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Palm Springs KKGX

KilowattKat

KilowattKat

It looks like last month in November, IVOX Media sold KKGX-AM and translator K256CU to RadioforSale LLC. They have a time brokerage agreement in place until the sale is finalized. No streaming available yet, so can't confirm that they are 'Palm Springs Community Radio' with Alternative Talk and New Music Discovery. From the new website, programs from American Public Media are featured, as well as BBC News, and other programming sources. I assume they are going from a commercial to a non-comm status.

KKGX ● Alternative Talk Radio ▪ Music Discovery ▪ kkgx.org

KKGX ● Alternative Talk Radio playing the music of generation X with BBC news, community programming, and music discovery on air and online from Palm Springs to the world.
www.kkgx.org www.kkgx.org
 
Louie Comella should never have bought that station and KWXY. He has consistently lost money on it, even when he was running nothing but old syndicated music shows.

A year or two back, we had a conversation about his running The Eighties Channel™ on KKGX. He avoided talking about compensation over so many calls, I stopped negotiating with him.

And I know of at least two people who did voicetracked shows for him who have told me they never got paid.

Let us not also forget the silent period back in 2021, while the sale was still pending. At one point he had a LMA for a translator with much better coverage of the Coachella Valley and was supposed to convert that to a purchase. Never happened and the LMA was cancelled after less than six months.

BTW, the new owners are a station broker:
rbr.com

Ivox Media’s Comella Spins A Palm Springs Radio Asset | Radio & Television Business Report

He's an individual who leads a production house for independent motion pictures. In recent years, he's also become an owner of broadcast radio and TV stations. Now, he's selling an AM with an FM translator in California's Coachella Valley. The buyer is a veteran broker.
rbr.com rbr.com

And don't ask what happened to his grandiose plan to turn the KWXY building into a media hub that was to include a movie studio, a theater venue, and a streaming platform.
 
A lot of what you brought up, among other issues with IVOX Media were discussed in this thread, the last big discussion regarding this joke of an operation. You might find this amusing...

radiodiscussions.com

Palm Springs - KWX-Why?

Regarding KWXY's FM translator. It's been on but without any audio for at least 3 months. Nothing. Dead air. No ID's. Nothing. 3 months. Obviously, there's nobody's in town. The AM is on but seems to be on autopilot. Is there anyone who knows why: 1) They can't get audio back on the...
radiodiscussions.com radiodiscussions.com

The status of KWXY is unknown still, the website is still up, streaming doesn't work, and no STA's on file. And is the broker purchasing KKGX to upgrade and resell?
 
KilowattKat said:
A lot of what you brought up, among other issues with IVOX Media were discussed in this thread, the last big discussion regarding this joke of an operation. You might find this amusing...

radiodiscussions.com

Palm Springs - KWX-Why?

Regarding KWXY's FM translator. It's been on but without any audio for at least 3 months. Nothing. Dead air. No ID's. Nothing. 3 months. Obviously, there's nobody's in town. The AM is on but seems to be on autopilot. Is there anyone who knows why: 1) They can't get audio back on the...
radiodiscussions.com radiodiscussions.com

The status of KWXY is unknown still, the website is still up, streaming doesn't work, and no STA's on file. And is the broker purchasing KKGX to upgrade and resell?
Click to expand...

I read that thread. It fits right in with the narrative I posted, don'tcha think, Kat? 😉

Here's what I know about RadioForSale, LLC. It's not going to answer your questions, though. (I don't think anyone can, TBH.)

They are based in Tucson. Principal owner is Patricia Anderson but George Kimble does most of the work. Started a little over ten years ago. They appear to have a programming consultant who I never heard of (but then, they probably never heard of me, either).

I don't remember ever seeing them as the broker of record for any station sales before now, but I doubt they plan on hanging on to it themselves. Palm Springs is a very difficult market for radio ad sales. When the Stolz bankruptcy was in progress I was asked to do an overview; the bulk of the ad revenue is going to the companies which own radio/TV combos, and they sell in combo. Biggest one is Entravision.

About half the population are "snowbirds" and don't listen to local radio when they are here. Most of the full-time residents who do listen are Spanish-speakers. David can confirm all this.
 
Last edited:
K.M. Richards said:
I read that thread. It fits right in with the narrative I posted, don'tcha think, Kat? 😉

Here's what I know about RadioForSale, LLC. It's not going to answer your questions, though. (I don't think anyone can, TBH.)

They are based in Tucson. Principal owner is Patricia Anderson but George Kimble does most of the work. Started a little over ten years ago. They appear to have a programming consultant who I never heard of (but then, they probably never heard of me, either).

I don't remember ever seeing them as the broker of record for any station sales before now, but I doubt they plan on hanging on to it themselves. Palm Springs is a very difficult market for radio ad sales; when the Stolz bankruptcy was in progress I was asked to do an overview; the bulk of the ad revenue is going to the companies which own radio/TV combos, and they sell in combo. Biggest one is Entravision.

About half the population are "snowbirds" and don't listen to local radio when they are here. Most of the full-time residents who do listen are Spanish-speakers. David can confirm all this.
Click to expand...
KWXY The 80's Channel... I can see that working. It's better than than what they have been doing. The last time they streamed it was mainstream rock with the slate of specialty shows. And they would be able to actually make a little $$$, a good idea considering their dire financial situation.

Which brings up a question, is IVOX still in business? That Dinah Shore building as you say was supposed to be a Media Center. with a studio for film production. I understand its closed down most of the time.
 
