• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

ESPN 97.5 Houston Adds 92.5 Simulcast

I guess Gow is making this official, as the simulcast started a couple of weeks ago. Probably wanted to audition the signal before making a formal announcement.

Still wonder if Gow will make an attempt to clear the SportsMap Radio national feed on another signal here.
 
K223CW is a 30 watt highly directional signal aimed at Bellaire from downtown. Katy and Rosenberg areas remain unserved.
----https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=K223CW+&x=8&y=0&sr=Y&s=C
Perhaps, something is slightly better than nothing for the near southwest. There's an odd Construction Permit to narrow the lobe, but not to raise power.
 
K223CW is a 30 watt highly directional signal aimed at Bellaire from downtown. Katy and Rosenberg areas remain unserved.
----https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=K223CW+&x=8&y=0&sr=Y&s=C
Perhaps, something is slightly better than nothing for the near southwest. There's an odd Construction Permit to narrow the lobe, but not to raise power.

Assuming the station is running at its licensed parameters. The station comes in loud and clear, stereo pilot and all, here in south Montgomery county.
 
Assuming the station is running at its licensed parameters.

It's not. I have heard K223CW booming in at Baybrook Mall, some 22 miles southeast of the transmitter. No sign of much closer KJJG-LP which apparently gets obliterated by the translator. So much for the tight lobe aimed at Bellaire.

I have also heard K223CW in the Katy area, and it is also a good signal at my Cy-Fair location outside of Beltway 8. I am pretty certain they are running non-directional and likely with excess power.

Of course, the FCC is completely asleep on these sorts of things.
 
I’ve been hearing 92.5 in The Woodlands/Conroe area and it’s pretty strong. Must be running omnidirectional
 
Will be laughing my butt off when the FCC slaps this Mickey Mouse operation with a fine.

Aren't these the same dimwits who thought on-frequency boosters in Houston were a great idea?

I remember one of their engineers or managers insulting R-D posters for suggesting the idea would create large zones of interference, and then when the concept flopped (as we all correctly predicted), said individual seemingly went into hiding! LOL
 
Will be laughing my butt off when the FCC slaps this Mickey Mouse operation with a fine.

Aren't these the same dimwits who thought on-frequency boosters in Houston were a great idea?

I remember one of their engineers or managers insulting R-D posters for suggesting the idea would create large zones of interference, and then when the concept flopped (as we all correctly predicted), said individual seemingly went into hiding! LOL

The translator is not owned or operated by Gow, so they wouldn’t be fined.
 
I'm astonished how some folks are never happy. Never happy about consolidation of corporate America. We see no more on air live and local personalities etc etc ... I heart Radio,Entercom, Cox profits have surged and wages have stagnated.
Many people are also never happy about local owners and have the audacity to call folks like David Gow "Mickey Mouse operation" "dimwitts".
I’ve never met him In person but I’m Pretty sure it takes ball to do what he did. The easiest thing to be is a Monday morning quarterback .
 
I'm astonished how some folks are never happy. Never happy about consolidation of corporate America. We see no more on air live and local personalities etc etc ... I heart Radio,Entercom, Cox profits have surged and wages have stagnated.

Excuse me, but Entercom is fighting to survive with too much debt and less than stellar station performance. iHeart went through bankruptcy, and is currently for sale. Cox was sold, although it was still a profitable operation as it had less debt due to nearly no more recent acquisitions.

Surged? Not in terrestrial radio and not on this planet.

As to live shows, those mostly existed because the technology would not allow constructing a show in workparts and then assembling it on-air. A "live" morning show has less than an hour of non-music material other than commercials and often much less. The show can be assembled easily from prepared elements either done during or just before the show and technology assembles them.

Many people are also never happy about local owners and have the audacity to call folks like David Gow "Mickey Mouse operation"

That is an under-capitalized operator with some loudly barking dog technical facilities. Mr. Mouse is a class act compared to the Gow operation.


I’ve never met him In person but I’m Pretty sure it takes ball to do what he did. The easiest thing to be is a Monday morning quarterback .

Generally, we see people like that who want a station so badly that they will acquire a bad station. And then they will change the name of the station about once a year because "it must be the name that is holding us back" rather than bad signals and un-competitive programming.
 
