-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
K-Love Adds Third South Bay Signal With KBAY Purchase
- Thread starter lanceventa
- Start date
The entire market didn’t even do quite that two years ago. Moving that money to the same point in time, the entire market in 2024 did about half what KGO did in 2000. OUCH! 🤕
And those numbers are not inflation adjusted. $47.9 million in 2000 is nearly 95$ million today. (Corrected.. I am using a laptop keyboard which I should never do!9.
Last edited:
If you are speaking of Black community reaction, remember that younger Black listeners have mostly gone to the web, as such a high percentage of Black/Urban/R&B material today is not playable on licensed over the air stations.
However, that has always been an important station, socially speaking. So if they want to change format, the best would be to find a licensee with a signal appropriate for the African American communities and try to get them to take the format, staff and billing.
KBLX is an Urban AC, so their listening base is older.
Actually 95 million.
Thanks, I corrected it now. I am not used to using a laptop keyboard because I am dyslexic and need a big, wide, heavy mechanical keyboard like the old IBM Selectric boards. I am rebuilding my main computer and exiled to an 8-year-old Thinkpad and that is excruciating. I looked at replacing it, and a new equivalent is over $5,000!
Putting it into further perspective, KGO billed about $4 million/month in 2000. Once adjusted for inflation, it billed in all of 2024 roughly what it took in over the course of a single day in 2000. Granted, it had the dreadful “The Spread”sports gambling programming on it in '24, but that’s still a jaw droppingly terrible performance.
This comes straight from Connoisseur Media's LinkedIn page:
Source:
At Connoisseur Media, we have officially entered into an agreement to sell our 94.5 FM signal in San Jose to K-Love, Inc. This strategic move optimizes our Bay Area portfolio while giving us the… | Connoisseur Media
Interesting that Mr. Warshaw refers to KEZR as the company's local "flagship station."
He chose not to mention KUFX.
Source:
At Connoisseur Media, we have officially entered into an agreement to sell our 94.5 FM signal in San Jose to K-Love, Inc. This strategic move optimizes our Bay Area portfolio while giving us the… | Connoisseur Media
Interesting that Mr. Warshaw refers to KEZR as the company's local "flagship station."
He chose not to mention KUFX.
To put San Francisco in context, at the time, it was market #4. The top billing station in the US was WTOP in market #8.
Same format, same year smaller market, and WTOP billed $66 million! That shows how much money has disappeared from San Francisco.
It once again explains why Bonneville was willing to sell its top rated stations and leave the market completely.
I wonder how much longer KCBS can continue to staff a 24/7 news station. San Francisco bills like a smaller market.
Last edited:
I can appreciate that sentiment and it might work if the pie was stable. It isn't. As the numbers on the previous pages show—and as most of us in the industry already know—the pie continues to shrink.
Noncommercial operators (religious or otherwise) are gaining share in part because they're already commercial-free. Their listeners have little incentive to leave in order to avoid long stopsets.
Meanwhile, commercial operators are caught in a difficult cycle. As listening and revenue decline, many increase commercial loads, reduce local programming, and consolidate operations in an effort to preserve margins. Those decisions may improve short-term efficiency, but they can also accelerate audience erosion. With less listening comes less advertising revenue, leading to more cost-cutting. It's a difficult cycle to break. Selling off towers was another contributor to the cycle as it makes buying certain signals economically unfeasible - even for K-LOVE.
What companies like Urban One in Dallas, Connoisseur, and others are doing by optimizing their portfolios is an attempt to concentrate increasingly scarce national advertising revenue on the stations they believe have the best chance to compete. In some cases, that strategy may work, but high debt loads have made the challenge much harder, which is one reason we've seen so many restructurings and bankruptcies.
It's easy to point to K-LOVE or other religious broadcasters as the reason commercial operators are losing signals, but I think that's confusing cause and effect. Those broadcasters are among the few buyers with access to patient, non-debt capital and business models that don't depend on selling commercial advertising. Whether someone likes that outcome or not, it reflects a different economic model more than an issue of fairness. K-Love isn't causing the decline of commercial radio. It is growing, in part, because commercial radio is declining.
The other factor contributing is all this is the decline of radio devices in the home or workplace. Even if people might want to listen to the programming, it isn't enough to make them buy radios. If a radio is already there, such as in the car, they will listen. But they're not encouraged to buy the radio device simply for access to free content.
