But the Crawford station is preaching and teaching, with total block programming all week. K-Love is a pure music format with brief messages and thoughts interspersed. As different as A/C and News/Talk.
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BREAKING NEWS!...Star 102.5 sold in Buffalo
- Thread starter Tall Thin One
- Start date
Many will say that the core Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and other major religion's beliefs are quite similar. So, if well over 6 billion follow those faiths or splinter groups of them, it is likely that the core values or concepts will find their way to contemporary music everywhere.
Back in the 90s when Christian artists like Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith also had mainstream Top 40 hits, this was especially true.
Stryper & P.O.D. also come to mind.
No dispute ... but as has been shown with secular news-talk shares and secular music stations, cume shared listening occurs. As such, it's not so much an "apples vs. oranges" thing. I stand by my initial observation: It may be quite a study.
Not as much as you think. EMF purposely tries to find signals in the middle of the commercial FM band as most of its overlap is with secular AC or Hot AC stations targeting women 25-54.
The preaching stations skew much, much older.
Again, no dispute.
If, as you note, pursuing mid-band signals is the intent of EMF, the sharing conjecture actually expands. My OP regarding WDCX in particular is based on (anecdotal) observation of my friends who are of the Evangelical Christian persuasion. They find WDCX, The Dove and K-Love WBKV very much to their liking and don't hesitate to tell their friends what they listen to. They're almost as "evangelical" about their radio listening as they are about their faith. In this regard, they may be typical of P1 listeners to WYRK, 97 Rock or Kiss ... or Star 102.5 for that matter. As noted in previous posts, the presentation of K-Love is not all that different from the presentation of many successful AC or Hot AC stations in America. It would not surprise this poster in the least if a considerable number of Women 25-54 who cumed Star 102.5 as an (Hot) AC find102.5 as K-Love equally appealing. Time will tell.
Additionally, programmers in Buffalo should be interested to see/learn what stations K-Love, on a flame throwing 102.5 signal, shares with. To the right, WECK's translator at 102.9. Neighbors few doors down, Classic Hits 104.1. Just down the block a bit in the other direction is Catholic Radio's 101.7 and secular Kiss 98.5 ... which many years ago under the ownership of Earl C. Hull, would proclaim "WHLD-FM Niagara Falls at 98 point 5 ... in the middle of the FM band."
Hull was a pioneer Army Signal Corps broadcaster who put WHLD AM 1270 and FM 98.5 on the air.
It’s unfair all the hate EMF gets. Sure, they’ve bought and flipped a favorite station of mine. But their intentions are good. Here in the south, EMF/K Love/Air 1 ARE our hot ac/soft ac/ac stations. People listen. I honestly don’t understand why IHeart/Audacy haven’t launched their own contemporary Christian formats nationally.
WDCX has CCM on their HD2, and word is they were doing quite well with it (for an HD2). It's toast now. K-Love will dominate the CCM market.
The business model is very different.
Cumulus and iHeart have experimented with CCM a few times, but it usually doesn’t get very far. While the demos are desirable, you have to turn away certain clients, including some most operators would rather work with. One example of that is casinos.
I wouldn’t call it unfair. In many cases EMF turns a vibrant radio station full of employees. Into a transmitter at the end of a satellite dish. Nothing local no employees.
You answered your own question. Why should iHeart or Audacy enter the CCM format when other broadcasters, both nationally and locally, are doing the same thing, often with multiple choices in a given market?
Welcome to how radio is done in much of the rest of the world.
Isn’t the point of radio to make money?
I would. .and im not a huge fan of Klove.
No one is holding a gun to their head to buy. I'm sure there has been plenty of stations a seller has pitched to them that theyve turned down.
And whos to say if someone else bought them all those employees and formats would be kept?
The stations were sold because although they appeared vibrant on the outside, the ratings, revenue or both were tanking.
But the number of stations fighting for the remaining... and declining... dollars decreases, leaving a bit more proportionally for each commercial station.
The fact is that in most formats "local" has become meaningless and valueless. A better talent lineup on a regional or national basis is often much better than anything local... and that is what radio does in most of the rest of the world where commercial radio exists..
We started doing Top 40 and R&B and other early formats locally back in the 50's as the network soaps, drama and comedy radio shows died. The reason was not a belief in local radio being better... it was because leased lines 24/7 to do new all music format nationally was just too expensive and, further, did not have very great quality.
So we got the same format and mostly the same songs in every market. The costs and the technology did not support doing national networks.
Yet when Top 40 reached Spain and France and a number of nations in Latin America in the 60's, it was done nationally. In fact, in Spain "Los 40" was not only a national network by around 1966, it was an FM national network!
True. And sometimes they can really screw things up for small-town radio when they buy (read: WFLO in Farmville, VA).
However, nobody is forcing EMF to buy these stations. Many of these stations that have been bought in the last decade had other offers from other clusters or independent operators. None of them could match what EMF can as they don’t have several $100k in payroll/studio/station van maintenance to throw out there yearly for each property. These owners looking to sell have a responsibility to the shareholders to sell for the most money possible. And don’t forget that point: publicly-traded companies generally *have* to sell their assets to the highest bidder (barring things like competition, etc). If WTSS got sold to Buddy for $1 million less than the offer from EMF, heads would likely roll. Shareholders could care less that the station is still “live and local”.
I find it so interesting that in this day and age that EMF is spending $15 million on two radio stations. It would appear this is clear evidence that, at least in its case, EMF must think music listeners still prefer radio over streaming services.
I’m all about technology. I listen to terrestrial radio only in the car. I have three Alexa devices, plus a new Apple Home Pod and an LG sound bar, in my house. The stereo speakers I’ve had for 40 years hanging on my family room wall are nothing more than decoration these days. In recent weeks, I’ve been listening a lot to Tom Schuh’s Cool 101 on Live 365. I have an Apple Music subscription. When I listen to Buffalo music radio stations, I’m doing so through their streams. This morning, I quickly found K-Love on Tune In so I could sample it. And that begged the question for me as to why EMF sees a need to spend so much money on two terrestrial radio stations in Buffalo and Memphis.
We hear that young people are all about their phones and apps. Radio is a foreign concept to them. Radio as we know it will be dead at some point. Yet, in reading dozens of Facebook comments in recent days about the Star 102.5 sale and JP’s move to WECK, people LOVE their radio stations. Indeed, this is reinforced every so often in online trade publications on studies that show the continued strength of radio. I find this whole contradiction fascinating. The future is all about streaming. And yet, EMF sees a need to buy radio stations even though its K-Love stream is a click away on the Tune In app. And enterprising owners like Buddy Shula are finding ways to make money by running radio stations.
As I wrote at the beginning of this post, it’s all so interesting!
I’m all about technology. I listen to terrestrial radio only in the car. I have three Alexa devices, plus a new Apple Home Pod and an LG sound bar, in my house. The stereo speakers I’ve had for 40 years hanging on my family room wall are nothing more than decoration these days. In recent weeks, I’ve been listening a lot to Tom Schuh’s Cool 101 on Live 365. I have an Apple Music subscription. When I listen to Buffalo music radio stations, I’m doing so through their streams. This morning, I quickly found K-Love on Tune In so I could sample it. And that begged the question for me as to why EMF sees a need to spend so much money on two terrestrial radio stations in Buffalo and Memphis.
We hear that young people are all about their phones and apps. Radio is a foreign concept to them. Radio as we know it will be dead at some point. Yet, in reading dozens of Facebook comments in recent days about the Star 102.5 sale and JP’s move to WECK, people LOVE their radio stations. Indeed, this is reinforced every so often in online trade publications on studies that show the continued strength of radio. I find this whole contradiction fascinating. The future is all about streaming. And yet, EMF sees a need to buy radio stations even though its K-Love stream is a click away on the Tune In app. And enterprising owners like Buddy Shula are finding ways to make money by running radio stations.
As I wrote at the beginning of this post, it’s all so interesting!
There was a time when religious/spiritual/Christian themes were prevalent on pop on rock radio. Everything from Pacific Gas and Electric "Are you Ready", songs from Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar and even Sister Janet Mead.
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