KKLA

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

Their only country and classic htis stations are in honolulu, as i recall

They also have a classic hits station in Greenville, SC.

Decades 107.9 in Honolulu, is my favorite Salem owned station.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

They also have a classic hits station in Greenville, SC.

Decades 107.9 in Honolulu, is my favorite Salem owned station.

Duh... its such an outlier for what salem normally does.. i forget its theirs

 

[RadioRonnie285]

You know the situation with the signals there better than I do.

Having said that, Salem put CCM on 95.9 and talk on 99.5 for a reason. If it thought putting music on the better signal, which it did in Dallas, was beneficial to its bottom line, it would’ve done so. Orange County likely has more potential CCM listeners than LA, even though it has fewer people overall.

Salem had owned 99.5 for years before aquiring 95.9 KEZY and their bread and butter was the teaching/preaching format. I read KKLA did air some music early on. But Salem was deciding to enter into the music business around 2000 and when they acquied the 95.9 signal they decided to start the Fish format on it. Atlanta got the second Fish a few months later. It has good success in Atlanta especially at Chritmas time. The Dallas situation is that Salem go ahold of the 94.9 signal and used it for their preaching format in 1997 . In early 2000 KLTY lost its cedar hill stick on 94.1 so it spent some time on 100.7 fm. Salem then bought the 100.7 is signal and by the end of 2000 decided that KLTY was too big of a money maker and that it would help them make more money by KLTY returning to a cedar hill stick so the Christian talk moved to 100.7fm.

 

[Kent]

Duh... its such an outlier for what salem normally does.. i forget its theirs

I'm thinking Salem programming already clears on another station owned by someone else in that market. Those religious programs usually aren't exclusive, but no reason to compete with yourself.

Salem had owned 99.5 for years before aquiring 95.9 KEZY and their bread and butter was the teaching/preaching format.

Salem has always been focused on the religious teaching format. Having said that, it's very much about making money. When Salem bought a top-40/CHR in Pittsburgh in the late 80's/early 90's, it didn't initially take it religious. It flipped the station to B/EZ to replace the station that had just dropped the format for soft AC. Salem, of course, bet incorrectly on B/EZ having extra legs, and the format only lasted about another year. It was also willing to keep the CHR format on WAVA 105.1, but it said it would only do so if everyone would re-sign with them. Don and Mike left for WJFK before the deal closed, and Salem, true to its word, blew everyone out and flipped it to religion upon walking in the door.

I read KKLA did air some music early on.

Seems like it did air some music in the early 90's. I seem to remember it was mostly on weekends and didn't always adhere to a strict schedule.

But Salem was deciding to enter into the music business around 2000 and when they acquied the 95.9 signal they decided to start the Fish format on it. Atlanta got the second Fish a few months later. It has good success in Atlanta especially at Chritmas time.

Salem had the opportunity to move its teaching programming to 104.7 in Atlanta but chose to launch the Fish. It also launched a Fish in Cleveland and another in Chicago around 2000-01. It ultimately swapped the Chicago Fish to HBC/Univision for WIND 560 and cash.

The Dallas situation is that Salem go ahold of the 94.9 signal and used it for their preaching format in 1997 . In early 2000 KLTY lost its cedar hill stick on 94.1 so it spent some time on 100.7 fm. Salem then bought the 100.7 is signal and by the end of 2000 decided that KLTY was too big of a money maker and that it would help them make more money by KLTY returning to a cedar hill stick so the Christian talk moved to 100.7fm.

The Dallas deal for 94.9 was announced at the end of the summer of 1996. Can't remember if it became "The Word" at the end of that year or early 1997. And, yes, KLTY was originally supposed to go intact on 94.1, but that deal fell through, and it ended up on the moved in 100.7. Salem swapped another station for KLTY and swapped the programming on its two signals there. Salem will do what it can to maximize revenue. That it has multiple avenues to do that separates it somewhat from most others who are just now trying to figure that out.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

I heard that one of their executives told the local staff that the first four letters of Salem are S-A-L-E . Listeners probably don’t realize that much of the money they donate goes to a public corporation’s bottom line and the shareholders’ pockets.

 

[semoochie]

I'm thinking Salem programming already clears on another station owned by someone else in that market. Those religious programs usually aren't exclusive, but no reason to compete with yourself.



Salem has always been focused on the religious teaching format. Having said that, it's very much about making money. When Salem bought a top-40/CHR in Pittsburgh in the late 80's/early 90's, it didn't initially take it religious. It flipped the station to B/EZ to replace the station that had just dropped the format for soft AC. Salem, of course, bet incorrectly on B/EZ having extra legs, and the format only lasted about another year. It was also willing to keep the CHR format on WAVA 105.1, but it said it would only do so if everyone would re-sign with them. Don and Mike left for WJFK before the deal closed, and Salem, true to its word, blew everyone out and flipped it to religion upon walking in the door.



