98.3 in Fayetteville

[lowpower]

the bigger question is does cumulus even do sports talk fm's or christian fm's anywhere else?

and could the market support two stations with this format? it'd be good for competition but if this format is anything like country the listeners are going to be loyal to klrc by default.

 

[Kent]

Alright, looked it up. MultiRanker Report Demographic for JUST Spring 08' has Kix #1 Persons 10.9 and KLRC #2 7.6. KLRC also is #2 Women 12+ and Women 25+.

Even using those figures, you're still gambling on shaving off more than half the audience. Are you really doing to do that by loading up on commercials? Again, it's a good format for Northwest Arkansas, but I can see why Cumulus doesn't seem eager to embrace it.

Kent mentioned that a sports station with half the audience should bill more than a Contemp. Christian Station, I dont believe thats possible, sports is a very narrow format, advertisers love to reach the female, especially the older 25+ crowd who control the purse strings. Throw out the power ratios man, look around, churches everywhere, its part of the culture, I know sports is also but like I said earlier, I would rather OWN that demo and format than share the pie with 4 others. Plus there probably are only a handful of GOOD sales people in this market. Why make it tougher than it is in this economic climate.

Sports may be narrow, but it bills roughly double its ratings share pretty much everywhere it's being done. Ad agencies love the 25-54 females, but they also love the all sports format, and it gets a piece of almost all of the 25-54 male buys. I hate to tell you this, but the power ratios are pretty reliable figures. You'll have to show me some solid numbers disproving them for Northwest Arkansas before I throw them out simply because of all the churches around. Keep in mind that the market with the most churches per capita is Dallas/Ft. Worth. Which do you think bills more, America's most listened to Christian station or the middle-of-the-pack all sports station? I'll give you a hint: KTCK "The Ticket" was the #2 biller two years ago, and KLTY wasn't the station beating it!

 

[DIZ Guy]

How about "98 Jamz...Northwest Arkansas' home of hip-hop and R&B!!!!!"...

Of course I am making a joke, but that would be cool...

What is the deal with Cumulus these days?????? The KEG sounds just as tired as ever....what the hell is the format now????..Metallica and AC/DC both have new tunes out , and they are nowhere to be found on the KEG...even worse is Cumulus in Ft. Smith.....I was driving from Little Rock to Fayetteville yesterday and had the chance to hear some of the Ft. Smith stations and they were all just BLAND AS HELL!!!!....Rock 100.7 is a snoozefest of major proportions, and it seemed like that there were at least FIVE country stations to choose from.....very strange....

Another thing that Cumulus needs to do is try to boost KFAY AM's signal. The fact that you cannot pick up that station at night in Springdale is unnacceptable......

As for a new idea for this market that would be a ratings winner....somebody should create an old school metal show that is local. Kind of like "Dee Snider's House Of Hair" but with live, local jocks that take requests...I am talking about a 2-hour show that airs on Saturday nights, when people are out partying, that airs old Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Ozzy, Dio, etc... Alot of other markets are doing this, and have been successful....

 

[lowpower]

I don't think an urban would be a good fit BUT a rhythmic chr might be a good thing. It is a college town and both CHR's in town are very safe in presentation and music.

 

[xdjproductions]

Wouldn't it be cool if some group would take radio back to the days of high production value and entertainment...you know like it was in the 80's and early 90's? Actually have the shifts covered by live jocks that are encouraged to talk and use drops and phoners.

You know Scott Shannon did just that at Z100. He was asked about the secret of taking them from "Worst to First" and he basically said..."We have fun with the listeners." He went on to talk about how the jocks had just been talking down to or at the listener and how they included the listener with the show. It sure would be fun to actually prep a show with bits and characters...to use drops and phoners....to run your own board and time out an intro with a drop and a caller and still hit the post. One of these days, someone will do this and it will be cutting edge. Radio, in my opinion, has overall lost its edge. I love radio, I just miss it.

 

[dday]

Of course everything Kent and I say regarding sales for sports and a Christian CHR are purely speculative. Neither he nor I could prove anything until one arrived in this market. Kent gave Dallas as an example. I see that KLTY (a christian AC) is #4 25-54 and #3 35+ in that market, they probably have to eat beanies-and-weenies with those numbers huh?

 

[wxman76]

I don't think an urban would be a good fit BUT a rhythmic chr might be a good thing. It is a college town and both CHR's in town are very safe in presentation and music.

Not only that, but there is also nearly 12% of NWA is Hispanic and rhythmic CHR does very well with young Hispanics. Rhythmic CHR could work, but I don't see either Power or Hot Mix blinking anytime soon from mainstream CHR. You know Cumulus or CC would not flip over its other properties at the expense of Power or Hot Mix. If someone went rhythmic, it would probably have to be one of the smaller stations that already targets Hispanics like 95.7 or 99.5.

 

[Kent]

Of course everything Kent and I say regarding sales for sports and a Christian CHR are purely speculative. Neither he nor I could prove anything until one arrived in this market.

What you say is true. Even the best laid and most researched plans are speculation until they're proven to work or not to work.

