Which is an obvious but not entirely foregone conclusion. With an industry in distress, expect unexpected moves.
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Bloomberg 960 ending October 1
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With what programing? There's not enough syndicated product to fill a commercial Liberal Talker. And you're not going to pull potential listeners from KQED and KCBS. The primary reason Liberal Talk failed as a format is that without turning this into a political debate is that Liberal listeners do not want the same from talk radio as Conservatives. They tend toward more News oriented programming as opposed to hosts shouting at them. And you're definitely not doing it on 5kw AM as apposed to two FM signals.
No. He suggested that as an option.
Not to mention KALW and KPFA. Each of the four has carved out its distinctive lane pretty well.
I'll again point out that iHeart doesn't have the brand equity in talk in San Francisco that it has in many of its other markets. Even with KGO out of the picture now, it still will be hard to build that image at a new channel. Otherwise, if it's just about clearances, then it just feeds into the overall decline.
As with many other of these threads, those who know ain't talkin'. iHeart may still be figuring this out anyway.
Yes KALW and KPFA's audiences on average are San Francisco/Oakland/Berkeley crowd.
KCBS/KFRC-FM and KQED signals and audiences are Bay Area wide given their Ota erp.
I don't know if 960 AM is still a priority for Iheart given their record for aggressively promoting their apps for Phones and car dashboards. I heart themselves have been promoting their podcasts within their app. But then again it's about meeting where the current median demo is at as of 2024.
And as I said earlier, it doesn't matter. They wouldn't be aiming to sell the station locally. Most likely it would be run the way they operate Talk 1200 in Boston, which is airing all syndicated talk with no local presence. As long as the shows air, and the national spots are cleared in market #4, they will make money. There is national money for the format especially in the lead-up to the election.
Carrying popular national shows doesn't feed "the overall decline." It simply makes the programming available to people if they want it. Even in San Francisco, there are likely some people who would want to hear Glen Beck or Sean Hannity. Their interests shouldn't be ignored. Competitively, iHeart should have the opportunity to compete against other talk shows in that format.
It's the most likely, given what iHeart has done in other markets. My question is: whose decision was this: iHeart or Bloomberg?
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Ok cool.. just because it was a liberal format before doesn’t mean it couldn’t be again.. that’s the point I was making . And obviously you knew I meant Sacramento but didn’t answer the question of if they will still air on this station very telling…..
I mean when Ed Schultz was on talk radio he was very popular and many liberals tuned in to his syndicated show…. The point I was trying to make was that maybe they should do something similar to what kgo did with their station …. Hire talented local talent that is democrat…. Yes it wouldn’t be cheap but but if they put the effort in I think they would see results.
None of the Liberal Talk stations have succeeded from a financial or audience perspective because of how liberals use radio. KQED is the defacto "Liberal Talk" station in the Bay Area. A 5kW AM is not going to do anything in 2024 against FMs or podcasts etc.. It would be a futile effort and iHeart is not going to invest in staffing that.
We don’t listen to radio for TALK, cause it’s all Hohgwash. Keep it 🤷🏻♂️
Not true. KQED has no talk shows where hosts just present one side with their views unchallenged. Instead KQED has discussion shows and a mid-day call in show where listeners can talk about whatever they want.
The "defacto" liberal station is KPFA, the longtime voice of the Pacifica Foundation in Berkeley. But even they would challenge that label.
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Consider where the median audience goes when Bloomberg Radio leaves 960 AM San Francisco.
tunein.com
tunein.com
Yes it is a tiny fraction of 960 AM's audience can move to Tunein and get the Bloomberg feeds from there. But then again it's a shift on where to find the median audience at.
Bloomberg Radio | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn
Bloomberg Radio - Listen to Bloomberg Radio for free! Bloomberg News is a financial and business station providing businesses and influencers news and analysis. To listen to Bloomberg Radio, click the button below and stream free on any device, anywhere. Bloomberg...
Bloomberg TV US | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn
Bloomberg TV US - Get global business and financial news covering the top companies, industries and more 24 hours a day. Bloomberg TV US is a radio station that focuses on providing the latest business and financial news, as well as analysis and commentary from...
Yes it is a tiny fraction of 960 AM's audience can move to Tunein and get the Bloomberg feeds from there. But then again it's a shift on where to find the median audience at.
I must not have been clear. I was the News Director at KFBK, another iHeart station. I knew what to expect.
What I said was:
It's actually very nice inside. Beautiful studios, nice common areas.
Take a breath.
Now, take a look:
‘Real Talk 910’ Returns Progressive Talk To San Francisco.
iHeartMedia San Francisco will launch “Real Talk 910,” a progressive talk format on Tuesday, June 12, featuring such well known lib talk names as Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartman, Norman Goldman
They did it six years ago on 910.
@Huff may be able to provide numbers, assuming there were any.
Correct. He moved from KNBR to KSFO in July of 2000.
Mickey Luckoff, then GM of both KGO and KSFO, could have rolled the dice and put Limbaugh on KGO, but he saw an opportunity to build the conservative audience for KSFO.
That's entirely possible.
And---are we seeing the beginning of a trend? In New York, ESPN wanted a lower lease rate for a signal, so it didn't renew its deal with 98.7. They chose AM over FM because it was cheaper. Bloomberg seems to be choosing an app.
The real question is what becomes of these secondary and tertiary AMs like 960 when the syndicators decide they don't need radio.
Limbaugh's show was syndicated by ABC Radio, and carried on ABC O&Os in all markets but SF.
Limbaugh also replaced KGO's Owen Spann on the network.
Explain the logic underlying that conclusion, please.
Remember that you're talking about AM radio in San Francisco in 2024 and that, with costs slashed to the bone, stations aren't as profitable as they'd like to be (or, in some cases, at all).
Yeah, at that time. But Mickey could have chosen to change that. There would have been hell to pay from KGO's audience at that point, and, as I said, Mickey was hoping to drive KSFO's numbers.
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