97.3 now officially KIRO-FM

[mimo]

Reminds me of the simulcast in New Orleans after Katrina. It wasn't like they listed a bunch of different cities, it was all those call letters. I can't even remember them all, but it was all the major players in the New Orleans market with a station in Baton Rouge and Houston added for a few weeks.

 

[Bongwater]

Reminds me of the simulcast in New Orleans after Katrina. It wasn't like they listed a bunch of different cities, it was all those call letters. I can't even remember them all, but it was all the major players in the New Orleans market with a station in Baton Rouge and Houston added for a few weeks.

YIPES! Right then and there, I would have QUIT radio!

In spite of all the radio frequencies my voice was heard on doing station IDs (I have been heard on most of them by 2001, from 550 to 107.6 (UK frequency) by 2001. I would have seen the writing on the wall.

I did it.

So I've been there. I don't want to be in a position spitting out letters, locations and frequencies (to say nothing of AM & HD, or FM, HD-1, HD-2, HD-3) I'd be spending a good TEN MINUTES listing them all, just in a local market.

Enough is enough. They would have to pay me EXTRA for that. Especially in all this extra alphabet soup in a serious PINCH.

Could anyone blame me?

 

[Kelly]

While driving downtown for the evening and stuck on the ship canal bridge slog, I was listening to the Seahawks pre-season game on 97.3. The Irony was the RDS display on my car radio was still displaying songs like: "Time of The Season...Zombies", "American Pie...Don Mclean", etc. It looks like the automation was still running with their usual playlist in the background, and someone just brought up KIRO radio on the board. Not that I care about this really, again I just found it ironic.

Okay now for my rant...

Being an old broadcast guy, and having run my fair share of boards for sports back in my youth, combined with having been on the other end doing PBP, I noticed whomever was running the board during the game did a pretty poor job. I wasn't sure what the problem was, but they got caught snoozing on more than one occasion. As one example, during a time-out break near 7:00, Raible gave the typical outcue...."On The Seahawks Radio Network"... background crowd noise for 7-9 seconds, then the spot rolled. Where things really crashed and burned, is when Steve was rightfully paying attention to timing for the network, and rejoins according to when the short break is supposed to end. Because the break was rolled several seconds late on 710 and 97.3, the operator dumped out of the spot, and rejoins a couple words into the broadcast. Sloppy-Sloppy-Sloppy! I heard this same kind of sloppy board flying last season also.

Okay I'll admit that everyone makes mistakes running a board. Lord knows I've made them when I was piloting a board. The ones that can be excused are examples of losing break structure sync with the stadium because of something changing at the game which causes the talent to rejoin before the break ends, etc., but frequently missing an obvious cue to a break is just plain inexcusable!

So here is my two cents of free advice for running the board during a Seahawks game: Stay off the phone, put away the magazine, turn down the sound on the TV, keep friends and co-workers out of the control room, reduce food and drink consumption, and have a full service bathroom break BEFORE the game starts.

 

[SeattleRadioPro]

So here is my two cents of free advice for running the board during a Seahawks game: Stay off the phone, put away the magazine, turn down the sound on the TV, keep friends and co-workers out of the control room, reduce food and drink consumption, and have a full service bathroom break BEFORE the game starts.

Having been involved in PBP board op training in several sports, I can tell you that pre-season isn't just for the team - it's also the time for the stations to work out the bugs and get new personnel trained in a real-game situation. So maybe what you were hearing was a board op learning what is a very complex process - not necessarily one who was goofing off on the job.

If you hear gaffes like this on September 7th, then there's reason to bring it up. Give them a break for now.

 

[Kelly]

One break, coming up!!

But seriously, I heard many similar late-to-breaks last season too, and I agree pre-season is getting to know the new format and probably training of someone new running the board. I argue that there is no excuse for missing cues because we're not paying attention, even in the pre-season. It's a good thing that the talent is quiet, or Lloyd turned down their mics when going into a break. Had there been off-mic conversation at Qwest Field, it would have gone right over KIRO.

