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EMF owning three or more radio stations in one city

J

JeffSteele

Are there are any cities in which the now-Tennessee-based Educational Media Foundation (Air1; K-Love) owns at least three stations?

EMF already owns two stations (WJAI, WJLV) in Jackson, Mississippi--and will purchase a third station (WJXN).

  • WJAI 93.9: Air1
  • WJLV 94.7: K-Love
  • WJXN 100.9: Air1
 
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JeffSteele said:
Are there are any cities in which the Tennessee-based Educational Media Foundation (Air1; K-Love) owns at least three stations?

EMF already owns two stations (WJAI, WJLV) in Jackson, Mississippi--and will purchase a third station (WJXN).

  • WJAI 93.9: Air1
  • WJLV 94.7: K-Love
  • WJXN 100.9: Air1
Click to expand...
Remember, EMF does not buy stations by market, they buy for coverage. They may have signals that overlap portions of a rated market, but those all seem to be cases where there is overlap but where the "rest" of each signal covers areas the other does not.
 
JeffSteele said:
I had no idea EMF bought stations for coverage and not by market (size).
Click to expand...
Markets are established by Nielsen to mirror marketing objectives for advertisers. EMF does not sell advertising, so what they want is to piece together a set of stations that, together, cover as much of the US and its territories as possible.
 
In November, 2011, Backyard Broadcasting sold WRXW (Rock 93-9) and WWJK (94-7 Jack FM) to the then-California-based EMF.

In January, 2012, WRXW became WJAI.

In February, 2012, WWJK became WJLV.
 
JeffSteele said:
Are there are any cities in which the now-Tennessee-based Educational Media Foundation (Air1; K-Love) owns at least three stations?

EMF already owns two stations (WJAI, WJLV) in Jackson, Mississippi--and will purchase a third station (WJXN).

  • WJAI 93.9: Air1
  • WJLV 94.7: K-Love
  • WJXN 100.9: Air1
Click to expand...

I seem to remember it runs Gateway's Boost in a few markets where it has extra stations. It also has, or at least used to have, Radio Vida on a few markets where it has Air 1 and K-Love covered.

Not sure the logic of having 93.9 and 100.9 in Jackson as they have similar coverage areas. My guess is EMF will either reengineer one of them so they don’t overlap so much, or that one will switch to Boost. 93.9 and 100.9, however, have been airing Air 1 despite the similar coverage areas since Alpha's LMA ran out on 100.9.
 
Kent said:
I seem to remember it runs Gateway's Boost in a few markets where it has extra stations. It also has, or at least used to have, Radio Vida on a few markets where it has Air 1 and K-Love covered.

Not sure the logic of having 93.9 and 100.9 in Jackson as they have similar coverage areas. My guess is EMF will either reengineer one of them so they don’t overlap so much, or that one will switch to Boost. 93.9 and 100.9, however, have been airing Air 1 despite the similar coverage areas since Alpha's LMA ran out on 100.9.
Click to expand...
What's Boost?
 
I don't have an issue with EMF owning as many as they want within a certain market. Here's why: they are solely listener funded. So, if it's not working for them, the listeners have spoken. If that happens they need to change the format, lease or sell the frequency. Most non-commercial FMs have funding via underwriting, grants and listeners. So most non-commercial operations rely on only a portion of their funding directly from listeners. To be purely listener supported is the purest indication of a station's success or need to exist. Simply put, EMF cannot continue 'building' their footprint without the listeners showing their support with their dollars.
 
anotherguyTN said:
I wish that EMF would do more of that to being on some of the K-LOVE or Air 1 stations in areas that overlap, or a subchannel/translator setup where that's possible. That would take the place of the Air 1 stations that had the formats changed.
Click to expand...
If you look at the "overlap" in EMF signals, nearly all the overlap is in areas outside the 65 dbu signal of both stations. From observation, I believe that EMF uses 65 dbu as its "full service" criteria as so much of its listening is in home and work locations where a lesser signal is not considered adequate. And keep in mind that EMF programs to people, not markets.
 
They're often specific. In Northern Illinois, Air1 is on 88.7 WSRI (The original Air1 signal in that area), 94.3 WAWE, 103.9 WAWY, 105.3 W287AU, and 100.9 WQFL.

K-LOVE is on 91.7 WZKL, 91.1 WILV, 89.1 WOKL, 97.9 WCKL, 92.5 WCLR

Put together on a coverage map, they all make sense. They frequently give out the nearest frequencies during the TOH ID for people driving.

If they have extra signals that don't serve any coverage purpose, K-LOVE 90s, K-LOVE 2000s, Boost, Radio Nueva Vida usually go on them.
 
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Boost is separate from K-Love. They lease the EMF stations for their format. KXBS 95.5 St Louis is their originating station. And their HD2 carries the music that the PD really likes, classic dance music! I am not religious at all but I donated to them just because I enjoy that HD2 format
 
We have 6 stations from EMF in our town. The centre part you can get all 6, but there are hilly areas and such that interferes with some of the radio signals here.
 
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