That's been the MO of the movement since the crusades, hasn't it? Lots of people in distant lands who had religion forced on then by conquering hoards. That missionary zeal has been the theme of western and American foreign policy for hundreds of years.
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K-Love Acquires B93.3 & FM102.1
- Thread starter lanceventa
- Start date
That's been the MO of the movement since the crusades, hasn't it? Lots of people in distant lands who had religion forced on then by conquering hoards. That missionary zeal has been the theme of western and American foreign policy for hundreds of years.
Once again to the folks bemoaning non-commercial networks buying stations...please remember that companies like MRA are selling because as David always says, it's increasing difficult to be profitable in radio anywhere in 2025. It's also a fact that apparently no one else has stepped up to the plate to buy these two major FM's in Milwaukee. Do you expect MRA to keep going and operate at a loss, or would you prefer companies just start turning in the licenses like what is happening in smaller markets? MRA now will have two weak translators left (which will have to change format unless they have an agreement with K-Love to let them continue on WLDB HD-3) and an AM which is currently dark. Like many operators nationally, if they can dump the translators they're getting out the market completely.
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The other part is that Times-Shamrock appears to be selling its assets. They've already sold off a number of newspapers and magazines. This is just another step in that process.
www.timesleader.com
Times-Shamrock sells news operations to MediaNews Group
<p>Thursday marked the end of an era for Northeastern Pennsylvania media with the sale of Scranton-based Times-Shamrock’s news operations to MediaNews Group (MNG).</p>
www.timesleader.com
I'm aware. I was pointing out that there's different lifestyles. "National" or "global" is not as inherently interesting as local to some people, the op was asking "what's the fascination with local?"
I'd ask the poster why they live where they live? What's special about it as opposed to where I live?
Sometimes, there's enough in that answer to fuel a radio station that doesn't sound the same as the one in his market. National options also exist. It's not either or, but it's an odd question to ask why someone wouldn't want to deeply engage with their local community via radio. It's worked quite well for decades and still works, even in a mature industry.
I would argue further, to get into the weeds a bit, that the youngest two generations might not even be consuming actual news. But the local news often can affect them even more than the national headlines that grab the bulk of the attention.
Now if the argument is that people just don't care much about anything of importance in their own back yard or the authenticity of information that affects their lives, then that's more nihilistic than I can handle before at least Wednesday.
Not just "the movement" but "many movements".
Religion is also the the core of a heavily faith-entwined foreign policy of almost every Muslim majority nation as well. And, of course, the motivation for the armed death squad conversions in northern Sub-Saharan Africa. Even the paganism of Attila the Hun and his worship of the almost mythical sword was a religious motivation.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I'm going to simply link to my most recent anti-EMF rant in another thread, rather than copy it here.
Note that I am not anti-religion, just anti-bloated EMF. I don't care if their ownership is only 5% of all stations nationwide, or that a good chunk of that is translators. It's still more than the largest commercial station group owner.
Note that I am not anti-religion, just anti-bloated EMF. I don't care if their ownership is only 5% of all stations nationwide, or that a good chunk of that is translators. It's still more than the largest commercial station group owner.
So why aren’t you feeling sorry for the seller? The Alliance, financially, could not remain in business anymore. They’ve had layoffs and cutbacks…and they only own 3 stations (not counting the translators).
Yet the several younger generations don't use radio or TV for news. They are not getting local information there, and I wonder how they even know anything about local politics other than in the highly activist communities.
I think today most would think first of things such as their local teams in sports or local geography, like beaches, rivers, lakes or mountains.
But then we have issues about "how many people would listen?" And then, does that content go on an all talk station, or in between songs on a music station... which introduces further fragmentation.
Yes, with a few people most of whom are over 60 today.
Again, where do they find local news and do they have any interest in, let's say, the local issues in Kalamazoo or Flagstaff or Billings?
I don't see most people under 40 having any awareness of anything local other than a few "hot issues" that are usually entwined with politics.
Religious broadcasters have always been opportunists seeking the paths of least resistance to saturate the airwaves with their content. They did it on shortwave, then AM radio, then FM translators, and now they're systematically taking out some of the best and most powerful FM signals.
These organizations have been like a cancer on each radio band they've infiltrated. In pretty much every case, you could make the same point you just described, that the old operators found it increasingly difficult to be profitable so they sold out to the religious broadcasters since no one else wanted to step up. So while religious broadcasters don't initially cause the death of the band, their growth is a result of its sickness. Then, when they eventually take over most of the band, a majority of the former audience who doesn't want to hear that kind of doctrine on every station abandons it.
