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Classic rock changing to KLove in Rome
- Thread starter RadioRome
- Start date
WPFM was a very highly rated, long running CHR in Panama City, FL and it sold to K-Love shortly before the hurricane hit this past fall.
But the fact was that WPFM as a CHR was 10th in billing in a market with only about $6,000,000 in total radio revenues. At a typical small market CHR power ratio, this station was likely billing around $300,000 a year.
David, the numbers that I saw for the three/four station PC cluster were a bit better than what you are quoting here, but not that much better, so you can see how hard it is to pay for any staff, equipment upgrades/repairs, ratings info, electricity, tower rentals, royalties, etc. While the electric bill in Atlanta could be paid in full by a few commercials, it literally could take a few days of total ad revenue in markets like PC. Add a hurricane on top of what was already tough and you know the law of averages. Then you affect the quality of the sound on the air. Then you go months without station options on the air and people just start searching for entertainment off the radio dial. It is almost a no-win situation.
As for EMF. This is a very interesting trend. Christian-based companies are able to buy viable commercial stations in multiple markets and jukebox them better than even the Jack format and pay better for them than the well-known corporations. The FM dial is starting to be dotted with fewer "large market formats" and choices and it is getting sliced and diced by unlistenable niche formats. I would think that this would really hurt the local market's sound to the point that listeners don't find enough that is that interesting when scanning through the garbage and that would help all of the billion online listening options or radio.com, etc. David, you are so ahead of the curve on the future. Where do you see radio markets below the top-125-ish sounding and surviving in the new five to ten years? Loaded question, I know, but sincere. (I think you know that!)
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The fact is, if the listeners in many markets (perhaps the situation in Panama City is unique because of the hurricane) were listening to the stations in question before KLove and AirOne bought them out, their original formats would probably have survived.
Your point doesn't take into account the fact that in markets like Panama City K-Love can have top 5 share rank, and we must conclude that it is providing a service local listeners want in each market.
It does not matter where a format comes from, as long as it fulfills a listener need. "Live" is a handy word to use to criticize voice-tracked or automated formats. "Local" is another such term... there are many formats that don't need localization, and where trying to do so makes them boring.
TV, due to the costs, has been essentially a non-live and non-local proposition for going on seven decades. Stations don't do a post-night news talk show because the networks have top talent, a "live" band, celebrity guests, professionally written monologues and comedy skits and the like.
So to answer your question, we are going to see more formats go to a national network model, although they may not take a live feed. More than likely, syndicated shows will be delivered by FTP in workparts... I like to call them "kibbles and bits"... and assembled locally with each stations exact commercial load and any things like weather, traffic, PSAs and the like inserted with the national talent.
Many marginal stations will disappear including nearly all AMs (remember when in Panama City the Top 40 station was a daytimer on, IIRC, 1480?) even if they had been viable long ago. Rimshot FMs may go too. It will be a lower margin business, successful only if the owners are good at local sales and have a robust new media platform as well.
I'm not sure how much "scanning" still happens. I think people have their favorites. That's how they organize their browsing on the web, that's how they organize their behavior with regards to shopping, and that's how they listen to radio. Since this is the Atlanta board, there clearly is an audience in North Georgia for Christian AC. The Fish is a very popular format, and I doubt the motivation is because it's live & local. KLove is a non-commercial format, so fans of this music will have a source for their favorite music and no commercials. For the station's owner, it sounds like it was strictly a business decision. He sounds like he's starting to transfer his responsibilities to his daughter, and selling the station is just part of that process for him.
I guess it depends on the size of the rimshot. WSRV and WSBB are both technically rimshots.
To your point, though, if a, say, class C2/C3 rimshot is having a hard time in a smaller market, and it goes off the air, that might make room for a nearby (RF-wise) station to upgrade and take over more of a solid market, or a smaller station (class A or C3--and isn't a C4 being considered?) squeezing into a smaller market with better coverage when some other rimshot goes dark.
There was a 105.5 (IIRC) class A in Bowdon; CC bought it and made a class C-something on 105.3 and was able to move 105.7 closer to Atlanta (105.7 was also on 105.5 before CC bought it from McClure). What if, say, 105.7 went dark and 106.1 could move closer to Atlanta (ditto for 105.3). I haven't looked into all the possibilities and stymies, just sake of argument.
IMHO: The rimshot FM failures in small markets discussed earlier on the thread is what happened to 95.7. Most of the 60 DB was / is north of Rome:
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WATG&service=FM
The Rome “market” is the Floyd county MSA and has 97,000 people. Three of the four AM’s have translators. WLAQ 1410 will have a translator too which makes all of the AM’s are really FM stations. You add in the “real” existing local commercial FM’s 93.5, 102.3, 104.9 that is 8 “market covering” commercial signals. One of the best signals in the market 97.5 was of more value to GA Public radio than a commercial operator back in 2007 says a lot about the money in the market. 107.1 has tried to be an Atlanta station for decades but still had some local car dealerships on the last time I listened 2010. I don’t know how the Hispanic programming will sell in Rome on 107.1, but also there is a daily local newspaper. Rome sounds like a hard place to make money.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WATG&service=FM
The Rome “market” is the Floyd county MSA and has 97,000 people. Three of the four AM’s have translators. WLAQ 1410 will have a translator too which makes all of the AM’s are really FM stations. You add in the “real” existing local commercial FM’s 93.5, 102.3, 104.9 that is 8 “market covering” commercial signals. One of the best signals in the market 97.5 was of more value to GA Public radio than a commercial operator back in 2007 says a lot about the money in the market. 107.1 has tried to be an Atlanta station for decades but still had some local car dealerships on the last time I listened 2010. I don’t know how the Hispanic programming will sell in Rome on 107.1, but also there is a daily local newspaper. Rome sounds like a hard place to make money.
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