Bay Area Country Radio Station

[TheBigA]

at the time wasn’t KSAN 94.9 and KNEW 910 under the ownership of Clear Channel which is now iHeart?

They were owned by Malrite, then bought by Shamrock in 1993, and then later Clear Channel.

The current KSAN is a different frequency, and it's owned by Cumulus.

 

[Cityguy76]

I spent 7 years on KSAN. During that time (and based only on where people were calling from, sending bounce back form and attending the station's major events) it was clear that we were big in the east bay (think Hayward, Fremont, Diablo Valley) and in the South Bay. San Francisco was our city of license but the ears were elsewhere.

There's still a lot of country enthusiasm in the market but once the "Urban Cowboy" thing faded, so did country radio 'round these parts.

Just my two cents, I could be dead wrong ; -

 

[Cityguy76]

They were owned by Malrite, then bought by Shamrock in 1993, and then later Clear Channel.

The current KSAN is a different frequency, and it's owned by Cumulus.

Hmm. Urban Cowboy was 1980. That's when KSAN went country. The thing that killed Urban Cowboy was Garth Brooks and the new traditionalists in 1989. Seems to me KSAN was Top 10 or better with Garth and company, until KYCY Young Country came on the scene in 1994. Three years later KSAN flipped.

At the time I actually thought KYCY would work here...

 

[Cityguy76]

Wait 92.7 FM was a dance station prior to Ed Stolz under a court order to sell his stations to VCY America after being named in a label royalties dispute. I don't know if EDM is viable for radio but it was trending at one point online radio.

I remember 92.7 was KJAZ...

 

[Cityguy76]

Marty, Chase Center seats 18,000 people. You need a helluva lot more than that for a listener base. Selling out Levi's Stadium (capacity 68,500) for three nights straight wouldn't get you there.

Its something special tho especially with SF finally having its own arena (Chase Center) to host concerts, wrestling/boxing, possible future conventions besides basketball itself. I been inside that arena its a nice building...

 

[Cityguy76]

KATM has decent reception across portions of the East Bay. Years ago, picked 'em up quite well in a rental vehicle in the Pleasanton area.

Too bad KRTY hasn't upgraded to a stronger signal after all these years. That station seems to consistently earn good numbers in the South Bay.

Cumulus' effort on KSJO-FM was pitiful; they gave area listeners zero reason to switch from KRTY. Sure, there were a few area that could pick up 92.3 well but not 95.3. However, north of the Bay Bridge, 92.3's signal was and is useless.

Yes thats right KSJO was under Cumulus for a limited time and it was NASH country format if not mistaken...

 

[Cityguy76]

You do realize there's another 95.3 called KUIC in Vacaville

Yes thats true. Some parts depends where you live there is signal interference with one minute country and the next its adult contemporary...

 

[Cityguy76]

KRTY probably covers a significant amount, if not the majority, of the Bay Area core, despite being a class A signal. Not quite strong in San Francisco, Oakland, or Berkeley, though people in these areas aren't desperate to hear country music, even if there are some loyal fans among people living around San Jose. (Do keep in mind, though, that KRTY is 14th in cume in San Jose, barely edging KITS.)

Country is not doing well overall in New York, Los Angeles, or Miami, either share-wise or cume-wise.

I wonder if they have only one country radio station in their market (NYC, LA, MIA)...

 

[Cityguy76]

The NYC country station is a New Jersey rimshot for much of the market, so it is not ever going to outperform. LA is now about 70% ethnic or first generation immigrants (or both!) so there is only a tiny slice of possible partisans. And Miami is over 50% Hispanic and has a huge African American and Haitian population; those are not country prospects.

Country is pretty much a non-Hispanic white format (except in some places where the local Hispanic population has been around for a couple of hundred years). Just as Urban AC won't do well in Fargo, Country won't do as well in the heavily ethnic or immigrant populated markets.

Yet the country station in LA has been the #1 cuming country station in the US with some regularity.

is that the station in Los Angeles KKGO, right?

 

[Cityguy76]

A significant station needs a cume in the half-million range. A show needs 10,000. big difference.

More likely on an AM dial then an FM dial I guess...

 

[Cityguy76]

KATM has decent reception across portions of the East Bay. Years ago, picked 'em up quite well in a rental vehicle in the Pleasanton area.

Too bad KRTY hasn't upgraded to a stronger signal after all these years. That station seems to consistently earn good numbers in the South Bay.

Cumulus' effort on KSJO-FM was pitiful; they gave area listeners zero reason to switch from KRTY. Sure, there were a few area that could pick up 92.3 well but not 95.3. However, north of the Bay Bridge, 92.3's signal was and is useless.

I've heard the arguments that the Bay Area audience is too ethnically-diverse and/or politically liberal to support a country Station. Yet KRTY is doing quite well in ultra-liberal, ethnically-diverse Santa Clara County. And... they're only a Class A signal.

Its a good argument and a good topic to have...

 

[michael hagerty]

(deleted post. Big A posted while I was still writing.)

 

[victorres43]

I wonder if they have only one country radio station in their market (NYC, LA, MIA)...

Yes, they have one country station (at least one serving the core). Not much room for two. I guess one can make an argument for KFRG in LA, but KFRG doesn't even subscribe to the LA ratings. And I think KFRG's signal is blocked by a mountain range east of LA/OC.

 

[Cityguy76]

Such a passive answer. Creativity is at the heart of innovation. Many novel radio formats that grew to become successful began because an ownership group was willing to take a risk. EX: the novel NAC format in the late 1980s (KKSF), or going back to a format that had been out of vogue for 2+ decades (KISQ - The Breeze), or even the WOW Factor in Phoenix, which took a couple years to find its stride and finally see its ratings blossom in 2021.

Ma

Yes, they have one country station (at least one serving the core). Not much room for two. I guess one can make an argument for KFRG in LA, but KFRG doesn't even subscribe to the LA ratings. And I think KFRG's signal is blocked by a mountain range east of LA/OC.

Oh ok it makes sense. Having one country radio in one market even its ratings is steady its ok for sure. No competition indeed and thats why I actually think country radio can makes its return here...

 

[powers]

due to the southern half of Santa Clara County as being rural such as Gilroy.

Gilroy would likely be covered by both KRTY and KTOM in Salinas/Monterey.

 

[Signal Geek]

I think KFRG's signal is blocked by a mountain range east of LA/OC.

Actually, KFRG gets into most of the L.A. basin okay, thanks to 50kw & 3400 feet of elevation. But it's still a rimshot signal that's a bit weak on the Westside and quite weak in the San Fernando & Santa Clarita Valleys. Transmitter is about 40 miles northeast of downtown L.A.

 

[davideduardo]

Actually, KFRG gets into most of the L.A. basin okay, thanks to 50kw & 3400 feet of elevation. But it's still a rimshot signal that's a bit weak on the Westside and quite weak in the San Fernando & Santa Clarita Valleys. Transmitter is about 40 miles northeast of downtown L.A.

KFRG does have a theoretical 60 dbu over much of the Orange County area, but has horizon blockage from the mountains that are in the way. In LA Country it just gets the eastern part of the San Gabriel Valley.

It last showed up in the LA book in February of 2020 with a 0.2 share and a 0.0 rating in 12+.

It has no signal in the San Fernando Valley due to terrain obstruction, and most of the Santa Clarita area requires boosters or translators for the Mt Wilson located LA stations. None of the IE stations "makes it around the bend" of the mountains.

Froggy is 50 kw at 500 feet. Even KLYY, 72 kw at 1800 feet has a hard time getting listening other than in the San Gabriel Valley despite a dozen formats in the last 22 to 23 years that it has been in Spanish. The KFRG site lets the signal do very well on the arc from the SE to the SW, but due east or due west it is blocked by its hemmed in transmitter site.

 

[davideduardo]

is that the station in Los Angeles KKGO, right?

Yes, a very low budget station, full paid for about 60 years ago, no debt and family run. It is a low biller which ranks around 25th in market revenue. But nobody wants to compete with it, so they don't have to spend on talent, promotion or much of anything.

A few years ago, I was at the Garth Brooks concert on the West Side of LA. Froggy had a van on each side of the venue, while Go Country had no presence at all.

I chatted with the Froggy team at one of the vans and asked why they were there and they said that it was because lots of their Inland Empire frog fans came to LA. Since I had driven from a hundred miles farther away, I understood that.

 

[davideduardo]

I wonder if they have only one country radio station in their market (NYC, LA, MIA)...

Yes, just one. Miami, being more part of Latin America than the US in mood and temperament, has been losing country shares tiny bit by bit for two decades. Even if they produced the Mavericks, Miami is probably the least country market in the US.

Now I gotta go and listen to "Crying Shame" again!

 

[MarkW]

Yet the country station in LA has been the #1 cuming country station in the US with some regularity.

WNSH in New York, WUSN in Chicago, 93Q in Houston, and both full market signals in DFW are all head of KKGO-FM in terms of cume in the most recent surveys. The margin is not particularly large, however. I believe the other stations were all between 700,000 and 790,000 weekly listeners. Go Country was around 677,000. I want to say one of the DFW stations was #1 with WNSH following close behind.

Maybe five years ago, WYCD in Detroit was in the same ballpark (between 750,000 and 800,000). These days, that station cannot muster 600,000. Cume on a per station basis remains well below pre-COVID levels in that market, in certain instances.