If Cumulus ends up with Citadel....

[bucwhyl]

Wouldn't that be the end of either The Wolf or KSCS as we know it?

 

[charles123]

Wouldn't that be the end of either The Wolf or KSCS as we know it?

Probably, because one company can't own 2 of the same formats. One of them's got to go. What would happen to WBAP on 96.7?

 

[bucwhyl]

Maybe the hopes for The Ticket coming to FM would come true.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Maybe the hopes for The Ticket coming to FM would come true.

As I recall, you don't listen to The Ticket on its AM facility at 1310. Is that right?

If so, that reminds me of an incident that happened back when I was still in radio and heading to a remote at Red Bird Mall. I was driving out Highway 67 with a 20-something female media buyer who handled the account. As we passed the split between 67 and I-35, we saw a lot of smoke on the horizon from a big fire.

I then tuned away from KQZY (where I worked) over to KRLD (which was all news at the time) hoping to catch a report about the blaze. The media buyer's look was priceless when I flipped the van's radio from FM to AM. "Eeeewww, I can't believe you're going to listen to an AM STATION!".

In spite of KRLD giving us the best chance to get information about a newsworthy event, she was horrified at the prospect of having to listen to AM. That band was just distasteful to her regardless of the content.

If I read you right, bucwhyl, you're certainly not alone. As David Eduardo has pointed out, the prime demos treat AM almost like shark-infested waters, which accounts for the actions taken by WWL, WBAP, WTOP, KTAR, KSL and many other legacy stations to get an FM presence.

 

[TheBigA]

Probably, because one company can't own 2 of the same formats.

Really? Where's the law that says that?

Tell the folks at Wilks in Kansas City, because they own both KFKF and KBEQ, both of which play a commercial country format.

Tell it to Clear Channel, because they own both KVET and KASE in Austin, playing very similar music, and getting great ratings.

 

[upstate29651]

Where are you getting this info that Cumulus will get Citadel? Link?

G

 

[salemjedi54]

There is no law that says that a company can't own 2 of the same format. They would be hard pressed not to kill each other. Actually Service and Mortenson have stations that are basically the same format. KRNB/KKDA and KGGR/KHVN...

 

[little1]

Hard pressed not to kill each other? :

Rather, they'd be in a great position re advertisers. If you're an advertiser that markets to the country audience, right now you can play one against the other. If both stations are owned by the same company, Cowboys Night Club, Western Warehouse, the promoter of the George Strait concert, etc, etc will be negotiating with just one company, not two. That means they can ask for higher rates (and probably get them- where else are those advertisers really going to go on radio?)...Higher rates mean more money to pay down all that debt they'll have to use to buy Citadel...

And if Cumulus positions them differently (i.e. wolf as new, KSCS as classic country) they stop fighting over the same audience and work on growing both audiences. As is, KSCS skews older than Wolf. Let's say you target Wolf at 18-44, KSCS at 35-65, there's some overlap, but between them you'd have great 25-54 numbers...

 

[bassassassin]

The Knight is right...no law or rule exists preventing a company from duplicating a format on 2 (or more) stations within a given market. I know of one instance in a small market that an owner did it as a blocking maneuver to kill off a 3rd contender. It worked. You can always flip to an alternate format after you've killed the enemy.

Upstate - check out the many news articles over the past 2 days - it's the big story today.

 

[salemjedi54]

Hard pressed not to kill each other? :

Rather, they'd be in a great position re advertisers. If you're an advertiser that markets to the country audience, right now you can play one against the other. If both stations are owned by the same company, Cowboys Night Club, Western Warehouse, the promoter of the George Strait concert, etc, etc will be negotiating with just one company, not two. That means they can ask for higher rates (and probably get them- where else are those advertisers really going to go on radio?)...Higher rates mean more money to pay down all that debt they'll have to use to buy Citadel...

And if Cumulus positions them differently (i.e. wolf as new, KSCS as classic country) they stop fighting over the same audience and work on growing both audiences. As is, KSCS skews older than Wolf. Let's say you target Wolf at 18-44, KSCS at 35-65, there's some overlap, but between them you'd have great 25-54 numbers...

You said what i wanted to say, I just did not word it right. I'm a button pusher not a writer.

 

[trying2getn]

!. Consolidate 96.3 to 99.5.
2. Move i93 to 96.3 so it can be on a big stick.
3. Simulcast The Ticket on 1310 and 93.3
4. Keep WBAP (820 and 96.7) and KLIF AM as is.
4. Sell 104.1 and 1700 signals

 

[Sgt. Hans G. Schultz]

!. Consolidate 96.3 to 99.5.
2. Move i93 to 96.3 so it can be on a big stick.
3. Simulcast The Ticket on 1310 and 93.3
4. Keep WBAP (820 and 96.7) and KLIF AM as is.
4. Sell 104.1 and 1700 signals


What do you (or anyone else here) think those signals would be worth as stand alones? My guess is not much. That said, I could be wrong (it's happened before, I'm sure it'll happen again).

 

[little1]

!. Consolidate 96.3 to 99.5.

Wolf has a 5.2 with cume of 1.24m, KSCS a 3.1 with cume of 807K. Probably a lot of duplication there, but I don't think you could just consolidate the 2 and get the combined ratings. People tune out because they hear a song they don't like, too many commercials, don't like what the jock is talking about, etc. This market can easily support 2 country stations, so consolidating them doesn't make sense to me...

2. Move i93 to 96.3 so it can be on a big stick.

i93 seems to be doing pretty good where they are...on about a year, they've already got a 2.9 and 969K in cume.
(Or to put it another way, in a year, they have more listeners and almost the ratings of heritage station KSCS)

3. Simulcast The Ticket on 1310 and 93.3

Isn't the i93 tower in the mid cities somewhere (Haltom City IIRC) ???That gives the Ticket an FM signal, but doesn't give them better coverage where they lack (Plano, Mckinney area)

 

[little1]

4. Keep WBAP (820 and 96.7) and KLIF AM as is.
4. Sell 104.1 and 1700 signals

KLIF Am is the underperformer of the group (1.0, 261K in cume) Why not flip Ticket to the better signal of 570, put the lowest biller on the weaker signal?

And from what somebody posted here the other day, they'd only need to sell one of those extra signals.

Me, I'd put ticket on 570 and 96.7- 570 has better coverage, and 96.7 gives them the FM signal they need/want. WBAP skews way old, Ticket could use a better FM signal than 104.1, and 96.7 covers the northern suburbs, where 1310 is weak. Put WBAP on 820 and 104.1, and leave i93 and KSCSwhere they are, just move KSCS away from 99.5 to protect both...

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Isn't the i93 tower in the mid cities somewhere (Haltom City IIRC) ???That gives the Ticket and FM saignal, doesn't give them better coverage where they lack (Plano, Mckinney area)

The i93 (KLIF-FM) tower is off Singleton near loop 12. Oddly enough, it's not far from the 1190 (longtime known as KLIF) 4-tower day site.

Originally 93.3 was situated in Tarrant County, closer to their community of license, Halton City.

In any event, your point stands that i93 is spotty throughout much of Collin County.

 

[TheBigA]

They would be hard pressed not to kill each other.

Oh come on. Radio is a profession, isn't it?

!. Consolidate 96.3 to 99.5.

No benefit to doing that. Neither station will benefit by the other going away. And it's also a bad idea to make one current and the other classic. You might as well shut one off. ABC did that in Atlanta, and the classic station was always a dog. They ultimately gave up and went classic rock. Meanwhile, Clear Channel came in with The Bull and stole audience from ABC.

