Clear Channel in SF

[BossRadioDJ]

So, anyway ... This morning's Radio Business Report has this blurb:

According to a research note from Bear Stearns analyst Victor Miller, DOJ is requiring CCU to sell one Spanish language station in San Francisco, which would be KSJO-FM.

That's it? One station? And no language that would stop CC from flipping another of their stations to the "Spanish-language" format?

I think the DOJ thinks that "Spanish-language" is an embedded format that is permanently assigned to a station.

 

[davideduardo]

So, anyway ... This morning's Radio Business Report has this blurb:

According to a research note from Bear Stearns analyst Victor Miller, DOJ is requiring CCU to sell one Spanish language station in San Francisco, which would be KSJO-FM.

That's it? One station? And no language that would stop CC from flipping another of their stations to the "Spanish-language" format?

I think the DOJ thinks that "Spanish-language" is an embedded format that is permanently assigned to a station.

I am assuming that the stations that are in the Alhoa Trust that have to go per FCC rules will also still have to be sold... that's the other two SJ area stations.

 

[1069_KIFR]

Did CC see this coming and that is the reason why they flipped Channel 104.9 from spanish back to alternative?

 

[create]

So, anyway ... This morning's Radio Business Report has this blurb:

According to a research note from Bear Stearns analyst Victor Miller, DOJ is requiring CCU to sell one Spanish language station in San Francisco, which would be KSJO-FM.

That's it? One station? And no language that would stop CC from flipping another of their stations to the "Spanish-language" format?

I think the DOJ thinks that "Spanish-language" is an embedded format that is permanently assigned to a station.

I am assuming that the stations that are in the Alhoa Trust that have to go per FCC rules will also still have to be sold... that's the other two SJ area stations.

Yeah, I thought it was already a done deal that they would have to sell the SJ stations. Maybe I'm not understanding it fully, but the DOJ ruling would be moot in that case.

 

[SFStatic]

Think David is right. Even though the DOJ said one Spanish language station, the FCC already made it clear they would have to sell off the 3 stations that went into the trust.

 

[JEREMIAH]

DAVID KAYE:


"alice don't polka on my accordian" (Stan Freberg as Lawrence Welk in one of his great satire records. "Wunerful...Wunerful"..1957)I actually met him here at KNUU some months back..I started doing his old bits and he said.."yeah, that was from____" It was like meeting god for me.

RE: The Metro thing...I was on KGO radio at the same time I did Metro
they figured my voice was so well known in the market it would be silly to give me a phoney name. Matter of fact when they offered to change my name for KFRC.."magic "61"...the pd said he didn't want to take a back seat to anyone....he wanted JG. Go figure!


After 20 years in SF, my wife wanted to move to a warmer climate and we did in 1995.

After Autry's KSFO I became the 5 O'clock Shadow on CH.7 KGO-TV..did fill in talk and news on KGO radio, metro and News on KSAN-KNEW.

I do PM News here at KNUU in Vegas...we stream at 970knuu.com
I do hourly and half hourly local casts mon-fri noon to 6 Pacific.
You're right..radio geeks remember the most trivial shit!


Jerry Gordon

[email protected]

 

[newsperson]

Newsperson responds:

My the post has changed. It looks like none of the Clear Channel stations licensed to San Francisco or Oakland will have to be sold.

Remember a few CC San Jose stations had top be placed into a trust. Now the DOJ adds KSJO to the divisture list. I am not as familiar with CC's San Jose stations. Does this remove them from the San Jose market entirely?

Even if it does they are still in great shape with a lot of good signals and formats in San Francisco.

Any idea who some of the potential buyers might be?

Newsperson

 

[davideduardo]

My the post has changed. It looks like none of the Clear Channel stations licensed to San Francisco or Oakland will have to be sold.

Remember a few CC San Jose stations had top be placed into a trust. Now the DOJ adds KSJO to the divisture list. I am not as familiar with CC's San Jose stations. Does this remove them from the San Jose market entirely?

The San Jose market is part of the San Francisco market; it is totally contained inside the SF MSA borders. SJ and Santa Rosa are both in the SF "book" and the numbers you see for SF contain the listening in San Jose. For sales, the SJ and sR stations have Arbitron break out the two cities separately.

 

[newsperson]

Newsperson responds:

Except the San Jose stations do not serve San Francisco well and Clear Channel will not loose any stations that are located in the City.

Regardless of anyone's market definition, remember the past disaster of K-BAY 93.3 and 94.5? It was so bad that Infinity Broadcasting gave away 93.3 to SBS Broadcasting in a stock trade deal. So with FM stations either you serve the San Francisco or San Jose (with one station) market well with one area but not both. It dosen't matter what arbrtron says, it's the marekt conditions.

And in Santa Rosa all of the San Franciso FMs are shadowed there.

Yes the DOJ sees San Jose and San Franciisco as one place, but in reality many factors seperate them.

Does anyone have some speculation on who will buy these San Jose stations?

Newsperson

 

[LKellerIII]

"Regardless of anyone's market definition, remember the past disaster of K-BAY 93.3 and 94.5? It was so bad that Infinity Broadcasting gave away 93.3 to SBS Broadcasting in a stock trade deal."

Yeah, that K-Bay experiment (having the SF station as a repeater for a San Jose station) was lame, but the problems with 93.3 went way beyond that. There hadn't been a successful format on 93.3 in many years - the closest thing to a ratings success was probably the Oldies KSFO/KYA-FM combo of the 80s, and I would think that a significant portion of the ratings were still coming from the 560 AM side at that time.

The signal on 93.3 has always sucked. I recall that the Spanish language format with the big star El Cucuy was supposed to make La Raza the leading Bay Area Spanish station, but KSOL is still ahead in the ratings by far - a couple of years later. I don't know what the differences in the 2 formats are, but I see a lot more advertising for La Raza, including that sexy La Bronca billboard. So I figure a big part of the problem is the crappy signal.

So I don't think you can say CBS "gave it away"...they had a lemon, so they made lemonade, and got a percentage of SBS in the deal. In fact, given Infinity/CBS's performance in the Bay Area the past few years, that may have been one of their smarter decisions.

 

[DavidKaye]

The signal on 93.3 has always sucked.

Oh, I don't think so. When it was on Candlestick Hill it was quite good. Moving it to San Leandro to try to pick up more of the South Bay population was a disaster, no doubt about it. I think 93.3's problem has long been that it was mostly used as an also-ran. It was a subsidiary to KYA 1260 and then later to KSFO, both very successful stations.

Had management thought of 93.3 as an entity unto itself earlier I don't see why it couldn't have been as successful as any other FM out there. But, it would have had to have a running start. It's hard to make a station successful overnight in the Bay Area anymore. It takes years to build the franchise. The days of the meteoric rise of a KYNO or a KHJ are gone because people simply don't think of radio as a forethought; it's an afterthought now. KCBS or KOIT could change to all-zither music and few people would pay much attention, except the listeners who were already there.

 

[LKellerIII]

"The signal on 93.3 has always sucked....Oh, I don't think so. When it was on Candlestick Hill it was quite good. Moving it to San Leandro to try to pick up more of the South Bay population was a disaster, no doubt about it."

OK, David - I'm not sure when the transmitter was moved, but I guess I should have said their signal sucks since I've been listening...about 25 years. Like most people, I listen to music radio in the car, and the 93.3 signal has always been spotty at best, in my experience. They have had a few stand-alone formats over the years - K-Light 93 in the late 70s couldn't compete with KOIT. After KSFO became a talk station, "93/KYA" remained a stand-alone Odies station for awhile - and I think it was better than 99.7/KFRC. Also, they had been Oldies for longer, and should have benefited from that - KFRC was the newer Oldies station. But KFRC had higher ratings - that's why CBS flipped 93.3 to Young Country when they bought it.

KSOL has been around as a Spanish language station a few years longer than La Raza. But when 93.3 flipped, there was a lot of bragging by SBS and CBS that they would be #1 in a matter of months. It hasn't happened despite heavy promotion, and their big star morning show...KSOL continues to dominate, and I have to believe the 93.3 signal is a factor.

 

[sfradio]

la raza is still doing better then all the formats cbs radio tried on it

 

[Madmansam]

"The signal on 93.3 has always sucked....Oh, I don't think so. When it was on Candlestick Hill it was quite good. Moving it to San Leandro to try to pick up more of the South Bay population was a disaster, no doubt about it."

OK, David - I'm not sure when the transmitter was moved, but I guess I should have said their signal sucks since I've been listening...about 25 years. Like most people, I listen to music radio in the car, and the 93.3 signal has always been spotty at best, in my experience. They have had a few stand-alone formats over the years - K-Light 93 in the late 70s couldn't compete with KOIT.

I might be wrong, but wasn't K-LIGHT 93 (KLHT) on the air from 1979-83 with some sort of Adult Contemporary Format? During this time, KOIT was a Beautiful Music Station? So I don't think K-LIGHT failed because of KOIT because KOIT competed against both KABL and KFOG during that time frame? In fact, KLHT advertised as "Light Rock With Less Talk" long before KOIT. KOIT changed to Adult Contemporary around 1985.

 

[Johnnie_Radio]

I would like to See CC have to Divest either KYLD or KISQ,

since they already own KMEL which is most Mainstream Urban, why not make them sell of Wild 94.9 maybe a new owner with make the station a "True" CHR station maybe with Dance mixed in, KYLD's numbers have dropped since CC took over...surprising ;D

KISQ's numbers are also dropping as well........

 

[davideduardo]

I would like to See CC have to Divest either KYLD or KISQ,

But what they have to divest are the three San Jose stations, already in a trust.

 

[DavidKaye]

OK, David - I'm not sure when the transmitter was moved, but I guess I should have said their signal sucks since I've been listening...about 25 years.

Hmmm...I can't remember the date of the move, but I'd say it was about 1995 or so. Anybody have a better answer about 93.3's move from Candlestick to San Leandro?

It hasn't happened despite heavy promotion, and their big star morning show...KSOL continues to dominate, and I have to believe the 93.3 signal is a factor.

With its current site, 93.3 hits the central Bay Area just fine, but the mountains shadow it on the north, east, and south. What's more, since they're running 50kw, the signal that does come out is bouncing off the hillsides creating really bad multipath. I'm so amazed that they left Candletick for such a sucky site. Candlestick is a peak with no major mountains but San Bruno near it, and Bruno doesn't really matter much because there's not much population on the west side of it.

 

[weav]

But what they have to divest are the three San Jose stations, already in a trust.

Indeed. They would have to flog off the SJ stations (or at least 3 in the market, and those were deemed the least important three) due to FCC rules. The DOJ rule about Preciosa would really make no difference since it was planned in any case.

 

[SFStatic]

93.3 was in San Leandro at least as early as 1993. Can remember the engineers then running from the 'Stick site as often as possible due to "engineering problems," but really to have better coverage than the crappy East Bay site.

 

[ty567]

why not make them sell of Wild 94.9 maybe a new owner with make the station a "True" CHR station maybe with Dance mixed in, KYLD's numbers have dropped since CC took over...surprising ;D

You want a CHR? Turn on Wild, they are playing Maroon 5, Natasha Bettingfield, Jonas Brothers, I wouldnt be surprised to hear Hannah Montana next...do I need to keep going? They arent going to stop playing E40 if thats what you want.