While it's not the only commercial operator to have done deals with K-Love/EMF recently, Cumulus would be my guess, too. Cumulus has seemed more willing than most operators to part with stations. I've been told that it may be turning a few licenses in outright in the not-too-distant future, and a deal to spin a few weaker FM signals off wouldn’t seem far fetched in the least.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Salem sells it's CCM stations to EMF
- Thread starter NYAZSporty
- Start date
While it's not the only commercial operator to have done deals with K-Love/EMF recently, Cumulus would be my guess, too. Cumulus has seemed more willing than most operators to part with stations. I've been told that it may be turning a few licenses in outright in the not-too-distant future, and a deal to spin a few weaker FM signals off wouldn’t seem far fetched in the least.
i see mid size and small town stations in charleston melbourne chattanooga florence sc fayetteville nc
I've been sworn to secrecy, but I've been told Cumulus has one AM and a companion FM translator on borrowed time. There's another Class A FM in the same building that I could totally see getting divested, too.
As part of the deal, EMF stations will get commercials airing on Salem stations:
www.insideradio.com
Coming Soon To Salem Stations: Commercials For EMF’s Stations.
Don’t be surprised if you hear plenty of commercials for “K-Love” or “Air1” in the coming months and years on Salem Media Group-owned stations. As part of its pending $80
Oooooh! I can't wait to get my very own K-Love cashmere sweater!!!As part of the deal, EMF stations will get commercials airing on Salem stations:
Coming Soon To Salem Stations: Commercials For EMF’s Stations.
Don’t be surprised if you hear plenty of commercials for “K-Love” or “Air1” in the coming months and years on Salem Media Group-owned stations. As part of its pending $80
Attachments
Do commercial Christian stations impact that advertising "pie" much or at all? Do they get agency ad dollars from McDonald's, Home Depot and the like that would have been going to secular stations, or is advertising on such stations mainly from advertisers specifically interested in reaching a Christian audience? Chick-fil-A or Hobby Lobby might "double dip" and buy time on both, perhaps?
KPRT-AM never had much advertising when I was there, other than from the Salvation Army and a few other religious based groups. They mainly used to sell time to pastors/preachers, I think. I have no idea if that's changed now that they have an FM translator, since I don't listen to the station.
That's how I remember WIHS Middletown, CT, as sounding when I lived in the state. Homegrown preaching and music some of the time, paid preaching/teaching the rest. And the advertising was strictly local -- religious book/music stores and other local businesses friendly to conservative Christians. No advertisers I'd ever heard on the commercial stations I regularly listened to (country, classic hits, sports).
Interestingly enough, the current Carter Broadcast Group building used to be a music publishing company. I learned that when I asked someone why there was an organ in the room the production studio’s window looked in to.
The music stations are highly rated, usually about #5 in their demo if not higher and, yes, it's a great demo for national advertisers who do buy.
94.9 KLTY – Your Life Inspired There's a listen live button.
You'll find the formatics are pretty much identical to a CHR and if casually listening, you might not realize it is a Christian format. So, yes, the format plays like secular radio, attracts an audience wanting 'family friendly' lyrics and subjects and those who go to church Sunday. The thing to remember, Christians come in all kinds of flavors and a small number are fire and brimstone or so fundamental it makes your head hurt. In other words, it is a substantial audience.
If you are thinking the preaching stations and some AM, then no.
94.9 KLTY – Your Life Inspired There's a listen live button.
You'll find the formatics are pretty much identical to a CHR and if casually listening, you might not realize it is a Christian format. So, yes, the format plays like secular radio, attracts an audience wanting 'family friendly' lyrics and subjects and those who go to church Sunday. The thing to remember, Christians come in all kinds of flavors and a small number are fire and brimstone or so fundamental it makes your head hurt. In other words, it is a substantial audience.
If you are thinking the preaching stations and some AM, then no.
Willing to play the role of the contrarian once again here, those signals that were licensed as commercial going non commercial, while the companies divesting them retain other stations in the market gives me pause.
Yes, many markets are over-signaled. There's also 50 types of shampoo at my local drugstore. Those signals were licensed for commercial operation. If an existing operator sells to EMF and keeps other signals, they've effectively prevented the signal going to a competitor or upstart. It no longer functions in the commercial marketplace.
Which could be argued is contrary to the free market. If the FCC said there's X number of commercial signals in this market, and EMF converts one to non-comm, the seller has effectively protected themselves from competition with the FCC's blessing, contrary to the intent of licensing the signal as commercial in the first place. If the original intent were adhered to, a company would have to turn it in (returning it to a future auction) or sell to a smaller operator. Which theoretically, could have fit with the FCC's (at times stated) desire to see more minority and small business ownership.
I get where the business IS today. Just pointing out a different angle. It's become so interesting to me in studying all of this what we choose to protect and don't, both as a society and in government. TikTok content creators wanted government to "protect their jobs" in the name of free speech, but were more than willing to ride gleefully over the "old media" with no real thought about those jobs or empathy for those displaced. In this case, some of us broadcasters want government to help broadcast radio by loosening ownership rules, and are glad these conversions to NCE were allowed, but that also shrinks opportunities for other commercial broadcasters and people with different business models. Everything's a trade off, and if it's "good" depends very much on on which side of the desk one is on.
Yes, many markets are over-signaled. There's also 50 types of shampoo at my local drugstore. Those signals were licensed for commercial operation. If an existing operator sells to EMF and keeps other signals, they've effectively prevented the signal going to a competitor or upstart. It no longer functions in the commercial marketplace.
Which could be argued is contrary to the free market. If the FCC said there's X number of commercial signals in this market, and EMF converts one to non-comm, the seller has effectively protected themselves from competition with the FCC's blessing, contrary to the intent of licensing the signal as commercial in the first place. If the original intent were adhered to, a company would have to turn it in (returning it to a future auction) or sell to a smaller operator. Which theoretically, could have fit with the FCC's (at times stated) desire to see more minority and small business ownership.
I get where the business IS today. Just pointing out a different angle. It's become so interesting to me in studying all of this what we choose to protect and don't, both as a society and in government. TikTok content creators wanted government to "protect their jobs" in the name of free speech, but were more than willing to ride gleefully over the "old media" with no real thought about those jobs or empathy for those displaced. In this case, some of us broadcasters want government to help broadcast radio by loosening ownership rules, and are glad these conversions to NCE were allowed, but that also shrinks opportunities for other commercial broadcasters and people with different business models. Everything's a trade off, and if it's "good" depends very much on on which side of the desk one is on.
Successful Commerical CCM stations like the ones Salem ran before selling to EMF do run ads for McDonald's, Home Depot and other advertisers you would hear on mainstream stations.
Thanks. The Connecticut station I cited a few posts back is primarily preaching and teaching, and the music it plays is softer and more overtly Christian than most CCM, so the lack of national advertising there makes sense.
It's been quite awhile since I lived in Dallas, and I was never much of a KLTY (then at 94.1) listener. I rarely listened unless I was at a restaurant or retail establishment that listened or in the car with a KLTY listener. I remember, however, that it used to take most of the same ads the other commercial stations took. I seem to remember a handful of Christian-specific ads on KLTY that I didn't hear anywhere else, but it was mostly indistinguishable from KVIL (then an AC) in terms of its formatics and commercial load.
KLTY didn't take alcohol or casino ads (and the casinos in Shreveport/Bossier were all over radio and TV at the time), and I would guess that never changed after Salem took over. Bonneville, which is church-owned, used to have similar policies, but it used to be known to not audit its stations' books too carefully. Stations took alcohol ads and labeled them "beverage," though casino ads were always strictly forbidden. Not sure if anyone ever tried to take them and pass them off as "entertainment," but I don't recall ever hearing casino ads on Bonneville stations in Dallas or St. Louis. Salem has never had a similar lax reputation.
I hear ads for casinos on the Bonneville Seattle cluster regularly. They may have changed that policy.
They also play drinking songs on their country stations.
But the FCC does not consider anything except technical requirements in licensing stations. On FM, they dedicated a portion of the band to non-com stations, but did not prohibit using a 92.1 and above station as a non-profit operation.
So, there is no restriction on non-commercial operation on the rest of the FM band... as well as anywhere on AM... there is no legal or moral prohibition for them.
In many markets, there are too many stations for most to be profitable. Going back to the 1950's FCC financial reports, for decades we have had around half of all being unprofitable. Some small stations made no money, but the owner paid themselves a salary and got lots of trade deals, but that is not how larger markets work. So removing some from the ad-based market can make things better for the remaining stations.
How about Luke Combs' huge hit, "When It Rains It Pours," which tells of a chain of lucky events starting with winning $100 on a scratch ticket? Gambling! That's a sin! Still, hard to imagine any country station banning one of the biggest songs of the past decade.
- Status