Leave them as they are. You get an combined 8 share to sell, a monopoly in a format, and 2 million cume. Shut one down, and you get a 5 share and 1.2 million cume. With the chance that someone flips to take part of your audience. My coach taught me that the enemy you know is always better than the enemy you don't.

 

[amisdead]

The Citadel stations aside, I think Cumulus should move The Ticket to 570. Then move KLIF to 1310 and 1700. And finally simulcast i93 on 104.1. 93.3 and 104.1 have zero 70dBu overlap (where most listening takes place).

 

[bucwhyl]

Maybe the hopes for The Ticket coming to FM would come true.

As I recall, you don't listen to The Ticket on its AM facility at 1310. Is that right?

If so, that reminds me of an incident that happened back when I was still in radio and heading to a remote at Red Bird Mall. I was driving out Highway 67 with a 20-something female media buyer who handled the account. As we passed the split between 67 and I-35, we saw a lot of smoke on the horizon from a big fire.

I then tuned away from KQZY (where I worked) over to KRLD (which was all news at the time) hoping to catch a report about the blaze. The media buyer's look was priceless when I flipped the van's radio from FM to AM. "Eeeewww, I can't believe you're going to listen to an AM STATION!".

In spite of KRLD giving us the best chance to get information about a newsworthy event, she was horrified at the prospect of having to listen to AM. That band was just distasteful to her regardless of the content.

If I read you right, bucwhyl, you're certainly not alone. As David Eduardo has pointed out, the prime demos treat AM almost like shark-infested waters, which accounts for the actions taken by WWL, WBAP, WTOP, KTAR, KSL and many other legacy stations to get an FM presence.

Bob, I wasn't talking about me. I was talking about the folks who have been wanting The Ticket on FM. As far as AM, I would listen if there was something I really wanted to listen to. And what I said about The Fan earlier, well I will post about that later....

 

[txchipk]

!. Consolidate 96.3 to 99.5.
2. Move i93 to 96.3 so it can be on a big stick.
3. Simulcast The Ticket on 1310 and 93.3
4. Keep WBAP (820 and 96.7) and KLIF AM as is.
4. Sell 104.1 and 1700 signals

I'd leave KSCS amd KLIF-FM alone. I would break the 820 and 96.7 simulcast and use 1310/96.7 as a simulcast pair since the 1310 covers Dallas Co where 96.7 is weak. In that case, you could put KTCK on 820 and WBAP on 96.7/1310 or the other way around.

They could sell 1700 and keep 104.1 and be under the ownership cap. I think they could give it its own format, but just target the suburbs like KLAK does.

 

[trying2getn]

Great feedback guys. Here is my reasoning:

1. Consolidate 96.3 to 99.5
I just have a feeling that Cumulus will not want to keep two station that are basically the same. They will want to free up a big 100,000 watt stick for another format. This would now give them two big sticks and they won't want to use them both for the same format.

2. Move i93 to 96.3 so it can be on a big stick.
See above. Bennett's plan was to move 93.3 (The Bone at the time) to a big stick when they attemped to purchase 101.1 from the City of Dallas, this would give him that opportunity. Probably feels that this would also give him a better chance to compete with Kiss. The 96.3 signal will give them a better chance to touch the outskirts of the spreadout Metroplex.

3. Simulcast The Ticket on 1310 and 93.3
They won't move The Ticket off of 1310. After 16 years the station and the signal go together like peanut butter and jelly. It's a successful brand. A freed up 93.3 signal will give them the opportunity to have some real FM coverage that many of the listeners are wanting. Plus, many of you may not agree but The Fan may become a threat on some level. Simulcasting on a descent FM signal will hold off The Fan.

4. Keep WBAP (820 and 96.7) and KLIF AM as is
If it ain't broke don't fix it. Moving WBAP anywhere would be no benefit. And KLIF AM there is nothing they can do to fix it. The only station they could move to 570 is The Ticket and that won't happen. The Ticket will always remain on 1310 on the AM side.

Fire away