 

[KentMcN]

I feel that switching 97.3 to simulcast KIRO was a big mistake that Bonneville will regret.KBSG was starting to grow and they were the only pop based classic hits format we had. Why take a station with a 3 share in the ratings for a simulcast of a 50,000 watt AM station? That is not being too smart.Remember Bonneville when you did this to 100.7,it was a failure and didn't last long.The same thing will happen again.It has failed in Phoenix and Salt Lake City and it will never work.Who wants to listen to News on FM,not me!!!! I think should go a sports talk on FM like Paul Allen did in Portland,I think that would work here too.

 

[Kelly]

I feel that switching 97.3 to simulcast KIRO was a big mistake that Bonneville will regret.KBSG was starting to grow and they were the only pop based classic hits format we had. Why take a station with a 3 share in the ratings for a simulcast of a 50,000 watt AM station? That is not being too smart.Remember Bonneville when you did this to 100.7,it was a failure and didn't last long.The same thing will happen again.It has failed in Phoenix and Salt Lake City and it will never work.Who wants to listen to News on FM,not me!!!! I think should go a sports talk on FM like Paul Allen did in Portland,I think that would work here too.

Obviously time will tell whether it was a mistake switching or not. Like you, I believe Bonneville may have left money on the table by giving up on KBSG to protect their news-talk brand.

They've had a big success with moving WTOP to an FM station in Washington D.C., but the Seattle/Tacoma listening market is not the same as DC, nor was it the same situation. From what I understand, the FM stick used to simulcast WTOP originally with success was a bit of a "rim-shot" to the area, not an established full market Class C-FM. Taking a struggling rim-shot for experimentation makes sense, as that way you aren't discarding an established oldies brand, and the revenue associated with it. However, as my grandfather once said, there is no reward without risk, and I'm sure Bonneville has looked at all the angles from a long-term strategic perspective before they decided to make the change.

I don't think Seattle can support a second sports-talk station past KJR, (fourth if you consider the ESPN Radio coverage of KHHO Tacoma, and KRKO in Everett) . Depending on how much live and local sports talk and sports reports you have in the broadcast day, an all-sports station can cost almost as much to operate with talent and editors/reporters as a news-talk station.

It's easy for us arm-chair vice president's to sit back and make the call, but given the current economic situation, combined with steady decline in radio listening in general, I sure wouldn't want to write that check!

 

[SeattleRadioPro]

It's a good thing that the talent is quiet, or Lloyd turned down their mics when going into a break. Had there been off-mic conversation at Qwest Field, it would have gone right over KIRO.

Most likely the talent control their own mics with an on/off/cough switch, so there's normally no need for the producer to drop mic levels during breaks. But you're absolutely right that it's the in studio producer's job to make darn sure breaks are fired right away and the feed is cut off!

 

[radiohead01]

I agree with SeattleRadioPro and Kelly...
Having run boards with programming ranging from satellite shows to many many sports games; it is frustrating to hear sloppy board-oping during the games at KIRO; especially if you are a fan of the game.

Give them slack during the pre-season to learn both the board and the broadcast,absolutely!

Unfortunately, KIRO had the same problem last year. I do not blame the person behind the board.

Blame goes solely to management! When I was trained as a board-op, the STATION I worked for actually paid for me to come in for 2 weeks straight (run several games and shows) and train with a really good board-op; after that I had to sit with the engineer in the studio for an hour and go through everything from EAS to the actual board and learn what the buttons did and what to do if a problem came up.

It seems to me that if Bonneville is spending the money (broadcast rights w/ Seahawks and Mariners, etc.), the FIRST thing they would want to do is gather all of the board-ops and get them trained the right way. If the board-op consistently messes up after that, there is always the door.

KIRO, can not afford to let the games get screwed up due to lack of training.

 

[SeattleObserver]

Obviously time will tell whether it was a mistake switching or not. Like you, I believe Bonneville may have left money on the table by giving up on KBSG to protect their news-talk brand.

They've had a big success with moving WTOP to an FM station in Washington D.C., but the Seattle/Tacoma listening market is not the same as DC, nor was it the same situation. From what I understand, the FM stick used to simulcast WTOP originally with success was a bit of a "rim-shot" to the area, not an established full market Class C-FM. Taking a struggling rim-shot for experimentation makes sense, as that way you aren't discarding an established oldies brand, and the revenue associated with it. However, as my grandfather once said, there is no reward without risk, and I'm sure Bonneville has looked at all the angles from a long-term strategic perspective before they decided to make the change.

