Is a Translator in KBME 790AM's Future?

[b-turner]

I agree it i a shame there's not a radio station reaching the Sugarland/Richmond/Rosenburg area at night. I'm sure the Astros would like a more complete market frequency. The problem is the Astros require the stations to pay to carry the games. The high bid gets it (or that's how it was a few years back). That takes 'choice' out of the picture.

KIKR and KBED are both owned by Cumulus. KBED is a daytime only station. I suspect night games are on KIKR and day games on KBED. Being the same company, there is no conflict.

Perhaps the same arrangement could be utilized in Houston. KBME is iHeart.

 

[stan]

And yet, there are synergies with KLVI having the Astros. Since iHeart stations essentially have the rights to the Astros broadcasts, it just makes sense to go ahead and do it. I suspect that in the near future KLVI will be operated more as an iHeart Houston - east station as the Beaumont - Port Arthur stations are absorbed into the Houston iHeart operations. There's too many synergies and cost savings to be had for a company $20 billion in debt.

 

[davideduardo]

And yet, there are synergies with KLVI having the Astros. Since iHeart stations essentially have the rights to the Astros broadcasts, it just makes sense to go ahead and do it. I suspect that in the near future KLVI will be operated more as an iHeart Houston - east station as the Beaumont - Port Arthur stations are absorbed into the Houston iHeart operations. There's too many synergies and cost savings to be had for a company $20 billion in debt.

There is no synergy having an out of market signal potentially take audience from a local market station. There is absolutely no revenue model with an upside here.

Out of market ratings in a diary market would not be combinable with in-market PPM data, either. And advertisers who buy by the ratings would consider that to be "smoke and mirrors".

Any savings in combining the clusters operationally would be completely erased by not having local sales and promotion presence and they would still need local engineering, etc.

 

[stan]

David, my point about KLVI is that iHeart has been programming and marketing it for some time as if it were KTRH - east. The Houston KTRH staff provides news content during the day at the bottom of the hour for KLVI and they have essentially the same syndicated programming on both stations - even carrying MIchael Barry. To shed the remaining live local programming (Al Caldwell) just makes sense since they've been cutting back on local personnel over the years. It would make sense to use KLVI to cover areas of Houston where their other weak stations like KBME need help.

 

[davideduardo]

David, my point about KLVI is that iHeart has been programming and marketing it for some time as if it were KTRH - east. The Houston KTRH staff provides news content during the day at the bottom of the hour for KLVI and they have essentially the same syndicated programming on both stations - even carrying MIchael Barry. To shed the remaining live local programming (Al Caldwell) just makes sense since they've been cutting back on local personnel over the years. It would make sense to use KLVI to cover areas of Houston where their other weak stations like KBME need help.

In any case, Beaumont is a market with very little national advertising. It's a local market, and there are few buyers who be attracted to a combined buy. While they may share some programming done in Houston, that does not mean it is marketed to the audience or advertisers as being part of the Houston market.

The total radio revenue of all stations in the market is less than that of any one of the top 14 stations in Houston. The top biller in Houston has revenues that are about 18 times more than the top Beaumont biller.

 

[ContinuousWave]

KBED and KIKR are two English stations that air the Astros in Beaumont.

KBED and KIKR are a simulcast both owned by Cumulus....try again....

 

[johndavis]

Meanwhile, a workable solution today is to subscribe to MLB At Bat and stream any game, anytime, anywhere.
MLB makes it pretty easy to follow whatever team you desire.

 

[schmave]

To tremendously oversimplify this, the fact that there are Astros fans within the metro who would struggle to get the broadcasts is exactly why KTRH still should be carrying the games. I get that 790 is all sports. I listened to it much more than 740 when I lived in Houston, and having the local MLB team is a wonderful centerpiece for a sports format (much as the Texans are for 610). It's also a fact that 740 is a 50,000-watt blaster that even with its limited signal to the north and northeast at night has nowhere near the signal issues 790 faces with a directional 5,000 watts. I used to drive through that Sugar Land null quite a bit on Highway 6 and it's every bit as nasty as described here.
740? Never a dropout like that. Covers the metro like a blanket.
Even with the daytime games that would take Rush off the air, maybe move those to 790. Years ago, Rush was moved to 950 if the Astros played during the day.
Has the idea of simulcasting games on one of iHeart's many powerful FMs been floated? Would have been a good fit on the Arrow before it switched formats years ago.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

