They will become KPNW-FM, after an agreement with Bicoastal who has the AM calls in Eugene OR.
Does this mean a format change? Or no?
Does this mean a format change? Or no?
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KNUC 98.9 has filed for a call letter change
- Thread starter The New Chico
- Start date
Something is going to change. They have been losing ground to The Wolf lately. Of course, first thing the calls bring to mind is Pacific NorthWest.
Going as far as securing an agreement for call letters wouldn't be done unless a major change is going to happen.
Going as far as securing an agreement for call letters wouldn't be done unless a major change is going to happen.
On the other hand, Hubbard currently syndicates the Country Top 40 show with former KNUC morning show host Fitz. It's possible his contract is up, and they're spinning it off to someone else. Of course that opens the door for speculation about a new format. Would they want to challenge Bonneville in the news/talk area?
Why would they try talk? There's already plenty of that in the market. I can't imagine there's much syndicated programming available, and going all local up against an established station sounds like an expensive proposition. That's probably why we're not seeing much of it. The talk stations that are launching lately are either all syndicated or have one or two local hosts. It does seem odd that they're changing calls to KPNW-FM though. If I were changing calls on 98.9, I'd try to work out an agreement with whoever owns that 910 or whatever that station is Entercom moved the KMPS calls to.
Hubbard has the number one billing station in the U.S. several years running in WTOP. And for that reason, I've often wondered why they haven't cloned WTOP's formula in other cities. Who knows, maybe this would be a good opportunity.
Money. Talk radio makes money. Hubbard already has the music formats covered. They also have a lot of heritage in talk.
The call letters to me mean that they want to emphasize localism. The call letters are more about a region than a genre.
Yes, that's what I meant by heritage in talk.
Why would they go through the trouble of warehousing calls that don't have relevancy? Comparing KMPS and the value of that brand/identity and "KNUC" when the station never was branded as that doesn't really make sense.
You're in the DC area these days, aren't you? WTOP is un-cloneable. It's a unique market with all the government advocacy advertising (even more so on WFED), and 50+ years of all-news heritage that can't be built from scratch. Just ask CBS how well that worked when they tried it on 99.1.
And of course it's both a high revenue producer and a very high expense to run. Duplicating it in any other Hubbard market would guarantee running at a very significant loss from day one.
All signs point to just a rebranding/repositioning for now...
radioinsight.com
Is A Call Change Leading To Further Changes For Seattle’s Bull? - RadioInsight
Is Hubbard Country "98.9 The Bull" KNUC Seattle preparing for a rebrand or outright flip? Hubbard requested to change call letters on the station today to KPNW-FM effective on February 14. The move required the approval of Bicoastal Media, which owns News/Talk 1120 KPNW Eugene OR. Hubbard...
radioinsight.com
Makes sense. I believe there's some kind of license for "the bull." So this would eliminate that expense.
Trip Reeb of KROQ fame is now overseeing that cluster? I'll be darned. Probably far more qualified than Ginny's son, who was the previous market manager.
I'd love to see a repositioning with more of a gold focus.
KPNW sounds like calls one would see on a news/talk station (as is the case in Eugene, OR).
I'd love to see a repositioning with more of a gold focus.
KPNW sounds like calls one would see on a news/talk station (as is the case in Eugene, OR).
Reeb had been leading Phoenix for Hubbard and added Seattle as well when Wheeler Morris left last June to go to Townsquare Fort Collins.
DC is indeed a unique market, but I believe there are ways of taking the basics in just doing a solid, authoritative-sounding 24/7 news channel better than the existing stations. Back in the day, Dennis Kelley was the one who consulted for WTOP, later taking key elements of that formula to (formerly) KOMO-AM. After Dennis left, KOMO became a weird branding crossover for KOMO-TV, not a stand-alone news entity like WTOP. I'll grant you, that Seattle/Tacoma probably isn't a large enough market, but other markets could be candidates.
That's part of new-guy-in-town headwinds. One needs to dump a ton on promotion to drive sampling. That means promotion on all the local TV's social media, bus boards, billboards, street-level, and cable news channels. In the case of Seattle, one would need to overwhelm the competition by steam rolling into town. Need to make the competition sound weak and small town. You're right, doing so is not cheap.
If they did that, they'd also want to replace the syndicated Bobby Bones morning show. His appeal is a lot younger.
Or all Pat (Benetar) for the NW.
I wonder how well he's faring in the demos that matter for 98.9?
If KNUC was going to seriously flip, what format hole in the market is even available? Everything is well covered. The only possibility I can think of is Rhythmic AC. But Seattle/Tacoma may not have the racial diversity for that. The other option would be to take on a current format leader and try to bring them down.
I agree, it's best to stick with Country, and build on what they have. The gold based Country idea MarkW brought up, I think is a great idea since no one else is doing it. Now there's a format hole, and they already have a Country audience to start out with.
I agree, it's best to stick with Country, and build on what they have. The gold based Country idea MarkW brought up, I think is a great idea since no one else is doing it. Now there's a format hole, and they already have a Country audience to start out with.
That’s likely not going to happen again, even on another frequency. The last attempt, while it possibly did better in some demos than Power, was horrible 12+ (stuck below a 2 share for virtually the entirety of KUBE 2.0’s existence). The market can only sustain ‘Hot’ at this point, and they’re holding their own as the only commercial FM with some sort of rhythmic flavor in town.
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