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Now that KRNB is #2...

And given that it got there with signal limitations, do anyone besides me think others are taking notice, and will eventually give them a stronger signal competitor?
 
Probably not. I’d honestly place my bet on more flips to “hot” talk, ultra conservative talk, religion, sports and maybe a few more KRLD HD subchannels…
 
A bit more thinking about this. I think iHeart would probably consider moving Magic from 102.1 HD2 to 97.1 before they try to compete with KRNB.

Never really thought about this, but I think 93.3 could’ve been a competitor. Maybe that’s a format that could’ve actually worked on 93.3.

I don’t really think Radio One would put Majic on 97.9 and downgrade The Beat to the 94.5 rimshot. But of course, I could be totally wrong about everything I just said!
 
Probably not. I’d honestly place my bet on more flips to “hot” talk, ultra conservative talk, religion, sports and maybe a few more KRLD HD subchannels…
Good points. When a very defined format like Urban or Urban AC does well on one station, when a direct competitor arrives the market ends up with two poorly performing stations that don't get high enough ratings to be "must buy" choices on agency campaigns.

The only successful such direct format duplication cases occur when there is a very high rated station with no direct competitor and which is taking a very high share of market revenue. Management at another cluster may take a poor performer... perhaps a lesser signal... and go up against that dominant station just to take the huge competitor's dominance down by a bit to the benefit of the rest of that other cluster's stations.
 
A bit more thinking about this. I think iHeart would probably consider moving Magic from 102.1 HD2 to 97.1 before they try to compete with KRNB.

Never really thought about this, but I think 93.3 could’ve been a competitor. Maybe that’s a format that could’ve actually worked on 93.3.

I don’t really think Radio One would put Majic on 97.9 and downgrade The Beat to the 94.5 rimshot. But of course, I could be totally wrong about everything I just said!
Right, because if they were thinking about swapping frequencies, they would have done it already.
 
@neosolbrudda I thought I heard Skip Murphy on KRNB about 2 weeks ago. Is he still around? I thought he went back to Charlotte.
 
And given that it got there with signal limitations, do anyone besides me think others are taking notice, and will eventually give them a stronger signal competitor?

Hymen Childs is 85 (and turns 86 in a few weeks), and his kids reportedly have little to no interest in being in radio. Urban One has long set its sites on acquiring those stations when he either dies or retires. It thought it was close to buying them 10-15 years ago.

For about the last 25 years, I've believed Urban One will buy that cluster at some point and move KRNB either to 97.9 or 104.5. That seems more likely to me than someone else launching Urban AC on a full-market signal. As David mentions, most markets don't have more than one Urban AC that's particularly successful, though there are some definite exceptions (like Washington, DC). Urban AC tends to fill a rather tight niche, and it can't be split very much before it becomes unprofitable.
 
Dallas is unique as a market with not one but TWO rimshot FM stations in Nielsen's top three ratings, #1 KTCK-FM, #2 KSPF, #3 KRNB.

96.7 KTCK-FM is licensed to Flower Mound. Its tower is in Rosston, about 60 miles northwest of Dallas. KTCK-FM is only .4 MHz from two Fort Worth-licensed stations, 96.3 KSCS and 97.1 KEGL.

105.7 KRNB is licensed to Decatur. Its tower is in Alvord, also about 60 miles northwest of Dallas, but not the same tower as KTCK-FM. KRNB is only .4 MHz from Dallas-licensed 105.3 KRLD-FM. It is also only .4 MHz from 106.1 KHKS. While Kiss-FM is licensed to Denton, its tower is within the Metroplex, in Cedar Hill, about 20 miles from Dallas and 25 miles from Fort Worth.

I'm sure a good car radio has no problem picking up these two rimshot stations between local Dallas and Fort Worth stations. But if you've got an inexpensive radio on a shelf in your kitchen or on your workbench in the garage, can you hear KTCK-FM or KRNB?
 
Urban AC tends to fill a rather tight niche, and it can't be split very much before it becomes unprofitable.
With the exception of two stations (I think only two) in LA and SF, Urban AC tends to be around 95% Black in cume composition, while both Urban and Hip Hop stations can have significant if not huge Hispanic and non-Hispanic white composition. So Urban AC is limited to a very tight market segment.
 
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You could also ask the question: "what's really a rimshot these days?"

No question that signals such as 96.7 and 105.7 are off-center from the city cores of Dallas and FW, but so is the steady trend of population growth for the last three decades, which has all been north away from Cedar Hill.

Meters in Collin and Denton and Ellis and Wise count just as much as the ones in Tarrant and Dallas counties, after all, and there are enough of them now to make a difference.
 
I'm sure a good car radio has no problem picking up these two rimshot stations between local Dallas and Fort Worth stations. But if you've got an inexpensive radio on a shelf in your kitchen or on your workbench in the garage, can you hear KTCK-FM or KRNB?

I lived in Ft. Worth (about a mile north of the Hulen Mall just off of Hulen Street) before those stations were moved into the market, and my home stereo could hear KIKM 96.7 when it was licensed to Sherman. Couldn't get KSTV-FM 105.7 on the same radio. Seems like my mother's car was more tuned to KICM 105.7 before it got relocated than KSTV-FM.

On my clock radio, the Cedar Hill sticks were about all I could get.
 
You could also ask the question: "what's really a rimshot these days?"

