneville didn’t flip 98.7 to all-sports when they did and IHeart (aka Clear Channel as it was still known back then in early 2014) beat Bonneville to the punch, the broadcasting rights of the local teams might look a lot different right now. I think for the local sports fan, it turned out better because I think Bonneville does a better job promoting local talent on their sports stations than IHeart. Now I wouldn’t mind IHeart putting KGME on an FM translator, but I don’t foresee them flipping any of the South Mountain sticks anytime soon.
 
asugeorge1 said:
I think Bonneville does a better job promoting local talent on their sports stations than IHeart.
Click to expand...

However iHeart does a better job of providing teams with online content for streaming. That's why they've won team contracts for their AM stations in Phoenix and San Francisco.
 
asugeorge1 said:
If Bonneville didn’t flip 98.7 to all-sports when they did and IHeart (aka Clear Channel as it was still known back then in early 2014) beat Bonneville to the punch, the broadcasting rights of the local teams might look a lot different right now. I think for the local sports fan, it turned out better because I think Bonneville does a better job promoting local talent on their sports stations than IHeart. Now I wouldn’t mind IHeart putting KGME on an FM translator, but I don’t foresee them flipping any of the South Mountain sticks anytime soon.
Click to expand...
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but KGME only has Jody Oehler on their payroll. The afternoon guys have paid for their timeslots throughout their nearly two-decade existence on Phoenix sports radio (hence, all the Right Toyota/Honda ads), or else they would have moved to 620 when Bonneville moved sports from 860 instead of luring the then-duo of Gambo and Ash away from KGME.

If KGME put some more time, effort, and money into their operation besides the morning show, then I would put them on a translator.
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom