95.7 will be simulcast there.
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Cumulus KC shuffle coming
- Thread starter ksradiogeek
- Start date
If this is true I’m glad they aren’t switching 95.7’s format.
When Jack was on 105.1, seems like it did more damage to 94.9 KCMO than it did the Fox.
Your point, though, remains. Jack on a full-power stick is more likely to damage other Cumulus properties than it is much of anyone else's.
If they do simulcast 95.7, what’s the reasoning?
Still seems strange to do a total 180 on the playlist with zero overlap whatsoever. I remember when Jack went to alt, it felt at least slightly familiar due to a few alt acts on the station (Muse, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers), and likewise alt to heavier rock (Green Day, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots.) 99.7 Gen X going to the Point in 2011 advertised people could still hear gen X artists alongside newer Hot AC artists. But this has no overlap whatsoever.
I think ultimately it comes down to them believing the audience for X is negligible. Meaning it doesn’t matter. They’ve made a full genre shift here. It speaks to their view of the market.
If Jack went to full power moving it to 107.3 would be a smart move, it wouldn’t overlap as bad with 98.5 Jack in Topeka.
Neither 95.7 nor 107.3 individually covers the entire MSA. Together they do, or at least they come very close.
Jack is also on 102.5 in KC
Separate owners, separate markets. Doesn’t matter if Jack were to be placed on 95.7 (which it won’t be anyway).
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In all this, it doesn’t appear KC is hurting for options on the alternative or rock side. With 96.5 and 98.9 still covering this audience. Both of those stations will have some obvious overlap too.
I liked the X and its positioning in the market and usually listened to it instead of either one, but those two are just too strong in the market (at times KRBZ is not though), so most did not listen to the X.
I listened to it, I even remember when 107.3 was “The X“ in the mid 90s
I believe that one of the reasons that KCHZ doesn't have the same coverage area as the other KC FM radio stations is because they are having to protect the signal of KWWR in Mexico, MO, which is also on 95.7FM.
In Carrollton, MO I can usually get all of the full power KC FM stations, except for KCHZ.
Usually I get KWWR unless the atmospheric conditions are just right then I can get KCHZ.
I have to wonder whether adding 107.3 to KCHZs coverage would make much of a difference as I assume this would be done to try to improve their lower ratings? The 60dbu gets to the east side of KC which I know with urban area and topography does make matter in KCs case as things are rough over there. I just question whether that’s the real problem with KCHZ.
That's likely part of it. In the late 90's, KWWR made a small move so 95.5 Bethalto, IL could move its tower to Spanish Lake and cover St. Louis better. That, however, wouldn't help KCHZ as it moved its transmitter a few miles west from Mexico proper to the Centralia area just north of the Boone/Audrain County line. KCHZ is also licensed to Ottawa, and it can't move much further east and still put a city grade signal over Ottawa.
Guessing you can get 107.3 pretty easily there. Before it moved transmitter sites a few years ago, I could get it in Columbia on my car radio. I go to Carrollton once- or twice-a-year to check out the River Bottoms Brewery downtown. Plus, I can get a Ken's pizza from the Marshall Mazzio's on the way back home. Growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, Ken's pizza is an absolute must have once-in-awhile. Never really have checked out the radio much on those visits to Carrollton, though. If it's during football season, I usually either have KCMQ or WDAF on for the Chiefs, but, otherwise, I'm either streaming or listening to satellite radio. I drive through Malta Bend on my way there, and I've always thought it was funny that a town that's pretty much just an intersection or two has a radio station licensed to it.
I've wondered that, too. KCHZ got numbers close to what Mix is getting now around 2010-11. That tends to make me think the signal isn't that big of a barrier. Of course, the other side to that is that people in Independence, Lee's Summit, and Blue Springs don't likely listen to the station at all. When you think about how many people live in those areas while working in Overland Park, KS (and it used to be quite a large number), most of those people won't listen to KCHZ at work either unless a co-worker chooses the station. People tend to like consistency, and they don't usually listen to stations at work that they can't hear at home. The other side to that, though, is that people won't work to enjoy radio. I'm not sure that would be a huge problem, though, if 95.7 and 107.3 were to simulcast as you can hear 107.3 quite well in most of Johnson County. Someone from Blue Springs could keep the radio on 107.3 in the car and have it on 95.7 on the clock radio in the office. Dial flipping wouldn't be needed once the office radio was set.
