And as I've said before, there's absolutely nothing stopping non-religious folks from starting non-profits and owning radio stations. My view is that with all of the changes in the media marketplace, maybe a few new approaches are necessary. I see no reason why alternative music lovers, for example, can't start a non-profit and buy a radio station. In Seattle, a non-profit group owns KEXP-FM. They just raised over $15 million to build new studios. Hooray for them! The same thing could be done in Boston. Or just sit back, do nothing, and watch EMF buy up all available frequencies.
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K-Love In Boston
- Thread starter BJSteigner
- Start date
And as I've said before, there's absolutely nothing stopping non-religious folks from starting non-profits and owning radio stations. My view is that with all of the changes in the media marketplace, maybe a few new approaches are necessary. I see no reason why alternative music lovers, for example, can't start a non-profit and buy a radio station. In Seattle, a non-profit group owns KEXP-FM. They just raised over $15 million to build new studios. Hooray for them! The same thing could be done in Boston. Or just sit back, do nothing, and watch EMF buy up all available frequencies.
The Hartford/New Britain/Middletown radio market has WCCC-FM 106.9 of Hartford. This is the same station which was an active rock station for many years. It even employed Howard Stern early in his career. I don't even know if there are any other full-powered K-Love stations in New England.
Chicago is now losing their long time rock station, WLUP-FM 97.9, to this format.
Chicago is now losing their long time rock station, WLUP-FM 97.9, to this format.
Did someone put moonshine in your cola tonight?
There's no reason they couldn't start a non-profit, but why on earth would they? It is a lot less cash to spend $10 a month forever on Spotify than to pay millions for an FM station. Unless you're hoping to spread the good word of R.E.M. to the skeptical Adele acolytes. Saving the world from Skyfall might be worth it.
To some people, music is a religion. So why not have fans of music run a radio station? I read a lot of posts on this board bemoaning the profit making corporations that own radio stations, how they're in it for the wrong reasons, and they make awful music decisions. OK, fine. Rather than complain about the status quo, do something about it. Not saying you're one of those complainers, but there are a few who read this board. There is no law that requires radio stations be owned by big profit-making corporations. And as I said, the alternative station in Seattle is owned by a non-profit. Of course, it's the pet project of Paul Allen, but I know there are some very rich boomers in Boston. And Paul knows a thing or two about profits.
Seems I can vaguely remember a market where a group of folks formed a non profit organization and bought a classical formatted station to save it from religious doom or some other horrible fate. The Hamptons maybe???
I'm surprised there are not more instances of stations and formats being "saved" by organizations formed for that sole purpose. It's really not a bad idea...
Earlier I mentioned Seattle, and the classical station there, KING-FM, is a non-profit non-commercial station in the commercial band. It's a great way to ensure the music you want on a radio station, not subject to the whims of popular taste, aging demos, or the preferences of advertisers.
However, it comes with some responsibility.
WDVX in Knoxville (even though it's on the non-commercial band except for a translator) plays Americana music (with some blues at night)and even has live lunchtime concerts downtown. It apparently raises money and does well. I don't know that that would work for rock but there's an example.
You're right!
Unfortunately, the damn religious zealots, the rich righties with their god damn agenda seem to buying all the decent signals, and available signals. Then, you have that Brown University bastard who added insult to injury by saying that
BRU's targeted listeners aren't listening to terestial radio any more.
A lotof people donated their hard earned money for a signal upgrade back in The 70s.
Radio insight had a story about EMFand Air One taking advantage of a weakness in the market with their purchases of the strongest signals in large markets.
I won't listen to the crap that is on their signals, and I'll bet the disenfranchised listeners of KWSD, WLUP, WCCC, and WBRU won't either
So you're saying there aren't any rich liberals? BTW if you listen to EMF, they really don't preach a lot. Just play music with a message.
And as I said, those signals are available to anyone, regardless of their personal views. No one seems to be stepping up to the plate.
You're both a cheerleader, and someone who likes to have the last word
So what's your excuse?
Maybe you should think about what Big A has to say. You just might learn something.
Your attitude is offensive to all thinking people, progressive or conservative, believer or non believer. I say that as a progressive agnostic.
