Entercom takes over Bonneville's SF stations

[content]

It sounds like Bonneville got the better end of the deal, more stations and two markets!

What are others thoughts on this?

Not all stations/markets are created equally. Entercom did just fine in this deal by gaining 3 strong SF FM's (signal wise). Additionally, if I'm not mistaken KOIT is the top billing FM in SF, which likely exceeds/equals the billing of the entire Cincinnati cluster alone! (OK, that may be a slight exageration).

Additionally, Entercom seem to be smart operators. They may have some ideas as to how to address SF formatically, but will not make decisions simply because they like Country (or don't like Classical). Their decisions will be informed by perceived revenue potential.

 

[atwater kent]

KDFC billing is about half of what a successful station in this market should be. KMAX bills half of what KDFC bills. Look for immediate format tweak or flip at 95.7 and the eventual move away from Classical on KDFC.

 

[Noiseboxxx]

entercom owned LIVE105 before, and did quite well with it then.

i wonder what they'll do now that they're back in the market with 3 good signals instead of 1 with a bunch of repeater/boosters.

i think they'll do alright...2 that bill well and a project to work on.

we'll see.

 

[jimmythebassett]

Bet on KOIT and KDFC being left alone and 95.7 returning to Country as THE WOLF.

 

[marko83]

Remind me not to take you to Vegas.

 

[XM RADIO]

Maybe this is the year , Get KYA1260 back on the air,,, If Bonneville does bring back KYA they have to have "The Right People" Im sure everyone has their own preference who they would like to hear,in light of the last Decade of Business as Usual, Its time for something new!! Only one question, if KYA comes back, and say for instance "Chris Edwards" the Real one, is on, this would be the only market in existense with a (Real Chris Edwards) and a Fake one , at KYAradio1.com, wow you could hear the difference for yourself, TWO Chris Edwards in one market, only in the Bay Area could this possibly happen!!! Bonneville if you flip it back to KYA use the Ex PD @ KFRC Bob Harlow, And be sure to add John Mack Flanagan , for your maximum listening pleasure!!! I would like to see KYA 1260 come back and blow KFRC out of the water!! With the right people this could work!!! Harlow knows radio!!! Kenny in Concord

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Regardless of format issues, KOIT & KDFC can kiss their union $ goodbye.

BnR, could you please clarify this comment? What "union dollars" will KOIT and KDFC be losing?

DJ

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Just like Fighting Irish stated about R and R, allaccess.com also shares the report that KOIT-AM is NOT part of the deal. Will Bonneville change the format on the AM, maybe to compete with KTRB?

Sure ... but what is Pappas going to do with KTRB? How does Bonneville compete with a station that hasn't debuted yet?

 

[CHRles]

Bet on KOIT and KDFC being left alone and 95.7 NOT returning to Country as THE WOLF.

Fixed

 

[radioskeptic]

Re KDFC: Entercom's record on classical is not encouraging.

Classical listeners in Boston were alarmed when Gretaer Media acquired Charles River Broadcasting's heritage classical WCRB, knowing what the company did to WFLN/Phila. and WQRS/Detroit in 1997. But they should be glad Greater Media outbid Entercom for Charles River Broadcasting's heritage classical WCRB -- not because Greater Media wouldn't have flipped to something more commercial if they could have, but because they couldn't. G. Media only wanted the superior 102.5 Boston signal for their country station, which was on a Class B rimshot 30 miles or so away. They swapped the formats before selling the former country channel to Nassau, which operates some smaller classical outlets in Maine, and may make the WCRB the new flagship for its classical group.

Entercom, which had only four (not five) FM's in Boston, would have dropped classical, as they've done elsewhere. As marko83 noted in Reply #19, they moved KXTR(?) in Kansas City from a Class C-0 on 96.5 to a 5-kw directional on 1250, where it died a slow and agonizing death, and 1250 is now Spanish. Entercom copied this modus operandi from what Chancellor -- before CC bought it -- did in Denver with heritage commercial classical KVOD (that call now is CO pubradio's), when they moved it to a poor 5kw AM signal.

If Entercom did not agressively pursue WFLN in Philly, that may have been because they have no other stations in their home market and were only interested in clusters. Or it may have been that it could have embarrassed Entercom Chairman Joe Field.

Joe is an accomplished amateur violinist and real classical buff. He's also active in fundraising for the Curtis Institute of Music and the Phila. Orchestra. A few years ago, he gave Curtis $2 million -- he got very rich when Entercom went public -- and they named their recital hall for him.

With this kind of image as a philathropist and arts supporter, how would it have looked if he had been the one to flip WFLN to modern rock?

Don't think he would have? Or do you think he would have done it only to please shareholders?

Well, Entercom wasn't yet public in 1997, but he would have flipped it anyway. Why am I so sure?

Well, back in the late Eighties, when Entercom acquired the heritage classical station in Houston, he flipped that one. And at that time, he was still CEO as well as Chairman (his son David became CEO within the last ten years), so he wasn't doing it to please shareholders!

(Don't confuse that station -- I can't remember the call -- with the Class C-1 rimshot on 92.1 that was sold to Radio One by its local owner within the last few years. That one, 35 miles from Houston, was bought, and then upgraded from Class A to Class C-1, only after Enterecom flipped Houston's original classical station.)

In view of this history, I don't think KDFC's listeners should be any too sanguine about the future of commercial classical in S.F.!

