Is The Beat profitable for I heart media? Every time I see the latest ratings for 100.3, they are always near the bottom of the heap. Seems like every format known has been tried on 100.3, but nothing has stuck. This is the second time around for The Beat. Does anyone think St. Louis is a large enough market for a Spanish formatted station? It could be an format option?
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100.3 in St. Louis
- Thread starter pumpin73
- Start date
The Beat is basically a satellite station for their nationally syndicated show The Breakfast Club and it's various spinoffs. So there isn't a lot of expense involved, and it provides a St. Louis signal for their national urban-formatted shows. iHeart has two stations in the Top 10, so that's where the revenue is.
As far as Spanish, I'd say no. The market is large enough, but the Spanish population isn't.
I guess moving in from Alton, Illinois (where it started out decades ago as WOKZ-FM) didn't really help KATZ-FM all that much, and it took a downgrade from class B status to C3 (= B1) status to boot.
Except for the Kansas City area, there's not enough of an interest in Spanish-language programming in Missouri to sustain anything more than specialty programming. I've found it odd that clusters of Spanish-speaking populations haven't developed in Missouri the way they have in Nebraska, Kansas, or Iowa, but there you go.
Except for the Kansas City area, there's not enough of an interest in Spanish-language programming in Missouri to sustain anything more than specialty programming. I've found it odd that clusters of Spanish-speaking populations haven't developed in Missouri the way they have in Nebraska, Kansas, or Iowa, but there you go.
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011nerve
Guest
100.3 speeds up their music a half-semitone at least.
Maybe that has something to do with the low ratings. I can honestly just get good and clear non-sped up music with Spotify...
The last time I heard 104.1, it had a funny equalizer but no sped up music. So it's a trade-off.
Maybe that has something to do with the low ratings. I can honestly just get good and clear non-sped up music with Spotify...
The last time I heard 104.1, it had a funny equalizer but no sped up music. So it's a trade-off.
That's a huge stretch. We're talking about a genre where the music is regularly sped up on TikTok. Doesn't seem to affect usage there. But sure, if all you care about is music, there are lots of options. This station is based around the hit radio show The Breakfast Club.
The real question is how much local promotion does the station do? There's obviously an audience for this show there, but they may not know it exists unless it's put in front of them. Radio users, especially young users, don't scan the dial searching for what they want anymore.
I figured the Spanish speaking population in STL wasn't large enough to sustain a station. There are a few moving into the area, but not many. For whatever reason, STL isn't a big draw.
What this station does is it gives iHeart the ability to compete against Hot and offer advertisers a cheaper way to reach the same demo because the ratings are lower. While also expending the national footprint for The Breakfast Club.
St. Louis has at least one Spanish-language station, but it has none on FM. Nielsen estimates the 6+ market to be about 3% Hispanic.
Something else to keep in mind is that speaking Spanish is not a requirement for being Hispanic. I have three nieces who live in the St. Louis area; two of whom are Hispanic. Only the older one (19) speaks much Spanish at all, and she only uses it when talking to her dad or trying to have private conversations with some of her friends. When she listens to radio, it's Z-107.7. At her high school graduation last year, at least 60% of the kids had Hispanic surnames. The Hispanic demographic is growing, especially in North County, but don't assume that means the audience for Spanish-language programming will grow at the same proportion. Most of my niece's classmates had been in the school district for years, and most of them are US born. They have, more or less, the same music preference she has, and it's not their parents' music.
A quick check shows 880 WIJR Highland as a Spanish-language station, airing Regional Mexican music. But that's it. I'd say if only one AM is running Spanish-language programming, it's not likely an FM station would try it. Kansas City has four AMs doing Spanish-language programming but no FMs.
And let's remember that there are vast differences between what Spanish-speakers from Mexico want to hear and what folks from the Caribbean want. That's why you can't just say "Wow, there are a lot of Latino people moving into my area. Shouldn't there be a radio station for them?" Formats that work well in California and Texas would never make it New York or Miami.
Is most of the Latin population of St. Louis from Mexico? Or is it mixed between Mexico/Central America, The Caribbean and South America?
And let's remember that there are vast differences between what Spanish-speakers from Mexico want to hear and what folks from the Caribbean want. That's why you can't just say "Wow, there are a lot of Latino people moving into my area. Shouldn't there be a radio station for them?" Formats that work well in California and Texas would never make it New York or Miami.
Is most of the Latin population of St. Louis from Mexico? Or is it mixed between Mexico/Central America, The Caribbean and South America?
An Hispanic population of 3% is not big enough for a full-power FM.
KC has an LPFM or two running Spanish-language programming. If just talking about full-power FM's, you are correct, though.
Mexicans and Hondurans make up the bulk of the Hispanic population in the St. Louis area. They’re clustered in North County near the airport and South St. Louis City.
The Latino clusters in the St. Louis area are largely found on the Illinois side of the river, the largest being in the State Park/Fairmont City area just west of Collinsville.
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