Alpha Media purge reaches Sherman/Denison/far north Dallas suburbs

[Deleted member 76036]

I still think Alpha at one point had enough stations and talent to share between markets. I prefer voicetracking within companies, as opposed to running a Westwood One 24/7 format. 97.5 K-LAKE could easily sell out, but the ads Westwood One requires to carry the format are taking up valuable airtime. I think Westwood One formats are better suited for small market stations, owned by small broadcasters. Not medium to large companies and on stations with a half a million listeners within their 60 dBμ contour.

I stopped by a friend’s station in May in a market size past #150. The company has 1 AM, 1 FM and an FM translator for the AM. Both FM stations have RDS, showing artist/title (Alpha Media here doesn’t). The processing is top of the line, as is their studio equipment. They have discussed adding HD and if they do, I guarantee it’ll be done right with artist/title, logos and album art. They have a live and local morning show and a live and local afternoon show. When I stopped in, their traffic manager had mentioned she was trying to figure out where to place 80 or so ads, because they often sell out. They also subscribe to Nielsen.

If they can do it, Alpha certainly can. It just seems like a lack of passion, bad decisions within the company and the inability to connect with the communities and advertisers they serve.

The industry has changed over the past few decades and I certainly understand that. However, a lot of great people in the industry have left and unfortunately a lot of those that remain seem to have lost their fire and love for radio and it definitely shows.

 

[davideduardo]

Am I the only one who thinks it’s crazy that Alpha is running Westwood One programming on these stations?! If you would create a new market for that area, it would probably be a top 100 market or close.

I can not recall any major market shedding a portion to create a new and separate market. The subscribers in the bigger market would scream, and their policy of determining a market principally due to "where the majority of listening comes from" would be violated.

Arbitron in the past has created embedded markets, which are sections of a bigger market with local stations that don't compete in the whole market but which will pay for a statistically balanced breakout of one or two counties. For that, they required quite a few subscribers.

Examples of existing embedded markets: San Jose, CA and Long Island, NY. Example of an embedded market that ended due to lack of station subscribers: Orange County /Santa Ana/Anaheim CA.

I don't know if Nielsen would create an embedded today. All the exisiting ones are Arbitron-created. And, again, they would not do it without a good number of subscribers.

 

[Deleted member 76036]

I don't know if Nielsen would create an embedded today. All the exisiting ones are Arbitron-created. And, again, they would not do it without a good number of subscribers.

I agree and you’re right, there definitely wouldn’t be a good number of subscribers. I guess my point is that I wouldn’t consider 97.5 KLAK a small market station. I had estimated in a previous post that K-Lake has half a million people within their 60 dBμ contour. I just checked and Collin County is home to 1.2 million people, so it’s probably just under a million. Just under a million people and the best Alpha can do is Westwood One programming? That’s a shame! And no offense to anyone at Westwood One. They do serve a purpose. I just don’t believe it’s best utilized on KLAK.

 

[TheBigA]

I still think Alpha at one point had enough stations and talent to share between markets.

That takes infrastructure to do it in a way that doesn't sound sloppy. Audacy tried to do that without infrastructure, and local breaks would step on the shows, and the rejoins were sloppy. It took a while for them to do it properly. There's a lot more involved. The Westwood One system allows for a lot of localization if that's what the stations want to do. The main issue any business has with hiring local staff is the cost of insurance. My car and home insurance have both skyrocketed since covid. I can only imagine what group health insurance costs. Hiring local staff means providing benefits. Using a satellite format costs inventory, but doesn't require health insurance. Plus they have the infrastructure Alpha doesn't have.

Alpha certainly can. It just seems like a lack of passion, bad decisions within the company and the inability to connect with the communities and advertisers they serve.

It depends on the market. They seem to be investing a lot of money and energy in their Joliet Illinois stations. If there's potential to make money, there's a willingness to go after it.

 

[Deleted member 76036]

It depends on the market. They seem to be investing a lot of money and energy in their Joliet Illinois stations. If there's potential to make money, there's a willingness to go after it.

I used to live about an hour away from the Joliet stations. They’ve made a ton of staff cuts to their suburban Chicagoland stations over the last several years. They’ve combined quite a few stations in the process and have shut off HD on the 3 signals that have had it. From my perspective, those stations are in worse shape than they were 10-15 years ago.

