Seattle's KVI 570 AM has just flipped to a Good Times, Great Oldies of the 60's, 70's format. The format handle is Seattle's Greatest Hits. The voice of the format is Charlie Van Dyke. The station is streaming at www.kvi.com Is this the wave of the future for more AM radio stations? Could this format be once again given a chance here in the San Francisco market on the AM radio dial? The News/Talk format is getting a bit stale here in the bay area, don't you think? Which station here in the area would be best suited to make this change? HD Radio classic hits just doesn't seem to be catching on here either. I'd really like to hear everyones thoughts on this change and whether it could happen here.
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Is the News/Talk Format wearing out its welcome on the AM Band?
- Thread starter RadioStarOne
- Start date
RadioStarOne said:
Seattle does not have an AM in the top 12 in 12+; it's makor talk station moved to FM (where it has three times the audience that KVI had as a talker. Seattle has about 25% less AM shares. San Francisco has 3 AM stations in the top 4 (one is a simulcast, of course).
KVI would appear to be looking for a cheaper format given its poor talk ratings despite an excellent signal; it was 26th 12+ and 28th in 25-54 in the June to August average of 3 PPM books. This is not a trend... it is just a station looking for an alternative to a format that was not working for it.
RadioStarOne said:
It already has happened here. The True Oldies Channel on 1550. And nobody listens. It's hard to see how another canned oldies format on AM would attract an audience - even if it were on a better frequency, and the voice is the great Charlie Van Dyke.
I don't think even Baby Boomers will listen to music on AM these days. Most of us made the switch to FM back in the 70s and 80s, when we were young. Even in a city without a regulation FM Classic Hits station, there are so many other superior high fidelity sources for music, including MP3 players, CDs, and XM/Sirius. And unless you're a hit singles purist, 103.7 The Band, and KFOG play a lot of Classic Rock.
Another factor is Classic Hits/Oldies burn-out. After 30 years of Oldies stations, does anybody really miss having one? I don't. If a great one came along on FM (K-Earth or WCBS-FM quality), I'd probably listen from time to time, but really, it's no great loss.
flakunkel said:
Yep. Even in AM-friendly San Francisco, listenership to AM has declined about 15% in the last 3 years (2008 to 2010) and under age 55, it is closing in on insignificant levels except for sports formats and broadcasts.
DavidEduardo said:
Sports formats and broadcasts are finding their way to FM already. In the Bay Area, both the Niners and Raiders broadcast their games on FM.
To which I'll ask: is AM dying due to the lack of compelling program on the band? Someone had commented a while back that teenagers don't listen to AM radio, and a majority of them don't know it exists.
Well, duh. Do a dial scan and find anything that's targetted towards young people on AM radio. (Besides Radio Disney, of course.)
Well, duh. Do a dial scan and find anything that's targetted towards young people on AM radio. (Besides Radio Disney, of course.)
BossRadioDJ said:
But what programming targetted toward young people would work on AM? I see no evidence that young people are interested in talk radio. Some pop music format?...alt rock, Hip/Hop, Top 40? Whatever it would be, it would sound like s--t.
I don't know if young adults are more of less interested in sports than older Americans - I imagine some of them tune in to games. Many of them probably even managed to find 680 AM during the World Series last week. But do any young listeners hang around after the games to listen to sports-talk? Being a person who finds sports talk excruciatingly boring, both when I was young, and now that I'm old - I don't know the answer to that.
What's left?
My recollection is: In the late '70s & early '80s, FM receivers became cheap and plentiful. Around then, the youth were gravitating to prog-rock formats then largely on FM. In the ensuing 20-30 years, the youth mostly used FM and didn't give AM much of a thought. Add to that the rising noise floor in comparison with FM and they weren't exactly lured in.
I don't think news/talk is exactly wearing out its welcome, but you could say that fewer guests accept the welcome it gives. AM radio might be said to be a solution losing its problem.
I don't think news/talk is exactly wearing out its welcome, but you could say that fewer guests accept the welcome it gives. AM radio might be said to be a solution losing its problem.
weav said:
In the early 70s, I was a "youth," and your memory is correct. At home with my stereo, I listened to records, or progressive FM rock on KSAN or KTIM in Marin. But still being relatively poor and driving used 60s era cars with AM only radios, I generally listened to KFRC, KYA, and KLIV while driving...also KSFO at nights for John Gilliland. I bought an under-dash FM car tuner at one point, but it was stolen and I didn't bother to replace it. So AM radio enjoyed a considerable percentage of my radio listening time.
By the late 70s, I had FM in the car. But by the 80s (in my 30s), I became a serious KGO junkie, and gravitated back to the AM band. That lasted about a decade, though I still listened to FM for music.
But as I said previously, I'm not aware that the youth-of-today have any interest in talk radio, whether on FM or AM.
As A Youth of Today, allow me to add my two cents
I have some friends who care about news,and most of them listen to KQED
Most of the people I know that like sports listen to either of the KNBR's usually 680, I have one friend that doesn't get CSNCA,and catches the A's games on KTRB,but otherwise only listens to KNBR 680
The only time I knew people that liked Radio Disney was like in 5th grade
I don't know anyone who listens to KGO,KCBS, KNEW(I have a teacher that likes A&G though), or KSFO
My only idea of an AM format that could work with young people is a 24/7 pop culture talk format,and it would have to be advertized, like CC could have one of the AMs go Pop Culture Talk, and then run ads for it on KIOI,KYLD, and KMEL. Personally, I think sports talk is the only reason AM is still around
I have some friends who care about news,and most of them listen to KQED
Most of the people I know that like sports listen to either of the KNBR's usually 680, I have one friend that doesn't get CSNCA,and catches the A's games on KTRB,but otherwise only listens to KNBR 680
The only time I knew people that liked Radio Disney was like in 5th grade
I don't know anyone who listens to KGO,KCBS, KNEW(I have a teacher that likes A&G though), or KSFO
My only idea of an AM format that could work with young people is a 24/7 pop culture talk format,and it would have to be advertized, like CC could have one of the AMs go Pop Culture Talk, and then run ads for it on KIOI,KYLD, and KMEL. Personally, I think sports talk is the only reason AM is still around
travisl5678 said:
That would explain all the conservative talk, religion and "foreign language" programming on the AM dial...
What i meant to say was, thats the only reason that young people touch the AM Button
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