If the signal is going away, why not just shut it down now. This is why I still think a new format is on the way. With a March 1 start date. Waiting for the Cal season to end is not a factor, since 560 never carried the games in the first place.
-
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
560
- Thread starter K108 Sacramento
- Start date
Until February 12, all the KSFO (810) talk programming continued on KZAC (560) whenever KSFO aired Cal games. We have no way of knowing whether that was done to fulfill contractual obligations that were previously in place, but that would be a reasonable guess. The games never were simulcast. So there were two likely scenarios for the duration of today's Cal basketball game:
1. The loop would stop on 560 and whatever would normally have been on 810 would have aired on 560.
2. The loop would continue and whatever would normally have been on 810 was pre-empted altogether.
The unlikely scenario would have been for the game to be on 560. What would have blocked 560 from changing format or going silent was the fact that it was airing the programming that would have been heard on 810 but which was pre-empted by the Cal broadcasts.
Whatever block that there was before now appears to be gone.
Subsequent steps for 560 once the KSFO format was moved to 810 have unrolled at a slow pace, as I've mentioned before. Likely scenarios (choose one):
1. 560 goes silent. (my vote)
2. 560 adopts some other talkie format. (but those niches are mostly filled up by KNBR, KTCT, KGMZ; KSFO, KTRB, KNEW, KKSF, KDOW, ....)
3. 560 is sold to an ethnic broadcaster. (wouldn't surprise me)
4. 560 airs continuous sea-lion barks from Pier 39. (now there's a Sound of the City)
Right now, we're in Kremlinology mode here.
1. The loop would stop on 560 and whatever would normally have been on 810 would have aired on 560.
2. The loop would continue and whatever would normally have been on 810 was pre-empted altogether.
The unlikely scenario would have been for the game to be on 560. What would have blocked 560 from changing format or going silent was the fact that it was airing the programming that would have been heard on 810 but which was pre-empted by the Cal broadcasts.
Whatever block that there was before now appears to be gone.
Subsequent steps for 560 once the KSFO format was moved to 810 have unrolled at a slow pace, as I've mentioned before. Likely scenarios (choose one):
1. 560 goes silent. (my vote)
2. 560 adopts some other talkie format. (but those niches are mostly filled up by KNBR, KTCT, KGMZ; KSFO, KTRB, KNEW, KKSF, KDOW, ....)
3. 560 is sold to an ethnic broadcaster. (wouldn't surprise me)
4. 560 airs continuous sea-lion barks from Pier 39. (now there's a Sound of the City)
Right now, we're in Kremlinology mode here.
I choose 4 (because I love that idea!). High School station KCEA at one time used to air a live audio feed of ocean sounds from Fort Point during evening hours. Listening to the sea lions is better than what's currently on 560... or the talk radio past!
That would still make some people barking mad!
As retune loops go, this is among the most obnoxious of all time. Also a lost opportunity to promote digital listening.
But it has a seal of approval!
Interesting concept. Could this be a candidate for all digital HD? Makes as much sense to me as any of the other scenarios.
Dave B.
Realize that the purpose of the loop is to repel listeners. When viewed from that perspective, this may be the biggest success Cumulus has all year.
Some would argue that Cumulus already had been doing a good job at repelling listeners.🤣
They did a fine job of repelling me over 10 years ago when they purged KGO of almost everything that had been worth listening to. In the years since, they had walked much of it back, but the damage was done, and I never went back.
c
Just to play devil's advocate: How do you know they walked much of it back if you never went back?
It depends on which listeners. When Cumulus came in, they just looked strictly as expense/revenue situation. They had a lot of aging hosts who were getting paid a lot of money for shows that weren't bringing in as much as they had under Disney. But their 6+ ratings were still pretty good. Only all the listeners were over 55.
The feeling was how to retain that audience for less. They tried to talk the hosts into accepting less money. You can guess how that went. Next was replacement. That alienated the previous listeners. The problem was there was no next generation of replacement audience. That's led to the situation now where there is no local talk in San Francisco. I think we're going to see the same thing in a lot of cities.
The problem specifically with 560 is that talk listeners are creatures of habit. I suspect Cumulus looked at the Nielsen numbers and saw that the audience simply didn't get the message that they were moving the shows to 810. So now they're taking a more drastic approach, because people didn't get the message when it was said nicely. At some point, the only resort is hitting them over the head.
Honestly, they're only doing this if the end goal is to turn the transmitter off. There's next to nothing that would be feasible for an AM signal after the existing audience gets blown out because no one else is going to tune in.
In theory they could still offload it to an ethnic broadcaster, but ... where would be the return on investment be for them?
It is basically the equivalent of hitting the listener over the head with a frying pan, so that checks out.
I think the lack of a replacement audience is going to hit commercial radio of all varieties very hard in the coming decades. I did not realize that there is no other local talk in Market 4. I know it is AM, and I suspect Cumulus doesn't have any money to invest in programming, but wouldn't it make sense for somebody to take over 560 (maybe by an LMA?) and try non-political younger oriented talk like that unmentionable but very successful FM talker in Orlando? Get some college age people with some experience in radio, give them some social media promotion, and let 'em cut loose?
And y'all thought I was joking.
It would have been more precise to say that there's no local commercially-supported talk (that isn't sports). There's Forum on KQED-FM and Your Call on KALW(FM), both weekday mornings, and probably even something on the planet known as KPFA. I don't know about the ethnically oriented stations.
Besides, who needs talk radio when you have social media that's not constrained by the physics of radio?
The question always is like who? When you talk about "younger oriented talk," that still is over 50. About 80% of the audience is over 45.
It doesn't get much better for sports talk. In that format, more than 65% is over 45, and 45% is over 55. That's on FM. So AM won't help.
Cumulus is investing money in syndicated conservative talk radio and they have a local staff of sports talk hosts at KNBR-FM.
Taking that an unfortunate step further, who needs terrestrial radio when Gen Z has social media not constrained by the physics of radio? If broadcast radio is to survive as a business, they have to get back into content creation, not simply playing records or running podcasts. Otherwise, the audio world will simply be what's on the web, and I doubt there will be much tolerance for commercials there. Sports radio is a good example of content creation. Talk hosts, if they are good, can't be found anywhere except on the radio or its streamed webcast. The games themselves obviously can't be found anywhere except on live TV or the radio. Radio needs to keep content creation in mind as the route to future viability and success. Kids aren't going to listen to political shouting - it turns them off - but somebody under 40 is listening to that unmentionable station in Orlando, and quality advertising follows on it. Of course, not every station can do sports and younger oriented talk. But that's where the creative types in broadcasting will step in and create new programming formats. They might need some new money and new ownership groups to do it. But letting all of the millions of dollars of radio broadcasting infrastructure rust away because nobody will evolve radio to a new future seems such a waste.
The opportunity for youth oriented talk radio with college age hosts should be done by college/university radio like the above mentioned KALW. Are they doing that on 'Your Call'. Looking at their website, obviously not. So, the blame for not providing that outlet lies with public college radio by not providing that service to the students.