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Hank Takes Down The Wolf

TheBigA said:
Not just local sports. iHeart sees value in sports in general nationally. It's trying to strengthen its portfolio of teams.

A low rated sports station is worth more to them than a medium rated music station. Because they own the content.
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I guess I'm confused about the whole local Vs. national thing. On the one hand, iHeart wants all of its national talkers cleared in as many markets as possible, yet on the music side, they do not nationalize in the way that would be most efficient at all because apparently local revenue is still pretty important. None of the big markets are national, and even in the smaller ones that run mostly national content, local brands are retained, if in name only.
The other question I've asked before that nobody has been able or willing to speculate on is why Bonneville never made a play for 104.5. Yes it's the worst FM in the market, but it still covers most of the market well, and they clearly see the value of being on FM, otherwise they probably wouldn't have blown up KBSG. Now with 104.5 in the hands of K-Love, I doubt they will be able to get their hands on it, but I'd be willing to bet that if another full market FM comes up for sale in this market, Bonneville will want it for sports talk. I have no speculation at all on what signal that might be.
 
bobdavcav said:
I guess I'm confused about the whole local Vs. national thing. On the one hand, iHeart wants all of its national talkers cleared in as many markets as possible, yet on the music side, they do not nationalize in the way that would be most efficient at all because apparently local revenue is still pretty important.
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Part of the reason is that local talk programming is expensive, and the audience tends to be older and more male. Advertisers are less interested in selling to that audience, so it's more efficient to sell the hosts nationally. Most markets still have local talk hosts in morning drive. Some markets have both local talk and syndicated talk. Cincinnati and Los Angeles are two that stand out. Two completely different stations.

For music, iHeart has syndicated music shows for most of its formats. But yes they prefer local when they can because the ad rates are higher. They can also have voicetracked hosts from outside markets to fill low rated dayparts. It's a big company and they have lots of options.

In the case of KJR, they had an established local sports station on AM that they moved to FM. Sports is a format that has access to advertising that doesn't exist for other formats. Ultimately, the decision is based on money. iHeart is very decentralized with lots of regional managers. They're less of a top-down company than others. Typically those kinds of decisions will be made either locally or regionally, rather than having a national strategy.

bobdavcav said:
I'd be willing to bet that if another full market FM comes up for sale in this market, Bonneville will want it for sports talk. I have no speculation at all on what signal that might be.
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I'm not so sure. The last time Bonneville bought radio stations was in 2018 after the Entercom purchase of CBS. They aren't big buyers of radio properties. They might be getting financial advice from Dave Ramsey, who is not a fan of getting in debt.
 
It is interesting that KIRO on 710 AM is #2, rare for an AM-only station. Only a couple of AM-only stations in large markets are usually #1: WISN, a Milwaukee talk station owned by iHeart. And WLW, an iHeart talk and sports station in Cincinnati, which also has a translator. WBZ, an iHeart all-news station in Boston, briefly hit #1 this summer.
 
Here's some good news for KPNW, in the 18-34 demo, they are ranked at #5 in a 3 way tie. KKWF fell to #11, and KPLZ a no show in the top 10 (18-34).

25-54: All 3 are not in the top 10
18-49: All 3 are not in the top 10.

So, most of the listeners to The Bull are under the age of 35?

RADIO RATINGS ROUNDUP, August 2025, Part III | Research Director, Inc.

We’ve put the band back together for another round of ratings reveals. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with the usual su
researchdirectorinc.com researchdirectorinc.com
 
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CTListener said:
The only country that I, a straight male, find intolerable is the sappy "boyfriend country" put out by the likes of Brett Young and Mitchell Tenpenny, But I'll even make exceptions for acts like those if I find the melody appealing enough. For instance, Thomas Rhett's main appeal is to straight women, and his current hit, "After All the Bars Are Closed," is obviously targeting them. But the tune is infectious enough that I turn it up whenever I'm in the car. I just don't do it when my brother is riding with me, lol.
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I'm sure you do turn it up! You're like "oh my god, this is my song, I've been listenin' to the radio all night long, sittin' around waitin' for it to come on, and here it is".
 
fordranger797 said:
That song sends me into a hate-filled rage where I want to rip the radio out of my car when it comes on. Just when I thought the Luke Bryan fad had ended, other artists took his place lol.
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You know, there are very few artists in rock, country or R&B, my three favorite genres, of which I can say I can't stand anything they've done, and that goes for Luke Bryan, too. Off the top of my head, the only country artists who are automatic station changers for me are Red Sovine (classic) and Walker Hayes (contemporary). Fortunately, the Hayes fad ended after only three songs, and my local classic country station never plays "Teddy Bear."
 
Miss Tuned said:
I'm sure you do turn it up! You're like "oh my god, this is my song, I've been listenin' to the radio all night long, sittin' around waitin' for it to come on, and here it is".
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I actually get like that for certain songs, and have for as long as I can remember. But the obsession only lasts for a couple of months, maximum. Fortunately, having no significant other, I could keep my 2021 "Famous Friends" obsession to myself, although I can't speak for the innocent bystanders who might have heard a few bars blaring from my car that summer as I drove by with the windows down!
 
Audacy screwed up by not keeping 94.1 country and programming it in a way that was complementary to 100.7 and vice versa.

They would've completely OWNED country music on the FM dial locally, there's zero chance anyone else would've tried country music on a full market signal, and they likely would've had two very profitable radio stations. Such an arrangement would've worked similarly to KPLX and KSCS in Dallas (Cumulus) or KASE and KVET in Austin (iHM).
 
MarkW said:
Audacy screwed up by not keeping 94.1 country and programming it in a way that was complementary to 100.7 and vice versa.
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The only example where Audacy had something like that was with WINS and WCBS in NYC. They inherited that combo. So it's not the kind of thing they do. My suspicion at the time was they kept 100.7 because it was their station and they knew the people. Same with why they kept WEEI in Boston.
 
6+ is meaningless as most on these boards know. KISW, KNDD remain on top 25-54 with KIRO-AM now showing up in third thanks to the M's great season. KBKS, KQMV and KJEB round out the top of the pack.

In the country battle HANK remains third 25-54. It's audience is substantially older than both of the other country stations. KUOW has great 6+ but very old as well and not a factor 25-54. In other words, Seattle radio remains very stable with the leaders overall and by format. With so many other audio choices it is hard for new formats-stations to knock off market leaders in core demos.
 
I'm honestly not surprised at KUOW. I would think that would be a huge advantage for them, as an older audience is more likely to donate. Is it true that it's easier for non-commercial stations to target older demos because they are more likely to get money from that audience rather than being subjected to the audience demands of advertisers?
 
Andy Travis said:
How is KUOW "not a factor" 25-54, exactly? It's the top news station in the market. Of course it's a factor.
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In fact according to this, it's #6 in 25-54 and #5 in 18-49:

RADIO RATINGS ROUNDUP, August 2025, Part III | Research Director, Inc.

We’ve put the band back together for another round of ratings reveals. The Ratings Experts from RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INC. – along with the usual su
researchdirectorinc.com researchdirectorinc.com

It also says KPNW rose to #5 in 18-34, while the wolf fell to #11.
 


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