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Shannon Farren Suspensions?

Loverofradio said:
This might be a case of a station that suffered by not moving to FM. Now it’s too late. KFI might not be around in a few (2 or 3 years). It was nothing for Audacy to axe WCBS.
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What IHeart could do with KFI is put BIN (the Black Information Network) on it. If I remember correctly, Los Angeles has a fairly good-sized African-american population and KFI's signal reach could take in the same base from San Diego to Palm Springs...

The only real problem I see with that is Riverside's KPRO which already carries the format for the Riverside and San Bernardino areas. If KFI were to take up this format, IHeart would have to 1) find another format for KPRO; 2) sell KPRO; or 3) cancel KPRO's license.
 
ted chittenden said:
What IHeart could do with KFI is put BIN (the Black Information Network) on it. If I remember correctly, Los Angeles has a fairly good-sized African-american population and KFI's signal reach could take in the same base from San Diego to Palm Springs...

The only real problem I see with that is Riverside's KPRO which already carries the format for the Riverside and San Bernardino areas. If KFI were to take up this format, IHeart would have to 1) find another format for KPRO; 2) sell KPRO; or 3) cancel KPRO's license.
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You have to remember that Riverside-SB is a completely separate radio market from LA-Orange County. And so is Palm Springs. What happens in these markets is irrelevant to LA and visa versa.
 
TheBigA said:
But if we just focus on LA advertisers, I really don't think any of them want to have their spots running in the middle of a negative political rant. Even if its local issues. That's just not the sales environment that works for them. We're not talking about national advertisers. It could be Pink's Hot Dog Shack.
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The advertisers on KFI have been, for the last 30 years, ones that seem to like the station and its approach. Many have the show hosts do live reads or request that specific hosts record their spots.

Quite obviously, most are familiar with the stations and are even listeners.
 
ted chittenden said:
What IHeart could do with KFI is put BIN (the Black Information Network) on it. If I remember correctly, Los Angeles has a fairly good-sized African-american population and KFI's signal reach could take in the same base from San Diego to Palm Springs...

The only real problem I see with that is Riverside's KPRO which already carries the format for the Riverside and San Bernardino areas. If KFI were to take up this format, IHeart would have to 1) find another format for KPRO; 2) sell KPRO; or 3) cancel KPRO's license.
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That would crater a ton of revenue that KFI brings along.

BIN isnt about traditional advertisers or a advertising. Youd be dumping nearly $24 mil a year, from data i found on google from 2023 that KFI makes.

BIN probably doesnt pull that in a year from its sponsors.

I've heard KFOO 1440 up here 2 or 3 times, but not KFI :)
 
ted chittenden said:
And what all of this is looking like is that AM listening is declining a great deal faster than previously thought. @Huff's cumes seem to prove that is very much happening at KFI.
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The cume and, particularly, TSL of all stations are declining. Pre-PPM, the LA Persons Using Radio was around 20%. Today, now called PUMM, it is around 5% to 6%.
 
ted chittenden said:
What IHeart could do with KFI is put BIN (the Black Information Network) on it. If I remember correctly, Los Angeles has a fairly good-sized African-american population
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It has one of the lowest percentages of African Americans of any major market. Around 6%. In the sales demos, Hispanics are now over 50% by comparison. That is why the "urban" stations focus mostly on Hispanics.
ted chittenden said:
and KFI's signal reach could take in the same base from San Diego to Palm Springs...
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KFI does not have a usable signal in Palm Springs.
ted chittenden said:
The only real problem I see with that is Riverside's KPRO which already carries the format for the Riverside and San Bernardino areas.
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And it does not cover the entire IE market.
ted chittenden said:
If KFI were to take up this format, IHeart would have to 1) find another format for KPRO; 2) sell KPRO; or 3) cancel KPRO's license.
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Why would they change the format on one of LA's highest billing stations?
 
TheBigA said:
It's very possible that she won't be coming back. Not necessarily because of anything she said or did. But because it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify two hosts in the midday block. The audience simply isn't big enough.

I could be wrong. Her name is still at the website. It could be temporary. But at some point, if there is to be a change, this is the block where it will happen.
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They do have a contract through 2027.

