900 KCLW Hamilton changing owners

[AnyHuman]

From RadioInsight's report on Friday:

"Shane Curington’s CTI Media Productions acquires Silent 900 KCLW Hamilton TX from Faith In Christ Ministries for no consideration. KCLW has been silent since January when its transmitter received “moisture damage” according to its STA."

 

[b-turner]

I am not surprised to hear KCLW had gone dark. I had the chance in the past few years to hear the station that has an amazing signal for it's wattage. The programming was of poor quality and badly executed. For example, they aired a Bible Reading (think those CDs or the Bible in audio form). Instead of running a chapter, they aired a full hour at one time (no breaks, no IDs). It became very hard to listen at about the 30 minute mark because it was just too much to absorb. Good idea, poor execution. How about an intro and outro to explain you could listen your way through the Bible each weekday at 1. Certainly the owner was not making it or they would have had the dollars to fix the transmitter. Such low power AM transmitters are dirt cheap these days.

My hope is CTI brings back some of the hometown glory to the station. It will be really tough to do because the prior owner ran off all those listeners with such an abrupt change. Those listeners went somewhere and the question is if they'll come back if KCLW is doing a format appealing to the masses. I think classic county and local news and sports might be good.

If there are lessons to be learned, I can think of two: 1) a radio station is not about the operator but about the community and what the community wants. Once it becomes about the operator it becomes a personal listening device. 2) You have to analyze your market. The universe of listeners dictates what you can do. The smaller the population universe, the more mass appeal you must be to acquire enough listeners to make your station financially sound. For example, 3% of 10,000 is nothing but 3% of 1,000,000 listeners is doable.

I relate KCLW's change from it's prior country format to it's Christian format in restaurant terms. What happened at KCLW was it went from a McDonald's to a Vegetarian cafe with golden arches and the owner wondered why nobody ate there anymore. In short, the new owner shot their cash cow in order to do what they wanted to do with the station. At some point they had to scratch their head and wonder why this happened.

 

[MarquisP4]

I am not surprised to hear KCLW had gone dark. I had the chance in the past few years to hear the station that has an amazing signal for it's wattage. The programming was of poor quality and badly executed. For example, they aired a Bible Reading (think those CDs or the Bible in audio form). Instead of running a chapter, they aired a full hour at one time (no breaks, no IDs). It became very hard to listen at about the 30 minute mark because it was just too much to absorb. Good idea, poor execution. How about an intro and outro to explain you could listen your way through the Bible each weekday at 1. Certainly the owner was not making it or they would have had the dollars to fix the transmitter. Such low power AM transmitters are dirt cheap these days.

My hope is CTI brings back some of the hometown glory to the station. It will be really tough to do because the prior owner ran off all those listeners with such an abrupt change. Those listeners went somewhere and the question is if they'll come back if KCLW is doing a format appealing to the masses. I think classic county and local news and sports might be good.

If there are lessons to be learned, I can think of two: 1) a radio station is not about the operator but about the community and what the community wants. Once it becomes about the operator it becomes a personal listening device. 2) You have to analyze your market. The universe of listeners dictates what you can do. The smaller the population universe, the more mass appeal you must be to acquire enough listeners to make your station financially sound. For example, 3% of 10,000 is nothing but 3% of 1,000,000 listeners is doable.

I relate KCLW's change from it's prior country format to it's Christian format in restaurant terms. What happened at KCLW was it went from a McDonald's to a Vegetarian cafe with golden arches and the owner wondered why nobody ate there anymore. In short, the new owner shot their cash cow in order to do what they wanted to do with the station. At some point they had to scratch their head and wonder why this happened.

Looks like the new owner will do so... found their new Facebook page named "KCLW AM 900"

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=114620640829468&id=103741301917402

We are SO excited to be 'restoring' KCLW to it's prior glory! We will be returning to a Classic Country format, with Texas Network News, Farm report and much more. KCLW will once again be a 'Force for Good" in the Heartland of Texas. Stay tuned, and we will be abbbouncing the inaugural date of our broadcasting. I hope y'all are as excited about this as we are! Please feel free to post your suggestions and ideaoscabout what programs and directions we need to go. We want to truly serve our community, which is a LOT more than playing great music!

 

[b-turner]

That's good to hear. They likely have a good chance given there is no debt to service. I'm sure the first year will be tough as the station is charged with building trust and persuading businesses to redirect dollars to the station that have likely been going elsewhere in recent years.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

That's good to hear. They likely have a good chance given there is no debt to service. I'm sure the first year will be tough as the station is charged with building trust and persuading businesses to redirect dollars to the station that have likely been going elsewhere in recent years.

Theyve shared a few political posts.. one post by a candidate and one meme, that i can see.. they need to quit that.. wether their audience ;largely agrees or not, a music station in a small town needs to stay out of politics.

 

[BillLN]

Theyve shared a few political posts.. one post by a candidate and one meme, that i can see.. they need to quit that.. wether their audience ;largely agrees or not, a music station in a small town needs to stay out of politics.

This info will NOT be ignored, SomeRadioGuy, Thank You. I am learning to promote the station, that's why I'm here. First lesson? Politics. Second lesson, double check spelling and punctuation. Mine needs watching!