• 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

Bustos buying KXXO Oly

I doubt KLSY and KXXO will carry the same format - there's a significant overlap between the two, and both stations reach Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Chehalis with decent signal, even if FCC contours don't show KXXO reaching Seattle.

My guess is that KXXO will go Urbana or La Maquina; or possibly be LMA'd to a different Spanish Christian format like Radio Amor as heard on 1210. There could also be a swap between KLSY and KXXO, which could see KLSY going 'secular', but a simulcast between KXXO and KLSY would be total waste of airwaves due to the significant coverage overlap.
 
Remember, Nogales (either of them) is not in or near the Tucson market. The AZ Nogales is 70 miles from the center of Tucson.
I did not realize XHAZE-FM , despite its 50 kw ERP , only has a 14.1 M HAAT. No wonder its coverage cannot reach too far north. Still, I think Urbana will be a candidate to attract a younger demo in the Puget Sound.
 
So they want to lose tens of thousands of workplace listeners for a few hundred niche Spanish listeners? Seriously - buy a 250 watt translator!
I get where you are coming from, but KXXO in its current format and personnel, as a standalone station, just must not be all that sexy and must not be making a ton of money. They only got $1.5MM, and from the sounds of it that is essentially for license and equipment. I mean, I admire the work they have done for decades, but the two owners are around 70+ish and have had some health issues.

Have you seen how many folks they have under employ? Holy cow! KXXO Staff

Bustos already has programming ready to go and operational elsewhere, so all he really has to do is plug and play. It sucks to be one of the folks on this list who undoubtedly will be looking for work, but dat's radio I am afraid. To quote Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, (one example of many) our own David Eduardo "...has killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille."

And since Bustos has no need at all for the current IP, no reason to include it in the deal. Maybe the current owners have a separate market for that, maybe they don't but Bustos didn't need it so he didn't buy it.
 
I did not realize XHAZE-FM , despite its 50 kw ERP , only has a 14.1 M HAAT. No wonder its coverage cannot reach too far north. Still, I think Urbana will be a candidate to attract a younger demo in the Puget Sound.
Bustos has the Urbana format in Tucson on a translator at 92.5 FM. From the antenna farm on top of Mt. Lemmon, that 250 watt translator has great coverage of Tucson. Mt. Lemmon is to Tuson, what Sandia is to Albuquerque...A great location to place TV and FM transmitters.

XENY 760 AM is the only Nogales station receivable in Tucson. Even then, it's fairly weak.
 
Doing some more thinking about the IP for KXXO. WHere would you put it? WHo might want it? Assuming the current owners are out of radio for good, then you look at the other local players.

KRXY? Station is for sale itself, from the talk anyway. And they have built a pretty decent local brand over the years, so probably not a ton of vlaue in putting KXXO branding on top of or replacing it. They do have a couple translators, but...they're translators.

KAYO/"KGY"- These folks seem pretty satisfied with the branding and formats they already have.

KJET Union? The developer of this new rimshot (who is on this board) would probably not be in the mood to sell to someone who will then compete with his current flagship. Intriguing, but doubtful.

KDUX/KMNT/KVNW- there are a few decent signals floating around the region I suppose. Maybe there is someone out there who can move one of these signals towards Oly and then relaunch as Mixx. Maybe.
 
If KXXO does go Spanish, I sure hope that they allow the DJs to sign off and say goodbye to their listeners after 35 years. Especially ole' Ty Flint.
 
Unfortunately, KDUX cannot move to either Capitol Peak or South Mountain. 104.5 KLSW prevents that , even if KDUX were to downgrade to C3. KMNT also is locked down due to KLSW. (Darn Move-In's.) KVNW move north is blocked by KISM.
 
If KXXO does go Spanish, I sure hope that they allow the DJs to sign off and say goodbye to their listeners after 35 years. Especially ole' Ty Flint.
IF? With like 2 exceptions, everything bustos does is spanish... why would you expect different?

If you dont like heritage stations changing formats or languages, why not pony up the bucks and buy a station?
 