Shortwave is now completely dead. AM is well on its way, and we now see the same symptoms occurring at FM. Broadcast radio is very sick right now.
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More than very sick, most broadcasting is on life support due to the decline of advertising revenue and the ability today to stream online any song or any program you want, at any moment you want. The only question is exactly how many years the patient has left before it's all over. And garnering only $4 million for two 50K equivalent FM's in market #43 shows the time is coming sooner rather than later.
Bustos Media's only "non-traditional-area" Spanish-language cluster is in Milwaukee. Perhaps Radio Nueva Vida may be an eventual offering by this expanded K-Love cluster.
Other than Transworld Radio and HCJB, and a few local/national SW religious stations, the proportion of government run shortwave to religious group owned ones immensely favors the government side.
And they are "taking them out" because nobody else wanted them when the seller put them on the market.
If you look at shortwave, which is way beyond the end of its lifecycle, you can see that the religious voices just tagged along with the big government propaganda operations that populated all the international bands (I exclude the "tropical bands" as they were always used for localized national coverage, not for international listening).
And international shortwave was never advertising supported. A few intents to do that died more than a half-century ago. Nearly all shortwave international broadcasting was government operated.
Again, AM has mostly died due to a number of factors unrelated to religious broadcasting. First is the fact that nearly no large and medium market stations today even cover their own market fully; an example is Cleveland where only one AM approaches adequate day and night coverage of the metro survey area. Second is the general abandonment of AM for all but talk formats, leaving many, many stations with little else to do other than foreign language or religious options.
And this is a case of your trying to put the cart in front of the horse. Religious operators have come along to pick up the broken pieces of AM and the unsalable stations on FM because those stations had no way to be profitable.
The real issue is that the two youngest generations don't use over the air radio much or at all. The problem with radio is not a few religious stations in each market, it is not enough listeners and not enough revenue for commercial stations.
WLUM's FB is mentioning their announcement at 3:30 this afternoon, so I assume it's going to be recollections from there and 93.3 (I assume we'll also get recollections of the QFM days) until they hand the virtual keys off to EMF.
I knew it was going to be fast, and it times out for Labor Day weekend perfectly.
And I literally remember the night WLUM stopped playing rap after an assistant principal was killed in Wauwatosa; as WLUM was based at Mayfair then it was in their backyard and the station literally changed even before the overnight started; a whole lot of kids calling in about it and just an understanding from management that they couldn't keep airing the format as the FCC was hot under their collar about it.
Unless there is profanity, the FCC doesn't care what format you run. Their advertisers might have some input into what they run.
As secondchoice stated, the FCC does not look at what format stations run. While there are indecency and profanity issues about specific songs or certain speech, there is no "format police".
And the FCC is not monitoring stations in real time for content of any kind. There is no way that WLUM was being monitored right after that murder of a principal as the FCC does not have facilities to monitor every station all day every day. For any content complaints, they depend on citizen filings and not direct monitoring.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
As was already stated earlier in this thread, not necessarily.
Even when there are competing bids for a station, EMF can always outbid them because of that obscene pile of cash they have on hand from listener donations. They have made the playing field uneven in their favor and that is what I find the most odious.
To use a Biblical reference, it's almost as if they covet those stations.
Actually, they "ran out of cash" last year during the move to Tennessee and the finishing of their new facility there. The annual financials are online. This year, they are back to having a surplus beyond operational expense and suddenly, after a hiatus, began limited buying again to fill in missing high population areas.
Remember, they buy based on a formula of "listeners covered" and not things like "markets" and "revenue". They have a rather precise amount they will pay for listener coverage.
And they "covet" stations in any big population area they don't already cover. It's part of their mission statements.
Heck, I can remember back when I was a manager for Metroplex and Norm Wain and Bob Weiss had each manager prepare a "raison d'etre" for the station we ran. We had to show what our purpose, goal and procedure to reach that goal was. That was 45 years ago!
Could just be the B93.3 staff.
K-LOVE parent moves to buy B93.3 and FM 102.1 radio stations, launch Air1 in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Educational Media Foundation filed applications with the FCC to acquire WLDB 93.3 and WLUM-FM 102.1 from Milwaukee Radio Alliance, according to federal records.B93.3 morning show
www.cbs58.com