Seems like it did air some music in the early 90's. I seem to remember it was mostly on weekends and didn't always adhere to a strict schedule.



Salem had the opportunity to move its teaching programming to 104.7 in Atlanta but chose to launch the Fish. It also launched a Fish in Cleveland and another in Chicago around 2000-01. It ultimately swapped the Chicago Fish to HBC/Univision for WIND 560 and cash.



The Dallas deal for 94.9 was announced at the end of the summer of 1996. Can't remember if it became "The Word" at the end of that year or early 1997. And, yes, KLTY was originally supposed to go intact on 94.1, but that deal fell through, and it ended up on the moved in 100.7. Salem swapped another station for KLTY and swapped the programming on its two signals there. Salem will do what it can to maximize revenue. That it has multiple avenues to do that separates it somewhat from most others who are just now trying to figure that out.

Salem launched Portland's KFIS in 2001.

 

[Frequency1]

Salem is a public corporation not a non profit.

Nasdaq: SALM

 

[101tm]

Does Salem normally keep the stereo carrier off on their conservative talk stations that are on FM? WGTK in Greenville, SC is still in stereo 10 years later for whatever reason, they definitely don’t play any music. When Audacy moved their talker to a stronger, class C FM last month they immediately turned the carrier off and they have an even stronger signal.

 

[TomásEstefan]

95.9 The Fish only covers Orange county most of the LA market can't get a decent si

Does Salem normally keep the stereo carrier off on their conservative talk stations that are on FM? WGTK in Greenville, SC is still in stereo 10 years later for whatever reason, they definitely don’t play any music. When Audacy moved their talker to a stronger, class C FM last month they immediately turned the carrier off and they have an even stronger signal.

When your FM radio is not in the stereo mode, the S/N ratio improves noticeably. When your station is not transmitting the 19 kHz pilot tone, your receiver remains in the mono mode.

 

[davideduardo]

I heard that one of their executives told the local staff that the first four letters of Salem are S-A-L-E . Listeners probably don’t realize that much of the money they donate goes to a public corporation’s bottom line and the shareholders’ pockets.

I don't believe that Salem requests donations, but the groups that buy brokered time certainly do. At least, I have never heard fund raising in non-brokered shows.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

I don't believe that Salem requests donations, but the groups that buy brokered time certainly do. At least, I have never heard fund raising in non-brokered shows.

Correct. The only times you would hear solicitations would be from the ministries you bought time on “Christian Teaching” station. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if a great number of listeners are unaware that the station is owned by a publicly traded company.

 

[TomásEstefan]

I don't believe that Salem requests donations, but the groups that buy brokered time certainly do. At least, I have never heard fund raising in non-brokered shows.

Usually the "talk show" hosts on Salem stations sell their fans "snake oil" or other type products and services targeted at older or senior listeners...Heaven help us if they start fund raising and have hosts similar to Tucker Carlson doing it !

 

[NYAZSporty]

95.9 The Fish only covers Orange county most of the LA market can't get a decent signal.

Same can be said for a Calvary Chapel-owned station with a similar format to KKLA in KWVE (K-Wave) 107.9 out of San Clemente in far Southern Orange County.

 

[TomásEstefan]

Same can be said for a Calvary Chapel-owned station with a similar format to KKLA in KWVE (K-Wave) 107.9 out of San Clemente in far Southern Orange County.

The transmitter has been on Santiago Peak, the highest point shared by Orange and Riverside Counties, for many years, at 5700 ft it is actually higher than Mt Wilson, but with max class B power of only about 600 watts is too far away from the LA Basin to be effective. Their original calls were KAPX "apex" and I think the format was similar to the original Beautiful Music formatted (now Classic Hits, I think) KRUZ in Santa Barbara. That station runs 105 kW at over 4000 ft. overlooking the Pacific, KRUZ literally covers "from Mexico to Monterey".

 

[Signal Geek]

The transmitter has been on Santiago Peak, the highest point shared by Orange and Riverside Counties, for many years, at 5700 ft it is actually higher than Mt Wilson, but with max class B power of only about 600 watts is too far away from the LA Basin to be effective.

107.9 K-Wave's signal is vastly superior to 95.9 The Fish. It's also better in reality than on paper. Due to their height, 107.9 is one of the only L.A.-ish FM's that can be picked up in much of San Diego County (only KRTH and KBIG can make a similar claim). And even with 600 watts, you can pick them up in most parts of the L.A. basin. They're also strong in Riverside County.