And the cost of insurance is why we can’t have nice things?! Excuses, excuses, excuses!

 

[TheBigA]

They’ve made a TON of staff cuts to their suburban Chicagoland stations, they’ve combined quite a few stations in the process, as they have no staff,

It's a bit more complicated than that. They cut some staff, and then hired some replacements:

Alpha Media Launches Chicagoland’s Free Country 98.3/102.3

Alpha Media launched "Chicagoland's Free Country" on 98.3 WCCQ Crest Hill/Joliet and 102.3 WXLC Waukegan, with the latter flipping from

radioinsight.com

So it's a combination of local and syndicated. They hired one and kept one.

so from my perspective, those stations are in a lot worse shape than they were 10-15 years ago,

Radio in general is in a lot worse shape than it was 10-15 years ago. There was a major disruption that has affected radio usage, radio funding, and consequently radio staffing. Unless people are willing to throw away phones and laptops and go back to AM/FM radios, the industry will have no choice but operate with smaller budgets, and therefore smaller staffs.

 

[Deleted member 76036]

It's a bit more complicated than that. They cut some staff, and then hired some replacements:

You’re only looking at this year. There have been a lot more cuts in the past at that cluster.

Radio in general is in a lot worse shape than it was 10-15 years ago.

Excuses, excuses, excuses!

 

[TheBigA]

And the cost of insurance is why we can’t have nice things?! Excuses, excuses, excuses!

My post covered more than insurance. But yes, rising prices mean people can't afford luxuries. That's pretty basic. It's why a lot of people are dropping Sirius and other streaming subscriptions, leading to layoffs there.

Excuses, excuses, excuses!

Truth, truth, truth! Facts, Facts, Facts!

 

[Deleted member 76036]

Truth, truth, truth!

Not really, but whatever. You just accept everything that happens and don’t ask any questions why. If Audacy decided to expand KRLD to every single primary and HD subchannel they have in DFW, you’d be the first to make an excuse for that.

I do understand that changes need to be made from time-to-time, but I also see stations being creative and thinking out of the box to keep and even grow their audiences. You seem to fail to recognize that there is still any creativity and innovation at all in this industry.

Anyways, we can agree to disagree. Have a great weekend!

 

[TheBigA]

Not really, but whatever.

More than five radio companies have gone bankrupt in the last few years, including Alpha. How do you propose these companies recover?

You just accept everything that happens and don’t ask any questions why.

I work in this business. I see the figures. I know why. It's not a hobby for me.

If you read the specifics in the bankruptcy filings, your questions would be answered. You want what you want, and you want it for free. Then complain because the companies try to cut expenses that you don't pay for. The word is selfish.

I also see stations being creative and thinking out of the box to keep and even grow their audiences. You seem to fail to recognize that there is still any creativity and innovation at all in this industry.

The audiences left when the stations had full staffing 20 years ago. They didn't leave because of creativity and innovation. There is no creative or innovative programming at Spotify or Amazon Music. It's just unhosted music. That's what people want, and they left radio to get it. Hiring more local staff won't bring the Spotify listeners back to local radio.

 

[Deleted member 76036]

You want what you want, and you want it for free. Then complain because the companies try to cut expenses that you don't pay for. The word is selfish.

I’m selfish, because all I want is radio companies to succeed, people to have jobs and for the stations to serve their advertisers, listeners and community to the best of their ability? I’m done with this conversation with you, as it’s going nowhere. Take care!

 

[TheBigA]

I’m selfish, because all I want is radio companies to succeed, people to have jobs and for the stations to serve their advertisers, listeners and community to the best of their ability?

You're selfish because you want what you want. You don't know how much it costs to run and staff a radio station. You can't begin to talk on the subject without factual knowledge about costs. Get some facts.

 

[TheBigA]

It's not funny. People are losing jobs, companies are going bankrupt. Alpha is heading back down that road. Hiring more staff isn't going to help them.

You need to take this seriously and stop laughing at the people who know. Its our lives you're laughing at. We are not amused.

 

[Kelly A]

Nobody "overpays" for a company.

Really? Tavis Smiley Converts LMA of KBLA To AM Buy | Radio & Television Business Report

 

[TheBigA]

Really? Tavis Smiley Converts LMA of KBLA To AM Buy | Radio & Television Business Report

He apparently has a plan. It's his money. He's not operating KBLA like a traditional radio station. I'm watching him carefully.

