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Lowest KUBE ratings ever, in December PPM

The goal ultimately is to not have any local studio/office space remaining (it's not an FCC requirement anymore.) Moving everything to the cloud and a single centralized national facility where everything sent from home studios/offices around the nation is processed, scheduled and sent to according station servers is where we're at currently.

Next on the agenda; Destroy all humans.

Finally, when everybody realizes they've been listening to a glorified Speak & Spell with commercials and Dua Lipa songs, they may also realize they've been doing it on an object with nearly 100 year old tech (and sometimes, a blinking digital clock.) And just decide to upgrade it all.

Then, after another knock-down, drag-out fight for the ages with the music industry over streaming, the licenses will inevitably be sold/ turned in, the religious/right-wing loons will buy it all. And further down the spiral we go. (Or at least that's the current trajectory.)
But this is major/medium market radio we're talking about, i.e., iHeart, Cumulus, big conglomerates. What about the few live and local, and I REALLY mean local...like funeral announcements during the noon news, high school football/basketball/baseball/fastpitch coverage, Tradio/Swap Shop-type stations? One I love to listen to is KMGK in Glenwood, Minnesota, which has a playlist of at least a few thousand songs from the 1950s through today, leaning gold Adult Contemporary, and a full service news department, HS sports coverage, and local church services on Sundays. They have operated since 1983, running (at first) local AC, then satellite AC, satellite smooth jazz (when Jones provided it), then back to local AC/gold AC when Jones discontinued the smooth jazz feed.

How long before someone walks into their little office in Glenwood saying: "Hi there! We're from K-LOVE, the nation's largest Christian radio network, and we've got an offer you can't refuse..." In little towns, they'd probably tell them to get off their lawn. At least, I hope they would...
 
I think Jimmy Fallon stinks as a late night host. Had to say it after his name was mentioned. :)
I'm not a fan of any broadcast network late-night host nowadays. Bill Maher's Real Time is the only exception. Give me old Carnac the Magnificent and Jay Leno's Headlines and Jaywalking any day of the week.

Seriously, BACK ON TOPIC...
 
But this is major/medium market radio we're talking about, i.e., iHeart, Cumulus, big conglomerates. What about the few live and local, and I REALLY mean local...like funeral announcements during the noon news, high school football/basketball/baseball/fastpitch coverage, Tradio/Swap Shop-type stations?
In 1989, the company I was with in Puerto Rico could not buy anything more on the Island. So, as a first "low risk" trial, we bought an AM and FM in a small town in Florida. One other AM, and an AM daytimer and another FM in the next county.

We did all that stuff. The GM would be "locked in jail" till a fund raiser reached its goal. Birth announcements, funerals, high school sports, charity events, walk-a-thons and all the other local stuff was broadcast. We made money, not a lot, but better than a tax-free bond.

Then came Docket 80-90. We got three new FMs in town, and the neighbor town got one more. The High School wanted to charge for the sports events, the mayor was afraid to favor any one station. Within a year, the new stations were selling 10 spots a day for $300 a month. We had to cut back on local events and news coverage, as there were no new ad budgets, but there were twice as many stations going after them.

The station was sold at a huge loss.
 
But this is major/medium market radio we're talking about, i.e., iHeart, Cumulus, big conglomerates. What about the few live and local, and I REALLY mean local...like funeral announcements during the noon news, high school football/basketball/baseball/fastpitch coverage, Tradio/Swap Shop-type stations? One I love to listen to is KMGK in Glenwood, Minnesota, which has a playlist of at least a few thousand songs from the 1950s through today, leaning gold Adult Contemporary, and a full service news department, HS sports coverage, and local church services on Sundays. They have operated since 1983, running (at first) local AC, then satellite AC, satellite smooth jazz (when Jones provided it), then back to local AC/gold AC when Jones discontinued the smooth jazz feed.
I fail to understand the romantic utopic memories of small town radio, and that somehow if radio returned to those days, everything will be 'great again'. Or that if larger market stations would run swap-n-shop, there would be a huge audience. Not everywhere is Glenwood Minnesota, certainly not Seattle/Tacoma. Listeners don't want full-service radio, because especially for younger people, there are so many choices right there on a smartphone. Time to join the 21st Century, already in progress..
 
I was mentioning the fact that these major conglomerates like iHeart were letting their employees (which number in the 1000s, maybe low tens of thousands) work remotely permanently. Not easy for a locally-owned radio station in a town of 2,500, a county of 10,000+, serving maybe 25,000 on 60dbu. They like how they run their station and are proud of their heritage...

but will it hit right back at them down the road in roughly 2025-2030?
 
I was mentioning the fact that these major conglomerates like iHeart were letting their employees (which number in the 1000s, maybe low tens of thousands) work remotely permanently. Not easy for a locally-owned radio station in a town of 2,500, a county of 10,000+, serving maybe 25,000 on 60dbu. They like how they run their station and are proud of their heritage...

but will it hit right back at them down the road in roughly 2025-2030?
Key question, though: does anyone under 50 in that small town want that kind of radio today?
 
Key question, though: does anyone under 50 in that small town want that kind of radio today?
As someone that has worked in small town radio before (as recent as the last 7 years), I’ll reply with a short answer: no.

Everyone I know under 50 has already migrated to online buy/sell/trade groups/pages, or just completely tune them out. Even older people are slowly migrating to Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace (albeit at a slower pace).
 
As someone that has worked in small town radio before (as recent as the last 7 years), I’ll reply with a short answer: no.
And and from a small town station owner perspective, that short answer is completely accurate. Local's would tell you they prefer a local, small-town feel to a radio station, but if larger market signals were also in the area? That's what they listened to. It isn't until your local station starts to sound larger-market do you get their attention.

This all goes back to that human nature tendency to when asked, tell you one thing, but do something else. That nature became real when switching from the old diary rating method to PPM.
 
Everyone I know under 50 has already migrated to online buy/sell/trade groups/pages, or just completely tune them out. Even older people are slowly migrating to Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace (albeit at a slower pace).
"Tradio" is a fun novelty to a radio guy like me when I am traveling through rural areas.... for a few a minutes. Then it becomes very, very tedious.

It is such an incredibly inefficient way of buying/selling used things.
 
Especially now with that newfangled thing called The Internet..
I was just told that there was this place called eBay where you could list all your old junk...
 
Probably because Fallon is popular to a younger audience.
I never much cared for Leno or Letterman and couldn't find a good replacement for Carson until Stephen Colbert! I also like Seth Myers. I liked Fallon when he was doing his program from home and his kids were half of the show! Jimmy Kimmel did something cool when he was working from home: He got letters about his window being a backdrop, so he walked out of frame and climbed back in through the window!
 
I never much cared for Leno or Letterman and couldn't find a good replacement for Carson until Stephen Colbert! I also like Seth Myers. I liked Fallon when he was doing his program from home and his kids were half of the show! Jimmy Kimmel did something cool when he was working from home: He got letters about his window being a backdrop, so he walked out of frame and climbed back in through the window!
Danger! Thread Rabbit Hole!!
 
Online free classifieds killed newspapers, which depended on up to 40% of revenue from them. I'm sure it took a slice from whatever tradio programs still existed. The internet is the new 'media'. It's replacing mass media of all kinds.

As for KUBE, I heard a liner earlier today advertising the 'old KUBE 93.3' being on their HD2, and Jubal being on 106.1. I didn't listen long enough to hear any more, being that I'd just heard of the war news. Tuned into Biden's speech on KIRO-FM instead (KUOW interrupted it with their underwriting spots). But obviously there are changes going on at 93.3.
 
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