Could KABC become KNX's sister station?

[michael hagerty]

BTW, Is George Green still with us? The second program director to grace KABC in it's glorious heyday, near forty years.

George spent 37 years at KABC, mostly in sales. He was General Manager, not PD, for seventeen of those.

He's been retired longer than he was there---38 years now, and has kept a low profile online since publishing his e-book nine years ago. I believes he lives in Rancho Mirage. @DavidEduardo --- he's sort of a neighbor---you have any intel?

 

[michael hagerty]

Who would’ve thought a sports format would work on am 830? Which areas does that signal serve?

Who says it works? It's only there because it's owned by the same guy who owns the Angels.

What format could work for KABC?

David's told you several times. It's a very small, very ethnic list.

In the days of mobile app streaming, does it matter which areas are served by a signal?

If that's the case, what do you need a radio station for?

while some may not see it, KABC is the flagship for USC. A big 10 school in the same conference with Michigan, who just won the national championship. their basketball team just made a splash hire at head coach. While everyone keeps saying L.A. isn’t Lincoln, Nebraska or Baton Rouge, it’s also not San Francisco where there are two cellar dwellers (Cal and Stanford) in all revenue sports.

As someone who's lived in both areas, I can tell you---rankings aren't important. The Bay Area is a MUCH better sports metro with more devoted fans (pro and college) than Southern California. Having the radio rights to the Trojans buys you zilch.

 

[davideduardo]

O.K. Is there a canned, "Happy White Guy" format that would work? Are there any English fluent "ethnics" moving about in the basin for advertisers to 'target' as a total group? Whatever. Hey, this is an AM at the end of the first quarter on the Twenty-First Century. Sooner than later it will have to be put down, I suppose. Who will the lucky bag holder be?

There are plenty of options in Asian languages, as well as some like Farsi or Armenian that would work.

There is no AM opportunity for Spanish, as Hispanics have no custom of listening to AM in their "birth nation" as AM is pretty much dead in Mexico and most of Central America.

 

[davideduardo]

Respectfully, are there audience breakdowns for sports formats? from programming the format myself, we’ve had listeners range from Indian-American, to hispanic - in the south.

The audience in the ethnic and immigrant groups is vastly more limited than among non-Hispanic whites. Sure, some may listen... but the bulk of that broad group in LA is either first generation with little or no interest in American sports or are not bilingual and would not listen even if the content is interesting.

I’ve got a hard time believing younger hispanics, in Los Angeles, who are very active Dodgers and Lakers fans just avoid sports talk.

They sure will not listen to an AM. And the AM hosts tend to be, as I said, the typical "bar stool" (great name, BTW) kind' guys who are not ethnic unless "Anglo European" is now a minority group. Those 18 to mid-40's Hispanics are stream and podcast listeners. On demand, not AM radio.

Who would’ve thought a sports format would work on am 830? Which areas does that signal serve?

It works as a promotion for an Anaheim Orange Country baseball team. It only covers part way into LA county, and less at night. OC team, OC team owner, OC signal. I doubt it is profitable, but serves as a good support for the Angels.

What format could work for KABC?

Many Asian languages, Persian, Armenian, etc. Better signal for Black talk.

 

[Loverofradio]

The audience in the ethnic and immigrant groups is vastly more limited than among non-Hispanic whites. Sure, some may listen... but the bulk of that broad group in LA is either first generation with little or no interest in American sports or are not bilingual and would not listen even if the content is interesting.

They sure will not listen to an AM. And the AM hosts tend to be, as I said, the typical "bar stool" (great name, BTW) kind' guys who are not ethnic unless "Anglo European" is now a minority group. Those 18 to mid-40's Hispanics are stream and podcast listeners. On demand, not AM radio.

It works as a promotion for an Anaheim Orange Country baseball team. It only covers part way into LA county, and less at night. OC team, OC team owner, OC signal. I doubt it is profitable, but serves as a good support for the Angels.

Many Asian languages, Persian, Armenian, etc. Better signal for Black talk.

