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Cumulus shutdown tracker

PTBoardOp93 said:
The ionosphere cares not about the FCC's definitions. This would create a lot of slop between local sunset and 6pm, especially on the local channels like 1580 where there are a bunch of smaller stations which do not use directional antennas for their day pattern.
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At 4 in the afternoon before the time change, I was on 1580, ten miles north of the transmitter, and sometimes I was hearing a Washington, DC station instead. At least I think it was.
 
101tm said:
Not to mention, most of the strong Audacy affiliates carry little of the full schedule with local programming instead.
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An example here in Houston is Audacy’s KILT SportsRadio 610, which only uses Infinity Sports Network as overnight and weekend filler. Everything else is local.

Audacy market sibling KIKK 650 (a true daytimer) used to carry predecessor CBS SportsRadio, but flipped to BetQL (now BetMGM) a few years ago. Somewhat surprising Audacy hasn’t put ISN on a FM subchannel here as they did in DFW; BetMGM is on the HD-3 of KKHH along with the AM outlet.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
An example here in Houston is Audacy’s KILT SportsRadio 610, which only uses Infinity Sports Network as overnight and weekend filler. Everything else is local.

Audacy market sibling KIKK 650 (a true daytimer) used to carry predecessor CBS SportsRadio, but flipped to BetQL (now BetMGM) a few years ago. Somewhat surprising Audacy hasn’t put ISN on a FM subchannel here as they did in DFW; BetMGM is on the HD-3 of KKHH along with the AM outlet.
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Probably the biggest reason for BetMG being on an HD3 subchannel is that KIKK, because of WSM, can operate only during daylight hours. (In fact, I think it is the only station currently on 650 kHz that has to sign off at night.)
 
ted chittenden said:
Probably the biggest reason for BetMG being on an HD3 subchannel is that KIKK, because of WSM, can operate only during daylight hours. (In fact, I think it is the only station currently on 650 kHz that has to sign off at night.)
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No. Audacy has BetMGM on HD subchannels in markets where its not on an AM including Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Has nothing to do with it being on a daytimer.
 
Stations that have been shut down
AM
560 KZAC San Francisco, CA (5kW day / 5kW night)
920 WYMB Manning, SC (2.3kW day / 1kW night)
1050 WAYS Conway, SC (5kW day / 0.473kW night) + FM translator 101.9 W270BZ
1070 WAPI Birmingham, AL (50kW day / 5kW night)
1160 WJLK Lakewood Township, NJ (5kW day / 8.9kW night) + FM translator 104.1 W281CK
1170 KBOB Davenport, IA (1kW day / 1kW night) + FM translator 104.1 K281DB
1230 WSSO Starkville, MS (1kW day / 1kW night)
1240 KLIK Jefferson City, MO (1kW day / 1kW night) + FM translator 103.5 K278CT
1260 WRIE Erie, PA (5kW day / 5kW night) [FM translator 96.3 W242CU stays on being fed by another Cumulus station]
1280 KSLI Abilene, TX (0.5kW day / 0.226kW night)
1310 WOBM Asbury Park, NJ (2.5kW day / 1kW night) + FM translator 96.7 W244EE
1340 KRMD Shreveport, LA (0.4kW day / 0.4kW night) [FM translator 100.7 K264AS stays on being fed by another Cumulus station]
1400 WJZN Augusta, ME (1kW day / 1kW night) + FM translator 95.9 W240DH
1440 KPUR Amarillo, TX (5kW day / 1kW night)
1440 WLWI Montgomery, AL (5kW day / 1kW night)
1490 WLAW Whitehall, MI (1kW day / 1kW night) + FM translator 99.1 W256DM
1450 KIKR Beaumont, TX (1kW day / 1kW night)
1510 KBED Nederland, TX (5kW day only)
1560 WLZR Melbourne, FL (5kW day only) + FM translator 107.9 W300DL
FM
93.7 WJBC Pontiac, IL (12kW ERP / 144m HAAT; Class B1)
94.9 KOLI Electra, TX (50kW ERP / 150m HAAT; Class C2)
97.5 KJMO Linn, MO (6kW ERP / 99m HAAT; Class A) [didn't Cumulus previously turn an FM license in in the Jefferson City area several years back?]
97.5 WLAW Whitehall, MI (6kW ERP / 99m HAAT; Class A) [Cumulus just built a new tower site for this station within the last couple of years as it had to move to allow third-adjacent sister station 96.9 WLAV to relocate its broadcasting location from near Cannonsburg to Allendale]
101.5 WLXX Richmond, KY (9kW ERP / 165m HAAT; Class C3)

I wonder if a few of the AMs being taken off have had the land where the towers stand placed on the market.

Side note: I would allow translators that were permanently tied to an AM to separate from the AM after five years and rebroadcast a different AM station, an FM station, or an HD2/3/4 subchannel.
 