WTOP's original FM signal was a "rimshotter" to fill in Maryland coverage. Oddly, the station's ratings really took off at night. To take a chance, Bonneville killed "Z104" and took the classical format to that duopoly and placed WTOP on WGMS' signal. This has worked very well, as the station is now in the top 10 revenue nationally. The FM move grew the audience.

"Washington Post Radio" took over the AM side of things, but ended up not working for the market. Apparently those that were interested in the more in depth coverage of the newspaper tended to walk or take the subway to work - thus not listening to the radio frequencies the format was using. It ended up instead changing to a very cheap operation to run "3WT" (Three way talk) with mostly satellite driven content.

The company continues to super-serve an audience at 1050 AM with Federal News Radio.

In Salt Lake City, billing for KSL-A/F is higher than KSL-AM was, but I don't know if it replaced all the revenue that KQMB-FM was bringing in. However, the adult contemporary market in Utah is pretty saturated.

 

[SeattleRadioPro]

It seems to me that if Bonneville is spending the money (broadcast rights w/ Seahawks and Mariners, etc.), the FIRST thing they would want to do is gather all of the board-ops and get them trained the right way. If the board-op consistently messes up after that, there is always the door.

KIRO, can not afford to let the games get screwed up due to lack of training.

If KIRO were smart they should re-hire Dustin Hornby. He ran a pretty tight ship and quite a few board ops who worked for him have gone on to have great success in the business.

 

[talkerdjdude]

The next thing they should do is get a non-boring morning show with two people who don't hate being in the same room together. Greg and Jane have no ability to relate to eachother, and only a sporadic sense of the audience. Also, note to Jim Valley, you're not as interesting as you think you are.

 

[Grindlfan]

What I would like to know is why couldn't KBSG have remained a classic hits station and just had programming interrupted to simulcast the Seahawk and Mariner games when they are playing? I mean, why must we suffer Dori Monson and his incessant endorsement spots on two stations???

 

[SeattleRadioPro]

Just out of curiosity, can anyone tell me what's on 97.3 HD-2??? It's listed on hdradio.com as "Urban AC".

Nothing. It's off right now.

As of 830a on August 11 - it's back on with Urban A/C branded as "Love Train on Digital Radio". Sounds pretty crappy - LOTS of digital artifacts.

 

[Bongwater]

I was at the Skagit County Fair this weekend (what a boring waste of $$$), even my girls were bored after one hour. I noticed three vendors playing KIRO-FM - loudly. Probably much to the chagrin of that canned radio fest on 1430 kHz up here. One guy selling carnival cuisine commented on 97.3 just as I walked up to his stand "WOW! I LOVE this station! No DJs and no commercials either!..."

Ah, the power of a 58,000 watt iPod....

I didn't have the heart to break it to this poor carny that by the time he got back from Lynden, it was going to be all over.....

As for HD, out here - I didn't know if it's just the reception in Skagit County or the sources, but I get more artifacts than the Smithsonian on HD. I would have given up all hope had not my wife so lovingly spent $400 to buy me one of the very first HD radio tuners in the Puget Sound area for Christmas a few years ago. And don't EVEN get her started on HD Radio. She (and I) expected a HELL of a lot more from it than the crap we get now. Plus my old Kenwood got far more stations (from CHLY, WAAY up in Naniamo down to KVTI in Tacoma) than this thing does.....

 

[SeattleObserver]

Hopefully to clear this up.... Right now until the format switch.... KIRO-AM's announcement is still "K-I-R-O Seattle". KBSG's announcement should be "K-I-R-O--F-M Tacoma" or "Tacoma/Seattle". When the simulcast takes over, then it should be "K-I-R-O Seattle, K-I-R-O--F-M Tacoma" or "Tacoma/Seattle". If they mess this up, call the FCC and file a complaint then.

Now, in the end if there's an HD-radio channel thrown into the Mix (Maybe as I suggested...the former oldies format on HD-2), then it'll probably be "K-I-R-O Seattle, K-I-R-O--F-M Tacoma/Seattle, K-I-R-O--F-M--H-D-1 Tacoma/Seattle" thrown into there. I don't know about the FCC's policies regarding ID'ing HD radio's channels though.

No ID of the HD-1 Signal. I have no idea if that's required or not. Some disgruntled KBSG listener could send the FCC on them.