People say to think outside the box. That's what Tavis is doing.

As I said, hiring local talent and playing :30 spots is NOT thinking outside the box. That's what radio has always done. Thinking outside the box means finding new revenue streams.

 

[Kelly A]

He apparently has a plan. It's his money. He's not operating KBLA like a traditional radio station. I'm watching him carefully.

People say to think outside the box. That's what Tavis is doing.

I suppose there might be someone gullible enough to think they could bring back the Model T, too. Just pay Ford millions for the rights.

 

[TheBigA]

I suppose there might be someone gullible enough to think they could bring back the Model T, too. Just pay Ford millions for the rights.

As I said, he's not doing this the conventional way. Same with Latino Media Networks. Will it work? We'll see.

 

[b-turner]

No radio station is going to do anything to hurt their ability to gain revenue, period. And that means running it's audience away from the station. This is true no matter the budget cuts or changes in direction. Radio exists to get listeners and sell advertisers on the value of those listeners. It still works. This is in response to the actual subject of the thread.

 

[TheBigA]

Radio exists to get listeners and sell advertisers on the value of those listeners.

If they do things the conventional way. If radio is to think outside the box, maybe one way to do that is change the business model.

 

[TexasTom]

All this talk about the Sherman/Denison area radio stations, but it should be noted that market was hurting a long time ago.

If you go back in time to the mid-eighties, they had a small number of stations -- on the AM band their was 910 KIKM (live/local top 40), 950 KDSX (Middle of the road music?), and 1500 KTXO (country). On the FM side was 96.7 KZXL/KIKM-FM (country), 101.7 KDSQ (automated top 40 via the TM Stereo Rock format), and 104.9 KLAK (adult contemporary via the Satellite Music Network "Star Station" format; yes, they originally started out on a different frequency).

But the 80-90 drop-ins hit the market hard. The first addition under Docket 80-90 was actually a rimshot of sorts -- 97.7 in Durant, OK moved to 97.5 and upgraded to a 50 kw C2. The owner of KLAK bought it and moved KLAK to that new frequency. 104.9 was sold and became KMKT (originally, this was "Katy Classics", an oldies format). 104.1 came on the air as KWSM (per the M Street Directory, with a "soft AC" format). As I recall, both 104.1 and 104.9 promptly got into financial trouble and ended up as distress sales. At least one (maybe both) were sold in bankruptcy. AM 910 was turned into a DFW rimshot, while 101.7 struggled after dropping the automated Top 40 format in favor of a really dreadful Top 40 format from Satellite Music Network called "The Heat".

So by the early nineties, the area had too many radio stations and they all seemed to be struggling pretty badly with the exception of 96.7 KIKM(FM) and 97.5 KLAK -- those stations were stable through much of this era. It didn't help that several of the other stations (950, 101.7, 104.1, and 104.9) all ended up in the hands of a thoroughly incompetent operator (ownership on paper was under the Davis Family Trust and Octavian Communications Corp) that ran those stations even further into the ground.

So by the time the upgrades started happening to turn Sherman/Denison area stations into rimshots, the market had really turned into a radio slum of failing and/or badly run stations. The first to get upgraded out of the market were the Davis/Octavian stations, starting with 104.9 and 104.1, with 101.7 eventually following after another ownership change or two. Eventually, 96.7 followed.

It was probably necessary to have at least a couple of those stations move into the DFW market since Sherman/Denison just couldn't support them. That said, that left almost nothing on the FM band serving the Sherman/Denison area -- essentially, the only station that didn't get moved out was 97.5 KLAK. The market did subsequently gain some new service from additional drop-ins (93.1 in Bells, TX, 107.3 in Savoy, TX), plus a couple of move-ins in the form of KMAD-FM in Madill, OK being moved to Whitesboro, TX and KLBC in Durant, OK getting a power upgrade. I'm familiar with some of this because I was involved in one of the second batch of drop-ins, since I was the one who filed the rulemaking petition for the Bells stations, albeit originally on 92.9 -- but I wasn't the one who built it.

But from the discussion in this thread, it doesn't appear that the new set of stations in the Sherman/Denison area is doing all that much better than the batch that were there 35 years ago.