Is It Time for Audacy to Make KMNB a Simulcast of WCCO?

[Fighting Irish]

Why not go hip hop?

In a word? Demographics.

Hip-hop has been tried by various stations. IHM currently runs it on a translator that hits the urban core of the market. It gets roughly a one share. Which is the same as non-com KMOJ, which has been around for decades.

 

[mnradiofan]

Unless Audacy merges with another cluster with a weak performer or is able to buy/swap or lease an IDS-based translator, I don't see WCCO getting on analog FM in the next couple of years.

Even picking up 99.9 would help a lot.

For the right price, they could pick up the 105's, but the keyword there is "for the right price" which I don't think Cumulus is desperate enough to offer at this time.

Audacy could have bought 96.3 from the Pohlad family a few years ago, and that would have been ideal as a local WCCO simulcast. But Audacy was having money problems, so K-Love swooped in. And, with no decent translators available, they have to settle for AM, HD-2 and streaming for listeners.

It's not so much that K-Love "swooped in" more that the Pohlads, having asked WAY too much for the signals for years, got desperate and EMF was the only buyer that had the money at the time (remember, this was when everyone was coming out of the pandemic). Had the Pohlads offered what K-Love paid before the financial situation of Audacy deteriorated during the pandemic they'd have 2 more stations to add to their cluster. The Pohlads had shopped the station for a few years before that but were asking too much.

 

[Ryan Williams]

When was the last time Audacy actually bought something with money?

I know they have done a lot of selling and some trading with Radio One…. It’s been a while.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

When was the last time Audacy actually bought something with money?

Certainly B101 in Philly was a big acquisition. But that was a while ago, late 2018 if I recall.

 

[ksradiogeek]

Why not go hip hop?

You’ve asked this before on another thread, and it’s already been answered.

Look at the demographics of the market...

That was from last July.

Since my reply, the market has not changed to where a full-powered 100kW stick could support it.

 

[pattywells]

WCCO should move to FM.

I remember this summer when they were working on the tower farm in Shoreview, and they lost the KMNB-HD2 signal, people called in to complain and Jordana had to make an announcement on air.

But... the economics probably favor keeping KMNB country, at least for now.

 

[radiofan2023]

WCCO should move to FM.

I remember this summer when they were working on the tower farm in Shoreview, and they lost the KMNB-HD2 signal, people called in to complain and Jordana had to make an announcement on air.

But... the economics probably favor keeping KMNB country, at least for now.

That shows that there are listeners on the HD2 signal and enough to make it not worth flipping a full signal FM.