I hope I'm not putting words in iNorm's mouth, but what I believe he's trying to articulate is that radio owners seem to treat their properties like trading cards, w/o regard for listener attachment and/or loyalty. Why buy/operate a radio station if you don't care if listeners are being served or not? I'm in one of those demos (65+) that is all but unacknowledged by ad agencies and radio time salespeople. There may not be large numbers of us buyers want to see, but something tells me you'll find more of us listen to radio regularly than the much-prized 18-34 demo.
Then again, how much per month do you pay to listen to the radio? Obviously the folks at WGBH or the other non-commercial stations care a lot more about listener attachment and/or loyalty than the owner of a commercial station. Why? Because the listeners are members and subscribers. There is ACTIVE loyalty and PASSIVE loyalty. If all you do is listen to a station, you're passive. That doesn't make much of an impact, except in the rather impersonal ratings. But if you send the station a check, or attend a station wine & cheese party, that's a completely different level of loyalty.
Actually, 55+ spends about the same number of hours a week listening as 18-34, based on a random sample of data from 6 of the top 10 markets. The differences are minor... for example, in Houston the 18-34 group listens, on average, 9:30 while 55+ listens 10:00 hours.
In any case, the "much prized demo" is 25-54, not 18-34. In the same example market, the average 25-54 listens between 11 hours and 13 hours a week, depending on the month.
Stations realize that about 90% of their listening hours comes from under 50% of the total group of listeners, so they focus on the core... what we call "P1" (First preference) listeners.
Exactly. They began by building a collection of translators, many of them in small towns and communities that the average American would have to Google to find. That's not where the "rich right wingers" live.
K-Love is or was available North of Boston in the Merrimack Valley area on 99.9 as a repeater from either New Hampshire or Maine. It doesn't reach the city. I think that's the closest that it gets to Boston. It's all a business. What happened in Chicago was Cumulus losing their pants and needing to cut losses, and Merlin looking for that final payday that they were open and honest about wanting for years. I find it funny that when Merlin first got their initial stations with the "FM News" brand, the only station they kept as is was WLUP. Now, after a long delay, it suffered the same fate as the other Merlin Stations. But I digress.
To the listeners, its something emotional. To the on air personalities, its something emotional. To corporate, its money. I've been vocal about my disdain for corporate. They'd play the Amor Hotdog jingle on repeat before experimenting, if they felt that it brought in more money. Will K-Love work in Boston? Why wouldn't it? It's succeeded virtually everywhere else it's been put on the air. It's not my personal interest, but they make their money by donations and get their message out there, just as others said here, in the LA board, and in the Chicago board. Business is what lead to The Sound and The Loop being removed. You can't fault EMF for wanting to buy and flip, and you can't blame Entercom in LA and Merlin in Chicago for having and wanting to sell respectively. It's business. If Evangelicals wanted to buy my hypothetical radio station, and they had the highest bid, I'd sell to them too. Goodbye Least Radio, and hello K-Love or Air1.
To the listeners, its something emotional. To the on air personalities, its something emotional. To corporate, its money. I've been vocal about my disdain for corporate. They'd play the Amor Hotdog jingle on repeat before experimenting, if they felt that it brought in more money. Will K-Love work in Boston? Why wouldn't it? It's succeeded virtually everywhere else it's been put on the air. It's not my personal interest, but they make their money by donations and get their message out there, just as others said here, in the LA board, and in the Chicago board. Business is what lead to The Sound and The Loop being removed. You can't fault EMF for wanting to buy and flip, and you can't blame Entercom in LA and Merlin in Chicago for having and wanting to sell respectively. It's business. If Evangelicals wanted to buy my hypothetical radio station, and they had the highest bid, I'd sell to them too. Goodbye Least Radio, and hello K-Love or Air1.
But in truth it's not really emotional to listeners or air personalities. If it was truly emotional, they would have banded together and bought the station themselves. A listener group did that in Seattle. It obviously wasn't that emotional any more. It's just a utility, like a toaster or a toilet. To the air personalities, it's a paycheck. Someone has to pay the bills. If the listeners want music for free, and air personalities want to get paid, who picks up the tab? You tell me.
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