When the clear channels were passed out decades ago, Houston got the short end of the stick - almost literally. I have no idea what genius allocated another 50 kW less than 500 miles to the North, but that is what KTRH has faced. It is a shame that Houston's only 50 kW AM station can be heard in South America better than in Dallas at night. Dallas has two 50 kW monsters, with WBAP reports of WBAP being heard all over the world, KRLD only hampered by a higher dial position. Add to that regionals like KLIF, whatever 620 has as call letters these days, KSKY, and on occasion KAAM. San Antonio has powerhouse WOAI and several daytime regional monsters like KTSA, 630, 680, 720, 760, 860. Even Austin has a regional monster on 590. So it is natural for we in Houston to be a bit envious of the cities around with their powerful AM complements. I know when tropical storm Allison dumped flooding rains on Houston, I was in Plano and struggled to get KTRH for my sister-in-law from Houston. After hurricane Ike, only KGOW staying on daytime power allowed any sort of reception of a local Houston outlet in the Dallas area at night. We have the internet and streaming, some would say, but free over the air radio is compelling, and I think the spirit of this thread is that the Astros need a better AM outlet for the metro area, and nothing but KTRH even comes close to the coverage. So FM is an attractive option - given how little Houston radio interests me, I would not even notice if one of the big FM stations went sports.

 

[b-turner]

Baseball fans are not going to like this: baseball on radio does not draw a huge audience and that audience is generally an older male. A station with decent ratings takes a ding when they carry baseball play-by-play because baseball only appeals to a relatively small segment of the whole audience. And the stations pay to be an affiliate. Put yourself in the General Manager's chair. You can not air the Astros, maintain your ratings, keep every penny from every spot you sell or you can air the Astros, pay dearly to do so, ding your ratings, make your sales staff work harder to locate their non-traditional advertiser and raise your overall cost of operation for programming that is not any easier to sell and make profitable.

The Astros on KBME makes sense. To put it back on KTRH really doesn't, even some games. I contend KTRH is the best option for full market coverage, especially at night, but I believe it would hurt KTRH overall. From a sales perspective, KTRH would have to go out and sign advertisers that traditionally do not buy News/Talk but at KBME, Astros Baseball represents a perfect add on to an existing schedule for their advertisers. In a sense, it is like an auto mechanic selling computers on the side, they'd have to market themselves to two different groups but on KBME, it's like the auto repair shop selling tires as well. Tires compliments the auto repair business. In other words, less work for the same dollars.

 

[davideduardo]

Has the idea of simulcasting games on one of iHeart's many powerful FMs been floated? Would have been a good fit on the Arrow before it switched formats years ago.

Emphasizing what B-turner posted: baseball appeals to much older males. It is totally disruptive to all music formats as regular listeners find that, for about 500 hours of each season, their station is not doing what is expected of them. Eventually, after finding baseball on instead of music for the second or third time, they quit coming back.

For news and news/talk stations, the situation is similar. Expected shows are not on, and a sport that, on radio, has limited appeal, is on "all the time".

While there may be a few exceptions... the case of the Cubs on WGN being a good one... putting baseball on a non-sports station in today's competitive environment is harmful.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I can third this one as a listener. A lot of small town top-40 stations used to do double duty as high school football outlets. Because the games were at night, the music listeners moved on to one of the big city top-40 outlets, which at the time were easily receivable. Carrying sports on a non-sports station is a station catering to completely different audiences at different times. The same thing on Christian stations. A lot carried James Dobson for 30 minutes. The CCM audience went away, and came back after it was over. Other listeners would only tune in for Dobson. I am sure there are additional examples. Mixing formats seems to be a bad idea no matter where it is tried or whatever the reason. The only successful one I know of was the old KNIT FM in Abilene. Easy listening during the day, album rock at night when, I guess, nobody was listening to easy listening. From Midland, it at least made the signal strength meter move almost to the first dot on my tuner, when the Dallas stations seldom made it move. Given the inverse square law, the Abilene station would have been four times the power I got from the Dallas stations.

 

[CTListener]

Emphasizing what B-turner posted: baseball appeals to much older males. It is totally disruptive to all music formats as regular listeners find that, for about 500 hours of each season, their station is not doing what is expected of them. Eventually, after finding baseball on instead of music for the second or third time, they quit coming back.

For news and news/talk stations, the situation is similar. Expected shows are not on, and a sport that, on radio, has limited appeal, is on "all the time".

While there may be a few exceptions... the case of the Cubs on WGN being a good one... putting baseball on a non-sports station in today's competitive environment is harmful.

The Red Sox have at least two music stations on their network: WBOQ 104.9 Gloucester, MA, and WWOD 93.9 Woodstock, VT. The former is '60s-'80s classic hits, the latter '60s-'70s oldies. These might be examples of stations that don't drive off listeners when baseball starts. Of course, the size of the Red Sox fan base helps immensely.

Does sports on WTIC(AM) Hartford make sense to you? That's a news/talk station with a big sports load, from UConn to the NFL to the Red Sox.

 

[davideduardo]

I can third this one as a listener. A lot of small town top-40 stations used to do double duty as high school football outlets.

There is a difference between the appeal of local football in Texas and a 162-game season of MLB, often from a city quite a distance away.

 

[johndavis]

Emphasizing what B-turner posted: baseball appeals to much older males. It is totally disruptive to all music formats as regular listeners find that, for about 500 hours of each season, their station is not doing what is expected of them. Eventually, after finding baseball on instead of music for the second or third time, they quit coming back.

For news and news/talk stations, the situation is similar. Expected shows are not on, and a sport that, on radio, has limited appeal, is on "all the time".

While there may be a few exceptions... the case of the Cubs on WGN being a good one... putting baseball on a non-sports station in today's competitive environment is harmful.

I can understand the Minnesota Twins being on a music FM. The team owns the station, so either way they make money.

I don't understand the San Diego Padres on KBZT.

 

[BamaTX]

I don't understand the San Diego Padres on KBZT.

Makes more sense then when they were on a border blaster in Tijuana. Can you imagine hearing Mexican state sponsored propaganda in between innings?

 

[Mediafrog+]

When the clear channels were passed out decades ago, Houston got the short end of the stick

However Houstonians tend to forget that prior to World War II (and the 1941 NARBA Treaty) Houston wasn't all that big of a city--our explosive growth came after 1945. Also in the 1930's Houston only had three radio stations--KTRH, KPRC and KXYZ, and even with those the city was rather late to the radio game, behind Dallas and San Antonio. Perhaps the then-owners of those Houston stations made little effort or had no interest in an upgrade.

I have no idea what genius allocated another 50 kW less than 500 miles to the North,

Assume you are talking about KRMG in Tulsa, which launched on 740 several years after KTRH moved to the frequency. But there were NARBA restrictions to deal with regarding the frequency (and protecting what was then CBL in Toronto) so KTRH was stuck with the directional signal. KTRH and KRMG's directional patterns are actually an efficient use of the frequency.

 

[johndavis]

Makes more sense then when they were on a border blaster in Tijuana. Can you imagine hearing Mexican state sponsored propaganda in between innings?

I used to live there. The obligatory Mexican Office of Tourism spots and the midnight airing of the Mexican national anthem are part of the charm of San Diego radio.

It's just baffling that a station that boasts "It's about the music" was the high bidder on baseball rights.

I can understand why a small town Astros affiliate would take the deal. In Columbus, TX you're selling direct and those games can make you money. But a rock station with a direct competitor in a major market for 170 games? You're already on the beer buys, baseball or not. Makes no sense.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

The Red Sox have at least two music stations on their network: WBOQ 104.9 Gloucester, MA, and WWOD 93.9 Woodstock, VT. The former is '60s-'80s classic hits, the latter '60s-'70s oldies. These might be examples of stations that don't drive off listeners when baseball starts. Of course, the size of the Red Sox fan base helps immensely.

Does sports on WTIC(AM) Hartford make sense to you? That's a news/talk station with a big sports load, from UConn to the NFL to the Red Sox.

Nope - sports fires up - I am GONE to the next music station. So is most everybody I know - whether it was high school football in a small town, or a major league team. Completely different audiences and interests. Maybe sports helps pay the bills and it makes business sense, but if you are a music fan - you are PO'ed and leave immediately when it comes on. The technical quality, by the way - of high school sports broadcasts - is AWFUL to the point of being unlistenable. I was asked to fix the feed for it one time. Twenty dollars of Radio Shack junk they had purchased 10 years earlier and abused badly to the point that there wasn't even a ground connection - the hum level was unbearable on the air. That isn't even what they wanted me to fix! The center contact had finally broken as well cutting it off completely.

 

[davideduardo]

Makes more sense then when they were on a border blaster in Tijuana. Can you imagine hearing Mexican state sponsored propaganda in between innings?

... except that Tijuana has no border blasters and never did have any.