How do spanish-language sports stations perform? Like Tudn? I saw KTNQ is adding more? I’m curious how numbers are during Galaxy/LAFC coverage

 

[Loverofradio]

As someone who's lived in both areas, I can tell you---rankings aren't important. The Bay Area is a MUCH better sports metro with more devoted fans (pro and college) than Southern California. Having the radio rights to the Trojans buys you zilch.

The A’s have MLB’s lowest attendance and are moving to Las Vegas, apparently. The Giants ranked 17th in attendance last year. The Warriors are also 17th in attendance. LA teams outdrew Bay Area franchises. The Big 10 felt it was worth more to add the Los Angeles market and allow Cal and Stanford to go to the ACC.

 

[Weiserguy]

The A’s have MLB’s lowest attendance and are moving to Las Vegas, apparently. The Giants ranked 17th in attendance last year. The Warriors are also 17th in attendance. LA teams outdrew Bay Area franchises. The Big 10 felt it was worth more to add the Los Angeles market and allow Cal and Stanford to go to the ACC.

Speaking as a long-time SFBA resident, most of us **despise** the current owner of the A's, John Fisher. He has shown disdain for home-town fans, and for a long time has seemed to be trying to sink his team's chances for a new Oakland ballpark. He's wanted out of Oakland, and apparently the entire Bay Area market, almost since acquiring the team. Now he's got his wish, and we'll see how much better the A's do in Sacramento next year, and Las Vegas a few years down the road. Factor that in when you mention their pathetic attendance numbers in recent seasons.

The Giants and the Warriors get much better attendance, but they both suffer from one flaw in their marketing: the price of a seat. The attendance ranks lower than league averages because they've both priced themselves out of the market for many moderate-income local fans. (It cost me over $200 for a pair of upper-tier, pre-season tix to a Golden State home game at Chase Center back in October, playing not the Lakers but the Sacto Kings. A regular season game would've been more. That's a serious limitation for fans who want to come as a family. The Giants aren't much better, though they at least have the bleachers and the nosebleed sections. And in both cases, you have to navigate the city, often at rush hour, to get to games.)

 

[davideduardo]

How do spanish-language sports stations perform? Like Tudn? I saw KTNQ is adding more? I’m curious how numbers are during Galaxy/LAFC coverage

Numbers for sports are 0. Look at all sports KWKW, which does not show. But there are dollars to be made but all from sports marketing and multi-media sponsorships. TUDN gets no numbers. It's been tried with limited success in Mexico, the only mostly sports station in Buenos Aires went bankrupt.

Galaxy never go numbers. Native Spanish speakers follow their home teams from Latin America / Mexico.

 

[Andy Ludlum]

I said this before: What is being forgotten here is that KABC's signal is not adequate for any kind of format that targets mainly non-Hispanic whites. It covers well areas that areas that are almost totally immigrants, Asians, Hispanics. Those are not "angry white guy" talk listeners... or a bunch of "beer drinking white guys talking about sports".

Why are people thinking about formats for this station that won't work?

Sadly, any discussion of KABC is just a waste of time. A combined bankrupt ownership is only going to see KABC in the same way Cumulus sees it - something they'd just as soon get rid of. I'd suspect any "format" decisions would be based on the premise of clearing network spots in LA (to almost no one!), not with the intention of actually creating listenable, vibrant radio station serving a clearly defined audience. And I don't see the desire or expertise within Audacy to create a format that would appeal to the potential KABC audience David describes.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Sadly, any discussion of KABC is just a waste of time. A combined bankrupt ownership is only going to see KABC in the same way Cumulus sees it - something they'd just as soon get rid of. I'd suspect any "format" decisions would be based on the premise of clearing network spots in LA (to almost no one!), not with the intention of actually creating listenable, vibrant radio station serving a clearly defined audience. And I don't see the desire or expertise within Audacy to create a format that would appeal to the potential KABC audience David describes.

That's too bad. They were once my direct connection to life.