Seriously David? "Fighting to survive "? I heart Radio 100+ millions per year in Houston! You call that Fighting to survive? Poor Entercom i hope they can sleep tonight. Your probably one that thinks government needs to bail out big corporations and not the people.
 
Seriously David? "Fighting to survive "? I heart Radio 100+ millions per year in Houston! You call that Fighting to survive? Poor Entercom i hope they can sleep tonight. Your probably one that thinks government needs to bail out big corporations and not the people.

No, I don't think that the government should intervene. They already ruined radio by allowing too many stations per market and abortions like AM daytimers and translators.

iHeart is not just Houston. It is the aggregate of 800 or so stations. They already went through a bankruptcy and the current owners are the former creditors who saw they would never get paid. So now they want to sell and get whatever they can back for their pre-2009 recession mistakes.

And Entercom is definitely fighting to survive. Last week they destroyed the local programming on nearly half of their stations by going to a national programming model in rock and country and further reduced sales and management staff. In other words, they are busy rearranging the deck chairs...

iHeart is trying furiously to become a new media company as terrestrial radio is in a huge decline and most large and medium companies can't satisfy their debts. Add to that the fact that 2020 will likely see revenues about 50% below 2019 and nearly every radio operator will lose money even after cutting costs to the bone.

Oh, and iHeart had gross revenues of about $82 million last year, not $100 million plus. This year, it will likely be in the $40 million range.
 
Well the way I see it, at least they are putting their money where their mouth is. Like many inventors in the past, (ex Benjamin Franklin), they made many mistakes but when they figured it out, it was a game changer. At least they are trying because they are tired of what’s already out there.
 
Last week they destroyed the local programming on nearly half of their stations by going to a national programming model in rock and country and further reduced sales and management staff.

Hmmm....those changes only affected stations in the country and alternative formats. I'd put the total number around 40. So it's about a fifth of their stations.
 
David , Look at the numbers! Even at 80million. You make it sound like I heart is loosing sleep. Radio in Houston will be down 60% compare to last year.
Before the coronavirus and before 2008 I heart, Entercom, Cumulus were borrowing money like mad. I heart Radio used much of this debt to buy back their own shares of stock. This raised the earnings of each remaining share creating a party for big investors and top executives! So don't give me the sad story about them loosing money. They lost and will continue to loose money because of greed and terrible management. Most of these guys are bankers not radio people. They took all local jobs,content, engineering, promotion to corporate banking mindset in New York.
Some Companies Deserve to Fail!
 
David , Look at the numbers! Even at 80million. You make it sound like I heart is loosing sleep. Radio in Houston will be down 60% compare to last year.

They are definitely losing sleep; all major radio companies are. And any company that is losing money is, whether radio or restaurant franchising or shopping centers.

Before the coronavirus and before 2008 I heart, Entercom, Cumulus were borrowing money like mad. I heart Radio used much of this debt to buy back their own shares of stock.

Not true. iHeart had to declare bankruptcy, and the equity investors lost nearly all of their positions while the lenders took over the equity in exchange for debt.

This raised the earnings of each remaining share creating a party for big investors and top executives! So don't give me the sad story about them loosing money. They lost and will continue to loose money because of greed and terrible management.

They lost because of three big factors:

The 1995 to 2005 purchase prices in the consolidation years were very high, based on future forecasts that everyone believed: investors, banks, advertisers. So they got huge debt during the consolidation period.

Then we had three major changes:

1. The PPM showed 30% less AQH listening. That meant agencies and transactional buyers paid less per point. 90% of iHeart revenue is in PPM markets.
2. The recession reduced everyone's revenue. But radio did not recover well.
3. The smart phone changed the way people listen to music and news and enetertainment.

Lower revenue. $20 billion in 2005, around $11 to $12 billion today, worth around $7 billion in 2005 dollars. So radio is off in revenue by 60% in real dollars. Nobody had 60% margins.

Most of these guys are bankers not radio people. They took all local jobs,content, engineering, promotion to corporate banking mindset in New York. Some Companies Deserve to Fail!

The investment bankers that own iHeart today are owners because it went bankrupt; it's essentially a foreclosure. Even with the reduced debt following the bankruptcy, they will still lose money. Remember, also, that the group that bought Clear Channel just before the recession tried to back out but could not find a legal way to do so; they knew they were forced into something they no longer wanted and could not find a way to make the business work.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom