• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Montana Another hometown radio station goes away - Libby

This is really sad. KLCB was sat-fed country, but KTNY was local soft AC, with ABC news at the top of the hour. I taped about an hour of them on an April 2023 road trip to MT. I don't think they really cared about how far the signal got out as KTNY wouldn't show up until Libby city limits and disappear 2-3 miles out of town. The 'coverage area' shows that they make it to nearby Troy. It wasn't even close, and I doubt they were using anywhere near the 3,000 watt ERP either. Probably 5 watts if that.
Lincoln County has no local radio now. 90.5 is MTPR out of Missoula, and there's a 3ABN LPFM on 93.1. But no local source of information, music, or disaster info (they have had big wildfires in the past).
 
Confusing. Today (2/18) Lincoln County Broadcasters filed for an STA for both KLCB and KTNY to go silent. (The 1/15 letter requested both licenses to be cancelled.)


For KLCB/KTNY latest filing:
Station Status Date the station went/will go silent: 02/15/2025
Reason for going silent: Financing
Narrative: "The reason for this request is increasing cost, decreasing revenue, needed equipment upgrades, lack of staff, failing economy, change in the local advertising climate and declining revenue, and changed dynamic of the community making the stations non-viable at this time."
 
RF101 said:
Confusing. Today (2/18) Lincoln County Broadcasters filed for an STA for both KLCB and KTNY to go silent. (The 1/15 letter requested both licenses to be cancelled.)


For KLCB/KTNY latest filing:
Station Status Date the station went/will go silent: 02/15/2025
Reason for going silent: Financing
Narrative: "The reason for this request is increasing cost, decreasing revenue, needed equipment upgrades, lack of staff, failing economy, change in the local advertising climate and declining revenue, and changed dynamic of the community making the stations non-viable at this time."
Click to expand...
I wonder if an owner/operator who also did sales and afternoons while someone else did mornings and sales.. could make a go of it? Stations like these serve their community well but when you don't upgrade and move on up and owners are much older, that can be a detriment


sounds like the FM was running the westwood one adult standards network and the FM was airing country.

IF it were me, id put classic hits on the AM, upgrade the soft oldies.. and put the country on the FM .. and id program it locally. the split of male vs fm is so close in libby and the county that its almost within margin of error and the largest age groups are early 20s to mid 40s and mid 40s to mid 60s.

Population numbers are a little low at just under 3000, but the poverty line for libby residents places less than 10 percent below the poverty line.

Could these stations work?

If you maintained the heritage they had, found ways to make technology work for you and found some non traditional revnue, maybe.... ive seen some of these mountain west/plains states surprise me when it comes to what theyre doing.

And for all we know without talking to duane, sales were suffering because he wasnt able to sell as much.

Theres two newspapers in the county.. ones website hasnt been updated since 2023,m but the facebook is active and theyre still publishing.. and the other papers website is very active.

Tells me theres news and advertising revenue out there.
 
AM was Westwood One country.
FM was a local soft AC jukebox, as mentioned before I have a clip from April 2023. You could not hear KTNY until the city limits, around the Conoco heading east on US-2. Michael Buble, The Temptations, Bee Gees, Goo Goo Dolls, Marvin Gaye, etc. with some local advertisements and ABC news at the top of the hour. There was a constant clipping in the audio and some hum/feedback below the music too. Gone past the airport. Probably ran a few watts if that (wasn't even close to 3KW!!)

Cabinet Mountain Brewing has GREAT beer by the way! And a big record store too, Rocky Mountain Music, which sells guitars and other instruments too.
 
KLCB/KTNY's owner is in discussion with someone about a sale of the stations and if that deal falls through then someone else is second in line.
 
Today, Lincoln County Broadcasters filed to assign the KTNY FM license to Hi-Line Fellowship, a Montana religious broadcaster. The sales price is $30K but does not include the physical assets. An end to local broadcasting in Libby on FM.
 
