• 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

HOW LONG UNTIL SEATTLE JUMPS ON THE FM SPORTSRADIO BAND??

D

discjockeyjohn64

Within the past two weeks, two more radio markets in the West have jumped on the FM sports bandwagon. KTIK in Boise took over KZMG Magic 93's spot on the dial. KZNS in Salt Lake City took over KYLZ The Point 104.7's spot on the dial. Portland has had 95.5 FM The Game has been doing sports for almost two years. Which of the AM sports stations, KIRO or KJR, should make the move in Seattle?

The format seems to do well in every market it has moved to an FM station. There are a lot of male skewing listeners and it is a money making format. Your thoughts??
 
Same here... but if does happen to land on a full-power FM, it'd most likely land on an HD Radio subchannel (97.3 KIRO-FM HD2/3 for KIRO-AM, 95.7 KJR-FM or 104.9 KSGX-FM HD2/3 for KJR-AM)
 
jock strap joe, already has 3 choices on the AM. in fact 4 choices if you add in KTAC 850 tacoma. not to mention many hard core jock itch types, also have mega XM/SR channels, if they pay the man. i highly doubt an FM signal is gonna do much more than water down cume from the 3 or 4 AM'ers. but, that doesnt mean someone wont try it, in the next few years. ie: if the countrypolitan wolf howl wimpers out in numbers, you could easily see an executive decision being made at the big round table of suit and tie men, to combo the sports AM 710 to..........
 
Highly unlikely in near future. Sports radio can't crack the top 15 on AM and many times are out of the top 20. KIRO FM simulcasts Seahawks games on Sunday and some Mariner games on weekends, but beyond that I don't see a full market FM going sports here. Many think each market is the same, but that is not true in many respects. Urban and hispanic don't work as well here for obvious demographic reasons. Seattle sports teams are not strong and we don't even have an NBA basketball team. Portland, the closest West Coast PPM city, has had an FM sports station for a couple of years and outside of Trailblazer games it is barely in the top 20.
 
SRP said:
Three words:
Ain't gonna happen.
Click to expand...
Boy, would love to get some over/under pin action on this one.

Two reasons will drive this (which is inevitable): Another NBA franchise (don't know when but it'll happen) and Mariners' re-relevancy. A strong Seahawks team will only further hasten it.
 
I speculated many moons ago how I thought 104.5 would be a nice simulcast fit for one of the AM sports yakkers, but since that hasn't happened yet I wonder now if it ever will....
 
Give it some time. Somebody will try it
 
Still too wild west around here. To take such a catagory specific area of programming and hit it with a full-boat FM has far too much risk attached to it in the current economic market. All Sports radio isnt All News Radio. It would be akin to having a music station that plays only the hits from 1975-80.
 
The #1 station in Detroit is CBS' all-sports 97.1 The Ticket, which is also simulcast on 1270 AM. Sports is moving to FM because the desirable demos are already there. IMHO, every major market will have at least one sports station on FM. :)
 
Seattle a 'tepid' sports town??

We have an NFL team that sells out despite few playoff appearances. A MLB team that is in the top half of attendance despite a dismal record. A new professional soccer team that teams around the country are trying to emulate because of attendance records. A D1 football team that sells out. Now two D1 basketball teams, both drawing big crowds. The most successful WNBA team in the country. And we'd still have an NBA team if not for management/political incompetence. Maybe the poster meant to type rabid instead of tepid.

Had Bonneville been smart, they would have launched their sports station on FM and kept KIRO-AM as their strong news-talk brand. I think by now, that FM sports station might be at or near the top of the ratings heap. But since there are now two Seattle sports stations (plus sports signals in Everett and Tacoma) it would be a challenge for anyone else to try sports on FM.

But calling Seattle a 'tepid sports town'? Get real.
 
equalinercard said:
Had Bonneville been smart, they would have launched their sports station on FM and kept KIRO-AM as their strong news-talk brand. I think by now, that FM sports station might be at or near the top of the ratings heap. But since there are now two Seattle sports stations (plus sports signals in Everett and Tacoma) it would be a challenge for anyone else to try sports on FM.

But calling Seattle a 'tepid sports town'? Get real.
Click to expand...

IMHO, it would likely be one of the two existing Seattle sports stations that would migrate to FM, not a new competitor. If one of them went to a full-signal FM, the smaller stations in Everett and Tacoma would be in trouble.

Seattle would have both an NBA and an NHL franchise if they had a state-of-the-art arena. :)
 
The puget sound area will likely have that state-of-the-art arena at some point, and probably will have NBA and NHL back. But the arena won't be in Seattle; it will be in Bellevue/Redmond. Maybe the long-dormant Redmond AM at 740 can be fired up to carry the games! ;)
 
Two points...can't compare Seattle to Detroit or Philly - these are sports markets with generations of sports fans that have changed the DNA structure of their children. In Seattle, we marvel at the outdoors, wear flannel and Burkenstocks and spend our time on consensus not competition.

Second point...until an FM has revenue issues, it won't happen. KJR/AM's success was driven by advertisers, who to my amazement for once, didn't care about ratings but wanted to be on the sports station! Sports radio has the highest power ratio on earth...because these clients buy with their hearts not their brains. Love it...just like the old days before we parsed rating points like they were cholesterol numbers...

HD band? Yeh...but really, who could care?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom