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Washington EMF (K-Love, Inc.) to expand in Spokane and Tri-Cities

dxsphere

dxsphere

Spokane is currently the largest market in the Pacific Northwest without a K-Love affiliate, and it was only a matter of time before K-Love enters Spokane,. Now it's set to happen, but how it will enter came as a surprise (should the sell succeed)!

I was checking out fcc.today for any digital applications, and I found AGN (assignment) applications were filed for two local/semi-local stations in eastern Washington.

It looks like K-Love is set to purchase KSPO 106.5 Dishman and KGDN 101.3 Pasco from Liberty Broadcasting, and I've got to be honest, this actually puts me in a good mood, and I hope the sell succeeds.

If K-Love does get KSPO and KGDN, the only thing I'm certain is that K-Love will expand to Spokane and Air1 will expand to Tri-Cities. What I'm uncertain about is which signals each network will go to. Air1 is already in Spokane on KTSL 101.9 and in Coeur d'Alene on K298BQ 107.5, while K-Love is in Tri-Cities on KRKL 93.3 and translator K276EU 103.1.

In Spokane, they could put K-Love on KTSL, and put Air1 on KSPO, since they typically put K-Love on the strongest signal; but they may decide to keep Air1 on KTSL and put K-Love on KSPO instead. As for the Coeur d'Alene translator, my guess is that they will keep Air1 on the translator as they would be competing with Shine on 94.9 if they flipped 107.5.

In Tri-Cities, they're definitely keeping K-Love on KRKL's monster signal, and my guess for KGDN is that they may put K-Love on it as well to better serve the immediate Tri-Cities vicinity. The 103.1 translator would air whatever network they don't put on KGDN, or could attempt to bring Radio Nueva Vida to Tri-Cities.

That is my speculation right now, but fingers crossed this succeeds... and please bring KTAC on the chopping block too. Moses Lake could use Air1.
 
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This is not surprising that Tom would want to sell. Isn't he in his 80s now?
KGDN will go to Air 1, 99.5% chance. 93.3's signal is just fine throughout the 3 Cities. KSPO will go to K-LOVE. I'm surprised EMF didn't go for KEWU when they planned to shut it down.

If K-LOVE wants to change callsigns, KLIN is available for 106.5 FM. "Inland Northwest"
And KAOT is available for the 101.3 "Air One Tri Cities"
 
Yeah, I don't know but I hope his other stations follow. That would expand Air1 across the rest of Eastern WA and potentially bring Radio Nueva Vida to a heavily Hispanic region.

I would agree that KGDN will go to Air1, while KSPO would go to K-Love despite being the weaker signal. K-Love currently has some nulls between Tri-Cities and Prosser where neither KRKL nor KYKV can reach, but are somewhat better covered by K276EU, which broadcasts from Badger Mtn. along with PLR's 103.9 translator.

As for callsigns, I would guess K-Love would keep KSPO, while KGDN (Good News?) is a toss-up. KLIN wouldn't make sense for 106.5 because its signal over goes so far outside of Spokane, KLGW would be a better fit for KLIN because it covers a larger portion of the Inland NW with its 100 kW signal. KAOT would make sense for Tri-Cities though, if they decided to change.
 
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And it probably won't make much of a dent against the established, venerable Shine 104.9. Sometimes it reaches #1 in the Nielsens.
 
Air 1 has been on KTSL for 17 years. I am torn on whether they would move Air 1 after such long time. I feel like this is going to be like Minneapolis where they bought two signals sold one but put Air 1 on the full power signal they kept and let Klove stay on the translator. Now in the tri cities KGDN covers areas that KRKL does not and 93.3 is a rimshot. I could see Klove coming to 101.3 similar to situations in Macon and Gainesville GA where there is a lot of overlap.
 
speer360 said:
KJYR has been for sale for a awhile too.. Isn't running full time Xmas music year round?
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Nope. KJYR is basically Positive Life Radio with a different branding - owned by the same entity too. I'm not sure why it's even listed for sale, since the Growing Christian Foundation has been expanding its footprint, not retracting it.
 