RF101 said:
Today, Lincoln County Broadcasters filed to assign the KTNY FM license to Hi-Line Fellowship, a Montana religious broadcaster. The sales price is $30K but does not include the physical assets. An end to local broadcasting in Libby on FM.
Click to expand...
they dont own the tower the FM is on as i recall
 
To Your Network of Praise it goes. Libby desperately needs a non-religious, non-NPR FM radio station. Perhaps Anderson Broadcasting could work out something and fire up a couple of popular rural radio formats (like country/classic hits), even if they are translators of KIBG or KQRK...
 
crainbebo said:
To Your Network of Praise it goes. Libby desperately needs a non-religious, non-NPR FM radio station. Perhaps Anderson Broadcasting could work out something and fire up a couple of popular rural radio formats (like country/classic hits), even if they are translators of KIBG or KQRK...
Click to expand...

What money is there in that for them? There isnt. The stations need alot of work. A friend and i were looking at them because hes an engineer and could do alot of the work and already had alot of the things needed. They dont own one of the two towers they use and theres zero point in upgrading the FM beyond what it is already if youre a commercial operator.
 
There surely are people in Troy and Libby that would like to hear a local voice on the radio. Like if there was an out-of-control wildfire that was threatening to burn the city down. Kalispell and Missoula people, for the most part, are oblivious to what happens in 56-land.
Local radio is vital in this area. From experience you can only get a handful of FMs in Troy. Most of that handful are weak. KUFL-90.5 is about the only strong one.
 
crainbebo said:
There surely are people in Troy and Libby that would like to hear a local voice on the radio. Like if there was an out-of-control wildfire that was threatening to burn the city down. Kalispell and Missoula people, for the most part, are oblivious to what happens in 56-land.
Local radio is vital in this area. From experience you can only get a handful of FMs in Troy. Most of that handful are weak. KUFL-90.5 is about the only strong one.
Click to expand...

like and being able to make money off of are two different things

Dwayne was likely the only employee on the stations, his wife was mayor... he likely coasted on sales, what came in the door or was easy to sell. The station needed a dedicated hard working sales person and refreshed/updated programming on several friends. my engineer friend and i spent several days discussing this. there are two newspapers in the county, an active chamber of commerce that looks well supported... so there was possiblities. but youd had to have gotten the stations cheap and been able to do some of the fixin work and already have some of the parts, which he did. it was clear dwayne wasnt doin well $ wise.

the little money anderson or bee could make in libby with a translators, seperating for the 60 seconds an hour theyd be allowed to run, wouldnt be worth the expense of filing, building and operating
 
The AM, KLCB, is being sold to KJJR Media for $10K per a filing on 7/11. I imagine the AM will act like a "repeater" of Flathead Valley content.
 
RF101 said:
The AM, KLCB, is being sold to KJJR Media for $10K per a filing on 7/11. I imagine the AM will act like a "repeater" of Flathead Valley content.
Click to expand...

No, it wasnt. It was sold to Roger Lonndquist's commercial company, Northwest Capital Corportation. Roger is the Manager of YNOP

I bet 1230 will be a christian talk type station like the 1320 they own in SLC
 
You say Dwayne wasn't doing well money-wise...that's probably why KTNY sounded like they were running on a handful of watts of power when I passed by in April 2023. I didn't get a trace until I saw the "Entering Libby" sign coming EB on Hwy 2. Even in downtown, they were noisy. NO WAY JOSE were they running 3000 watts. KUFL runs 1/3rd the power and I could hear them at the MT border and passing the Yaak River Campground, over 20 miles W of Libby.
 
crainbebo said:
You say Dwayne wasn't doing well money-wise...that's probably why KTNY sounded like they were running on a handful of watts of power when I passed by in April 2023. I didn't get a trace until I saw the "Entering Libby" sign coming EB on Hwy 2. Even in downtown, they were noisy. NO WAY JOSE were they running 3000 watts. KUFL runs 1/3rd the power and I could hear them at the MT border and passing the Yaak River Campground, over 20 miles W of Libby.
Click to expand...


Its an educated guess based on multiple STA's, assumptions on other stuff, including the sales prices, etc
 


Back
Top Bottom