I guess I’m lost. Anyone listen to Dodger postgame shows on KLAC? 🤣 plenty of people seem to call in
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How Many Audacy AM Sports Stations Will Get FM Simulcasts?
- Thread starter Gregg.
- Start date
KLAC is one of the top 10 healthiest AMs in the whole country, largely because of the Dodgers.
Whatever AM in Knoxville might carry the Tennessee Volunteers is not.
Years ago when I supervised WTNT in Tallahassee, we bought a special report from Arbitron for the Saturday Noles games. The station averaged around a 12 share all week, but on Saturday afternoon we'd get a 30 to 40 share. People listened, and what we discovered by some in-house research was that those listeners were at work or doing something that did not permit TV viewing.
I’d rather listen to vuvuzela music than one second of David Vassegh on Dodger Talk.
Well, I never meant to imply anyone watching via television would go to AM for continued post-game coverage. Only that whomever was already listening via FM would do so, for the lack of TV access as you say. That being so, I don't foresee any technological or psychological barriers that would stand in the way of those FM users switching to an AM when told to do so by the FM. If, as PTBoardOp93 said, KLAC is one of the healthiest 10 AMs in America just because of its Dodgers coverage (and I'll add to that: in spite of its mighty mouse 5,000 watt signal), then it's clear AM's many reputational and technological downsides don't even make sports fans blink, let alone think twice about going to it.
Incidentally, Fox has been using a similar strategy with World Series telecasts in recent years. You get a sampler plate's worth of the post-game show via your roof antenna, and are then instructed to switch to Fox Sports 1 for the rest. I guess if they figure backhanded tactics like that can actually bolster cable subscriptions, then I'm prone to thinking non-backhanded frequency switching instructions would do similar good for an all-sports AM's brand awareness.
That makes perfect sense. The only people I have ever known who listened to the radio coverage for a televised sports event despite having access to a TV were people who were finicky about something in the television broadcaster's presentation. Like preferring their local home team radio announcer to a pompous nationally-known television guy. (I'll not name names for civility's sake.)
I would add one phrase to that sentence: "In Los Angeles"
In Indianapolis or Charlotte or Boise, and dozens of other markets, AM is almost completely dead, and every AM station with meaningful audience has figured out a way to get on FM.
Fox does this This is because Fox affiliates want MLB off the air so they can start their very lucrative 10pm ET/9pm CT newscasts. Local stations hate sports overruns. Promoting FS1 is a fringe benefit.
Except that once the game is over, it's over. The reason they do the post-game is strictly for sales. Have you ever been to a sports bar during a game? Once the game is over, everyone leaves or goes back to whatever they were doing (drinking). There's very limited interest in the post-game. It's all filled with commercials. People today don't just do what they're told to do by the media. That should be obvious.
Of course, what I said would only have applied in markets like L.A. where AM wasn't dead and a viable sports station existed on it.
Touche, you're right. As a west coast resident, this didn't immediately come to mind. I'm used to most games being followed by hour after unbearable hour of TMZ until the 10 o'clock starts.
That "mighty mouse" signal is a huge 5 kw on 570. I'm tired of seeing what is a great signal denigrated when it is a superb signal.
1kw on 550 covers more than 50kw on 1500, given electrically equal antenna heights and ground conductivity. Those 5kw on 570 are as good as or better than KNX's 50kw at 1070, particularly moving inland.
But at-home viewers are strong watchers of the post-game shows, as a guy in front of his TV does not talk about the game with his wife or family, usually. He watches the post game show and even talks back to the host(s).
And at home is where the metered sets are.
107.7 WLKK has a signal which is arguably as bad as KFNC, stuck in-between two DMAs. Whilst it had been sports 20 years ago, that was being subsidized by the Rigas family until they got in big trouble over Adelphia.
Clarification: Radio has no "DMA" survey areas. That is a TV market definition.
"DMA® (Designated Market Area) regions are the geographic areas in the U.S. in which local television viewing is measured by Nielsen. There are 210 DMA® regions, covering the entire continental U.S., Hawaii, and parts of Alaska. DMA® boundaries and data are solely owned and exclusive to Nielsen. A DMA® region is a group of counties and zip codes that form an exclusive geographic area in which the home market television stations hold a dominance of total hours viewed."
ZIP Code by DMA® Regions | Nielsen
DMA (Designated Market Area) regions are the geographic areas and zip codes in the U.S. in which local television viewing is measured by Nielsen.
www.nielsen.com
In radio, in PPM markets there is just the MSA, Metro Survey Area. In some diary markets, we have a TSA, or Total Survey Area which includes surrounding counties that are not in the MSA.
(But your point on WLKK is very valid!)
It’s got to be Houston. No way Audacy is going to keep the Texans off FM any longer than they have to while their sister station in Dallas, bankrolls off the Cowboys. In Houston this should’ve been done years ago
The actual Texans games are simulcast on Country KILT-FM, so FM coverage there. All those games and ancillary programming are on 610 AM.
For years I advocated for Audacy to buy KROI and simulcast the sports format there, but that ship has sailed. Would have been a perfect arrangement.
I still don’t see Audacy blowing up one of their Houston FMs for sports unless they acquire Cumulus’ CHR KRBE through a merger, purchase or swap. That would open the door for blowing out Hot AC KHMX.
For the record, KLAC was the #6 billing AM-only station last year when Inside Radio reported the numbers from BIA Kelsey...
1. WCBS New York........................All-News..................................Audacy.................................$29,700,000
2. KTRH Houston...........................Talk.............................................iHeart...................................$24,625,000
3. KFI Los Angeles.........................Talk.............................................iHeart...................................$23,800,000
4. KOA Denver................................News-Talk-Sports..................iHeart...................................$21,575,000
5. WSCR Chicago...........................Sports........................................Audacy................................$16,150,000
6. KLAC Los Angeles.....................Sports.......................................iHeart and Dodgers........$16,025,000
7. WGN Chicago.............................Talk............................................Nexstar................................$16,000,000
8. WBZ Boston................................All-News (Talk evenings)....iHeart..................................$15,625,000
9. WLW Cincinnati.........................Talk-Sports...............................iHeart..................................$13,075,000
Of course, WCBS is no longer All-News. Its replacement, Sports station WHSQ, doesn't subscribe to Nielsen. So KLAC is actually the fifth best-billing AM-only station in the U.S., if these numbers continue into 2025.
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I did not know the effect was that dramatic. KLAC doesn't stamp out EMI in my area the way KNX does.
Is there a known formula for determining the wattage necessary at a high AM frequency for achieving the same coverage as a known wattage on a lower frequency?