Kent gave Dallas as an example. I see that KLTY (a christian AC) is #4 25-54 and #3 35+ in that market, they probably have to eat beanies-and-weenies with those numbers huh?

KLTY does fine. It just doesn't bill as much as all sports KTCK! In fact, KLTY used to slightly underbill its ratings share. I'm sure a lot of it was that they didn't take those Louisiana (and, now, Oklahoma, too) casino ads that were all over the other Dallas/Ft. Worth radio stations. They also didn't take alcohol ads. A Northwest Arkansas Christian station would almost certainly have to forego those paychecks from the Cherokee Casino!

 

[Texaz]

Cumulus set to turn 98.3 in Fayetteville to Sports. I cant tell you how brilliant this is. There are a whole 3-4 12+ shares of sports in this market and now there will be 4 sports stations. Whatever happened to hitting them where they aint. They will now surge from their 2 share on 98.3 to the lofty heights of a 2.3. Money will be coming out of their ears. People will be promoted. How many GM's have been through those doors now in 10 years? I lost count. Its no wonder people love their I-pods and XM and Sirius and Internet Radio when all we do in this medium is duplicate the same stuff.

If you know someone enough that they would share this information with you, why would you go post it on a public forum. Aren't format flips supposed to be not talked about until the empoyees are told ???

 

[dday]

Texaz, Actually you could say I am doing them a favor. You can bet Cumulus will not let them know until it is convenient for Cumulus, not for the employees. At least now the employees would have more time to cover their butts.

 

[ProdWhiz]

Outside of The Ticket, Cumulus has an FM sports talker in Houston, but the way they do things, it's not like the current guys should be sweating bullets unless their national programming is being yanked. Cumulus just puts the programming on in a plug and play fashion and lets it roll. If they were to do "local", it would probably be the Sports Animals out of Little Rock that they are already clearing on KFAY. Thats just too many stations in the market if they add one more, and someone has to go. My best guess is that 1190/1390 is the odd man out in this one. In addition to the fact that AM is quickly dying, those are two bad signals anyway, and it is obvious that the people in charge don't care about them at all.

 

[Texaz]

Texaz, Actually you could say I am doing them a favor. You can bet Cumulus will not let them know until it is convenient for Cumulus, not for the employees. At least now the employees would have more time to cover their butts.

Did your source give you a timeframe or is what you heard just an idea?

 

[dday]

90 days. Maybe Jan 1.

 

[ARRadio1]

90 days. Maybe Jan 1.

Ah...about the same amount it will take for ESPN or Fox to get out of their agreement with Butler...? I may be convinced now.

 

[ProdWhiz]

Prediction... KFAY moved to 98.3 FM.... Sports goes to AM 1030.... I see Cumulus getting much more out of a FM news/talker than a sports station. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense for them to put keep the talk on AM when they've got a bigger share on AM 1030, a signal that is horrible and won't get any better despite the pleas of the harshly conservative Republicans in Benton and Washington Counties.

 

[DIZ Guy]

Here is an idea....

Make 98.3 FM a talk format with all LOCAL shows during the day...put some people on there that are very interesting and not very conservative. During the late night hours, say 10-1AM, air the Phil Hendrie show, and then air ALTERNATIVE music during the overnights and thru the weekends..As for Sunday nights, put a show on that plays old ALTERNATIVE rock....and then go back to talk at 6AM Monday morning....And when I mean local talk, I mean local talk, not SPORTS!!!!!!....I know that this is a college town, but I think there are enough Sports shows on. What would be a refreshing change would be an afternoon host that talks about issues in NWA and thru the state....

 

[Texaz]

Texaz, Actually you could say I am doing them a favor. You can bet Cumulus will not let them know until it is convenient for Cumulus, not for the employees. At least now the employees would have more time to cover their butts.

Of course you'd be doing the employees a favor which is cool. I understand that. I was just curious if the person that told you is gonna be happy with you posting the info.

 

[Kent]

Of course you'd be doing the employees a favor which is cool. I understand that.

You know, it's funny, but my experience is that it's pretty well split half-and-half between the employees when the announcement of a change is leaked. About half of them are happy for the heads up while the other half would like to have your head on a stick. I've also often been surprised as to who has which reaction!

I was just curious if the person that told you is gonna be happy with you posting the info.

I have a pretty good idea as to how he found out, and I doubt anyone in his building cares if he mentions it or not!

 

[Bat Fastard]

It's real interesting to speculate on what they'll do with the signal...but...did they ever fix the signal?

My information is, admittedly more than a few months old, but this place is notorious for its "engineering" which is (or was) substandard...to be charitable. At one time, this station was forced to go through the bulk of an entire ratings period with no more signal strength than the exciter wired straight to the tower. There were FREQUENT complaints from listeners who couldn't get the station at all...its building penetration was that weak.

Unless they've fixed it - which would be a first for Cumulus - it may not matter much what format they put on it.

 

[dday]

My head on a stick? Hummm. If would shock you if you knew how I found out.