KFI Los Angeles And ‘The Gary And Shannon Show’ Extend Deal. | Story | insideradio.com KFI Los Angeles And ‘The Gary And Shannon Show’ Extend Deal.
 
ted chittenden said:
Well, if I'm reading Michael Hagerty's and @Huff's information correctly, that high billing is not going to last for much longer...
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Ted, at $20 million-plus a year in billings, it's like turning off the jet engines on a plane in level flight at 37,000 feet...it's gonna take a long time to come down.

As it does, gradually, iHeart reduces costs and keeps the margin of profit roughly even.

They've got a few years where they can do that.

Again----advertising time isn't sold on cume. If they can keep sponsors happy, they might have even more time.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
There is a way for KFI to regain relevance, but it will never happen with their current "more milquetoast radio" format. And bringing back reporters isn't the answer either. This 80's approach to radio is killing the station.
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Although John Koblyt lately has become more viperous and incendiary, especially going after Mayor Karen Bass, Governor Gavin Newsom, and the Cudehy school district official who advocated for the local street gangs to get into a grohnd war with ICE enforcement agents.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
They do have a contract through 2027.

KFI Los Angeles And ‘The Gary And Shannon Show’ Extend Deal. | Story | insideradio.com KFI Los Angeles And ‘The Gary And Shannon Show’ Extend Deal.
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I had one through 2023. I was out the door with 1,500 other iHeart employees (some with longer contracts) the second week of January of 2020.

I'm sure Robin Bertolucci and Chris Little had time left on their deals, too.

All it takes is money. And very few people in the business have full buyouts (where the owner has to pay you for the remainder of the contract, no matter how long that is). Those have mostly been replaced by somewhat more generous severance terms than you'd get without the contract.
 
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ted chittenden said:
Well, if I'm reading Michael Hagerty's and @Huff's information correctly, that high billing is not going to last for much longer...
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The whole market has a gradual decline if you factor in inflation in your comparison. There is no more risk for KFI than any other, and, in fact, in terms of percentages, KFI has done better than some other stations.
 
michael hagerty said:
Ted, at $20 million-plus a year in billings, it's like turning off the jet engines on a plane in level flight at 37,000 feet...it's gonna take a long time to come down.

As it does, gradually, iHeart reduces costs and keeps the margin of profit roughly even.

They've got a few years where they can do that.

Again----advertising time isn't sold on cume. If they can keep sponsors happy, they might have even more time.
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While I think your analysis is correct, your analogy isn't. Going by my memory of what I learned in high school physics, if you turned off all of the engines on a jet airplane traveling at a height of 37,000 feet above the earth, the plane will crash relatively quickly because of the accelerating speed of gravity per second.
 
ted chittenden said:
While I think your analysis is correct, your analogy isn't. Going by my memory of what I learned in high school physics, if you turned off all of the engines on a jet airplane traveling at a height of 37,000 feet above the earth, the plane will crash relatively quickly because of the accelerating speed of gravity per second.
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Yeah, but it's not going nose first in two minutes. It's more like 20 and relatively level on the way down.

I really thought I was introducing an interesting point of reference that everyone here would get:

If I asked everyone here yesterday to name ten Los Angeles radio stations, KFI would have been on most people's lists---including mine.

Finding out that there are 24 other Los Angeles radio stations with larger total weekday audiences was a surprise to me. Finding out which ones are close to KFI's weekly audience (LAist? Jose?) was an even bigger surprise.
 
TheBigA said:
Not sure what that proves. The most talked-about station here is KMZT.
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Yet, following Michael's thought, KMZT is unlikely to be mentioned by even most of us. I know I'd likely start with stations like KIIS, KOST, K-ROQ, KFI, KLOS, Jack, The Wave, K-earth, Power and even KNX and KABC. And about half the general population might name K-Love, KWKW, La Raza, Ke-Buena, La Nueva.

If you look at the Houston board, the translators that nobody can hear even a few miles from their transmitter get more talk than the "big guys".
 
davideduardo said:
If you look at the Houston board, the translators that nobody can hear even a few miles from their transmitter get more talk than the "big guys".
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Uh, those Houston translators go much farther than “a few miles”. Some can be heard 40+ miles away from the transmitter. I won’t restart the endless conversation as to whether they’re playing by the rules.
 


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