The most exciting development in the device world was the smart speaker. But it's not a broadcast radio. It's an internet radio. You don't tune in frequencies with a dial. You call out programming and the device finds it for you. It's a very different kind of thing and isn't built around broadcast radio stations. The relationship people have is with the content, not the station.
Yeah, if you are going to listen to a smart speaker are you more likely to listen to commercial radio (plus pre-rolls) or are you more likely to listen to something non-commercial (or limited commercial like the free version or Pandora). This is another advantage of the non-commercial radio business model. Whether the listener loves Jazz on a PBS station or Christian CCM, there is no built-in incentive to look elsewhere with these formats just because you moved from the car to the kitchen or office.
And yet, outside of San Francisco or DC, the non-coms are not top rated. Even in those two markets, the non-com news is usually tied with commercial news. So even in the same format, the existence of commercials isn't hurting those stations. It's more of a factor with music. Since there aren't many non-com competitors in commercial music formats, we have no way to judge. Seattle's KEXP is one exception.
I don't understand your point. Plenty of Public News/Talkers are doing massively successful. And if you're only comparing them to All-News there's no comparison since the public stations are not All-News.
KUOW #1 in Seattle. WBUR #1 in Boston and WGBH also there. KJZZ-FM Top 5 in Phoenix. MPR News top 5 in Minneapolis. KPBS-FM one tenth of a share off the lead in San Diego. KOPB #2 in Portland. WFAE #1 in Charlotte. KUT #1 in Austin. KXJZ Top 5 in Sacramento. WUNC #1 in Raleigh. WJCT #3 in Jacksonville. WFYI Top 5 Indianapolis. WLRN nearly a 4 share on a translator in West Palm Beach.
Plus where are there direct non-com to commercial music format competitors outside of a couple Christian AC's? Who is KEXP directly competing against formatically?
Woah San Francisco bills like a smaller market yes we seen this on the TV side where San Francisco in some years would be rank DMA 5 and in other years would be ranked DMA’s 7-8. Here’s the current one for 2026.
You're cherry picking the success stories to prove your point. On the other hand, look at LA, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and many more where commercial news and talk stations outdraw the non-com. My point is that the commercials aren't the only factor.
The fact that KCBS and KQED are basically tied for #1 in San Francisco means commercial load isn't as big a factor for listening.
But sure it would be great if there were non-com stations in the rock or country formats. We could then see how passionate those fans are for their music, because they would have to support it.
Country will be on 98.5 and continue the simulcast.Connoisseur to retain the "Bay Country" IP and KBAY calls with plans to move it to another frequency
K-Love To Acquire KBAY
K-Love Inc. will add a third full-powered FM signal in the San Jose as it will acquire the license ofradioinsight.com
Not sure about flipping 106.5. Flip it to classic rock if classic rock brings in more revenue that what is on 106.5 now.
This is my bet.
Coverage Map:
98.5 KFOX KUFX FM Radio Station Information - Radio Lineup
Mix 106.5 KEZR FM Radio Station Information - Radio Lineup
Bay Country 94.5 KBAY FM Radio Station Information - Radio Lineup
Bay Country 92.1 KKDV FM Radio Station Information - Radio Lineup
Here's a non-comm rock station on a 100 kW signal near Omaha. Interestingly, they carry a couple weekly syndicated shows normally heard on commercial rock radio.
KEZO (Z92) in recent years has commonly outperformed them in the ratings. One could argue, though, that KIWR was a factor in compelling Z92 to go younger / heavier with its music selections around a decade ago. Since the time Z92 has evolved to its current sound, KIWR's typical AQH share has faded somewhat.
KEZO (Z92) in recent years has commonly outperformed them in the ratings. One could argue, though, that KIWR was a factor in compelling Z92 to go younger / heavier with its music selections around a decade ago. Since the time Z92 has evolved to its current sound, KIWR's typical AQH share has faded somewhat.
Its not that San Francisco has shrunk.Woah San Francisco bills like a smaller market yes we seen this on the TV side where San Francisco in some years would be rank DMA 5 and in other years would be ranked DMA’s 7-8. Here’s the current one for 2026.
1. Dallas and Houston have grown rapidly
2. While the Bay Area has lost some population. It is still a strong economy. In fact, it’s been quoted between 1 and 1.5 trillion?
3. The billing is like a smaller market can be a fair assessment, but can be misleading. A: how do the numbers compare to other markets? Since revenue is down everywhere. B: the “ people using terrestrial radio” numbers in the Bay Area may be far lower than everyone else given its tech rich history.