ABQ Home For The Holidays

[uncle don]

While perusing the AM dial today I noticed KABQ-AM has rebranded as Santa 1350 with Classic Christmas Favorites. Actually I found it pleasant and a bit nostalgic to listen to holiday music as was done on AM in years gone by. IMHO about anything beats the rather vapid podcast format they've been dishing out. Perhaps something new will come after the holidays, or will it be the final countdown for another heritage AM signal?

 

[AbqAnonymous]

I doubt they will just shut it down but since iHeart uses their HD subchannels to feed translators they likely won't do anything other than talk on this station. iHeart could pull it's syndicated talk shows from KIVA and move them to 1350 if they think they could make more money selling those shows locally themselves rather than collect carriage fees. If the KIVA contracts expire at the end of the year then this stunt might make sense. Sports could also be done though they could just flip to it now. A return to progressive talk seems unlikely given the lack of available shows and ones like Thom Hartmann are syndicated by Westwood One which I believe is Cumulus. Perhaps that was the main reason for dropping the format in 2019. Comedy could be interesting but it would have to be on FM plus it is still a rare format. What else could be done on AM?

 

[Gregg.]

I'm at a loss for why KABQ 1350 is playing Christmas music. Will it go back to All-Podcasts on December 26th? The other two iHeart All-Podcast stations, 1470 WSAN Allentown PA and 95.9 WEBG Mina NY, did not switch to Christmas music. They're still playing podcasts around the clock.

What else do you do with an AM station high up the dial? At first, I didn't think the Podcast format made much sense. But most of those podcasts are well done about interesting subjects. The trouble is, you never know what the station is going to play or what topics will be addressed.

 

[uncle don]

iHeart no longer owns 104.7 with the Delmarva take over of that frequency. They used to do Christmas music in season, so that concept moved over to 1350 in Abq. What will happen after the holidays is uncertain. A great advantage to podcasts is you can download and listen to what suits you when you want. On 1350 you'd take what's on air at a given time, and a program that you may find to your taste might be cut off with an announcement to download the rest of the program if interested. With a 0.1 station rating for the last three survey periods and at the bottom of the list, I don't see much future in the format.

 

[AbqAnonymous]

The last time I think 104.7 did Christmas music was in 2017. 100.9 did the "Santa" stunt in 2018 and The Breeze did all Christmas over the last two years. 99.5 is known as the Christmas station locally as they have done it for many years. iHeart tries to do Christmas on different stations every year. AGM only did it once in 2017 when they flipped 105.1. But an AM is not going to do much of anything to KMGA. The format on 1350 seemed like nothing more than a fulltime ad for their podcasting app. Podcasts are often of personal interest and can be played on one's own time. Since they rebranded the station as "Santa" they will likely do something else after Christmas. Most iHeart AMs have either sports or "news" talk. A few carry the Black Information Network but only about 3% of the market is African-American and only a fraction of that would listen to such a format. Of course, you probably can't expect much from a 5kW AM these days.

 

[radioislife2020]

I’ve been here for almost a week and I like the mix of Christmas music . I’ve heard a few stations that have gone all Christmas but I think 1350 has the best mix

 

[AbqAnonymous]

Well 1350 went from its usual 0.1 to a 0.4 with Christmas music for December so it did get a few more listeners. The sports format will probably get similar numbers for anyone who likes the personalities and talk of the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL and maybe the Olympics but not much about the Lobos since Cumulus holds the rights to those games.