Northwest Arkansas KURM to sign off

[Kelly A]

High School sports is so easy to sell.

Oh, come on now. When was the last time you sold high school sports for a radio station? The Home Depots, Walmarts, and Amazon's don't buy that sort of advertising.
At one of my stations, the local Pizza Hut used to be a major supporter, but they stopped because the corporate office insists advertising goes only through their agency. A couple of other local restaurants advertised for part of one season then didn't ultimately pay. Believe it or not, the restaurant owners thought that just agreeing to be a sponsor was enough. They didn't have the money to actually pay for the sponsorship. The school district used to charge the station for broadcasting the home games, combined with an Internet connection to get audio to and from the stadium. Then pay the PBP guy, and one or two (no-paying) sponsors didn't even cover expenses. When we finally had to pull the plug on broadcasting games due to cost, we received threatening E-mails, some called us traitors to the community.

Just get last years football or basketball program and visit the sponcers. At least a 50% success rate on the first visit to the decision maker. Even higher if the business owner has a child on the team. If your station has a lot of sports play by play: pro, college, or NASCAR, a yearly "sports wheel" package is a steady source of money during evenings and weekends.

I'm not sure what world you're living in. Certainly not radio in 2024.

 

[bturner1]

I sold out our Football packages, features, scoreboards and such in our county of about 43,000 and I could have sold a few more. Kelly A, high school sports is big stuff in small towns and especially in Texas. People might even trample a cow in these here parts to not miss a game. Our listeners go to the games and use our app to listen to the game in the stands.

 

[sox fan matt]

As I recall KEZA got up quite far I used to vacation in Kimberling city for about 10 years. I can always count on 107.9 all the way from about Fort Smith all the way up past the state line in the Missouri and I could hear it driving on Highway 13.

 

[Kelly A]

I sold out our Football packages, features, scoreboards and such in our county of about 43,000 and I could have sold a few more. Kelly A, high school sports is big stuff in small towns and especially in Texas. People might even trample a cow in these here parts to not miss a game. Our listeners go to the games and use our app to listen to the game in the stands.

You're probably right in Texas, but not every smaller town is in the state of Texas. In my case, Eastern Washington State, not so much.

 

[Kent]

High School sports is so easy to sell. Just get last years football or basketball program and visit the sponcers. At least a 50% success rate on the first visit to the decision maker. Even higher if the business owner has a child on the team. If your station has a lot of sports play by play: pro, college, or NASCAR, a yearly "sports wheel" package is a steady source of money during evenings and weekends.

High school sports aren't the easy sell they used to be. Having said that, I don't know how you succeed in small town radio without carrying the local high school teams. It's just a lot more work than it used to be.

I sold out our Football packages, features, scoreboards and such in our county of about 43,000 and I could have sold a few more. Kelly A, high school sports is big stuff in small towns and especially in Texas. People might even trample a cow in these here parts to not miss a game. Our listeners go to the games and use our app to listen to the game in the stands.

As Kelly mentions, that was probably a lot easier in Texas than it is a lot of other places. Plus, you still have to have enough businesses in the area to be willing to buy. You know as well as the rest of us that businesses models and people can be different from region to region and town to town. On another thread about radio in Lamesa, TX, you posted this:

"I visited a Texas Panhandle AM daytimer at least 20 years back. This was a town of 6,000. The owner had been a pilar in the community. He wanted me to take over his station and eventually own it. I asked him how he did: $50,000-$60,000 a YEAR. My salary at my radio job at that time was about $52,000. My initial thought was if it took being this well known, respected and lived there his whole life guy to get $50,000-$60,000 a year, I could likely halve that amount for a guy not from there."

Wanting to support your local radio and actually being able to do it aren't the same. They're more similar in some areas than others.

As I recall KEZA got up quite far I used to vacation in Kimberling city for about 10 years. I can always count on 107.9 all the way from about Fort Smith all the way up past the state line in the Missouri and I could hear it driving on Highway 13.

It's a really good signal. On the I-40 eastbound run, you can hear it almost to Russellville. When I went to college in Fayetteville, I had a friend who lived in Clarksville and listened to it regularly at home. KEZA and KISR were the only stations she could hear on her entire drive between the two cities. I seem to remember you can hear it to about Joplin or Webb City on a good car radio heading north. Couldn't ever get it on a walkman in Joplin, though I could get KMXF on one there. I was just in Branson last week. I didn't try to pick up KEZA there, but I know you can get the stations on the Garfield tower (KAMO/KMXF) there. Magic 107.9 used to mention Noel, Pineville, and a few other cities in Southwest Missouri from time-to-time. "Magic 107.9 weather for Noel, West Fork, and all of Northwest Arkansas..."

 

[sox fan matt]

High school sports aren't the easy sell they used to be. Having said that, I don't know how you succeed in small town radio without carrying the local high school teams. It's just a lot more work than it used to be.



As Kelly mentions, that was probably a lot easier in Texas than it is a lot of other places. Plus, you still have to have enough businesses in the area to be willing to buy. You know as well as the rest of us that businesses models and people can be different from region to region and town to town. On another thread about radio in Lamesa, TX, you posted this:

"I visited a Texas Panhandle AM daytimer at least 20 years back. This was a town of 6,000. The owner had been a pilar in the community. He wanted me to take over his station and eventually own it. I asked him how he did: $50,000-$60,000 a YEAR. My salary at my radio job at that time was about $52,000. My initial thought was if it took being this well known, respected and lived there his whole life guy to get $50,000-$60,000 a year, I could likely halve that amount for a guy not from there."

Wanting to support your local radio and actually being able to do it aren't the same. They're more similar in some areas than others.



It's a really good signal. On the I-40 eastbound run, you can hear it almost to Russellville. When I went to college in Fayetteville, I had a friend who lived in Clarksville and listened to it regularly at home. KEZA and KISR were the only stations she could hear on her entire drive between the two cities. I seem to remember you can hear it to about Joplin or Webb City on a good car radio heading north. Couldn't ever get it on a walkman in Joplin, though I could get KMXF on one there. I was just in Branson last week. I didn't try to pick up KEZA there, but I know you can get the stations on the Garfield tower (KAMO/KMXF) there. Magic 107.9 used to mention Noel, Pineville, and a few other cities in Southwest Missouri from time-to-time. "Magic 107.9 weather for Noel, West Fork, and all of Northwest Arkansas..."

KAMO was a regular staple on Table Rock for me. The more interesting ones were 99.5 and 92.1, depending on conditions.

 

[Kent]

KAMO was a regular staple on Table Rock for me. The more interesting ones were 99.5 and 92.1, depending on conditions.

I always got KADI on 99.5 when I was in that area. 92.1, if I got anything at all, was KKOZ out of Ava.

Fayetteville and Branson are only about 60 miles apart. The problem is you can't get there from here. It's easily an hour and a half to two hour drive between the two. When my family went to Silver Dollar City on Friday, I decided to go beering in Arkansas. I should've known better, but, when I saw Mountain Home was only 58 miles from Branson, I put Rapp's Barren Brewing on my list of places to hit. The actual drive was more like 85 miles than 58 because I either had to go through Harrison or West Plains to get there! In addition to going around mountains, I also had to go around Bull Shoals Lake. The hills and mountains you have to drive around to get between the two areas keep most radio stations from Fayetteville from reaching the Branson area and vice-versa. I could get the strongest signals plus KY 3 and KOLR 10 from Springfield, MO when I went to college in Fayetteville, but I had better luck getting Tulsa on 95.5 and 99.5.

 

[bturner1]

The thing we did that makes high school sports work for us is not being reliant on one team that may or may not have a great season. There are ten schools in my county and we cherry-pick the best games to cover especially when two schools in the county are playing one another. We pitch it as getting all the schools, not just one. We can do fine with football and basketball but we don't normally do baseball unless a team is having a stellar year (as in winning district and beyond). It's not unusual to have to create features to include all those wanting to buy (such as player of the week and play of the game to sponsor). I admit I'm at a great station but I wonder if it has more to do with sense of community that is very strong here. Even businesses that can't afford much will kick in for football. I even thought of a monthly billing to make football more affordable if it comes to that. When I was on the border we had a 'youth booster' package where you got a commercial a day and one in every game we carried for a monthly fee on a 12 month contract which in today's dollars would be about $175 a month. We had 40-48 of those depending on the year.

 

[sox fan matt]

I always got KADI on 99.5 when I was in that area. 92.1, if I got anything at all, was KKOZ out of Ava.

Fayetteville and Branson are only about 60 miles apart. The problem is you can't get there from here. It's easily an hour and a half to two hour drive between the two. When my family went to Silver Dollar City on Friday, I decided to go beering in Arkansas. I should've known better, but, when I saw Mountain Home was only 58 miles from Branson, I put Rapp's Barren Brewing on my list of places to hit. The actual drive was more like 85 miles than 58 because I either had to go through Harrison or West Plains to get there! In addition to going around mountains, I also had to go around Bull Shoals Lake. The hills and mountains you have to drive around to get between the two areas keep most radio stations from Fayetteville from reaching the Branson area and vice-versa. I could get the strongest signals plus KY 3 and KOLR 10 from Springfield, MO when I went to college in Fayetteville, but I had better luck getting Tulsa on 95.5 and 99.5.

Yep lots of winding twisty roads I’m looking at you 21 and 23.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

and one kid of Colonel's that does want them isn't the right fit for operating the stations

I wonder what that exactly means. "the right fit" seems to be a catch-all excuse for people to not interact with others who do not meet their creeds.

Is his son some raging leftie who his conservative dad perhaps thinks is going to turn the whole station punk rock or something? I mean .... it is Arkansas and those baptists can get weird.

 

[Kent]

I wonder what that exactly means. "the right fit" seems to be a catch-all excuse for people to not interact with others who do not meet their creeds.
Is his son some raging leftie who his conservative dad perhaps thinks is going to turn the whole station punk rock or something? I mean .... it is Arkansas and those baptists can get weird.

I'm not sure why his other son wouldn't be the right fit, but I believe he still lives in Russellville and ran KARV when his dad owned it.

BTW - I believe the reason I remember Steve Womack is because he was the person running the ROTC Department at the U of A when I was there. He's quite-a-bit older than I. So, I don't think we were students at the same time. In addition to hearing about him from some of my friends in Army ROTC, he was probably the person who sent letters to the students inviting them to sit down and talk about possible military careers. I always threw those letters straight into the trash, but I usually glanced at them first.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I wonder what that exactly means. "the right fit" seems to be a catch-all excuse for people to not interact with others who do not meet their creeds.

Is his son some raging leftie who his conservative dad perhaps thinks is going to turn the whole station punk rock or something? I mean .... it is Arkansas and those baptists can get weird.

DEtails of what "not the right fit are" werent explained to me and i didnt ask further

 

[Kent]

The thing we did that makes high school sports work for us is not being reliant on one team that may or may not have a great season. There are ten schools in my county and we cherry-pick the best games to cover especially when two schools in the county are playing one another. We pitch it as getting all the schools, not just one. We can do fine with football and basketball but we don't normally do baseball unless a team is having a stellar year (as in winning district and beyond). It's not unusual to have to create features to include all those wanting to buy (such as player of the week and play of the game to sponsor). I admit I'm at a great station but I wonder if it has more to do with sense of community that is very strong here. Even businesses that can't afford much will kick in for football. I even thought of a monthly billing to make football more affordable if it comes to that. When I was on the border we had a 'youth booster' package where you got a commercial a day and one in every game we carried for a monthly fee on a 12 month contract which in today's dollars would be about $175 a month. We had 40-48 of those depending on the year.

As we were discussing on the Missouri board, that was, more or less, the strategy the old Shepherd Group used to make its stations in unrated Missouri markets into cash cows. It also sold everything, and I do mean everything. The Moberly stations once sold a fire drill at the high school to multiple insurance agencies in the area and then did a play-by-play on the scene of the fire drill. The reason that's relevant to this discussion is, about six weeks ago, Alpha Media, which acquired the former Shepherd stations from Digity, laid off the entire programming staff. Even going to multiple high schools and having a regional high school sports scoreboard show wasn't enough to keep everything going.

KMDO/KOMB in Ft. Scott, KS used to do pretty well for small town stations by selling "Sports Booster" packages to businesses in the area. I'm not sure how it worked during the year, but I can remember during the Fall hearing spots during regular programming with "Proud to be a KMDO/KOMB Sports Booster" at the end. Don't know how well that works today, but the owner bought the stations from his dad about 30 years ago and is now in his upper 60's. I would guess he's still making a living, but his kids would seem to have moved to Kansas City and, I would guess, aren't likely to want to pick up the mantle after he decides to hang it up.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

KMDO/KOMB in Ft. Scott, KS used to do pretty well for small town stations by selling "Sports Booster" packages to businesses in the area. I'm not sure how it worked during the year, but I can remember during the Fall hearing spots during regular programming with "Proud to be a KMDO/KOMB Sports Booster" at the end. Don't know how well that works today, but the owner bought the stations from his dad about 30 years ago and is now in his upper 60's. I would guess he's still making a living, but his kids would seem to have moved to Kansas City and, I would guess, aren't likely to want to pick up the mantle after he decides to hang it up.

KNLV Ord, NE sells "chanticleer sports booster" on a yearly basis.

I worked for a 50kw fm/25kw fm/1kw am in NW PA that did a ton of sports... several times on the 50kw fm when doing local sports, we had to take extra breaks just to burn through some spots that got sold!

 

[Kelly A]

I wonder what that exactly means. "the right fit" seems to be a catch-all excuse for people to not interact with others who do not meet their creeds.

My guess is a white Republican with a Southern upbringing.

 

[Mark Roberts]

The reason that's relevant to this discussion is, about six weeks ago, Alpha Media, which acquired the former Shepherd stations from Digity, laid off the entire programming staff. Even going to multiple high schools and having a regional high school sports scoreboard show wasn't enough to keep everything going.

However, that may have more to do with Alpha's need for debt service than any inherent lack of business appeal for high-school sports.

One factor not raised to this point is that school districts in the rural parts of many states have much lower enrollment than they once did. Certainly this is the case in northern Missouri. I suspect some schools that used to be able to field football teams may not be able to do so any longer. Basketball and baseball present less of a problem for such districts. I've seen another solution in Iowa, which happened to involve the two school districts where I spent time back in the age of vibrant AM radio. The smaller district's kids who want to play football go to the bigger district to play sports there. To be clear, they don't actually enroll in the larger district; they still attend classes in the smaller district. They just join the bigger district's team. This apparently is OK as long as the respective school boards mutually agree to it.

 

[Kent]

However, that may have more to do with Alpha's need for debt service than any inherent lack of business appeal for high-school sports.

I suspect it did. Having said that, anyone buying or starting a radio station in a small town is going to have debt unless that person is independently wealthy or inherits or is otherwise gifted the station. As we've discussed before, I don’t know how you make money in small town radio without loading up on high school sports. I just don’t know if that’s as easy to sell as it once was, and those owners are going to have to do a lot of that work themselves.

One factor not raised to this point is that school districts in the rural parts of many states have much lower enrollment than they once did.

While we probably won’t see it in small towns or in most of Arkansas anytime soon, parents not letting their kids play high school football due to the head injuries is also a problem. If/When that happens, small town radio will really be in a world of hurt. When I went to college in Arkansas and studied communications, we learned ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease was quite common in Arkansas. We wondered if it wasn’t the chicken coops polluting the water in the state, but, about ten or fifteen years later, we found out it was most likely football and cheerleading. Even in Missouri, we've seen a few suburban school districts disband their football teams.

 

[Mark Roberts]

While we probably won’t see it in small towns or in most of Arkansas anytime soon, parents not letting their kids play high school football due to the head injuries is also a problem. If/When that happens, small town radio will really be in a world of hurt. When I went to college in Arkansas and studied communications, we learned ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease was quite common in Arkansas. We wondered if it wasn’t the chicken coops polluting the water in the state, but, about ten or fifteen years later, we found out it was most likely football and cheerleading. Even in Missouri, we've seen a few suburban school districts disband their football teams.

Of course, in suburban districts, local radio coverage of high-school sports was never a factor.

I don't recall that the station in Warrenton (where I started my, um, career in radio) ever did much with high-school sports even though it covered the fast-growing suburbs of St. Charles County but, then again, it was a daytimer. The best they could have done would have been games on tape delay and reading scores during newscasts.

 

[Delete My Account]

Appears KLRC is buying KURM to simulcast 90.9.

Really makes me wonder what the plan is with 101.1 given that it doesn't appear particularly necessary once that simulcast is established but it's been running that way for years.

 

[Kent]

Appears KLRC is buying KURM to simulcast 90.9.

KLRC is buying 100.3 apparently to simulcast 90.9. I understand the deal just closed last week. The AM is still silent and on the block unless there's been some movement there I'm not aware of.

Really makes me wonder what the plan is with 101.1 given that it doesn't appear particularly necessary once that simulcast is established but it's been running that way for years.

I've wondered about that, too. When JBU bought 90.9 from the Cherokee nation, it indicated it would likely sell 101.1. I was later told the plans had changed, and it was hanging onto 101.1. I can't quite figure out why it bought 100.3 when the signal overlaps so much with both 90.9 and 101.1. I don't think it could move either of them much closer to Fayetteville. Granted, 100.3 only has to contend with KTCS-FM and KLSZ in Ft. Smith (unless there's an LPFM I can't think of nearby) while 101.1 is pretty much locked in due to 101.5, but I seem to remember Womack had already moved 100.3 about as far into NWA as was possible at the time.