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Sports to replace KNX News simulcast at 97.1 FM

True and also for the news part with KNX there were issues over who Audacy gets to replace the soon to be former CBS Radio News that was a factor in getting KNX-FM to flip to sports.
No. They are still running the news on KNX 1070, so they still have to replace CBS News Radio. It remains to be seen whether that is by selecting another TOH news program, or re-working their news wheel to eliminate the national newscast.
 
Waivers yes, but there is still a cap, and I’ve seen no evidence that the cap will go away completely.

A cap that isn't enforced is no cap at all. Carr has been talking about eliminating them permanently.


 
This year alone, Audacy added FM simulcasts to two large market Sports stations: 670 WSCR Chicago is now on 104.3. And 560 WQAM Miami is now also on 104.3. KWFN San Diego started slowly but now is tied for #12. So Audacy realized we better do this now in LA before someone beats us to it.

But there is no weak FM station in the Audacy cluster. Classic Hits KRTH is #3. Jack-FM KCBS-FM #4. Rhythmic AC KTWV #6 (tied with KNX-AM-FM) and Classic Alternative KROQ is #9. In the recent past, KROQ would have been the logical station to sacrifice. It was usually beaten by iHeart Alternative KYSR. KROQ was near the bottom of the ratings. But when it began adding more Classic Alternative titles, it saw a boost in 25-54 and now is ahead of KYSR.

The crazy thing is, KNX does really well too! For years, KNX, as an AM-only station, was almost never in the top ten. But now it's #6. The last time the BIA Kelsey list of top billing stations in the U.S was made available for stations outside the top ten, KNX was somewhere around #20. That's great!

But it seems Audacy weighed its options and believed this was the only way to get an FM sports station in Market #2. KNX still has its 50,000-watt, non-directional, clear-channel 1070 frequency. And as others have speculated, if the FCC relaxes maximum-stations-in-a-market rules, Audacy could find another FM simulcast for KNX.
 
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A cap that isn't enforced is no cap at all. Carr has been talking about eliminating them permanently.



Those articles are a year old. That’s my point. Nothing seems to be happening there.
 
I fully expected them to feature syndicated content somewhere during the day, I'd just so much rather it be from Westwood One Sports than BetMGM. But between Williams being at the helm and the fact that the "BetMGM Tonight" Instagram account is following their new Instagram page... I'm not exactly optimistic 😆
BetMGM was absorbed by the new Westwood One Sports Network, so no longer a separate entity. WW1 is now a mishmash of straight-up sports talk and some betting oriented content.
 
KRRL is probably the sacrifice, if it were to happen.
Could be. The nine big Los Angeles FM signal footprints, in order from the largest, are KPFK, KBIG/KLOS (tie), KRTH, KTWV, KRRL, KCBS, KLVE, and KKGO. But of those, only KRRL has lackluster ratings, ranging 1.6 to 2.0 over the past half year. KPFK of course doesn't count.

The crazy thing is, KNX does really well too! For years, KNX, as an AM-only station, was almost never in the top ten. But now it's #6. The last time the BIA Kelsey list of top billing stations in the U.S was made available for stations outside the top ten, KNX was somewhere around #20. That's great!
I wonder how much of the audience 97.1 built for KNX will follow it back to 1070. If a significant portion does, this could make for an interesting strategy for prolonging the lives of AM properties. Take an FM you are already going to flip, "pop up store" flip it to your lagging AM news station for a while, and then send the newly built audience to AM upon flipping the FM to what you had planned all along.
 
Why would you downgrade a brand that is the company’s best performer in SF?
No reason to at all. In the SFBA, KCBS is a strong and consistent #2 in a market that is historically strong in news. (NPR member station KQED is usually #1, except in the month before Christmas, for reasons that shouldn't need explaining to anyone on this board.) And the KCBS/KFRC simulcast has been going on since 2008, so 18 years. At this point, the audience is mostly on the FM side, except for special cases like fringe listening, terrain shadowing or vehicles with AM-only radios. Audacy already has an FM sports station (KGMZ "The Game") which is a weak second to the legacy sports station in the market, KNBR, which also has an FM simulcast on a stronger signal. So it seems to me that unless Audacy wanted to flip the card table over to see what happened, switching 106.9 for 95.7 makes no sense.
 
