iHeartMedia clusters that have zero local personalities

[victorres43]

I don't remember when it happened, but you're right that it happened without making any headlines. From what I remember, the deal to URBan never ended up closing, and URBan operated Tupelo and Meridian under an LMA. That might've been why the deal falling apart didn't make fanfare. iHeart found a new buyer for Meridian but not Tupelo.

It looks like Clear Channel/iHeartMedia did own the station the entire time, though past entries on Wikipedia for WWKZ state that URBan was the owner of the station [roughly] from 2007 to 2015; I guess owner and operator weren't distinguished here, despite it being the case in Wikipedia pages of some other radio stations.

For some, like pointed out before, heritage rules. No need to change KDWB or Z100 to match a national brand.
For others, it's because there might already be a station of the name they want to use in a market. KISS-FM is a rock station in San Antonio. There are Country stations that are "Kissin' Country" that would probably put up a fight for the name in other markets.
So unless the company wants to come up with a totally new brand and force it across all of their stations in all of the markets, it's tough to do currently as it is.
iHeart gets around that though by basically never having the tracked jock ID the station. Any station ID is done via imaging etc. Kind of like how Bru or Julia on Audacy's CHR's across the country handle things.

QMFM in Vancouver and Bob FM in Winnipeg were strong brands in their respective markets, with the former having a lot of heritage. Yet they changed branding whilst they were on top.

If iHeart were to do mandatory national branding, I can imagine them giving names like iHeartCountry. They may need to use brands other than Mix, River, and the like.

Oh, and many tracked radio personalities do say the station name, though in a scripted manner (e.g. "Listen to [radio station] on iHeartRadio. Download the app or go to [website].")

 

[Mrbiglott]

Voicetracking is a widespread practice in the radio industry, but there are clusters within iHeartMedia that, in fact, do not have a local host in any of their stations.

Some I can think of on top of my head:
Dickinson ND
Gallup NM
Jackson MS
Montgomery AL
Tupelo MS

Granted, these are minor, low revenue markets.

How do they do their public affair shows?

 

[Kelly A]

How do they do their public affair shows?

Same as all the other larger groups: Buy or produce shows to be carried across several stations.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Yep. There is nothing to say a public affairs show has to be local. For that matter, there's nothing to say you need to air a public affairs show at all.

 

[seatownmedia]

Even if there were, the enforcement of such is next to zero. Radio regulations on programming have recently gone out the window, but technical is a different story.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Yep. There is nothing to say a public affairs show has to be local. For that matter, there's nothing to say you need to air a public affairs show at all.

True all one has to do is look at how some TV outlets do Public affairs shows.

Nexstar Broadcasting To Expand Weekly Political Affairs Program “Inside California Politics” Statewide On September 13 | Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Weekly Broadcast Extends Show’s Exclusive Reach to More Than 22 Million Californians SACRAMENTO, California and IRVING, Texas (Sept. 9, 2020) – Nexstar

www.nexstar.tv

Case and point Nexstar does a Public affairs show done from their State Capital offices. Inside California Politics is produced at KTXL Sacramento but is aired on other Nexstar owned stations in California.

Also Gray Television their Public affairs show is nationwide to Gray owned stations like InvestgateTV.

https://www.investigatetv.com/2022/09/02/check-out-our-weekly-show/

 

[ScottBurns]

For some, like pointed out before, heritage rules. No need to change KDWB or Z100 to match a national brand.
For others, it's because there might already be a station of the name they want to use in a market. KISS-FM is a rock station in San Antonio. There are Country stations that are "Kissin' Country" that would probably put up a fight for the name in other markets.
So unless the company wants to come up with a totally new brand and force it across all of their stations in all of the markets, it's tough to do currently as it is.
iHeart gets around that though by basically never having the tracked jock ID the station. Any station ID is done via imaging etc. Kind of like how Bru or Julia on Audacy's CHR's across the country handle things.

Remember when Cumulus rebranded all of its Country stations with the "Nash" branding? It did not work out. Some stations, like WHKR/Brevard County, FL, went back to their old monikers. Heritage station names breed loyalty, and it's often better not to mess with that.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Same as all the other larger groups: Buy or produce shows to be carried across several stations.

Yep. There is nothing to say a public affairs show has to be local. For that matter, there's nothing to say you need to air a public affairs show at all.

Infotrax is a "syndicated" public affairs program and its aired on a bunch of stations saturday or sunday mornings.... we aired it when I worked for Flinn Broadcasting in California and it qualified as public affairs programming.

I *think* you do have to run some amount of that stuff, but im not sure how its defined as to what amount, but io havent kept up with that part of the rules in ahwile

 

[gr8oldies]

Remember when Cumulus rebranded all of its Country stations with the "Nash" branding? It did not work out. Some stations, like WHKR/Brevard County, FL, went back to their old monikers. Heritage station names breed loyalty, and it's often better not to mess with that.

There's a reason they left WIVK/Knoxville "The Frog" alone.

 

[victorres43]

Remember when Cumulus rebranded all of its Country stations with the "Nash" branding? It did not work out. Some stations, like WHKR/Brevard County, FL, went back to their old monikers. Heritage station names breed loyalty, and it's often better not to mess with that.