 

[newsperson]

Bonneville will not sit in San Francisco and operate a stand-alone AM station. Even with 3-FMs here they had no motivation to program 1260 khz. and they have less now.

The 3 FMs were exchanged, next AM 1260 khz. will be sold for cash.

Who wants to speculate on who the mystery buyer will be?

Or is it door number one, number two or number three?

It is safe to say it will not be CBS! They are movin at the limt in both directions.

Newsperson

 

[SFStatic]

Entercom could also buy a couple of stations (probably South Bay ones) that Clear Channel will have to spin off with their pending deal. That would give them 5 FMs in the market.

 

[ricoontheradio]

Entercom could also buy a couple of stations (probably South Bay ones) that Clear Channel will have to spin off with their pending deal. That would give them 5 FMs in the market.

Good point. Overall, this was a good deal for both companies.

 

[XM RADIO]

Huh, If Bonneville flips 1260am ,It would be in the best interest of the San Francisco Bay Area to have KYA 1260 am back!! Its past time to have KYA back!! This Cesspool of Radio currently is a sad excuse for radio!!! Im stymied over this, if KYA came back , and played oldies, and they brought in "The Real Chris Edwards" the Bay Area would have 2 KYA s one radio, with the Real Chris Edwards, and the FAKE one @ KYAradio1.com, only in the Bay Area would this be possible!!!! Of course I would like to have John Mack Flanagan on the air, Its time for change for the Personalities!!! No more biz as usual!! They ought to bring in Bob Harlow the EX KFRC PD, this guy does Oldies,With John Mack Flanagan , you would have the Maximum level of entertainment !!!!I would really like to see KYA come back and Tromp all over KFRC!!!! No Bob Hamilton needed, we need Bob Harlow back!!!! Kenny in Concord

 

[Randy_in_Eugene]

Not even a radio god like Harlow could tromp all over anyone or anything with an AM stick. End of story.

 

[Leeanne]

Could this mean one or more of these newly aquired Entercom stations
flip formats to CHR, Country or Oldies? But PLEASE, don't flip KOIT!!!!!
Keep it "Lite Rock!"

most likely they will leave both KOIT and KDFC alone... they are both consistently top5, you dont fix what isnt broke.....
but maxx????
they will definitely change that. i would put money on a top 40 station, or if they really wanna stir up trouble .... make it a rock station like 98 rock

 

[LKellerIII]

"but maxx? they will definitely change that. i would put money on a top 40 station, or if they really wanna stir up trouble .... make it a rock station like 98 rock"

I wouldn't argue at all that Entercom will change Max-FM, and might consider flipping KDFC, but I'd like some realistic radio professionals posting here to tell me what format holes there are to fill. I'm definitely no expert, so perhaps I'm missing something, but the SF market seems different to me. The market has been dominated by the same stations for many years - KGO and KOIT. Unlike most markets, we have both a Classical and All-News station consistently in the top 5, and listening habits here don't seem to change much.

If you look at the history, no Top 40 station has done well since 610/KFRC in the 70s. Top 40 formats either flip (KYUU, KITS, Z95.7) or morph into something else (KMEL). Clear Channel is not a stupid corporation - if Top 40 is a potential ratings leader, why aren't they programming it on either 94.9 or 101.3?

Country stations have been a flop here for about 2 decades now - why would "The Wolf" be a hit when "The Bear" was a non-starter? Maybe we should switch from mammals to amphibians, and a "Froggy" would work better? Does Entercom really know some special secret that would make these formats work where others have failed?

New formats don't seem to do well in the Bay Area either - witness Max-FM with the Jack format, and the not-very encouraging reception that Movin is getting.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

If you look at the history, no Top 40 station has done well since 610/KFRC in the 70s. Top 40 formats either flip (KYUU, KITS, Z95.7) or morph into something else (KMEL).

What was history on X-100 (prior to incarnation as KFRC? Sounded like a very solid CHR station...but did they fall because, like many other CHR's at the time, the music kind of imploded leaving stations to decide whether they wanted to stay mainstream and struggle or go Rhythmic and isloate mainstream audience? Never followed the story to see why they couldn't survive in the market. I do recall that KFRC had flipped in '86 to Magic (nostalgia) leaving that mainstream pop category to the FM's to figure out.

Up here in Seattle that end of 80's/early 90's was beginning of the end for CHR mainstream. Product had migrated to lots of rap. KUBE (T-man base) basically did what KMEL did and got strong 12+ numbers. Others went away (new age, etc.) or evolved into Hot-AC to try to get the "adult Top 40" position.

 

[LKellerIII]

Yes - X-100 is another station on the list of "Top 40" type stations that didn't last long. The frequency was already a Hit music station (KYUU), and as I remember, the owners of X-100 tweaked it to a more urban sounding Top 40, though not as urban as KMEL had become at that time. The station sounded very good, and had good jocks (Kelly and Kline in the morning, and "Dancin'"Mark Hansen in evenings are the two I remember). But it never really caught on. People posting here have blamed the name/frequency confusion as the problem (X-100 at 99.7), but stations in other markets with the same problem (example: "Power 106" in LA at 105.9) have easily overcome this to become ratings leaders.

 

[BnRinBayArea]

Regardless of format issues, KOIT & KDFC can kiss their union $ goodbye.

BnR, could you please clarify this comment? What "union dollars" will KOIT and KDFC be losing?

DJ

Boss, in my experience (at KSAN when Chancellor was sold), the union pay and contract for on-air talent was disolved. While I don't know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, it would appear this will head in the same direction .