KilowattKat said:
KWXY The 80's Channel... I can see that working. It's better than than what they have been doing.
Click to expand...

Despite my misgivings about local ad sales, if someone bought KWXY and that translator Louie almost bought, I'd be happy to remote program my format the same way I run KRKE for Don Davis in Albuquerque. I have plenty of direct response ads to run in the breaks, as well as spots for my own 80's CD mail order site, so if someone just paid the electric bill the rest of the overhead would be minimal (ASCAP/BMI/SESAC/GMR licenses, annual FCC fee, phone routed directly to voicemail) ...
 
In case anyone is interested, here are the maps from FCCdata.org on the translators:

K256CU (99.1), current KKGX translator. Red contour is the CP to move it closer to Palm Springs.
1766103307313.png

K222DA (92.3), translator for KWXY.
1766103363716.png

K297BO (107.3), the much better translator Louie tried to buy. Currently attached to KDES-FM.
1766103450981.png

Notice the nearly-identical coverage area for 92.3 and 107.3 ... can you say "shared tower", boys and girls?
 
K.M. Richards said:
About half the population are "snowbirds" and don't listen to local radio when they are here. Most of the full-time residents who do listen are Spanish-speakers. David can confirm all this.
Click to expand...
Maybe 20% of the “winter” residents are snowbirds. Of the rest of the roughly 500,000 population, half are Hispanic, and much of that population is later generational, many not speaking Spanish but preserving the customs and traditions.

There are two types of snowbirds… those that stay a week or two at resorts and those that rent or own property and stay up to the roughly 5 months that keeps them from the high CA income taxes.

Like San Antonio and ABQ, the Spanish stations get less than 20% of ratings shares despite longer than average TSL.
 
davideduardo said:
Like San Antonio and ABQ, the Spanish stations get less than 20% of ratings shares despite longer than average TSL.
Click to expand...

And yet the radio ad revenue is nowhere near what it should be for a market of that size.
 
K.M. Richards said:
And yet the radio ad revenue is nowhere near what it should be for a market of that size.
Click to expand...
I meant to say that the permanent population is 500,000 not including the transients, who at any time are no more than 100,000.
 
K.M. Richards said:
In case anyone is interested, here are the maps from FCCdata.org on the translators:

K256CU (99.1), current KKGX translator. Red contour is the CP to move it closer to Palm Springs.
View attachment 11029

K222DA (92.3), translator for KWXY.
View attachment 11030

K297BO (107.3), the much better translator Louie tried to buy. Currently attached to KDES-FM.
View attachment 11031

Notice the nearly-identical coverage area for 92.3 and 107.3 ... can you say "shared tower", boys and girls?
Click to expand...
I thought it was K270AI 101.9, that Louie wanted to purchase from EMF, but the deal didn't close. I know 107.3 was the original translator for KWXY until Alpha purchased KDES, and flipped it to Mod FM. Garry Wing purchased KWXY and KKGX, and added the 92.3 translator. My prediction is KWXY will go dark permanently.

Side note: From what I can tell Connoisseur hasn't made any changes to KDES or Mod. No idea if they could be up for sale, though.
 
K.M. Richards said:
In case anyone is interested, here are the maps from FCCdata.org on the translators:

K256CU (99.1), current KKGX translator. Red contour is the CP to move it closer to Palm Springs.
View attachment 11029

K222DA (92.3), translator for KWXY.
View attachment 11030

K297BO (107.3), the much better translator Louie tried to buy. Currently attached to KDES-FM.
View attachment 11031

Notice the nearly-identical coverage area for 92.3 and 107.3 ... can you say "shared tower", boys and girls?
Click to expand...

While I am unable to read any of the maps, I have traveled through that area quite often in my younger days, the last time being in 2012 when what is now KGAY (92.1 mHz) was in Twentynine Palms or thereabouts. While I didn't notice any translator at 92.3 at that time, I'm sure one would have to be highly directional away from the Coachella Valley floor to protect KGAY-FM's signal.
 
KilowattKat said:
I thought it was K270AI 101.9, that Louie wanted to purchase from EMF, but the deal didn't close.
Click to expand...

You're right, Kat. I had too many tabs open.

But you have to admit that would make a pretty good signal for my format ... :sneaky:
 
KilowattKat said:
The market is also over radioed, in other words, too many stations fighting to get a slice of that small revenue pie.
Click to expand...
The market rank in radio revenue is about 15 places ahead of its population rank.

Still, too many stations. And an average age over 10 years above the national average .

The big radio success story here is KGAY, which is a well run and well programmed service for the huge LGBTQ+ community.
 
KilowattKat said:
I thought it was K270AI 101.9, that Louie wanted to purchase from EMF, but the deal didn't close. I know 107.3 was the original translator for KWXY until Alpha purchased KDES, and flipped it to Mod FM. Garry Wing purchased KWXY and KKGX, and added the 92.3 translator. My prediction is KWXY will go dark permanently.
Click to expand...
Gary sold the stations in March, 2021. He was known for the pioneering Comquest callout software and research service.
 
I still think I could run a combination of KWXY and K270AI on a shoestring, if they could be acquired at a reasonable price. You'd be surprised how low the overhead is at KRKE/K229CL.
 
K.M. Richards said:
You're right, Kat. I had too many tabs open.

But you have to admit that would make a pretty good signal for my format ... :sneaky:
Click to expand...
From what I can tell, EMF still owns it. They were willing to sell at one time, so maybe.....

IVOX paid $50,000 for KWXY, and the building was a separate real estate deal. With the devaluation over time, hmmm ...maybe half that or less, nowadays.
 


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