RadioRonnie285 said:
Air 1 has been on KTSL for 17 years. I am torn on whether they would move Air 1 after such long time. I feel like this is going to be like Minneapolis where they bought two signals sold one but put Air 1 on the full power signal they kept and let Klove stay on the translator. Now in the tri cities KGDN covers areas that KRKL does not and 93.3 is a rimshot. I could see Klove coming to 101.3 similar to situations in Macon and Gainesville GA where there is a lot of overlap.
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I'm thinking the same thing. KTSL has a huge signal advantage against Worship 24/7's puny 95.7 translator. Flipping 101.9 to K-Love and putting Air1 would decrease that advantage, though regardless of where Air1 ends up, it'll still have a wider coverage area than Worship 24/7.

On the other hand, if they flipped KTSL to K-Love, it would significantly widen that network's reach, giving it some sort of coverage in North Idaho and on the Palouse to the south, where no K-Love stations exist. KTSL's signal overlaps slightly with KRKL Tri-Cities and KLGW Grand Coulee.

As for Tri-Cities, KRKL has a translator on 103.1 that gets out quite well and syncs with KYKV Selah on the same channel, providing continuous K-Love coverage on 103.1 along virtually the entirety of Interstate 82, with the exception of a few nulls; this allows K-Love listeners to not have to change the channel when travelling between Yakima and Tri-Cities. If they decided to flip 101.3 to K-Love instead, the translator would go Air1, which would break the continuous K-Love coverage on 103.1, and listeners would begin to notice the change around Prosser. A silver lining for DXers though, as I'd be able to tell the difference between K276EU and KYKV.
 
speer360 said:
For Money.
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Well obviously they'd get money (smartass), but why would they make the decision to sell in the first place. As I said above, the Growing Christian Foundation has been expanding in the last several years, entering Portland and the Gorge area, while signing on stronger signals in Omak and La Grande. If they are wanting to sell, there's got to be some underlying reason - perhaps already crowded religious market (too much competition), or the signal is costly to maintain. I couldn't see an organization like this just selling just "for money".
 
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I would NOT be surprised if Positive Life Radio eventually gets a western WA signal. Perhaps the new KJET Union at 105.7? Then they can tout their expansion to the Puget Sound.
The KLPL-91.1 signal does make it to Baker City, but it's spotty. It's the hand-off area between PLR and KTSY (as a full-power 91.9 is based there). Interestingly, both PLR and KTSY are operated by Seventh-Day Adventist organizations.

KJYR only has Garrett Michaels from the PLR network. No Chris & Liesl, no Dave Arthur (he's on KEEH), no Brandi Lanai.
 
Joy 104.5's fb page hasnt been updated in almsot 2 1/2 years, the website is 3-4 months out of date and the stream doesnt work
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
Joy 104.5's fb page hasnt been updated in almsot 2 1/2 years, the website is 3-4 months out of date and the stream doesnt work
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and it looks like most of the Joy 104.5 talent works elsewhere now.. like the mornign team doesnt even appear to work together anymore and about half of the shine 104.9 talent isnt local
 
crainbebo said:
Interestingly, both PLR and KTSY are operated by Seventh-Day Adventist organizations.
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Same with KEEH/KKEH (Upper Columbia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists)
 
dxsphere said:
Well obviously they'd get money (smartass), but why would they make the decision to sell in the first place. As I said above, the Growing Christian Foundation has been expanding in the last several years, entering Portland and the Gorge area, while signing on stronger signals in Omak and La Grande. If they are wanting to sell, there's got to be some underlying reason - perhaps already crowded religious market (too much competition), or the signal is costly to maintain. I couldn't see an organization like this just selling just "for money".
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I think it’s cost. running 5 signals that are all synchronized as well. Plus leases for towers. Adds up.
 
EMF knows what they're doing. They have no debt, always pay cash, base their offers on pop counts, and with two formats, inexpensive to operate. They have a good formula.

I've known Tom Read for many years, he likely wants to smell the roses, and he deserves to.

Tom does have a long history of grabbing formerly-used call signs... KSPO Spokane, KGDN formerly used by Kings Garden, etc.
 
I would agree with that. I don't see there being any new call sign requests for KSPO or KGDN, at least not right away. EMF did file the other day to convert the licenses to non-commercial upon closing.
 
First call sign request filed - KSPO and KFIO to exchange call signs. This means K-Love will probably change the call letters on 106.5 once they take control. I doubt they'll change it to 'KLIN' as Taylor suggested. KLSO is available, along with KLSK if they decided to take it from their Great Falls station. Or perhaps they'll take one of their call signs from across the country. Who knows.
 


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