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USC Trojans leave KABC, returns to KSPN

L

Loverofradio

Listening to 710 now. They announced just now USC athletics (football, men’s and women’s basketball) will return to KSPN this Fall.

KABC dropped the ball. They had their chance to become a good radio station and build around a brand in the big 10. This will haunt them. They should’ve used that opportunity to clear WW1 programs and air more sports programming, or outright flip. They probably should’ve flipped to sports when they had Dodgers rights. Just tragic.

There IS room for a third sports outlet in LA. Of course, no one is saying that another sports station will be a ratings monster, but it would’ve brought a lot of money.
 
Loverofradio said:
Listening to 710 now. They announced just now USC athletics (football, men’s and women’s basketball) will return to KSPN this Fall.

KABC dropped the ball. They had their chance to become a good radio station and build around a brand in the big 10. This will haunt them. They should’ve used that opportunity to clear WW1 programs and air more sports programming, or outright flip. They probably should’ve flipped to sports when they had Dodgers rights. Just tragic.

There IS room for a third sports outlet in LA. Of course, no one is saying that another sports station will be a ratings monster, but it would’ve brought a lot of money.
Click to expand...
Whether there is room for a 3rd sports station is debatable. Whether that station should be KABC is not. Stations must be heard to be successful.

To be fair, the KSPN signal isn't much better, but they are on an FM HD channel somewhere right? right?

I always had a secret theory that the USC sports department knew the football program was not up to snuff and wanted to actively hide the games from the radio public. Putting them on KABC fit the bill nicely.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Whether there is room for a 3rd sports station is debatable. Whether that station should be KABC is not. Stations must be heard to be successful.
Click to expand...

Agreed on all three points. This has come up before in other threads about KABC. As David has said in those threads, when 790 moved to the diplex and lowered power, a barely-viable signal became even less so. There was no "ball" to drop, as the OP claims. Until and unless some ethnic broadcaster comes along whose audience KABC is well-positioned to cover and takes this white elephants off of Cumulus' hands, 790 is going to exist only to clear some Westwood One talk programming in market #2, air pre-paid infomercials, and broadcast any sports franchise that is foolish enough to contract with them.

There is now one less such franchise in that last category, and while we'll never know, Flipper, you might well be right about the USC sports department. (I have been unable to find any HD simulcast of 1110, BTW.)
 
K.M. Richards said:
Agreed on all three points. This has come up before in other threads about KABC. As David has said in those threads, when 790 moved to the diplex and lowered power, a barely-viable signal became even less so. There was no "ball" to drop, as the OP claims. Until and unless some ethnic broadcaster comes along whose audience KABC is well-positioned to cover and takes this white elephants off of Cumulus' hands, 790 is going to exist only to clear some Westwood One talk programming in market #2, air pre-paid infomercials, and broadcast any sports franchise that is foolish enough to contract with them.

There is now one less such franchise in that last category, and while we'll never know, Flipper, you might well be right about the USC sports department. (I have been unable to find any HD simulcast of 1110, BTW.)
Click to expand...

1110's gone Christian, K.M. KSPN is purely on 710 now.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Agreed on all three points. This has come up before in other threads about KABC. As David has said in those threads, when 790 moved to the diplex and lowered power, a barely-viable signal became even less so. There was no "ball" to drop, as the OP claims. Until and unless some ethnic broadcaster comes along whose audience KABC is well-positioned to cover and takes this white elephants off of Cumulus' hands, 790 is going to exist only to clear some Westwood One talk programming in market #2, air pre-paid infomercials, and broadcast any sports franchise that is foolish enough to contract with them.

There is now one less such franchise in that last category, and while we'll never know, Flipper, you might well be right about the USC sports department. (I have been unable to find any HD simulcast of 1110, BTW.)
Click to expand...
Do ethnic broadcasters even want KABC?
 
ChannelFlipper said:
I always had a secret theory that the USC sports department knew the football program was not up to snuff and wanted to actively hide the games from the radio public. Putting them on KABC fit the bill nicely.
Click to expand...
But they’ve been down since the sanctions in the post-Reggie Bush era. They’ll have a good season this year - just after the squashing LSU puts on them in Week 1.
 
Loverofradio said:
Do ethnic broadcasters even want KABC?
Click to expand...

So far, no.

Which again raises the question: If no ethnic broadcaster wants 790 for a niche format, what chance is there for it to become as prominent in the mainstream as it was in its glory days?

Rhetorical question.
 
It just bugs me because there were so many good opportunities to make this KABC/USC relationship work. In depth audio features/podcasts with players and coaches that could be used on air and on KABC’s app. Remotes. I mean, behind Caitlin Clark, the Trojans had the second best player in women’s basketball and LeBron’s son playing for USC. That’s the way you make money outside of traditional radio broadcasts -especially when you have one of the biggest properties in sports on your signal. Yes, LA isn’t Baton Rouge. But, it’s also not San Diego where no one cares about sports
 
No "opportunities" exist when there is no audience for same. Despite what the coverage maps show (the best of which is on Michi's FCCdata.org site) the part of the signal that is noise-free enough for a listener to stay tuned in for an entire game -- much less any such "features" -- probably doesn't even get as far as the Coliseum. (For that matter, I'm not sure KSPN's does either.)

Incidentally, I misspoke when I said that KABC lowered power when they moved to the diplex with 1330. They actually had to increase power to maintain their service contours. Not that this helps my point above by much.

And ... KABC has an app? WHY?
 
Only KLAC is on an FM HD subchannel (98.7-2). If Radio Iran can buddy up with 95.5 for FM HD coverage, surely ESPN LA could figure out a similar arrangement, though it seems they're content with the combination of 710 and streaming/app usage.
 
Ummm ... KLOS-HD3 is programmed with Armenian music, not a simulcast of KIRN.
 
Loverofradio said:
It just bugs me because there were so many good opportunities to make this KABC/USC relationship work. In depth audio features/podcasts with players and coaches that could be used on air and on KABC’s app.
Click to expand...

Who would create all these features/podcasts?

At least KSPN has staff that can handle the work.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Ummm ... KLOS-HD3 is programmed with Armenian music, not a simulcast of KIRN.
Click to expand...
My bad! But KIRN is simulcast on another HD. Presumably those operators are just willing to spend the money on paying to lease those HD channels whereas Good Karma apparently has no interest.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Which is a program that Cumulus also runs on KSFO in San Francisco, so it might as well be syndication ...
Click to expand...
KSFO website shows 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM is Sean Hannity, which is the precise window when John Phillips airs on KABC. The only reference to John Phillips on KSFO's website is the late night 11:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Fix California w/John Phillips.
 
david said:
KSFO website shows 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM is Sean Hannity, which is the precise window when John Phillips airs on KABC. The only reference to John Phillips on KSFO's website is the late night 11:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Fix California w/John Phillips.
Click to expand...

Nevertheless, it is a case where Cumulus is taking one of the few local KABC productions and partially repurposing it on a co-owned station in another market. I bet if Cumulus owned KVTA in the Oxnard-Ventura market it would be airing there as well.

That's near enough to syndication to make my point.
 
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