Four K-Love - Air 1 Stations in the Memphis Market?

[Gregg.]

It was big news in 2023 when the Educational Media Foundation bought a couple of stations in Memphis. They weren't in bad shape but EMF wanted a bigger presence in the Memphis area. It already had a couple of stations near Memphis but not full-market signals. It seems the organization kept them and added two more. It rearranged which service, K-Love or Air 1, is carried on each station. Here's what I think is the current EMF presence in the Memphis market...

94.1 WKVF Germantown TN ...... K-Love ..... 50,000 watts at 144 m (472 ft) .... Tower on the TN-MS line, about 12 miles southeast of Memphis.

94.9 WWAI Bartlett TN ................. Air 1 .......... 2,900 watts at 217 m (712 ft) ...... Tower in Memphis shared with WRVR.

96.1 WIVG Tunica MS .................. K-Love ....... 4,100 watts at 246 m (807 ft) ...... Tower in Arkabutla MS, about 25 miles south of Memphis.

96.5 WAIH Holly Springs MS .... Air 1 ............ 4,100 watts at 122 m (400 ft) ..... Tower in Holly Springs, about 25 miles southeast of Memphis.

.

 

[b-turner]

I suspect EMF will lease or sell any true overlapping signals. Then again, EMF is not buying 'by market' but by 'population reached' since they rely on listner donations.

 

[CTListener]

I suspect EMF will lease or sell any true overlapping signals. Then again, EMF is not buying 'by market' but by 'population reached' since they rely on listner donations.

Given the growth of metropolitan Memphis (especially its Mississippi suburbs and exurbs) over the years, EMF's multi-transmitter strategy seems sound. Got to get the best possible signal into every possible set of ears, and multiple transmitters, strategically separated, do just that. I don't expect any leasing or selling.

 

[lanceventa]

It was big news in 2023 when the Educational Media Foundation bought a couple of stations in Memphis. They weren't in bad shape but EMF wanted a bigger presence in the Memphis area. It already had a couple of stations near Memphis but not full-market signals. It seems the organization kept them and added two more. It rearranged which service, K-Love or Air 1, is carried on each station. Here's what I think is the current EMF presence in the Memphis market...

94.1 WKVF Germantown TN ...... K-Love ..... 50,000 watts at 144 m (472 ft) .... Tower on the TN-MS line, about 12 miles southeast of Memphis.

94.9 WWAI Bartlett TN ................. Air 1 .......... 2,900 watts at 217 m (712 ft) ...... Tower in Memphis shared with WRVR.

96.1 WIVG Tunica MS .................. K-Love ....... 4,100 watts at 246 m (807 ft) ...... Tower in Arkabutla MS, about 25 miles south of Memphis.

96.5 WAIH Holly Springs MS .... Air 1 ............ 4,100 watts at 122 m (400 ft) ..... Tower in Holly Springs, about 25 miles southeast of Memphis.

.

You know that they have public master lists of all stations? No need to "think about what's on each one"...

Stations | Positive Encouraging K-LOVE

List of all K-LOVE radio stations

www.klove.com

https://www.air1.com/music/station-finder/stations

Estaciones - Radio Nueva Vida

Estaciones CA AK AZ CO FL HI ID IL LA NE NM NV NY OH OR TX WA DC MÉXICO CA CALIFORNIA Bakersfield 90.9 FM Bermuda Dunes 105.1 FM HD 3 Calexico 94.9 FM Camarillo 90.3 FM Coachella 91.3 FM Carlsbad 95.7 FM HD 2 Desert Center 91.3 FM Fremont 100.9 FM Fresno 980 AM […]

nuevavida.com

On their public file lists, they even show their sub-networks: https://www.klove.com/policies/public-files/90s

96.1 and 96.5 barely cover Memphis. They are not factors in the market and have little overlap with 94.1/94.9. K-Love wants to cover 100% of the US and those signals help in that regard reaching areas where their audience is.

How often do you see them sell a full powered signal? Very, very rarely does it happen.

 

[secondchoice]

It wouldn't surprise me that KLove and then Air 1 will the first "nationwide" broadcaster, which by my definition would be: coverage anywhere the FCC has FM allocations that covers populated areas.

 

[Identnut]

It wouldn't surprise me that KLove and then Air 1 will the first "nationwide" broadcaster, which by my definition would be: coverage anywhere the FCC has FM allocations that covers populated areas.

And I have to wonder why IHeart and Audacy aren't pushing for the same thing. That's the MO for commercial stations outside the USA.

 

[TheBigA]

I have to wonder why IHeart and Audacy aren't pushing for the same thing. That's the MO for commercial stations outside the USA.

Because of local sales. K-Love is non-commercial, so they don't care about local sales.

In the same way NPR is a "nationwide" broadcaster, but they don't have a 24/7 format.

The FCC has some rules that don't apply to non-coms.

 

[Identnut]

Because of local sales. K-Love is non-commercial, so they don't care about local sales.

In the same way NPR is a "nationwide" broadcaster, but they don't have a 24/7 format.

The FCC has some rules that don't apply to non-coms.

I don't know why radio companies haven't lobbied to be able to do national sales for commercial stations like they do outside the US. As DE has said, national sales are much easier to do.

Radio in the US is fragmented for no good reason.

 

[TheBigA]

I don't know why radio companies haven't lobbied to be able to do national sales for commercial stations like they do outside the US.

Because there's this mythology of serving your local community. They don't have that in other countries. We have it written in the damn law.

What I've found is there's potentially more money in local sales than national. That structure rewards local management with bonuses.

It's pretty obvious that iHeart and Audacy would be profitable if they just ran their companies like K-Love and Sirius. But it's gonna take a while to get there.

Radio in the US is fragmented for no good reason.

So's the whole country, in case you haven't noticed. This isn't just a radio problem. We call it balkanization. But it's America.

 

[davideduardo]

I don't know why radio companies haven't lobbied to be able to do national sales for commercial stations like they do outside the US. As DE has said, national sales are much easier to do.

There is no "national sales" such as what you envision because there are no "national stations". In most of the rest of the free world, national stations have a single format 24/7 on many, many transmitters across the nation.

In the U.S. we have national sales for specific programs that are networked to many different markets. But in many cases, affiliates may be AMs with limited coverage or rimshot FMs or otherwise less than full signals.

There is no prohibition for "national sales". In thee 30's, 40's and early 50's CBS, Mutual, ABC and NBC sold network programming nationally. In recent times, the best example of a national show would be Rush Limbaugh before his death.

Radio in the US is fragmented for no good reason.

In the non-commercial world, K-Love and Air1 are both national networks. Still, they are missing a number of significant market areas.

 

[davideduardo]

I don't know why radio companies haven't lobbied to be able to do national sales for commercial stations like they do outside the US. As DE has said, national sales are much easier to do.

I did not say that. National is sold based purely on metrics. Local is a combination of service, trust, heritage and, finally, metrics.

For example, I am a pretty good agency / national seller. I am not very good at local direct. It's a different style and personality.

Radio in the US is fragmented for no good reason.

Up until deregulation in the mid-90's, companies could only own 7 station of each class. So there was no way to do national stations. And the, when ownership rules were fully relaxed, stations already had owners who negotiated to buy more or to sell. Nobody could buy a station in every city in the country.

 

[TheBigA]

Nobody could buy a station in every city in the country.

Even if they did, there are still large parts of the country that would go unserved. It's a very big country.

 

[secondchoice]

There have been a couple of postings on this board that basically promoted the theory that the politicians were "afraid" of radio's influence back in the day, so laws and regulations were set up so keep a single individual or company from having total control over a "national" signal.

IMHO Also there were an "equal time rules" that basically made overtly politically biased programs like Rush difficult to air.

 

[IKHNetworks]

In the non-commercial world, K-Love and Air1 are both national networks. Still, they are missing a number of significant market areas.

That's true we don't have a full power K-Love or Air 1 in Madison Wisconsin - to my knowledge they use HD3 and HD4 channels owned by Iheart (WZEE) the HD feeds are translated via translators - well Air 1 has a translator but K-Love is HD4 only or was for a few days. HD 4 is sporadic