Iowa 98-3 The Vibe to Add Personalities

[radiorobert]

After 3 and half years The Vibe is adding additional personalities on air and appears to maybe be dropping the Bert Show as it is no longer listed on their website.

Starting tomorrow Taylor J 9am- 2pm
DJ Sweezy takes over 2p-6p
Elliot stays at 6p-11p where he has been previously.

Nothing is listed before 9am. Unclear if they are going to be introducing a new morning show soon or not.

Until now only the Bert Show and Elliot have been the only two shows on the station.

 

[tall_guy1]

Yes, I was just in Des Moines listening to that station. It seems it and the Kansas City Vibe have done the same thing, though neither ratings are that good from the looks of it.

 

[radiorobert]

Yeah. The Des Moines Vibe has been mostly in the 1 share for its whole time as CHR since 2021. Major audience problem. There were a few books it was even less. As far as the overalls go. Word in the building is that has discouraged advertisers.

At least the KC vibe has had more on it. The Des Moines vibe has had virtually nothing on it.

 

[radiorobert]

Thought I'd post this here rather than make a new thread...It seems Cumulus might benefit from selling this station to maybe EMF? Right now K-Love is on three translators owned by i-Heart in the market. If Cumulus wanted to eliminate an underperforming property and make some quick cash they could sell KWQW to EMF and this would give EMF one big signal in the market. Given that state of the industry lately I don't see Cumulus being successful with 98.3 in the market given the formats they are willing to do and the nature of sales.

K-Love could upgrade (or Air1) and take advantage of the big listenership base for Contemporary Christian in the market and help 'maybe' get more funding. Just a thought. I don't know what agreements EMF has with iHeart so that might make an impact but its interesting to consider.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Thought I'd post this here rather than make a new thread...It seems Cumulus might benefit from selling this station to maybe EMF? Right now K-Love is on three translators owned by i-Heart in the market. If Cumulus wanted to eliminate an underperforming property and make some quick cash they could sell KWQW to EMF and this would give EMF one big signal in the market. Given that state of the industry lately I don't see Cumulus being successful with 98.3 in the market given the formats they are willing to do and the nature of sales.

K-Love could upgrade (or Air1) and take advantage of the big listenership base for Contemporary Christian in the market and help 'maybe' get more funding. Just a thought. I don't know what agreements EMF has with iHeart so that might make an impact but its interesting to consider.

Why not IPR? That 94.1 Studio One translator doesn't have all that much punch, especially in West Des Moines, which is where the population growth seems to be. That would be a good use for KWQW.

 

[radiorobert]

Why not IPR? That 94.1 Studio One translator doesn't have all that much punch, especially in West Des Moines, which is where the population growth seems to be. That would be a good use for KWQW.

Well there is growth everywhere across the metro but the west side is still the heaviest so yes IPR would be nice. But they would have to be able to afford it.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Well there is growth everywhere across the metro but the west side is still the heaviest so yes IPR would be nice. But they would have to be able to afford it.

True, and Iowa state electeds right now seem to be wasting their time on culture wars. It's hard for me to tell how much something like Iowa Public Radio is valued (from a non-financial, quality-of-life perspective).

 

[radiorobert]

True, and Iowa state electeds right now seem to be wasting their time on culture wars. It's hard for me to tell how much something like Iowa Public Radio is valued (from a non-financial, quality-of-life perspective).

No, most here in the state in general don’t care about stuff like IPR and the various programs. Yes there is some support but majority don’t care. I wouldn’t look for IPR to making any big moves anytime soon. Studio One needs to have some time to prove it can stand on its own.

 

[radiofan2023]

No, most here in the state in general don’t care about stuff like IPR and the various programs. Yes there is some support but majority don’t care. I wouldn’t look for IPR to making any big moves anytime soon. Studio One needs to have some time to prove it can stand on its own.

What I wonder is why they have 1010 to cover the north central and upper northeast area of Iowa, when 640 covers those areas plus most of the rest of the state other than past Iowa City, according to their coverage map:
From “Find Your Signal” on IPR’s website:

 

[radiorobert]

What I wonder is why they have 1010 to cover the north central and upper northeast area of Iowa, when 640 covers those areas plus most of the rest of the state other than past Iowa City, according to their coverage map:
From “Find Your Signal” on IPR’s website:
View attachment 8463

I would guess it goes back to the era where the services were run out of each university. 1010 Was more tied with University of Northern Iowa. To me its a redundancy in the network now days. The 910 is the same. relics of the old AM era. Its not likely 640's signal is that bad overall but I suppose one could make the argument that in northern and eastern Iowa they can help fill in.

Also of note, I see IPR just surrendered their CP for the upgrade to 90.7 in Mason City from a translator to a full 25k signal. Appears they wont have it built in time. So they are just sticking with the translator.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I would guess it goes back to the era where the services were run out of each university. 1010 Was more tied with University of Northern Iowa.

It was a donation to UNI in 1990, when the owner of KLSS bought another Mason City AM station and had to divest 1010.

To me its a redundancy in the network now days. The 910 is the same. relics of the old AM era. Its not likely 640's signal is that bad overall but I suppose one could make the argument that in northern and eastern Iowa they can help fill in.

640 and 910 at least have regional coverage; 1010 is a class D with not even a kilowatt daytime.

The evening programming on IPR News (the AM stations) consists of re-runs of IPR and NPR programs airing in the daytime until the BBC World Service is picked up at 11 pm. It seems like the evening programming is filler while the FMs are running Studio One (AAA).

Also of note, I see IPR just surrendered their CP for the upgrade to 90.7 in Mason City from a translator to a full 25k signal. Appears they wont have it built in time. So they are just sticking with the translator.

I remember seeing that, I think a couple of weeks ago. Mason City isn't familiar territory to me, so I didn't think much of it at the time.