TheBigA said:
Interesting how many AMs with translators are on the list. It sort of disproves the idea that a translator can revive an AM station.
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That might have a lot to do with ownership considering those combos as an AM station with an FM translator attached, rather than an FM station with an AM attached. They program the combo with AM limitations and considerations in mind (yet another talk station) rather than FM (music station that fills a format hole). This may result in an unappealing format that FM availability won’t help.
 
ftballfan said:
97.5 KJMO Linn, MO (6kW ERP / 99m HAAT; Class A) [didn't Cumulus previously turn an FM license in in the Jefferson City area several years back?]
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Yes, 2018; details at RadioInsight: Cumulus Turns In Missouri License; Format Moves To New Frequency

tl;dr - As a result of its bankruptcy, Cumulus lost the right to have more stations in the Columbia-Jefferson City market than would currently be allowed. Instead of placing KZJF into trust to be compliant with current ownership limits, Cumulus moved its classic-hits format and Kansas City Royals play-by-play to KJMO and shut down KZJF.

No word on whether Royals baseball will end up on another Cumulus station. MLB lists no affiliates for Columbia or Jefferson City; the nearest (for both Columbia and Jeff) affiliate listed is KWRT in Boonville. (ref: Royals Radio Network Affiliates | Kansas City Royals)
 
Mediafrog+ said:
BetMGM is also on a HD subchannel in DFW but can’t remember which station; same with ISN. Neither is on AM there.
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Thanks to both you and Lance for enhancing my argument. That argument wouldn't have held *if* Audacy had the BetMGM network on HD subchannels where the market was already carrying it on a full-time AM frequency.
 
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Mark Roberts said:
tl;dr - As a result of its bankruptcy, Cumulus lost the right to have more stations in the Columbia-Jefferson City market than would currently be allowed. Instead of placing KZJF into trust to be compliant with current ownership limits, Cumulus moved its classic-hits format and Kansas City Royals play-by-play to KJMO and shut down KZJF.
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Cumulus had put KJMO into trust originally, but, from what I was told, it was apparently looking at an old market definition and didn’t realize KZJF counted as a Columbia station because it had been voicetracking it from there. KZJF was able to have a main studio in Columbia because it was licensed to Jefferson City, and both KTXY and KRCG put primary signals over the studios.

One of its competitors made noise about it, and Cumulus turned the license in rather than applied to switch it into the trust instead of 97.5. Cumulus was more interested in exiting bankruptcy quickly than having another station in Cole County. From what I was told, one of the two FM's was only doing about $5,000/month. So, turning one in and combining it with the other station looked like a good move.
 
Kent said:
Cumulus had put KJMO into trust originally, but, from what I was told, it was apparently looking at an old market definition and didn’t realize KZJF counted as a Columbia station because it had been voicetracking it from there. KZJF was able to have a main studio in Columbia because it was licensed to Jefferson City, and both KTXY and KRCG put primary signals over the studios.
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That's not how the market definitions work or ever worked. In Nielsen rated markets they are determined by Nielsen's market definitions. In unrated markets, they're determined by contour overlap.
 
lanceventa said:
That's not how the market definitions work or ever worked. In Nielsen rated markets they are determined by Nielsen's market definitions. In unrated markets, they're determined by contour overlap.
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Sorry if I wasn’t clear. Nielsen listed KZJF as a Columbia market station. That was why it was a problem, or so I was told. It was previously subject to contour overlap because it was run out of Jeff. Nielsen moved it to Columbia because Cumulus had been operating it out of there for several years, thus making it home to Columbia, or at least that was what I had been told. I was able to verify that Nielsen listed it as a Columbia station before it was signed off, but I couldn’t figure out when that changed happened.

I asked a few people at Cumulus why it kept 97.5, which it was originally discarding, instead of the better 104.1 signal, and I was told it was erroneously thought to be a Jefferson City station (and that was how I remembered it being listed), which would’ve been subject to different market criteria. No one would tell me who raised a stink over the error, though one person told me it wasn’t Zimmer, which was the party I had suspected.
 
Kent said:
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. Nielsen listed KZJF as a Columbia market station. That was why it was a problem, or so I was told. It was previously subject to contour overlap because it was run out of Jeff. Nielsen moved it to Columbia because Cumulus had been operating it out of there for several years, thus making it home to Columbia, or at least that was what I had been told. I was able to verify that Nielsen listed it as a Columbia station before it was signed off, but I couldn’t figure out when that changed happened.

I asked a few people at Cumulus why it kept 97.5, which it was originally discarding, instead of the better 104.1 signal, and I was told it was erroneously thought to be a Jefferson City station (and that was how I remembered it being listed), which would’ve been subject to different market criteria. No one would tell me who raised a stink over the error, though one person told me it wasn’t Zimmer, which was the party I had suspected.
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Close... 97.5 wouldn't have had the contour overlap that 104.1 had allowing Cumulus to keep it. It had nothing to do with being "moved to Columbia" or where it operated from.

And I need to clarify my statement from earlier, its based on BIA market definitions not Nielsen.
 


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