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KSL Salt Lake CIty Hits Big #1, Fires Program Director

In the latest ratings, KSL 1160 and 102.7, owned by Bonneville, not just reached #1 but is approaching double-digit ratings, moving from the 5s to the 9s. I'm not sure why. We just had an election but it was off-year. Utah didn't have a governor's race and Salt Lake City didn't have any important local races. So what happened that KSL has nearly three times the listeners as its iHeart competitor KNRS?

Meanwhile, what does Bonneville do? It announces it is "consolidating" its digital, broadcast and print operations, which leads to the termination of Program Director Kevin LaRue and 29 others.
 
In the latest ratings, KSL 1160 and 102.7, owned by Bonneville, not just reached #1 but is approaching double-digit ratings, moving from the 5s to the 9s. I'm not sure why. We just had an election but it was off-year. Utah didn't have a governor's race and Salt Lake City didn't have any important local races. So what happened that KSL has nearly three times the listeners as its iHeart competitor KNRS?

Meanwhile, what does Bonneville do? It announces it is "consolidating" its digital, broadcast and print operations, which leads to the termination of Program Director Kevin LaRue and 29 others.
Now, if they can just bring that ratings success over to KTAR-FM in Phoenix....
 
They have just sold their San Francisco cluster, and are consolidaing the rest of their operations. Some good books in a fairly minor market like SLC are not going to be enough to change the macro picture here or save a bunch of jobs. It does seem pretty cruel, and it is. Welcome to media in 2025!
 
Some good books in a fairly minor market like SLC are not going to be enough to change the macro picture here or save a bunch of jobs. It does seem pretty cruel, and it is. Welcome to media in 2025!

Is SLC a fairly minor market? It once was. But now it's #26, just after San Antonio and St. Louis. It just got a National Hockey League franchise.

And KSL-AM-FM are the flagship stations of Bonneville Broadcasting, an arm of the Mormon Church. KIRO-FM Seattle does very well. But Bonneville can't seem to figure out how to program KTAR-FM Phoenix.
 
I think what I was driving at was that a point or three bump in the book in SLC isn't going to save 30 jobs. It wasn't a slam at the SLC market. If you get rid of 30 people that is a major decision and a major shift. Sounds like it would have happened even if they had gone up from a 5 6+ to a 15!
 


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