Not so, amigo! Sold Panama City radio for many, many years. Summertime and the livin’ is easy … back in the day when people came to PCB radio was KING! We usta tell potential advertisers who were stuck on newpaper and TV … Let’s you and I walk the beach and for every newspaper or TV you see, I’ll give you $5. But for every radio we see, you just give me a dollar. Closed those deals every time
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Some guy said Hawaii and Florida were the worst radio markets to be in
- Thread starter Copygurl
- Start date
Context? Which radio markets are we talking about Miami, Tampa Bay, Orlando, Jacksonville, or Tallahassee. Which one among them are considered the worst and how so.
Neither FL nor Hawaii are "markets".
Honolulu is over radioed, as is Tallahassee in FL. Most of the other FL markets are as good as a radio market can be... and better than most as they are growth markets.
Examples of bad markets: Las Vegas, Key West, U.S. Virgin Islands, any seasonal market like Traverse City. Some markets that got too many Docket 80-90 upgrades and move ins like Austin, Albuquerque, Phoenix.
Honolulu is over radioed, as is Tallahassee in FL. Most of the other FL markets are as good as a radio market can be... and better than most as they are growth markets.
Examples of bad markets: Las Vegas, Key West, U.S. Virgin Islands, any seasonal market like Traverse City. Some markets that got too many Docket 80-90 upgrades and move ins like Austin, Albuquerque, Phoenix.
But the big markets in FL do very well... The Palm Beaches, Orlando, Tampa/St Pete, Miami, Ft Myers/Naples, Jacksonville and even Pensacola/Mobile. They are growth markets and a lot of advertisers know that many people are not traditionally familiar with them so they feel a need to have ongoing exposure.
In the AM days, some of those were over-radioed because AMs could go fulltime and shoot the signal over the market and out over the ocean. But FM is not as overpopulated.
I disagree. About a year ago was driving toward Tampa to give a Jeep to my older son and started dial surfing using scan on the FM band. There may have been some ducting going on, because I was hearing Miami stations in and out over the top of Tampa stations. It was a hodgepodge of signals that my radio literally stopped every 200kHz with translators and full class stations all shoehorned together. I thought to myself at the time, this is just nuts.
Additionally, the cost of living and the isolation from the mainland - not just in distance but also in time (which makes doing even the basics of business a challenge) - can make Honolulu a very difficult place to live for a haole (non-native); I don't say this from firsthand experience, but from a good friend who took a PD job there and quickly regretted it.
But for the average listener in each market, there are an appropriate number. Nobody listens to the fringe signals if there are plenty of options locally.. People wanting further options go to the web.
That would have been ducting, the Miami signals don't come close to Tampa under normal circumstances.
However, I worked for the best haole example ever: Cecil Heftel. A Mormon from the rocky mountain west, they don't come any more haole. He took on KGMB and then went to Congress representing the islands. One of his great achievements was taming Hal Lewis, the incredible haole who became J Akuhead Pupule on KGMB.
Having been associated with ones like Y-100 and WAMR, I can tell you that even in the areas in the northern part of the Palm Beach metro, the Miami signals are challenged. Both of those are full power at a thousand feet on the Broward-Dade county line.
Answering my own message, I'll name another very successful haole: Tom Rounds, who was first newsman and then personality at KPOA in Honolulu. Among many other achievements, Rounds went on to found Watermark which created American Top 40.
On that drive, there are also some swaths of mostly rural areas in which distant signals are not fighting with locals and can be heard. In rural western Palm Beach County, for example (Belle Glade, Clewiston), it's possible to pick up stations from all of the following markets (depending on conditions) - Miami, West Palm, Fort Myers/Naples, Tampa, Orlando, and the Treasure Coast.
That's great, but if I were a listener who wasn't familiar with the phenomena I'd say screw it, turn my radio off, and fire up Spotify.
Great FM signals in Miami.
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The geography makes Florida a peculiar area for radio. First of all, with the exception of the Tampa to Daytona Beach corridor, the population tends to hug the coast. You wind up with markets that are 20 miles wide but 150 miles long. The state is very flat. You can stand on a brick in Miami and see half way to Orlando.
The Keys are in a similar situation with buckets of FMs that can't cover the county. There are only about 90k people in Monroe County and very limited non-tourist related businesses as an advertising base. As in some places in the country where you have "hobby farms," Key West has more than a few "hobby radio stations." They loose money and under cut each other on the rates but the well healed can say "Hey, I own a radio station in Key West and spend every January to March in my condo to run it."
It's also very expensive place to live. Housing costs are through the roof as is auto insurance and home owners insurance.
I am not sure whether the ethnic diversity in the Miami market makes it harder or easier for stations to sell advertising. As I tune around you hear tons of religious stations in English, Spanish and Creole. Between "regular" stations, translators, LPs and pirates the entire FM band is full.
All-in-all, there is room for only a few stations to make money.
The Keys are in a similar situation with buckets of FMs that can't cover the county. There are only about 90k people in Monroe County and very limited non-tourist related businesses as an advertising base. As in some places in the country where you have "hobby farms," Key West has more than a few "hobby radio stations." They loose money and under cut each other on the rates but the well healed can say "Hey, I own a radio station in Key West and spend every January to March in my condo to run it."
It's also very expensive place to live. Housing costs are through the roof as is auto insurance and home owners insurance.
I am not sure whether the ethnic diversity in the Miami market makes it harder or easier for stations to sell advertising. As I tune around you hear tons of religious stations in English, Spanish and Creole. Between "regular" stations, translators, LPs and pirates the entire FM band is full.
All-in-all, there is room for only a few stations to make money.
There are a couple of unique formats in the Keys. There's a yacht rock station, for example (Key 93.7). Some of the jocks have had real lasting power in the Keys. Bill Bravo has been on Wow 92.7 for at least 15 years, if not longer, for example.
A warm version of where i am, in terms of cost
Hawaii is another one to look at. The majority of Hawaii residents live in Oahu and lots of state resources are on Oahu.
However there are various wildlife, tourist and agricultural areas spread out on other islands. Also the radio and TV outlets are either translators of Oahu based media outlets or in some cases niche for that part of the state like stations only heard in Maui, Molokai, Kauai and Big Island. Here are some of the examples of certain radio stations in Hawaii that are not from Oahu.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
However there are various wildlife, tourist and agricultural areas spread out on other islands. Also the radio and TV outlets are either translators of Oahu based media outlets or in some cases niche for that part of the state like stations only heard in Maui, Molokai, Kauai and Big Island. Here are some of the examples of certain radio stations in Hawaii that are not from Oahu.
KKCR - Wikipedia
KDLX - Wikipedia
Austin has been flooded with translators in the last decade or so, but I am not sure I would put it in the same league as ABQ, Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Boise, etc in terms of move-ins and rimshots.
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