To your last part, I totally see your point but it seems like if it isn’t that appealing where the signal is stronger as compared to say 93.3, then areas to the east may not be likely to be much different.
Speaking bluntly I think it’s just the Vibes programming isn’t as appealing or the way it’s presented. But obviously I could be wrong and maybe people east of KC would find it more interesting.
I also don’t know if the car radio, work radio/clock radio thing is much of a phenomenon anymore as if someone can hear it in the car but not at work, they will simply stream it.
The KWWR tower is also where it is to avoid being under the jurisdiction of Boone County Planning & Zoning, which is notoriously hostile to tall towers - and it was also a taller tower than the previous one, allowing KWWR to have full class C status. It probably also helped KWWR in its longstanding competition with Moberly's KRES for ag ad dollars.
KCHZ was originally KOFO-FM (I fervently hoped that the station would have adopted the slogan "KOFO is a MOFO") and had various difficulties over the years. Briefly in the 1990s, it tried to do a soft AC format as "Total Radio" (KZTO) with offices and studios in Lawrence, and then was off the air for more than three years. I could occasionally pick up KWWR at my Kansas City house during those years. I'll admit that I had an outdoor FM antenna in those days.
The problem with 107.3 was different. Yes, it was a rimshot from a tower near Odessa. But FM tuners of the day (1990s and earlier)s often were prone to front-end overload and, in the urban core of Kansas City, Mo., there were several class C FMs putting out 100,000 watts. The result were several spurious products, including one that landed on or near 107.3. "Walkman" style radios were particularly prone to this. But some car tuners were affected as well. The result: you couldn't get 107.3 in the Jackson County portions of Kansas City.
The 107.3 downgrade brought the tower closer to Kansas City, but it's still at a disadvantage compared to most other stations on the Kansas site of the metro.
The Bridge (KTBG, 90.9) has many of the same problems. I wonder how well it reaches Brookside and Waldo, where its target audience seems to be. It's barely receivable in the Crossroads.
Without Maximizer data, we don't know how strong its appeal in Johnson County is. I know KCHZ used to do quite well in Lawrence and performed respectably in JoCo, but I don't know how it does today.
The Vibe would seem to have a lot of problems. Top-40/CHR isn't exactly a strong format at the moment, which is clearly dragging down Mix 93.3, too. All the signal fixes in the world won't fix a music problem.
Streaming is still a violation of the AUP's of a lot of companies. I don't know if it's still the case and both have changed owners since, but two of the major KC area employers used to strictly prohibit it. Plus, unless this has changed recently, more than 80% of terrestrial streaming is done within the 60 dBu signal contour. In other words, having a stream for KCHZ probably doesn't help it get many listeners in eastern Jackson County. Adding the 107.3 signal, however, might help get streaming listeners at work where it's permitted, even if those people could have already been listening on a clock radio in JoCo. Again, people like consistency. They don't want to listen to stations at work they can't hear on their way home, and they don't usually listen to stations in the car that they can't hear around the house. Last I'd heard, the changes in listening habits brought by smartphones and smart speakers didn't make people more likely to listen to distant radio stations. They just made people listen to radio less, period.
KCHZ was also KHUM "96 Hum FM" around 1990. As recently as 15 years ago and over a decade after it left the air, you could still see a sign on Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence for 96 Hum FM. I also remember KZTO "Your Total FM." Musically, it wasn't bad, but it sounded like it was saying, "Your Toto FM." It also made the mistake of trying to become a Topeka station. I get that it looked like a good decision on paper, but Topeka has always been a really tough place to make money. I think you've mentioned it before, but that Lecompton tower was a huge mistake for 105.9 by a company that rarely made mistakes.
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