No question that signals such as 96.7 and 105.7 are off-center from the city cores of Dallas and FW, but so is the steady trend of population growth for the last three decades, which has all been north away from Cedar Hill.

Meters in Collin and Denton and Ellis and Wise count just as much as the ones in Tarrant and Dallas counties, after all, and there are enough of them now to make a difference.
DFW urban sprawl is growing at a furious pace, and is now rapidly building up north of the Highway 380 corridor between Denton and McKinney. The jokes about the Metroplex eventually “stopping at the Red River” are no longer hyperbole.

It is to the point that many of the newer areas are closer to the northern rimshots than they are to Cedar Hill, so the signals are equal.

The rimshot towers NW of DFW have an advantage over the ones to the NNE, as the ground elevation is around 500 feet higher…so a 2,000’ stick in effect becomes 2,500’ in relation to most of the market.

While DFW is growing towards the rimshots, Houston has the opposite issue, as the bulk of growth is on the opposite side of the market from the eastern rimshots.
 
Hymen Childs is 85 (and turns 86 in a few weeks), and his kids reportedly have little to no interest in being in radio. Urban One has long set its sites on acquiring those stations when he either dies or retires. It thought it was close to buying them 10-15 years ago.

For about the last 25 years, I've believed Urban One will buy that cluster at some point and move KRNB either to 97.9 or 104.5. That seems more likely to me than someone else launching Urban AC on a full-market signal. As David mentions, most markets don't have more than one Urban AC that's particularly successful, though there are some definite exceptions (like Washington, DC). Urban AC tends to fill a rather tight niche, and it can't be split very much before it becomes unprofitable.
If Radio One did buy Service, wouldn't make sense to sell 94.5 to EMF and move KZMJ to 105.7, and KRNB to 97.9. Somehow combine the best between 97.9 personalities and KKDA-FM personalities.
 
Good points. When a very defined format like Urban or Urban AC does well on one station, when a direct competitor arrives the market ends up with two poorly performing stations that don't get high enough ratings to be "must buy" choices on agency campaigns.

The only successful such direct format duplication cases occur when there is a very high rated station with no direct competitor and which is taking a very high share of market revenue. Management at another cluster may take a poor performer... perhaps a lesser signal... and go up against that dominant station just to take the huge competitor's dominance down by a bit to the benefit of the rest of that other cluster's stations.

Good points. When a very defined format like Urban or Urban AC does well on one station, when a direct competitor arrives the market ends up with two poorly performing stations that don't get high enough ratings to be "must buy" choices on agency campaigns.

The only successful such direct format duplication cases occur when there is a very high rated station with no direct competitor and which is taking a very high share of market revenue. Management at another cluster may take a poor performer... perhaps a lesser signal... and go up against that dominant station just to take the huge competitor's dominance down by a bit to the benefit of the rest of that other cluster's stations.
DFW has two Urban AC stations right now.

105.7 crushes 94.5 in the ratings.

Atlanta and Washington, D.C. each have two successful Urban AC formatted stations. Granted, such market examples are few in number, especially if we're talking PPM markets.
 
If Radio One did buy Service, wouldn't make sense to sell 94.5 to EMF and move KZMJ to 105.7, and KRNB to 97.9. Somehow combine the best between 97.9 personalities and KKDA-FM personalities.

Hard to say. Keep in mind Urban One also wants more general market stations. I'm not sure the data support Collinsville and Wise County sticks being competitive yet, but those two signals might be good for general market formats given the direction the Metroplex is mostly expanding.
 
Hard to say. Keep in mind Urban One also wants more general market stations. I'm not sure the data support Collinsville and Wise County sticks being competitive yet, but those two signals might be good for general market formats given the direction the Metroplex is mostly expanding.
Cedar Hill FM covers it down to Waco. Northern FM stations cover well into Oklahoma. In any car, they are all the same within the 50x50 mile DFW metroplex. Yes, even 93.3.

If it's true that few people no longer use or own radios outside the car, then the location of these transmitters makes no difference at all.

You hear it in your car. If you like it, you find it online or ask somebody like Alexa for it in the home or office. No, that's not me, but I'm a home radio freak (enthusiast) - one in a thousand maybe.
 
Cedar Hill FM covers it down to Waco. Northern FM stations cover well into Oklahoma. In any car, they are all the same within the 50x50 mile DFW metroplex. Yes, even 93.3.
The market is not "The Metroplex". It is Nielsen's Metro Survey Area. Collins, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hood, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise Counties. Each is sampled in proportion to its population.
If it's true that few people no longer use or own radios outside the car, then the location of these transmitters makes no difference at all.
About 50% of all listening is not in the car. Fewer people, certainly, but for much longer average time spent listening.
You hear it in your car. If you like it, you find it online or ask somebody like Alexa for it in the home or office. No, that's not me, but I'm a home radio freak (enthusiast) - one in a thousand maybe.
Nowhere nearly as bad as that. Again, if you buy some ads on the average station in the average market, an average of half of the people who hear it will be listening at home or at work. Of course, if your stream is a 100% simulcast including the ads (most in major markets are not) then the stream is combined with the home and work radio set listening.
 
DFW has two Urban AC stations right now.

105.7 crushes 94.5 in the ratings.

Atlanta and Washington, D.C. each have two successful Urban AC formatted stations. Granted, such market examples are few in number, especially if we're talking PPM markets.
I wonder if 94.5 had a full signal, would that make a difference on their performance?
 
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