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Do you think we'll ever get another Country Music station in San Francisco?

HenryOchs

HenryOchs

Wouldn't it be great to hear the music from great artists such as Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, Jason Alden, and Alan Jackson once again? We have been without a full market Country music station ever since the last Country station we had, 95.7 The Wolf flipped to an all-sports format, which isn't doing too well right now. Is there another radio station in this market that is willing to take a chance?

Your thoughts.
 
Henry Ochs said:
Wouldn't it be great to hear the music from great artists such as Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, Jason Alden, and Alan Jackson once again? We have been without a full market Country music station ever since the last Country station we had, 95.7 The Wolf flipped to an all-sports format, which isn't doing too well right now. Is there another radio station in this market that is willing to take a chance?

Your thoughts.
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San Francisco has always been a tough market for Country. I'm guessing that PPM would only maker it tougher to get a competitive rating.
 
1069_KIFR said:
No NEVER again will the SF market ever, ever, see (Hear) a Country Programmed Radio Station.....Never!
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They said the same thing about New York. Cumulus then bought Family's WFME (94.7 FM) and put NASH on it. A similar scenario might be the Bay Area's only chance ever to have a Country station. :)
 
radioguy39nj said:
1069_KIFR said:
No NEVER again will the SF market ever, ever, see (Hear) a Country Programmed Radio Station.....Never!
Click to expand...

They said the same thing about New York. Cumulus then bought Family's WFME (94.7 FM) and put NASH on it. A similar scenario might be the Bay Area's only chance ever to have a Country station. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, never is a long time. If there's an upside for a company, they'll consider it.
 
Never say never. By the way, country HAS worked in this market, albeit in the pre-PPM days. KSAN was a powerhouse in the 1980s. Neck and neck with KOIT & K101 (IIRC, and I'm pretty sure I do). Sure was fun to work there in those days. Could it work today? It could if all the necessary elements (like time, space and the planets) converge. ;-)
 
San Francisco will never get another country station. Stations where country only works is already there, in the South Bay and North Bay.
 
sfradio said:
San Francisco will never get another country station. Stations where country only works is already there, in the South Bay and North Bay.
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Some station with lousy ratings may give it a try in the future. If country would crossover more like it used to in the 70's or 80's it might have legs. Then nation is more polarized and the Country "life group" in the liberal and sophisticated Bay Area is small.
 
Am I the only one that still misses 95.7 The Wolf? No doubt one of the best sounding radio stations I have heard in a long time. Even in its final months as a country station it was a great station.

I always thought that CBS may flip Live 105 to country at some point. They seem to be pretty successful with the format. Look at WYCD in Detroit for example.
 
Why can't San Fran have a country station, and KRTY 95.3 is still on in San Jose?

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
Why can't San Fran have a country station, and KRTY 95.3 is still on in San Jose?
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("San Fran" is almost as annoying as "Frisco" and are to be well avoided)

The San Francisco MSA has a country station, and it is the one you name... KRTY. Santa Clara County (San José) is part of the San Francisco Arbitron market.

KRTY is a very good biller under a long-time South Bay independent owner, and it has close to a 2 share in the SF book, and around a 5 share in the break-out San Jose book.

KFGY gets the audience in the northern part of the SF MSA, and similarly gets a good share and good revenue. You also have KTRY in the Sonoma / Santa Rosa market area, with slightly lower revenue and ratings.

Probably other station owners feel that KRTY and KFGY/KTRY represent significant fragmentation and would not permit a larger signal to do particularly well, even with coverage that KRTY and KFGY/KTRY can't offer.
 
For anybody who is interested in the origins, growth, and influence of California country music on America, I highly recommend "Workin' Man Blues", the definitive book on the topic.

The book talks about the various forms of country music (most people with experience in the music plot out 10 separate genres: honky-tonk, oldtime, bluegrass, gospel, rockabilly, Bakersfield sound, Nashville sound, Cajun, Texas style, and of course my favorite, Western swing). Here's a link to the genre entries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Country_music_genres

Here's a link to the book's author: http://www.geraldhaslam.com/wmblues.htm

RADIO: Radio was a huge influence in the spread of country music in California, especially in the Central Valley (KTRB, et al), and the Bay Area (KEEN, KSAY, KVSM, KGO, etc.) The book notes that the spread of the music came about largely due to the migration of people here from Oklahoma, Texas, and the like, and the unifying factor radio had in bringing these people together after having been uprooted from their ancestral homes.
 
This is old info, but over 20 years ago, I was programming at a company that put KRTY on the air as Country. We found at that time that there were several 'hot zips' in Santa Clara County, and some in Sonoma & Solano County...without which a country station couldn't make it. The stations David E mentioned cover those zips nicely...and it's hard to pry country listeners away with a new signal...they're more loyal than the listeners to most other formats.
 
Would KRTY do good with a booster signal in Downtown SF? "KRTY-FM1" anyone? Or would KUIC report interference?

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
Would KRTY do good with a booster signal in Downtown SF? "KRTY-FM1" anyone? Or would KUIC report interference?
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Commercial stations can use boosters to fill in coverage gaps caused by obstructions, terrain, etc. They can not use them to extend coverage. So KRTY couldn't do one in the city as its 60 dbu barely touches San Mateo County and does not hit SFO at all.

I'd be interested to know what "the other David" thinks, as my opinion is that there is not going to be a big country core in San Francisco itself... it would be East Bay and some areas farther south on the Peninsula. Of course, there would also be some lifestyle areas to the North and to the NE, which KRTY could not get in any way unless they bought one of the FMs in that area.
 
This thread is very similar to the one titled, "How 95.7 The Game could work"
It seems like this is How Country could work in San Francisco.
 
Just because New York now has NASH does not mean it is working in the Big Apple. It will take a couple of books to actually find out how well it is doing.
 
1069_KIFR said:
Just because New York now has NASH does not mean it is working in the Big Apple. It will take a couple of books to actually find out how well it is doing.
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Nash has already had (with Monday's release) 7 books since its launch. How many more would you think necessary in the PPM world?
 
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