720 KDWN - This Is AM Radio in 2018

[Gregg.]

In a previous post about 670 KMZQ Las Vegas switching to Conservative Talk, I took a look at 720 KDWN, another of four Talk stations in Vegas, the one that gave Art Bell his start in all-night radio. When on vacation in LA decades ago, I remember listening to Bell in the pre-dawn hours thanks to KDWN's powerful signal.

I see that KDWN runs a lot of brokered programming, not just weekends but weekdays as well. It had a local morning show a few years ago with Vegas talk radio veteran Heidi Harris. But now she's been replaced by syndicated Laura Ingraham. I'm not sure KDWN has ANY local shows that aren't brokered.

I listened to the audio stream at 5pm Pacific Time last night. KDWN had just finished playing the first hour of syndicated Mark Levin. Then Westwood One News aired at the top of the hour. I heard the first two minute segment of news. The network spots were supposed to play at the 5:02:00 mark. I heard the first two seconds of the network spot, then someone potted it down and a local traffic report aired instead. (Is KDWN not playing the Westwood One spots? Some unethical stations do that when they run network news, figuring the network will never know its commercials didn't air.)

After the traffic report ended, there were a couple of local spots, then a local advertiser did a conservative commentary about arming retired men with guns to protect schools as a way to prevent mass shootings for almost no cost. Then he plugged his business. Then a few more local spots and it was back to Mark Levin.

There was no local news at all. Unless the station thinks a 60 second traffic report, including its spot, is the same as news. Or an advertiser doing a commentary is local news? I see from Wikipedia that Beasley Broadcasting paid $17 million for KDWN in 2006. As Lyrch would say on The Addams Family, "Uuuuuhhhhhhhh."

Here's a 50,000 watt AM station with a great signal in a rapidly expanding city, Market #30. I'm sure Beasley believed it had lots of potential when it paid all that money in 2006. Now it must rely on tons of brokered programming seven days a week. From reading the program schedule, I see KDWN carries three legit syndicated conservative talk shows, Laura Ingraham 6-9am, Sean Hannity 12-3pm and again overnight, and Mark Levin from 3-6pm and again overnight. There are a couple of sports shows between 6 and 9pm, but they're local and I suspect they are brokered too. Would KDWN pay for a one-hour sports show at 6 and a two-hour sports show at 7? There's Roy Masters in late evenings, who is based in LA. But he's 89 years old according to Wikipedia. I have to imagine he's paying for his time, too.

I checked the ratings and KDWN, usually below a one, did have a bump in the January numbers. I have to believe those ratings are mostly due to Hannity, Levin and Ingraham. But KDWN is still only at #23. Unfortunately, almost no one in Las Vegas is listening to AM radio. Even the CBS/Entercom Talk station, 840 KNXT, 50,000 watts days/25,000 watts nights, is only ranked at #22. KNXT does have a local morning show and a local afternoon show hosted by a former KDWN personality, along with syndication from Rush Limbaugh, Dave Ramsey and George Noory's Coast to Coast. Some years ago, CBS had given KNXT a 100,000 watt FM simulcast. But the ratings were lackluster, so it flipped the FM back to music, and left the Talk format on only AM.

And that's the status of AM radio in Market #30 in 2018.

 

[Jay F]

I noticed in the most recent monthly there is less of a gap between KXNT and KDWN than there has been in years if not decades. I take it this is due to the syndicated shows on KDWN which are high quality if you enjoy conservative talk.

You mentioned how Beasley paid $17 million for KDWN in 2006. I'm sure they have long regretted that. When they first took over they made an effort to be a real news station. They actually had a 24 hour live news staff. The problem is nobody listened to it. Their ratings were no different from when they had Ken Stahl and the old gang...and no different than today with their mix of brokered and syndication. Being a legitimate news station is expensive, especially if hardly anyone listens to it.

 

[davideduardo]

Here's a 50,000 watt AM station with a great signal in a rapidly expanding city, Market #30. I'm sure Beasley believed it had lots of potential when it paid all that money in 2006.

In 2006, the market had billings of over $130,000,000.

This year, the market will bill just under $70,000,000. That is a drop of nearly 50%, and there is no growth.

Few stations, even the most profitable, have profit margins of 50%, so it is obvious that expense cutting has been obligatory everywhere.

In 2006, Beasley could not have anticipated the effects of the recession (much greater in Las Vegas than anywhere else), the onset of the smartphone and the impact of the PPM on "real" listening levels.