 

[davideduardo]

107.9 K-Wave's signal is vastly superior to 95.9 The Fish. It's also better in reality than on paper. Due to their height, 107.9 is one of the only L.A.-ish FM's that can be picked up in much of San Diego County (only KRTH and KBIG can make a similar claim). And even with 600 watts, you can pick them up in most parts of the L.A. basin. They're also strong in Riverside County.

The 60 dbu signal does not even reach Garden Grove, and misses about 40% of the OC population. It does cover a nice slice of Riverside County, with Hemet to the east and even Ontario and Fontana in San Bernardino County to the North. It is actually a better signal for the Riverside / San Bernardino market than for the LA market.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

107.9 K-Wave's signal is vastly superior to 95.9 The Fish. It's also better in reality than on paper. Due to their height, 107.9 is one of the only L.A.-ish FM's that can be picked up in much of San Diego County (only KRTH and KBIG can make a similar claim). And even with 600 watts, you can pick them up in most parts of the L.A. basin. They're also strong in Riverside County.

youre kind of comparing apples to oranges.. 107.9 is further south too, which helps as well

 

[Gregg.]

Salem is an amazing company, even though I disagree with the product they put out. It seems to make a profit, even when the big boys like iHeart, Cumulus and Audacy are struggling. Salem is aggressive in doing podcasting and adding video to their talk hosts' studios.

But I wonder how long it can go on? Salem owns scores of AM stations around the U.S. But AM is rapidly sinking in the quicksand. Yes, Salem has been working to secure FM translators for them. But that only goes so far.

The religious stations are all brokered. Preachers pay for a half hour each day and can seek donations during their time on the air. But if you really like a specific preacher, won't you eventually just go to his website and listen when you want?

The infomercials and snake oil shows add revenue. Will listeners get wise or are there new suckers born every minute?

And I guess Salem's conservative talk stations are doing OK even though their ratings are low and their audiences are old.

Salem has several commercially-supported Christian Contemporary stations. The biggest are KLTY Dallas and WFSH Atlanta. They sometimes make the top 10 in their city's ratings. Also in Cleveland, Nashville, Honolulu and Orange County, California. I think they all call themselves "The Fish."

 

[Kent]

Salem is an amazing company, even though I disagree with the product they put out. It seems to make a profit, even when the big boys like iHeart, Cumulus and Audacy are struggling. Salem is aggressive in doing podcasting and adding video to their talk hosts' studios.

But I wonder how long it can go on? Salem owns scores of AM stations around the U.S. But AM is rapidly sinking in the quicksand. Yes, Salem has been working to secure FM translators for them. But that only goes so far.

I checked Salem's Altman Z Score. It falls into the distressed category. While not perfect, the Altman Z Score claims at least a 70% accuracy rate of predicting bankruptcy in either two or three years. Looking at past trends, it would seem to have predicted the Cumulus and iHeart bankruptcies perfectly. Audacy's score is a lot worse than Salem's, and the lowest in the broadcasting business would appear to belong to SBS.

The religious stations are all brokered. Preachers pay for a half hour each day and can seek donations during their time on the air. But if you really like a specific preacher, won't you eventually just go to his website and listen when you want?

That's part of the reason Salem offers a portal for those preachers. It keeps them inside the Salem family, and it provides them with better service than their churches could themselves. Church websites rely on volunteers and have a reputation for lax security and being easy for criminals to hack and mine data. Don't know if Salem does this, but it could also run a preroll ad for those preachers' sermons. Those usually don't make much per impression, but bandwidth and production are about the only costs.

The infomercials and snake oil shows add revenue. Will listeners get wise or are there new suckers born every minute?

Definitely the latter.

And I guess Salem's conservative talk stations are doing OK even though their ratings are low and their audiences are old.

I believe they're sold nationally. I don't know how well they do at the local level. What few 55+ agency buys that exist go totally to talk radio.

Salem has several commercially-supported Christian Contemporary stations. The biggest are KLTY Dallas and WFSH Atlanta. They sometimes make the top 10 in their city's ratings. Also in Cleveland, Nashville, Honolulu and Orange County, California. I think they all call themselves "The Fish."

I believe all of Salem's CCM stations except KLTY are "The Fish." It also runs a handful of online-only Fish channels that cater to specific markets. I'm not sure how many it has, but I know San Antonio and Minneapolis had one each.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Salem makes much of its money by selling airtime to preachers, who pay in advance. Many of them buy airtime across the company. It also offers, or at least used to offer, a portal on the web for those preachers to stream their lessons. So, by paying Salem, the preachers can reach multiple markets and platforms without having to worry about maintaining those platforms themselves. You may have heard music on KKLA, but that was most likely filler for time that had yet to be sold.

If you want Christian music, Salem offers that on 95.9 The Fish.

"In God we trust. All others, "cash."