Doing some more thinking about the IP for KXXO. WHere would you put it? WHo might want it? Assuming the current owners are out of radio for good, then you look at the other local players.

Something else that seems possible is that it might be moving to an online only streaming service, a la KRTY in San Jose. I won't pretend to have any inside information, but it seems like that would at least be a remote possibility.
 
IF? With like 2 exceptions, everything bustos does is spanish... why would you expect different?
If KXXO does go Spanish, I sure hope that they allow the DJs to sign off and say goodbye to their listeners after 35 years. Especially ole' Ty Flint.
Paul's right - it's very likely (>95% prob.) KXXO will flip to Spanish, but what remains to be seen is specifically what kind of Spanish.

I do agree with Taylor that DJs should be given the opportunity to sign off and say goodbye to listeners. I'd like to see a WPLJ-style sign off for KXXO right before the flip.
Something else that seems possible is that it might be moving to an online only streaming service, a la KRTY in San Jose. I won't pretend to have any inside information, but it seems like that would at least be a remote possibility.
I wouldn't be surprised to see KXXO go all online after the flip.
 
I wouldn't be surprised to see KXXO go all online after the flip.

I would...KXXO seems old school, im told they were entirely olympia focused and alot of it on downtown and that would seem like the perfect thing for a small webcaster, but i dont.

KXXO is either going to go away entirely, or buy KRXY and save the rest. One of those two. They kept the intellctual property
 
It won't be Urbana!, KXXO It will maintain a style similar to The Driver or be religious. But there's no interest in a Spanish-language radio station.
 
ALL of Bustos' proeprties operate in Spanish except for Tucson. All. Tucson is the outlier. And I thinik that is the case only becuase he doesn't have 6 corporate formats operating right now.
 
ALL of Bustos' proeprties operate in Spanish except for Tucson. All. Tucson is the outlier. And I thinik that is the case only becuase he doesn't have 6 corporate formats operating right now.
And obviously The Drive was doing well otherwise he wouldn’t have bought it, plus it probably demographically compliments his other stations and it’s much easier to sell a cluster/combo then. One or two signals.

Plus if he could move one of his formats in the Seattle environs to a bigger signal instead of piece meal it together or extend the southerly edge of a Seattle area format, KXXO is a good way to do it
 
Putting Urbana on 96.1 makes a lot of sense. Not only will this target younger Hispanics, Spanish hit music is kind of having a moment right now. This will be weird for me as well, as every time I'm up that way I listen to KXXO. That has been less since my grandfather died, but I still get to hear KXXO every once in a while. As for what happens to the station's current format, it seems like they will be doing something with it. It seems odd to me they're keeping all that IP only to not do anything with it.
This then begs the question, what happens with 105.7? I always thought that Bustos would wind up with that signal for Urbana, but with that format on 96.1, I don't have any clue as to what could go on 105.7. That's still two and a half years away, as I doubt they will be able to light that thing up ahead of time with all the other changes that have to happen before it can sign on.
 
I just talked to one of their weekenders, he's not happy about it, but he also understands it's the nature of the business; I admire his resilience and tenacity. Just wish more locals actually would take up the mantle after the original owners retire to keep live and local alive. There's still KRXY and their interesting mix. I swear I heard Dua Lipa go into Motley Crue on there, and I heard that station is either up for sale or sold.
 
I just talked to one of their weekenders, he's not happy about it, but he also understands it's the nature of the business; I admire his resilience and tenacity. Just wish more locals actually would take up the mantle after the original owners retire to keep live and local alive. There's still KRXY and their interesting mix. I swear I heard Dua Lipa go into Motley Crue on there, and I heard that station is either up for sale or sold.
I have family in the area and listen to KRXY whenever I visit -- it is an interesting and unusual station, and I can easily believe you could hear Dua Lipa into Motley Crue on that station. What I don't notice when I visit is a particularly heavy commercial load, so I have to think that they're struggling. So if it gets sold, I suspect the existing format will bite the dust (or at least be seriously modified) even in the unlikely event that it goes to another local owner.
 


Back
Top Bottom