Estimated yearly revenue for Austin stations

[txchipk]

KNVR Cameron filed today to move to 105.1C3 Thrall TX to cover the east side of Austin...this would seem to conflict with KXXS 104.9's application to move to Bee Cave.

Interestingly, the multiple ownership statement (attachment 5 at the bottom of the application)...

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/...xt=25&appn=101173177&formid=301&fac_num=84381

...includes the BIA 2005 revenue estimates for the Austin market. Since BIA doesn't make this available for free, it is now essentially is as part of this public filing document on the FCC website (pages 4-5 of the multiple ownership PDF linked in the FCC app).

KASE, no surprise, is #1 by a wide margin. Then is KAMX, KKMJ, KVET-FM, and KLBJ-FM. Always interesting is the power ratio (revenue share / rating share). The biggest one is KGSR with 1.48. On the other end, showing ratings don't translate to an equivalent revenue share...KDHT, KHFI, KHHL, KBPA, KXBT, KXXS). KBPA is kind of surprising...one would think it would have attractive demos for advertisers.

 

[grantchester]

KLBJ FM outbills KLBJ AM? That's a surprise. News talk stations typically have the highest power ratios.
KGSR billing so strong comes as a bit of a surprise too... since they've got an older audience than the coveted 18-35 demo.
And how about those ethnic/foreign language power ratios? I understand that's typical for those formats, and it makes one wonder what the appeal is, and why so many have popped up lately. Dave Eduardo, care to comment?

 

[davideduardo]

KLBJ FM outbills KLBJ AM? That's a surprise. News talk stations typically have the highest power ratios.

That is changing fast as AM news talkers are getting mostly into the 55+ range. This is why in Orlando, Jax, tallahassee, Dayton, SLC, Phox, DC, Pittsburg, New Orleans, etc., there are now traditional FM talkers, new ones, simulcasts with FM or AMs that have moved to FM.

KGSR billing so strong comes as a bit of a surprise too... since they've got an older audience than the coveted 18-35 demo.

The sales demo is 25-54, not 18-35.

And how about those ethnic/foreign language power ratios? I understand that's typical for those formats, and it makes one wonder what the appeal is, and why so many have popped up lately. Dave Eduardo, care to comment?

It all depends how you run them. KLTN in Houston is the market's top biller, and has a power ratio over 1:1. Austin has not had a dominant Spanish station till recently (KHHL) and there is not the same recognition of Hispanics as being a key marketing target... Miami has 1.4:1 ratios on the biggest stations, leading the market. It all depends on how well the operators have been selling for the last decade or so. The attractiveness is that it is growing while all other sectors of radio are not.

 

[dallasboyz]

its not always 25-54. some stations sell 18-34. some sell 18-49.

nothing is universal.

and KAMX has fallen dramatically. No ratings. No morning show. Lower spot rates.

 

[grantchester]

Good morning Mr. Gleason. Thank you for responding.
My surprise at KLBJ-FM outbilling the AM comes from the 12 plus numbers, showing the AM with about three times as many listeners. Plus, the heritage AM News/Talk stations have traditionally shown a higher power ratio, as they have typically been a better advertising vehicle.
Granted I don't have the breakdowns, but I do believe KGSR trends closer to the 54 than the 24 year old age group.
They also have a very loyal audience, which probably shows in the higher ratio of sales to ratings.
We've talked about spanish language and ethnic power ratios before and you cited individual examples of spanish stations with high ratios, but isn't it true, that, overall, they tend to be lower than 1:1?
(and Pittsburgh has an H on the end, which you probably know. Didn't you grow up in that region?)
You are correct about lower demos tending to listen to FM, and that spanish language is a growing population segment.

If I have a point to make, it is that station owners considering a format change might take note of KGSR's success, especially compared to what the 'hot' spanish language segment is achieving.

 

[txchipk]

KLBJ is only local in AM and PM drive slots...the rest of the schedule is syndicated talk programming. So, I suspect there is an effective cap there on revenue since there would only be a relatively small number of local spots to sell during the non-local shows. In Dallas, sports/guy talk KTCK is a big biller --- and is all-local except late night and overnight. Pretty much its got 20 minutes of ads to sell each hour, hour after hour -- and all of it their's (and they are often #1 25-54 men). Since that pattern is genrally true of many large market news/talk and sports/talk outlets, that's generally one reason they are often top billers in large markets -- mostly attractive 25-54 audience and high amount of ads each hour.

 

[Kent]

Very interesting, indeed. I have to wonder if KBPA has such a low power ratio because the figures used are indicates to be estimated billing in 2005. That could mean figures from 2004 were used to extrapolate revenue for 2005. Since 103.5 was an oldies station in most of 2004, estimating revenue for the following year would be wildly off due to the format change. Like you, I've generally found variety hits stations to have much higher power ratios than oldies stations. That makes me think this is the likely explanation.

As for KLBJ, I suspect a lot of the problem is that the audience is aging. The syndicated programming would certainly put a ceiling on the number of units that can be sold during said timeslots. However, whenever I've worked in talk radio, I've still found far more units available during syndication than during music programming on sister FM stations. In fact, the last AM talk station I worked at had more units available than sales. The number of barter spots to fill those breaks was staggering!