Bloomberg 960 ending October 1

[TheBigA]

Don’t they own four?
KTCT AM
KSFO AM
KNBR AM
KGO AM

Correct, and I'm assuming that KSFO and KNBR are untouchable. But KTCT might be available.

They probably signed some period of time for KGO.

I'd bet that Bloomberg could, for what the iHeart/KNEW LMA has been costing them, buy KGO outright.

You might be right, but it's a lot more work to own a station than just lease it. They're in the content business, not the transmitters & towers business.

 

[BLA]

Right! They could call it KABL, and they could get Bill Moen and Jim Lange and Carter B. Smith to play the records for the old audience....

...who, like Bill, Jim and Carter...are all dead.

Tempus has done fugited on that one.

... and the old audiences are with them, too. Is there a 960 over the sunset mountain?

 

[Weiserguy]

You might be right, but it's a lot more work to own a station than just lease it. They're in the content business, not the transmitters & towers business.

Yes, you are correct about that. But we're also talking about the owner of WBBR, a 50 Kw NYC flamethrower that used to be the legendary WNEW. I think someone or other there knows how to run an actual station. And ultimately, isn't everyone who's in the radio business also in the content business?

 

[TheBigA]

Yes, you are correct about that. But we're also talking about the owner of WBBR, a 50 Kw NYC flamethrower that used to be the legendary WNEW. I think someone or other there knows how to run an actual station. And ultimately, isn't everyone who's in the radio business also in the content business?

TTBOMK that's their only O&O, bought 30 years ago. They primarily do LMAs and leave the owning to someone else.

As of now, we don't know of any Bloomberg negotiations for any broadcast outlets in SF. They have lots of options. Including FM.

 

[Weiserguy]

TTBOMK that's their only O&O, bought 30 years ago. They primarily do LMAs and leave the owning to someone else.

As of now, we don't know of any Bloomberg negotiations for any broadcast outlets in SF. They have lots of options.

You're right on both points. I'm only pointing out that they own a station -- and what a station -- so they do have some institutional knowledge on how to do it, if they wanted to. It's possible they have better options, or they just want to extricate themselves from the radio station business (or radio in total*), but that information isn't currently on the table.

*In which case, why'd they dig in deeper in Boston the other day?

 

[TheBigA]

*In which case, why'd they dig in deeper in Boston the other day?

Exactly. That's why I'm expecting them to return. The SF area is a major financial region of the country.

 

[408listener]

Exactly. That's why I'm expecting them to return. The SF area is a major financial region of the country.

Then they would have announced a new frequency right then and there earlier this week, instead of telling Bay Area listeners to switch to the app.

 

[BLA]

The result in many markets is a bunch of stations that sound alike, hardly getting an audience but still managing to hang on rather than be used for other purposes that might actually serve at least a different audience and advertising revenue.

When you say 'other purposes', don't you really mean other broadcast companies. Never hand a loaded gun to a competitor- even if you're not actually competing. The best four AMs in SF are not owned by iHeart.

 

[TheBigA]

Then they would have announced a new frequency right then and there earlier this week, instead of telling Bay Area listeners to switch to the app.

Only if they had a deal already done.

 

[Mark Roberts]

When you say 'other purposes', don't you really mean other broadcast companies. Never hand a loaded gun to a competitor- even if you're not actually competing. The best four AMs in SF are not owned by iHeart.

I'm referring to ethnic, religious, or any other broadcaster with different financial and/or audience-targeting models than the big boys. If you're implying that KVTO or KSFB are competition for KSFO, just to name an example, you might have a sliver of a case, but it wouldn't pan out in practice.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Only if they had a deal already done.

Good Lord (I hope that exclamation's not patented), I hope we don't get into the "when will they announce it?" game again.

Bloomberg will announce something when they're good and ready to announce it. iHeart will do the same.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Exactly. That's why I'm expecting them to return. The SF area is a major financial region of the country.

As I mentioned upthread, it's not what it was, though, particularly in San Francisco proper. There is a lot of money in the Bay Area, especially Silicon Valley, but radio may have too dowdy an image for the people whose business prospects center on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto.

 

[Weiserguy]

As I mentioned upthread, it's not what it was, though, particularly in San Francisco proper. There is a lot of money in the Bay Area, especially Silicon Valley, but radio may have too dowdy an image for the people whose business prospects center on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto.

Technically, Sand Hill Road is Menlo Park. (A small part of it does run through Palo Alto, but only as you get into the Stanford Shopping Center. The Sand Hill Road crowd is all between the Alameda and I-280.)

 

[PTBoardOp93]

As I mentioned upthread, it's not what it was, though, particularly in San Francisco proper. There is a lot of money in the Bay Area, especially Silicon Valley, but radio may have too dowdy an image for the people whose business prospects center on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto.

Ancient modulation definitely does. SF is the center of the electric vehicle revolution, and several of the larger EV brands do not include AM tuners. The wealthy businesspeople who Bloomberg wishes to reach are much more likely to have a Tesla or a Volvo than your average soccer mom.

 

[cc333]

I don't really like how the rich snobs around here shun anything that's more than a year or two old. All their newfangled technologies do is, in my experience, make things harder and more confusing (all these old analog technologies – copper telephone lines, AM/FM radio – may have numerous deficiencies and shortcomings, but one enduring virtue is that they are very simple and straightforward to use).

At any rate, I have an older Boomer friend – he isn't in finance – who enjoys listening to Bloomberg 960 as often as he can (yes, he's a bit... eccentric?). I told him that Bloomberg was pulling out of 960, and naturally he was disappointed.

Hypothetically, if Bloomberg were to, say, buy KGO from Cumulus and commence their programming on there (and obliterate that awful waste of a format that's there now), what would they do with the heritage call letters? Would they keep them, or change them to something like KBBR? (I'm pretty sure KBBR is already in use somewhere, but I don't know where).

c

 

[Radiopaw]

I don't really like how the rich snobs around here shun anything that's more than a year or two old. All their newfangled technologies do is, in my experience, make things harder and more confusing (all these old analog technologies – copper telephone lines, AM/FM radio – may have numerous deficiencies and shortcomings, but one enduring virtue is that they are very simple and straightforward to use).

At any rate, I have an older Boomer friend – he isn't in finance – who enjoys listening to Bloomberg 960 as often as he can (yes, he's a bit... eccentric?). I told him that Bloomberg was pulling out of 960, and naturally he was disappointed.

Hypothetically, if Bloomberg were to, say, buy KGO from Cumulus and commence their programming on there (and obliterate that awful waste of a format that's there now), what would they do with the heritage call letters? Would they keep them, or change them to something like KBBR? (I'm pretty sure KBBR is already in use somewhere, but I don't know where).

c

This is the most “stereotypical” boomer comment I’ve ever read — no offense intended.

Technology is intended to make your life easier, or harder. The onus is on the user to learn and implement the technology for that goal. I am pro FM Radio, for example, but I acknowledge its shortcomings and limited lifespan. It’s simple to use because you already understand it, yes, but, take it from someone who’s young enough tell you about learning both before I hit my teens — a 2000’s era car radio is no less “simple to use” then an iPhone. Technology is simple, reliable and adaptable. That is its aim.

And while I am sad that KNEW is no longer Bloomberg, ESPECIALLY as I don’t wanna see AM die but rather reinvent itself with HD Radio to revitalize it until radio completely wipes out, an app offers just as easy an experience with a better sound.

 

[luperm]

Just think...If KNEW had as many listeners as there are posts in this thread, there might be some hope!!

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't really like how the rich snobs around here shun anything that's more than a year or two old.

I'm not rich.

I'm not a snob.

I don't "shun anything that's more than a year or two old."

AM's 100+ years old. FM's 80+.

All their newfangled technologies

The iPhone has been around since 2007---seventeen years. Radio stations have been streaming since the late 1990s, so very nearly THIRTY years.

do is, in my experience, make things harder and more confusing

I'm 68 and should be dumbfounded. I'm not. I have a device where I can make phone calls, send texts, video chat with my grandkids 2,500 miles away, navigate in new places, take high-resolution photos, listen to my library of hundreds of albums, radio stations from my hometown or all over the world, my airchecks of radio stations going back decades, or specifically-created content like podcasts.

I love that. And it took me, depending on what we're talking about, between an hour and a day to figure out the vast majority of it.

Your mileage, apparently, does vary.

(all these old analog technologies – copper telephone lines, AM/FM radio – may have numerous deficiencies and shortcomings, but one enduring virtue is that they are very simple and straightforward to use).

In a much narrower range of applications.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Hypothetically, if Bloomberg were to, say, buy KGO from Cumulus and commence their programming on there (and obliterate that awful waste of a format that's there now), what would they do with the heritage call letters? Would they keep them, or change them to something like KBBR? (I'm pretty sure KBBR is already in use somewhere, but I don't know where).

North Bend, OR.

 

[Weiserguy]

North Bend, OR.

EDIT: deleted. (Never mind, misread the preceding post you were answering.)