Counterpoint: Audacy had to rebrand their classic hits stations in Philadelphia and Phoenix to BIG. In Philly, some still perceive WOGL to be "Oldies 98", despite being home of "Hot Hits" during a good portion of the 80s. In Phoenix, even though KOOL has been the brand for 94.5 for a very long time, the name may sound too "old" for today's money demos. Let's not forget that the Magic (or Majic) left 102.7 in Miami under then-Entercom.

Sometimes, heritage is not everything. Otherwise, WABC [as a music station] would still be a thing. And Clear Channel wouldn't use the KISS-FM branding for multiple stations. And B96 would be well ahead of KISS.

There were probably more issues with the Nash FMs that go beyond branding.

 

[TheBigA]

There were probably more issues with the Nash FMs that go beyond branding.

They also replaced local talent with a lot of syndication, and that didn't go over well.

 

[TheBigA]

They're also selling off properties. There is a listing in Panama City, FL on Loopnet.com for their studios on Lisenby Avenue.

They also just sold their building in New Orleans:

iHeartMedia building sells for over $3.5 million | New Orleans CityBusiness

After spending two years on the market, the three-story, 17,765-square-foot iHeartMedia Building in downtown New Orleans has been acquired by a Florida-based investment group.

neworleanscitybusiness.com

So obviously getting out of the real estate business.

 

[Kent]

They also replaced local talent with a lot of syndication, and that didn't go over well.

As we've talked about several times before, Cumulus has returned its markets to local control, but most of its markets still have the same amount of local talent that they had in April 2009 after the second of the company's massive bloodlettings. Those former Nash FM's are a lot more like they were as "Nash" than they were before. They just went back to their old names.

 

[seatownmedia]

Let’s face it. Except for a few, local jocks are a dying breed. RIP Alan Freed, your ilk are dying off. Fortunately it took about 65 years for it to happen as a lot of jocks made a nice living doing this skill. Yes, a skill because not many could do it successfully. Will it ever come back? I suppose it could, but not likely.

 

[Kent]

I haven't been back since 1998. My Dad sold KKBD to then-Clear Channel, and KOMS went from our group to the precursor of Cumulus. I remember the engineers at Clear Channel being eager to get hold of our on-air console. If I remember correctly, it came from WPLJ in NYC, and was a showpiece. I loved the old KMAG theater.

Didn't the younger Baker operate 95.9 at least part of the time your dad owned it? I remember Mix 96 and thought it was tied into the KISR family somehow. I also didn’t realize your dad was affiliated with the group that bought KOMS from Leroy Billy. I thought Sudbury owned the bulk of that group.

Fort Smith was a tough market. Looks like it still is.

Ft. Smith has indeed always been a hard place to make money. Around 1990, KISR and B98 had an almost 40 share combined, and neither made a dime. Both filed for bankruptcy, though KISR reorganized and got out of it. B98 ended up getting sold to the company that owned KMCK, which quickly took it to a simulcast. I worked for Germond and Baugher at their other cluster in Missouri, and Baugher told me making money off of KWHN and KMAG was really hard despite both of them being successful. They were good guys, though they were about as frugal of operators as one could find. Even with their frugality, they didn’t make much off of Ft. Smith.

 

[exdjted]

Didn't the younger Baker operate 95.9 at least part of the time your dad owned it? I remember Mix 96 and thought it was tied into the KISR family somehow. I also didn’t realize your dad was affiliated with the group that bought KOMS from Leroy Billy. I thought Sudbury owned the bulk of that group.

We came in after the tornado. Fred made some inquiries about buying us out in '97, but that was when Clear Channel aggresively started their expansion. KOMS was a partnership with the Baltimore guys. Dad operated it and was a minority owner, but it quickly became a huge cluster**** that dissolved within 7 or 8 months.

Mix 96 was a ratings success, but dismal sales-wise. We went from like 17 to 5 or 6, but sales just never materialized. KKUZ should have remained Classic Country like KOMS wound up. Unfortunately, I hated Country at the time and wouldn't program Country even if we had landed in Nashville or Dallas. Live and learn.

Fort Smith was so toxic, it actually caused a rift between my father and myself that lasted until the day he died. He hated radio after that, and we went years without speaking even though we lived less than 100 miles apart.

 

[phildavis]

Advertising is very tight, and if you can't deliver large audiences, you're struggling.

Is advertising tight, though, or just radio advertising?

 

[TheBigA]

Is advertising tight, though, or just radio advertising?

Advertising is tight in all ad-supported media. That includes cable, broadcast TV, and obviously newspaper.

The only reason it's up in digital is because use is growing.

 

[seatownmedia]

Iheart is in survival mode. Local personalities almost gone. When contracts expire most jocks will be gone. Radio will never be the same when Iheart runs out of options. But credit them for giving a student body try.

 

[TheBigA]

Iheart is in survival mode. Local personalities almost gone. When contracts expire most jocks will be gone.

You keep saying this, and I see they still have lots of personalities. What you're talking about is in very small markets.

As of 2021 they have over 10,000 employees. That's still a lot.