 

[TheM1ghtyBear]

It will be interesting to see who gets the divested stations in Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco if approved. The last time Audacy was required to divest stations was when they were known as Entercom and they were involved in the CBS Radio Deal. In that case in able for Audacy to get that deal approved they had to divest stations in San Francisco and Sacramento. The Sacramento and San Francisco former Audacy owned stations went to Bonneville.

I can see Hubbard in Chicago get a few stations if it does happen. My question is will Hubbard expand to other cities like Dallas and San Francisco?

 

[Weiserguy]

That's too bad. They were once my direct connection to life.

Cumulus could probably make as much income from selling souvenir CDs of that Direct Connection jingle package as they do from whatever dreck they're currently airing.

Just autograph the disk with all the Talkradio luminaries, living and (mostly) dead, add some clips of Michael Jackson and company, and market it as the ultimate tribute disk to talk radio in its glory days.

 

[TheBigA]

Just autograph the disk with all the Talkradio luminaries, living and (mostly) dead, add some clips of Michael Jackson and company, and market it as the ultimate tribute disk to talk radio in its glory days.

I've said this before, but I believe radio stations are really bad at merchandising themselves. their heritage, and their archives. These companies own these trademarks and just sit on them. It's not very smart. It all ends up on the black market (or eBay) and other people collect the money. The question is how much of that archive is still in their hands, and how much ended up in a dumpster.

 

[michael hagerty]

They could give away these spiffy one-sheets. They must have tons of them saved for just an occasion!

 

[TheBigA]

They could give away these spiffy one-sheets. They must have tons of them saved for just an occasion!

I bet they don't. It all likely went in a big dumpster when they left La Cienega. The current place has no room for storage.

 

[Weiserguy]

I bet they don't. It all likely went in a big dumpster when they left La Cienega. The current place has no room for storage.

The current place has no room for a bathroom.

 

[TomásEstefan]

That's too bad. They were once my direct connection to life.

It is too bad, the Golden Days of KABC, just like KGO are gone forever...

 

[Weiserguy]

It is too bad, the Golden Days of KABC, just like KGO are gone forever...

But unlike KABC, KGO's signal is still viable. It still hits virtually all of the West Coast, as well as parts of Mexico, Canada and Alaska at night. Running sports/betting programming on 810 is a great waste of a great signal. At minimum, they could have moved the wingnut talk from 560 to 810 and then used the lesser 560 signal for the sports/betting. (Alternately, consolidate the best of their KTCT/1050 lineup, the PBP overflow from KNBR, and a new AM Drive program onto 810 and then sell 1050 for whatever they can get for it.)

KGO comes in so well in Los Angeles that I'd bet -- bad choice of words -- if they brought the KSFO programming over from 560 to 810 and then shut down KABC/790 entirely, most of the handful of listeners to 790 would probably wonder how come KABC is suddenly sounding better.

 

[davideduardo]

It is too bad, the Golden Days of KABC, just like KGO are gone forever...

But the difference is that the GM of KGO did not know how to keep relevant, while KABC simply saw its market outgrow its signal.

 

[davideduardo]

But unlike KABC, KGO's signal is still viable. It still hits virtually all of the West Coast, as well as parts of Mexico, Canada and Alaska at night.

Keyword: night

Since the 70's, adults have not listened to radio at night. And kids moved to FM.

Running sports/betting programming on 810 is a great waste of a great signal.

Yet I'll bet it makes a little money.

KGO comes in so well in Los Angeles that I'd bet -- bad choice of words -- if they brought the KSFO programming over from 560 to 810 and then shut down KABC/790 entirely, most of the handful of listeners to 790 would probably wonder how come KABC is suddenly sounding better.

In most parts of LA, there is way too much man-made noise for an irregular skywave signal to be dependable.

Heck, the nostalgia is good though. I can remember driving with one of the KTNQ talk hosts to a celebration in Ensenada where she was "Queen" and we listened to KGO all the way. I had all my airstaff listen regularly to KGO to see how well they created stationality.... and they could never say "KGO" too often.