I hope Ben remains buried in overnights. He talks a big game but after actually seeing him on some regional sportsnet filler programming, it's clear he has a massive Napoleon complex thing going on. I'd love if they hired JRSportBrief who lost his nightly show in the Infinity Sports Network shuffle, but I don't know his relation to the region, and they're going to need folks who can talk LA sports.

I also think any ideas of simulcasting between 97.3 in SD and 97.1 are a little far fetched. Aren't these two separate markets with separate sports teams and separate fan bases? What's the commonality aside from them both being in Southern California? I feel like any "simulcasting" will only occur if they happen to both be running the same syndicated show.

I also thought of a small, silly reason for me to be amped about this- my wife bought me a DAB radio after a trip to London that I keep in the kitchen. Naturally the DAB option is useless here, but it does have AM and FM bands. However, the AM band has a weird step to it; I can't simply tune from 550 to 560 and 570, etc. The closest I can get to 710 is 711. The closest I can get to 570 is 567! But I for sure can tune into 97.1 on the FM side 😆
 
Have you looked into if there is a way to switch the MW side of your British radio to10 khz increments? There are some radios where it can be done with a few touches of the buttons.

As for KNX getting dumped back onto the MW only, could this be the beginning of the end for all-news stations? When Audacy got rid of WCBS one could argue that they were concentrating on the perennially more-successful WINS.

Loosing the FM has will almost-certainly cause the lose of many listeners for KNX.
 
Could be. The nine big Los Angeles FM signal footprints, in order from the largest, are KPFK, KBIG/KLOS (tie), KRTH, KTWV, KRRL, KCBS, KLVE, and KKGO. But of those, only KRRL has lackluster ratings, ranging 1.6 to 2.0 over the past half year. KPFK of course doesn't count.


I wonder how much of the audience 97.1 built for KNX will follow it back to 1070. If a significant portion does, this could make for an interesting strategy for prolonging the lives of AM properties. Take an FM you are already going to flip, "pop up store" flip it to your lagging AM news station for a while, and then send the newly built audience to AM upon flipping the FM to what you had planned all along.
The under-40 audience won't listen to AM. Moving all news to 1070 really means a chunk of the current KNX audience will stop listening. The only alternative is to start promoting the heck out of smart speakers -- a small but growing segment of the audience. Thanks to Audacy's recent deal with Nielson, the on-air and streaming audience is combined into a single rating. Thus, a 0.4 stream rating online can help prop up sales revenue for KNX.
 
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I hope they hire Ben Maller to host afternoons or nights

I hope Ben remains buried in overnights. He talks a big game but after actually seeing him on some regional sportsnet filler programming, it's clear he has a massive Napoleon complex thing going on. I'd love if they hired JRSportBrief who lost his nightly show in the Infinity Sports Network shuffle, but I don't know his relation to the region, and they're going to need folks who can talk LA sports.
JR would be fantastic in either mornings or late afternoons but he's in Atlanta, I think. Ben is better where he is and he's said on air that his wife works overnights too, so I don't think he'd like doing mornings. He's filled in on Roggin and Rodney and done ok.

I think Jay Mohr should be considered for mornings, he did a great midday show on Fox Sports Radio to replace Jim Rome's when Jim Rome left Premiere and has a history in sports talk (Best Damn Sports Show, etc.) and he's in LA.
 
41 year old KNX listener.

I started listening when it flipped to 97.1. And I'll be done listening when the simulcast ends. 1070 sounds like trash where I live. And picks up noise constantly on the freeway.

"Listen on the Audacy app"

No. Once I am on Android Auto, I'll listen to something else.
 


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